Demons as people see them. Between friend and foe. Conversation with hegumen Nektariy (Morozov) about angels and demons. Possession - signs other than mental disorders

In ordinary life, while it goes on steadily, without incident, we don’t even think about the fact that a world of other entities exists in parallel with us. Its main "inhabitants" are angels and devils). Holy Scripture is rich in descriptions of the effects of demons on human souls. The Bible lists the signs of a demon-possessed person. The Holy Fathers have attached great importance to this since the Middle Ages. Little is known about angels: they are protectors, and we do not need to know about their ways of protection. Demons are serious enemies of the human race, and in order to resist them, it is necessary to study methods of dealing with this evil spirits. Christ Himself emphasized that they could only be driven out with the help of fasting, the cross and prayer.

How did the Evil Spirit appear?

Before the Creator created the universe, there was a world of angels. The most powerful was called Dennitsa. Once he became proud, rose up against God himself, and for this he was expelled by the angry Lord from the angelic world.

Every Christian knows the signs of a demon-possessed person: talking in a strange voice, rejection of church values, the ability to levitate, a sulfuric smell, and more. But there are also signs of the devil's presence that are difficult to recognize.

To protect yourself from a possessed person, the best advice is not to mess with him, since the possessed person does not own his own mind. Only church ceremonies will help to expel demons from him.

How does the devil get into a person?

Anthony the Great claims that humanity itself is to blame for the fact that demons find refuge in the souls of people. These are incorporeal beings that can take refuge in a person if he accepts their vile thoughts, temptations and will. So people agree with the existing evil. The stories of the priests about the devil's infestation are quite frightening and scary. From their personal experience, they have repeatedly been convinced of the reality of the actions of the dark force, therefore they know all the signs of a demon-possessed person, they can recognize him and try to save his soul. Even strong prayer does not immediately help to get rid of the infiltrated evil spirits.

So why do demons have the ability to enter a person? The Holy Fathers affirm that they belong where sin already lives. Sinful thoughts, an unworthy way of life, many vices - it is easiest for the devil to penetrate into a vicious person.

Many wonder why God allows this. The answer is simple. In fact, from the Almighty we are endowed with freedom of choice, will. We ourselves must choose whose power is closer to us, the Lord or Satan.

Priests divide demon-possessed people into two types.

The first - the demon subjugates the soul and behaves like a second personality inside a person. The second is the enslavement of the human will by various sinful passions. Even John of Kronstadt, who observed the possessed, noted that demons would take possession of the souls of ordinary people because of their innocence and illiteracy. If the spirit instills in the soul of an educated person, then this is a slightly different form of possession, and in these cases it is rather difficult to fight the devil.

in the church

There is a statement in the Christian church that a person's obsession, which does not manifest itself in everyday life, comes out as soon as the possessed one approaches the church or sees the icon and the cross. There were cases when, during the service, some people began to rush about, howl, cry, shout out blasphemous speeches, and swear. All these are the main signs of a possessed person. This is explained by the fact that the demon tries to protect the soul from divine influence. The devil is intolerant of everything that somehow reminds of faith in God.

Educated, intelligent people with a demon in their souls, it would seem, are accustomed to taking into account the opinions of others, they are measured and sedate, but as soon as you start a conversation with them about religion, all their respect disappears, their faces immediately change, rage appears. The demon living inside cannot cross his essence as soon as it comes to his eternal enemy - God. The way possessed people behave in the church only confirms the fact that the demon tries to avoid sources of danger and is afraid of being cast out. In fact, it is not people who are afraid of the church and the Creeds, but the unclean essence that is in them.

Possession can be divided into several signs: in some cases, the demon simply whispers nasty things to a person, encourages him to do obscene things, to go against God. Having penetrated the body, the demon can act to the detriment of other people, causing them harm. Having settled in the body of the dead, the devil in the guise of ghosts plagues people.

Physical Signs of a Demon Possessed

Church ministers have identified phenomena that indicate signs of demon-possessed people. In the treatise "On Demons" by Peter of Tyre, the following points of manifestations of the demon are indicated:

• the voice acquires a terrible demonic timbre;
• any voice changes are possible;
• paralysis of the body or some limbs;
• an incredible display of power for an ordinary person.

Other demonologists also highlight:

• a huge belly unusual for a person;
• rapid fading, weight loss, leading to death;
• levitation;
• split personality;
• imitation of animals;
• obscene behavior, thoughts;
• the smell of sulfur (the smell of hell);
• blasphemy against God, church, holy water, cross;
• mumbling in a non-existent language.

This is not a complete list of features. Of course, many points of possession can be explained by some kind of physical illness, so, in the Middle Ages, demonism was often confused with the symptoms of epilepsy. Mental disorders were passed off as public sinful orgies, imitation of animals was confused with schizophrenia. In fact, it is really difficult to define in everyday life what a possessed person means. Many character traits, stereotypes of behavior, licentiousness, ignorance - all this resembles demonic possession.

exorcism

The traditional "treatment" for possession is to cast the demon out of the body. The rites of exorcism are performed by clergymen who read special prayers, fumigate with incense, and perform chrismation. Most often, during the ceremony, people strongly resist, even faint. The priest should not be alone, he definitely needs helpers - other representatives of the church. Modern doctors and psychologists do not believe in such rites and claim that this is just. Then how to explain that such attacks occur exclusively with church intervention and after performing the rite people feel significant relief? There are still no answers to these questions.

You can cast out demons with sincere faith, prayer and fasting. Before the process of exile, you need to take communion and confess. A reprimand can be made by a monk-prayer who has not known sin and carnal pleasures. The key is strict fasting. The unprepared soul itself will not be able to cope with the exorcism of demons. Prayer may not work, and the result may be unpredictable. The reprimand will be conducted by a monk who has received instructions from the senior spiritual brethren, he is endowed with divine protection and special power that will help to cope with demons. The prayer that is read is called an exorcist prayer. After its repeated pronunciation, the signs of the possession of demon-possessed people disappear, confirming the presence of infernal forces.

When exorcising the devil, prayer should sound from the lips of a sincerely believing person, magic is strictly excluded. People involved in the occult, in 90% of cases, become possessed by demons.

Prayer protection from evil spirits

Unclean forces can easily attack us, move into houses, plot intrigues, and make a person obsessed. In Orthodoxy, there are many prayers that help protect against the attacks of evil spirits. The most famous are the prayer to Seraphim of Sarov, Pansophia of Athos “From the attack of demons”, St. Gregory the Wonderworker and, of course, the prayer to Jesus Christ.

Orthodox believers know that the text should always be carried with them, because in the hour of rampant evil spirits there is always a chance to fall under its influence. A possessed person can also meet at any moment on the way, what to do in this case? Save the prayer word.

Many memorize the text of the prayer by heart. But in stressful situations, a person usually gets lost and forgets about everything in the world, so it's best to always have protection with you. You can give yourself confidence in a difficult situation by reading the text of the prayer from the sheet. It is very important to follow some rules:

• Always carry the text of the prayer with you. Style and Old Slavonic words should not be altered and faked to match the modern language, this can reduce the power of words prayed for centuries.
• You need to pronounce the text yourself, online listening will not work here, the emotional component and the sincerity of the spoken phrases are important.
• When reading a prayer, you must be protected by a cross, an icon. Shameless demonic offspring can easily penetrate unprotected lost souls and reduce the words of prayer to nothing.

Protect your life energy and your home. For example, it will be more difficult for demons to enter a house consecrated by a priest.

Obsession from a scientific point of view

What does official science say about demonism? Scientists call obsession a mental illness, the name of which is cacodemonomania. It is believed that seizures are most often affected by dependent people, open, impressionable or, on the contrary, passive. Most of them are influenced by others. Sigmund Freud called cacodemonomania a neurosis. According to him, a person himself invents a demon in himself, which suppresses his desires. So what is possession - a curse or a disease? Scientists explain the signs of possession by various diseases, but it is worth noting that often medical methods are not able to remove the problem.

• Possession is explained by epilepsy. With loss of consciousness during convulsions, a person is able to feel contacts with the non-material world.
• Depression, euphoria, mood swings are characteristic of affective bipolar disorder.
• Confused with obsession and Tourette's syndrome. Because of the upset nervous system, nervous tics begin.
• A disease is known in psychology, accompanied by a split personality, when several personalities live in one body, showing themselves at different periods.
• Schizophrenia has also been compared to obsession. The patient has hallucinations, problems with speech begin, crazy ideas appear.

If an impure essence instills in a person, this is reflected in his appearance. How to recognize a possessed person is listed in the article above. It can also be supplemented by the fact that the color of the eyes of those possessed by demons changes, they become cloudy, although the vision remains the same. The color of the skin may also change, it becomes darker - this sign is very dangerous.

Real cases of possession

There are stories of people being possessed by demons that are recorded and documented. Here are just a few of them.

Clara Herman Tsele. History from South America. The girl Clara, at the age of 16, told the priest in confession that she felt the presence of a demon in herself. The story took place in 1906. At first, they did not believe her words, since it is not easy to determine a possessed person. But her condition began to worsen every day. There is documentary evidence of people who say that the girl behaved inappropriately and spoke in other people's voices. The exorcism ritual was performed on her for two days, which saved her.

Roland Doe. The story of this boy took place in 1949. His aunt died. After some time, Roland tried to contact her with the help of a seance, but incredible things began to happen around: screams were heard, crucifixes were shaking, objects were flying, and so on. The priest invited to the house saw objects falling and flying. At the same time, the boy's body was covered with various symbols. It took 30 sessions to drive out the evil spirit. More than 14 sources confirm the fact that the bed with the sick boy was flying around the room.

Emily Rose Story

I would especially like to note the case of Annalize Michel. This is the most a prime example man's insanity. The girl became the prototype of Emily Rose in the famous film.

When the girl was 17 years old, her life became a nightmare. In the middle of the night she was attacked by paralysis, it was impossible to breathe. The doctors diagnosed him with Grand Mal seizures or epileptic convulsions. After Annalise was placed in a mental clinic, her situation only worsened. Medical treatment did not bring any relief. A demon constantly appeared to her and spoke of a curse. She began to develop a deep depression. A year later, in 1970, the girl was discharged from the hospital. She herself turned to the church and asked for an exorcism, claiming that the devil had entered her body. Church ministers know how to understand that a person is possessed, but they refused to help her and advised her to pray more. The girl began to behave more inappropriately. She bit her family members, ate flies and spiders, copied dogs, mutilated herself, destroyed icons. This went on for five years. Relatives with difficulty persuaded the clergy to perform an exorcism. The ceremony began in 1975 and ended only in 1976, it was held twice a week. A great many evil spirits were expelled from her body, but her health was still deteriorating, she could neither drink nor eat. As a result, the girl died in her sleep. According to her, before her death, the Virgin Mary came to her and offered her the option of salvation - to leave her body, which was enslaved by demons.

How to Deal with a Possessed Person

If suddenly you find signs of demonic possession in loved ones, it is important not to get lost at this moment, try to create conditions so that the person does not harm himself or others. There are a few tips on how to protect yourself from a possessed person:

• You should not provoke a possessed person to an attack of aggression, as he is not able to be responsible for his own actions. Agree with him and control the situation.
• Protect the possessed in movements. Sit or lay on the bed. Make sure he can't hurt himself.
• With manifestations of demonic possession, try to calm the person, bring him to a normal state. If an attack is provoked by icons or crucifixes, remove them.

Protect yourself and your loved ones from the encroachments of demons. True faith, fervent prayer, a life of piety will not let the devil take possession of your soul and body.

St. John Chrysostom, in the second conversation about the poor Lazarus and the rich man, narrates what happened in his time: “The demons say: I am the soul of such and such a monk. Of course: I don’t believe this precisely because these are demons. They deceive those who listen to them. For this reason, Paul also ordered the demon to be silent, although he also spoke the truth, so that he would not turn this truth into an occasion, would not later mix lies with it, and would not draw power of attorney to himself. The devil said: these men are servants of the most high God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation (Acts 14:17): The apostle, grieved by this, commanded the inquisitive spirit to come out of the maiden. And what did the evil spirit say when he said: These men are the servants of the Most High God? But since the majority of those who do not know cannot thoroughly judge what the demons say, the Apostle resolutely rejected any power of attorney to them. You belong to the number of outcasts, says the Apostle to the demon: you have no right to speak freely; shut up, dumb. It is not your business to preach: that is left to the Apostles. Why are you stealing something that isn't yours? shut up, outcast. So also Christ, when the demons said to Him: “We know Thee who art” (Mk. 1:24), very strictly forbade them, prescribing the law to us, so that under no pretext we should not trust the demon, even if he said that fair. Knowing this, we must resolutely not believe the demon in anything. If he says what is just, we will flee, we will turn away from him. We must learn healthy and saving knowledge not from demons, but from Divine Scripture. "Further in this conversation, Chrysostom says that the souls of both the righteous and sinners, immediately after death, are taken away from this world to another, some for receiving crowns, others for executions. The soul of the poor Lazarus immediately after death was taken up by the Angels to the bosom of Abraham, and the soul of the rich man was cast down into hellfire. In conversation 28 on Matthew, Chrysostom will tell that in his time some demoniacs said: I am the soul of such and such. "Truly this is a lie and the deceit of the devil, adds great saint. It is not the soul of the deceased who cries this out, but the demon who pretends to deceive the hearers."

Rev. John of the Ladder explains that the future of the demons is unknown, but they, being spirits and therefore able to move quickly over long distances, announce what has already happened at a distance from a person, or what they know as spirits, for example, about people's illnesses, or, knowing the present, announce at random what might happen in the future:

“Demons of vanity are prophets in dreams. Being crafty, they conclude about the future from the present circumstances and announce it to us, so that, after the fulfillment of these visions, we would be surprised and, as if already close to the gift of insight, would ascend in thought. Whoever believes in a demon, for those he is often a prophet; and whoever despises him, before him, he always turns out to be a liar. As a spirit, he sees what happens in the air and, noticing, for example, that someone is dying, he predicts this to the gullible through a dream. Demons do not know anything about the future by foresight, but it is known that even doctors can predict death. Whoever believes in dreams is not skilled at all, and whoever has no faith in them is wise. Therefore, whoever believes in dreams is like a man who runs after his shadow and tries to grab it.

Rev. John of the Ladder:

“Among the unclean spirits there are those who at the beginning of our spiritual life interpret the Scriptures for us. They usually do this in the hearts of the vain and, still more, in those trained in external sciences, so that, by deceiving them little by little, they finally plunge into heresies and blasphemies. We can recognize this demonic theology, or, better to say, theomachism, by embarrassment, by the discordant and impure joy that happens in the soul during these interpretations.

4. Demons Don't Know Our Thoughts

They don't know the location of our hearts, they cannot read our thoughts, they do not see the thoughts of our hearts, they are open only to God, - but from our words, actions, views, demons see our inner disposition and whether we are inclined towards virtue or sin, they judge only by our behavior.

Rev. John Cassian the Roman quotes the words of Abba Serena:

“There is no doubt that unclean spirits can know the qualities of our thoughts, but from the outside, learning about them by sensory signs, i.e. from our disposition or words and activities to which they see us more inclined. But they cannot at all know those thoughts which have not yet come to light from the inmost depths of the soul, and even those thoughts which they inspire are recognized not by the nature of the soul itself, i.e., not by the inner movement hidden, so to speak, in the brains, but by the movements and signs of the outer man; for example, when they suggest gluttony, if they see that a monk with curiosity fixes his eyes at the window or at the sun, or carefully asks about the hour, then they will know that he has a desire to eat.

Ancient Patericon:

Abba Matoj said: Satan does not know by what passion the soul is conquered. He sows, but he does not know if he will reap. He sows thoughts of fornication, slander, and other passions; and depending on the passion to which the soul shows itself to be inclined, that is what it puts in.

St. Isidore Pelusiot:

“The devil does not know what is in our thoughts, because it exclusively belongs to the power of God alone, but he catches thoughts by bodily movements. Will he see, for example, that another looks inquisitively and saturates his eyes with alien beauties? Taking advantage of his dispensation, he immediately excites such a person to adultery. Will he see one overcome by gluttony? Immediately vividly present to him the passions generated by gluttony and deliver the servant to bring his intention into action. Encourage robbery and unrighteous acquisition. "

Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer to the question:

"Geronda, does the Tangalashka know what is in our hearts?"

“What else! It was still not enough for him to know the hearts of people. Only God knows the hearts. And only to the people of God He sometimes reveals for our good what is in our hearts. who serves him. He does not know our good thoughts. Only from experience does he sometimes guess about them, but even here in most cases he fails!"

Rev. John of the Ladder He also writes that the demons do not know our thoughts:

“Do not be surprised that demons often secretly put good thoughts in us, and then contradict them with other thoughts. These enemies of ours only intend to convince us by this cunning that they know our heart thoughts.”

“Holy Scripture distinguishes demon possession from both possession and natural mental illness (Matt. 4:24, 9:32-34; Mark 1:34; Luke 7:21, 8:2). Due to the extreme complexity of human nature, it is difficult to accurately explain the essence of possession. It is clear, however, that it is different from simply demonic influence, in which the dark spirit tries to incline the will of man to sin. Here a person retains power over his actions, and he who has found temptation can be driven away by prayer. Possession is also different from that obsession, in which the devil takes possession of the mind and will of a person.

Apparently, when possessed, an evil spirit takes possession of the nervous-motor system of the body - as if intruding between its body and soul, so that a person loses control over his movements and actions. It should be thought, however, that when possessed, the evil spirit does not have complete control over the forces of the soul of the possessed: they only turn out to be incapable of manifesting themselves. The soul remains to a certain extent capable of thinking and feeling independently, but is completely powerless to control the organs of the body.

Not having control over their bodies, the possessed are the victims of an evil spirit that has enslaved them, and therefore they are not responsible for their actions. They are the slaves of the evil spirit.

Possession can take different external forms. Sometimes the possessed rage and crumble everything around them, terrifying those around them. At the same time, they often reveal superhuman strength, such as, for example, the demon-possessed Gadarin, who broke any chains with which they tried to shackle him (Mark 5:4). At the same time, the possessed inflict all sorts of injuries on themselves, such as, for example, the demon-possessed youth who, on the new moon, threw himself into the fire, then into the water (Matt. 17:15). But often, possession is expressed in a quieter form, when people lose their natural abilities for a while. Thus, for example, the Gospels tell of a demon-possessed mute who, as soon as the Lord freed him from the demon, began to speak normally again; or, for example, a crouched woman who was able to straighten up after the Lord delivered her from the devil. The unfortunate woman was in a bent position for 18 years (Luke 13:11).

What leads to possession and who gives the right to an evil spirit to take possession of a person and torment him? ... in all cases known to him, the cause of the possession was a passion for the occult ...

In our time, a time of apostasy from Christianity and an ever-increasing passion for the occult, more and more people begin to fall under the violence of evil spirits. True, psychiatrists are embarrassed to admit the existence of demons and, as a rule, possession is classified as a natural mental illness. But a believing person needs to understand that no medicines and psychotherapeutic agents can drive away evil spirits. This is where the power of God is needed.

These are the hallmarks of possession that distinguish it from natural mental illness.

Aversion to everything sacred and related to God: Holy Communion, the cross, the Bible, holy water, icons, prosphora, incense, prayer, etc. Moreover, the possessed feel the presence of a sacred object even when it is hidden from their gaze: it irritates them, makes them sick, and even leads them into a state of violence.

Possession differs from possession in that in possession the devil takes possession of the very mind and will of a person. When possessed, the devil enslaves the body of a person, but his mind and will remain relatively free, although powerless. Of course, the devil cannot enslave our mind and will by force. He achieves this gradually, as the person himself, by his disgust with God or by his sinful life, falls under his influence. We see an example of devilish possession in Judas the traitor. The words of the Gospel: "Satan entered into Judas" (Luke 22:3) - they do not speak of demon possession, but of the enslavement of the will of a traitor disciple.

...People possessed by the devil are not just religious ignoramuses or ordinary sinners; these are people whose minds have been blinded by the God of this age (2 Cor. 4:4) and are used to fight against God. The possessed are the pitiful victims of the evil one, the possessed are his active servants.

However, everything is even more complicated, the action of the spirits of evil depends on the circumstances, on the direction of the will of a person. So, Elder John Krestyankin wrote to his spiritual son, who had taken the priesthood: "You got demonic possession when you were still fond of rock music."

That is, the obsession did not prevent him from believing in God, but became an insurmountable obstacle to serving at the Throne. Elder John Krestyankin wrote bluntly about this:

“I’ll tell you right away - cast out the thought of ordination from yourself once and for all. Even if you are tempted by such offers. Experience shows that those who came to the Throne from rock music cannot serve for salvation. I receive so many letters from such unfortunate people, but help comes to them only after they take off their dignity. Some cannot stand at the throne at all, and some sink to the bottom of hell with such iniquities that they did not do even before taking the rank. So keep that in mind."

In another letter, he wrote of a believing woman:

“Dear in the Lord A.!
I will repeat the words of father I. in relation to your wife: her illness - of a spiritual nature - is an obsession. We easily fall ill, and even when we voluntarily invite a dark force into our lives with desire, but in order to expel it, this requires long and hard work.
Leaving her former occupations, L. took a step towards the Church, but she brought her settler to the Church with her, and he dictates to her behavior, which is called prelest, and with it she again departs from God. Be sure to go with your wife to Father I., since he laid the foundation for her formation in the faith. Strengthen your spirit and patience in prayer.”

Thus, the following conclusions can be drawn.

Possession is the demon's power over the body, possession is its power over the soul.

When possessed the demon takes control of the body, and it sometimes acts against the will and resistance of the person.

When possessed the demon takes possession of the soul of a person, turning him into his voluntary slave. He dictates “arguments” to a person, which he accepts as truth - and follows them voluntarily, or weakly, if he is still vaguely aware of his slavery to passion and the demon.

At the same time, there is no possession without possession; it always begins this terrible deed of enslaving a person.

How to distinguish possession from mental illness?

Priest Rodion answers:

“In our spiritless time, the number of the possessed and possessed has increased dramatically. A person who does not have the cover of divine grace, the intercession of the Guardian Angel, constantly serving his passions and lusts, becomes an easy prey for fallen spirits. , extrasensory perception, UFOs, spiritualism, etc. - make a person's soul open to the world of dark spirits, bind a helper demon to him, make him possessed or simply possessed.Because they live in darkness and darkness, and do not disturb their demon, dutifully fulfilling his will which simply coincides with the desires of the perishing One, and as soon as such a person comes into contact with a shrine, for example, comes to the temple, he immediately begins to feel spiritual discomfort, especially during the liturgy for the Cherubic Hymn, sometimes he is simply thrown out of the temple.

More than once I had to visit psychiatric hospitals, where, along with the mentally ill, the possessed were also kept. Modern, torn off from the Church, psychiatry is not able to distinguish the sick from the possessed. For example, a simple incantational prayer is read, for example, “May God rise again and scatter against Him ...” People with mental disabilities, as a rule, react to this quite calmly, while the obsessed begin to twist, bend in an arc; they scream and ask them to stop reading.”

In pre-revolutionary psychiatry, when doctors were believers, there was such a test to distinguish the mentally ill from the possessed: seven glasses of water were placed in front of a person, and only one of them was with plain water, the rest with holy water. The demoniac always, including when repeating the experiment and rearranging the glasses, always chose only a glass of plain water.

The main devil fighters of Ukraine talked about why you can’t watch TV shows and how they expel the unclean from people.

"Get out, Satan!" - the priest shouts menacingly, and sometimes confirms his request with a pair of silver bullets. Numerous films paint a picture of the battle between good and evil in this way. But what does exorcism really look like? We talked with the most famous exorcists of Ukraine. We were told about their methods of fighting evil Orthodox and Catholic priests, pagans and psychics.

Of course, there are no aspen stakes in the arsenal of priests. “An exorcism session” is, first of all, prayers for many hours, and a demon, like fire, runs from holy water and a censer. Sometimes it’s enough to go to a prayer service once to exorcise the devil, but often only after years a person is completely cleansed.

Officially, the Church comments on the exorcism of demons very carefully. According to UGCC spokesman Pavel Drozdyak, exorcisms can only be performed by priests who have received permission from the bishop. The press service of the UOC (MP) told us that His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr does not bless exorcism, but nevertheless it is carried out in some monasteries and churches.

"IF YOU START BARKING...".

Every Wednesday, the Intercession Cathedral in Donetsk (GCC) becomes an arena of struggle between light and dark forces. On this day, one of the most famous exorcists of Ukraine, the holy father Vasily Pantelyuk, conducts seances of exorcism here. We saw the rite of struggle with the army of Lucifer with our own eyes.

Immediately after matins, the communed citizens descend into the basement room. The women, crossing themselves, whisper: “There is not a single window here. It is very scary.” But what begins to happen after a few minutes is much more terrible. The priest reassures: "If you start barking, croaking, laughing, crying, screaming, yawning, you will feel a gag reflex - it means that an evil spirit comes out."

Ladies in fashionable raincoats, who smoked on the threshold of the church a couple of hours ago, are tearing their hair out. Literally. They do not pull out with roots, but jerkily pull their head in different directions. Others are shaking as if with a fever. But the worst thing is the screams. It's not like acting, it's not like pretending. Some squeal so that the heart freezes, as if you were standing not in a temple, but in a slaughterhouse where pigs are slaughtered.

And it's not just a screech. It folds into words. "I won't eat anymore!" - fat woman, which reproaches itself either for gluttony, or for the love of a charm. "Don't hit me, please!" her neighbor screams to herself, “Stop drinking!” - heart-rendingly yells a woman who came to the temple tipsy. An old grandmother almost loses consciousness, we help her to reach the bench. The woman starts kicking her legs, her eyes roll back. We are asked to leave. The last thing we hear is thumps, people falling to the floor...

HELL NOSTALGIA FOR THE USSR.

"I will make sure that she does not live to see the morning. I will make her hang herself," - with these words the devil "greeted" father Vasily 17 years ago during his first rite of exorcism. No, the unclean one did not appear in the form of a devil with horns and hooves. The girl who was brought to the church spoke in a low male voice. Later, she remembered her suffering. The hand itself reached for the noose, but then the image of the Virgin appeared, and the rope fell to the floor. “It was necessary to save that girl, and I began to pray,” recalls Father Vasily. The prayer went on for 20 hours. The girl either felt better, or she began to rage with renewed vigor.

"She shouted:" You must be killed! Temples have been erected! It used to be so good, but now I go into the bus - there is a cross, into the minibus - an icon, ”recalls the priest. After a grueling struggle, the demon left the girl, and the priest became famous as a master of exorcism. He traveled all over Ukraine, cast out demons in Spain and Italy. He admits that over many years he has learned to “smell” the devil. With the help of his techniques, he shines through a person like an x-ray and finds Satan, even if he is hiding in the tip of his little finger. disgusting green creatures appear or are seen in the temple.

“There have been different cases over the years. Once the devil shouts to me: “Don’t try, I won’t go out! She smokes!". It took a long time to persuade the obsessed woman to quit smoking. Another demon did not want to part with the sinner because she worked on Sundays (on holy scripture, work on Sunday is a sin, this day should be given over to prayers. - Auth.), - says father Vasily. - Somehow I was in a prison where mentally ill people, murderers, maniacs are kept. But I didn’t see any signs of possession in any of them.”

TRANSLATION FROM SATAN

One day, after a prayer, a girl confessed that she herself called the unclean and signed a contract with him. Like, she gave her soul in exchange for money. And what did you think? “Money transfers” from the other world never reached the girl. She didn’t receive a single hryvnia from the demon, and depression covered her - they say, neither soul nor money. “The task of the devil is to drive you to despair,” says the father. - Make your thoughts so gloomy that suicide seems to be the only way out. You will hang yourself, and he will take your soul.”

How can you protect yourself from the wiles of the devil? Our experts-exorcists told the following parable: "The light was asked:" What is darkness? He replied: “I don’t know.” The moral is simple: be pure in soul, and no demon will be afraid of you. For the devil, daily prayers and Holy Communion are more terrible than exorcism. Also, according to priests, visiting psychics and fortune-tellers, you are at risk and you can "catch" the demon.

SYMPTOMS: WHAT THE HELL

Since we have agreed that, as a phenomenon, demonic possession is not an invention, we will have to take the symptoms on faith:

1 Excessive irritability and temper. The person himself may consider that this is a feature of his temperament. But if the aggressiveness in it is noted by others, then this, alas, is so.

2 People are afraid to fall asleep, they scream in their sleep, they hear knocks and steps in an empty apartment, objects fall by themselves in the house.

3 Looking for any excuse not to go to church (say, yes, I want to go, but there is a lot of work).

4 And the pagans advise to clap your hands and say "hal" - hearing this, the possessed will jump.

BISHOP: "THE POSSESSED KNEW ALL MY SINS"

In the Catholic Church, the chief exorcists are the bishops. “For 15 years, I have seen only a few possessed. More often, people inspire themselves that a demon is sitting in them,” says Stanislav Shirororadiuk, Kiev-Zhytomyr Bishop of the RCC. He says that it is quite simple to determine false possession. , and observe the reaction: “Another one starts growling or screaming from the one that flows in the tap - that means he is playing obsession.

But I had a chance to look at Satan. One demoniac shouted at the whole temple about my sins, about what no one but me knew. Say, you are fighting with me, but what is he like? I admit, my hands dropped. I thought: “Am I really a good priest?” And the devil only achieved that. Another time a stench came from a person. As if there was a decomposed corpse. And the possessed one showed his tongue to my predecessor ... half a meter long. But the devil was expelled - people stopped possessing."

According to the holy father, in order to save a person from a demon, one session of exorcism is not always enough. Sometimes it takes years for the evil spirits to leave for the next world. Sometimes this fails. “It’s a pity for one guy from Zhytomyr. He sewed a shirt with satanic symbols for himself, performed some rituals ... No matter how hard we tried to help him, we couldn’t,” the bishop sighs. obsessed, you need to go to meet Satan: they visited a psychic, indulged in spiritualism, and the devil himself begins to play with you.

IGUMEN: "DEMONS TORTURE IN THE CHURCH"

Christians without rank could cast out the devil. But their spirit of life is weakening, and now only priests can cast out demons, without fail with the permission of the bishop or the abbot of the monastery.

“In the mid-80s, interest in various occult teachings increased in the country,” says the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, hegumen Longin (Chernukha). “At the same time, the Church began to revive. ". And people gradually formed a wrong attitude towards casting out demons. Many for spiritual healing began to consider reading more important (a prayer for the expulsion of evil spirits). But this is an aid. First of all - the sacraments of Confession and Communion, daily prayers, the struggle with passions, such as constant sitting in front of TVs, gluttony, fornication, pride, etc. But instead, many simply went to the proofreading and became a laughing stock, a toy in the hands of the devil. During the prayers, they screamed and writhed, but the demons did not leave them,” says the father.

Often people who are unfamiliar with exorcism come to temples, and the sight of demoniacs can frighten them or turn them away from the church. “Often I had to see demoniacs in the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, for example, a mother with children - she howled like a beast, her babies screamed with adult male voices,” recalls Father Longin. Therefore, the UOC limited places for expulsion.

Father Varlaam: "Sometimes in the temple I see things that are scarier than in horror films

They say in the district that Father Varlaam can cure both drunkenness and the evil eye. For the ability to look into the depths of the soul, he was even called the seeing father. But the 70-year-old priest himself says this: “It’s not me who helps. I just read prayers, and according to your faith, let it be for you. Psychics and healers send many people to me, they will examine a person and say: "A curse has been imposed, proofreading is needed." I don’t understand why finish off a person with stories about a “birth curse”, it’s not easy for him because of his illness!?

Sometimes you want to close your eyes and run. Because of powerlessness, because there are no demons in them and there is no need to come to special prayer services. It is not because of Satan that they get cancer. But for such patients, the temple is the last resort. I serve, I calm them down, I pray to God for healing. Or that was the case. A girl in tears comes from a fortune-teller, says: “They put a crown of celibacy on me.” What kind of “crown” is this ... We talked heart to heart with her, it turned out that she would meet someone - either a drinker, or a gamer ... So " crown "is it to blame or that there are no sensible men now? Reassured her. And soon she forgot about the "curse" and met a good guy."

So that readers do not get the impression that our hero is more of a psychologist than an exorcist, let's give an example from his practice. One girl was brought to Bortnichi by her parents. While studying in another city, he went crazy. But at the same time, she was afraid to step even on the threshold of the church. After the prayers of Father Varlaam, the girl felt better, she began to pray herself, to be baptized. After one of the readings, she said that her friends envied her. They didn’t like that the girl had a handsome boyfriend, they decided to beat him off and spoiled him. Moreover, the girl told this story not on her own behalf, but as if a friend was repenting, and with details that she could not know.

FATHER VASILY: "ONE TIME THE SPIRIT OF MUMBACITY HAS PASSED ON ME"

The most authoritative Lviv fighter against demons is Father Vasily Voronovsky, who serves in the church of St. Michael. An 80-year-old priest with half a century of experience has been exorcising for three decades. During this time, he learned to feel "those who are not in the caress of God" with his fingertips. "I smear the sign of the cross on the forehead of the parishioners with peace. When the turn comes to the possessed, the hand begins to tingle, ”says the holy father.

In his experience, the demon usually appears in the form of fire. “In one house in the village of Komarno, a fire flared up for no reason. They extinguished it with water, and it ignited again. When they decided to call me, an inscription appeared on the wall: “Do not call the priest, otherwise I will take revenge,” recalls Father Vasily. After the prayers, the priest assures, the unclean one was no longer naughty.

In another family, in the village of Yaktorovo, a barn suddenly burned down, one child suddenly found himself on the roof of the house, although the door leading to it was closed from the outside, and the other was sitting tied up in the garden: "The owners of the hut were not married, so first I married them, and then he cast out the demon. Since then, everything is calm with them.

On the day of the ceremony, the priest goes hungry. Like, on a full stomach, the devil can harm, which once happened. "I had dinner and was getting ready to go to bed when I was asked to help a girl who saw a demon at a New Year's party and became numb with fear. After the expulsion, she spoke, and I woke up in the morning and could not utter a word. The spirit of dumbness passed over to me. After long prayers the devil retreated, and since then I have been reading prayers on an empty stomach, ”explains Voronovsky.

And once the impure allegedly took revenge on the priest - when he was driving to conduct the rite of exile, the rear window shattered in his car for no reason at all, and the alarm turned on, which the driver cannot cut down in any way. And somehow, during the service, the temperature suddenly jumped at the priest, and dropped only after long prayers. Voronovsky believes that the fortune-tellers, who sometimes come to the temple to harm, have done this.

WAX, EGG AND DRAMA

Exorcists were and are among the pagans. “When I get rid of “malicious entities”, I see their faces: either animal, then wrinkled children, then senile,” says the Supreme Magus of Ukraine-Rus Volodymyr Kurovsky. Slavic exorcism is pagan prayers, rolling out an egg, hitting a tambourine, and even traveling to worlds where spirits live in order to find an ally in exile - they say, there are good-natured people among the spirits.

“Somehow, a frightened mother brought her daughter:“ Whatever I think, she retells word for word! It turned out that the girl's friend performed the ceremony, and an evil spirit settled in her. They kicked him out - he no longer reads thoughts. But my daughter has clairvoyance.”

ENERGY ENTITIES

Here, special portals are created for the exiled entity, with the help of which it is moved to another world. According to psychics, screams, convulsions during exorcism without a portal occur because the "demon", exiled to nowhere, is uncomfortable outside the body. And the "devils" look like clots of light a few centimeters in size. There is another non-trivial view of obsession. The sun-eater, healer Nikolai Dolgoruky, claims: “Star brothers from Sirius complain: “We are mistaken for demons.”

ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS

Science considers possession to be nothing more than a disease - in psychiatry there is even the concept of “Delirium of possession.” With various mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, the patient believes that someone has moved into him. “We have a behavior model in our head:“ How to behave during possession", read in books, newspapers, seen in the movies. That is why people scream during exorcism, as movie heroes do.

At the same time, a “collective feeling” works: at first one person starts screaming, a second one picks up, a third one ... As for the demons that the priests see, these are illusions and hallucinations,” says Oleg Chaban, professor, MD, head of the department of borderline states of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Social and Forensic Psychiatry.

"Get out, Satan!" - the priest shouts menacingly, and sometimes confirms his request with a pair of silver bullets. This is how numerous films paint a picture of the battle between good and evil. But what does exorcism actually look like? We talked to the most famous exorcists of Ukraine. Orthodox and Catholic priests, pagans and psychics told us about their methods of fighting evil.

Of course, there are no aspen stakes in the arsenal of priests. The "exorcism session" is, first of all, prayers for many hours, as well as a demon, like a fire, runs from holy water and a censer. Sometimes it is enough to go to a prayer service just once to exorcise the devil, but often only after years a person is completely cleansed.

Officially, the Church comments on the exorcism of demons very carefully. According to UGCC spokesman Pavel Drozdyak, exorcisms can only be performed by priests who have received permission from the bishop. The press service of the UOC (MP) told us that His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr does not bless exorcism, but nevertheless it is carried out in some monasteries and churches.

"IF YOU START BARKING...". Every Wednesday, the Intercession Cathedral in Donetsk (GCC) becomes an arena of struggle between light and dark forces. On this day, one of the most famous exorcists of Ukraine, the holy father Vasily Pantelyuk, conducts seances of exorcism here. We saw the rite of struggle with the army of Lucifer with our own eyes.

Immediately after matins, the communed citizens descend into the basement room. The women cross themselves and whisper: “There is not a single window here. It's very scary." But what starts to happen after a few minutes is much scarier. Already after the first prayer of Father Vasily, the parishioners hurriedly take out empty packages from their pockets - a good half of the worshipers begin to vomit. The priest reassures: “If you start barking, croaking, laughing, crying, screaming, yawning, you will feel a gag reflex, then an evil spirit comes out.”

Ladies in fashionable raincoats, who smoked on the threshold of the church a couple of hours ago, are tearing their hair out. Literally. They do not pull out with roots, but jerkily pull their head in different directions. Others are shaking as if with a fever. But the worst thing is the screams. It's not like acting, it's not like pretending. Some squeal so that the heart freezes, as if you were standing not in a temple, but in a slaughterhouse where pigs are slaughtered. And it's not just a screech. It folds into words. "I won't eat anymore!" - a plump woman who reproaches herself either for gluttony, or for her love for a charm. "Don't hit me, please!" her neighbor screams to herself. "Stop drinking!" - heart-rendingly yells a woman who came to the temple tipsy. An old grandmother almost loses consciousness, we help her to reach the bench. The woman starts kicking her legs, her eyes roll back. We are asked to leave. The last thing we hear is thumps, people falling to the floor...

HELL NOSTALGIA FOR THE USSR. “I will make sure that she does not live to see the morning. I will force her to hang herself,” these were the words the devil “greeted” father Vasily 17 years ago during his first rite of exorcism. No, the unclean one did not appear in the form of a devil with horns and hooves. The girl who was brought to the church spoke in a low male voice. Later, she remembered her suffering. The hand itself reached for the noose, but then the image of the Virgin appeared, and the rope fell to the floor. “It was necessary to save that girl, and I began to pray,” Father Vasily recalls. The prayer went on for 20 hours. The girl then felt better, then she began to rage with renewed vigor. “She shouted:“ You must be killed! Temples have been erected! It used to be so good, but now I go into the bus - there is a cross, into the minibus - an icon, ”recalls the priest. After a grueling struggle, the demon left the girl, and the priest became famous as a master of exorcism. He traveled all over Ukraine, cast out demons in Spain and Italy. He admits that over the years he has learned to "smell" the devil. With the help of his techniques, he shines through a person like an x-ray and finds Satan, even if he is hiding in the tip of his little finger. It happened that I even saw evil spirits. He says that sometimes, like the shadow of a terrible furry beast, disgusting green creatures appear or are seen in the temple.

“The cases have been different over the years. Once the devil shouts to me: “Don't try, I won't get out! She smokes!". It took a long time to persuade the obsessed woman to quit smoking. Another demon did not want to part with the sinner because she worked on Sundays (according to the Holy Scriptures, work on Sunday is a sin, this day should be devoted to prayers. - Auth.), - says Father Vasily. - Somehow I was in a prison where mentally ill people, murderers, maniacs are kept. But I did not see signs of possession in any of them.

TRANSLATION FROM SATAN. One day, after a prayer, a girl confessed that she herself called the unclean and signed a contract with him. Like, she gave her soul in exchange for money. And what did you think? "Money transfers" from the other world never reached the girl. She did not receive a single hryvnia from the demon, and depression covered her - they say, no soul, no money. “The task of the devil is to bring you to despair,” says the father. - Make your thoughts so gloomy that suicide seems to be the only way out. You hang yourself, and he takes your soul."

How can you protect yourself from the wiles of the devil? Our experts-exorcists told the following parable: “The world was asked: “What is darkness?”. He replied, "I don't know." The moral is simple: be pure in soul, and no demon will be afraid of you. For the devil, daily prayers and Holy Communion are more terrible than exorcism. Also, according to priests, visiting psychics and fortune tellers, you are at risk and can "catch" a demon.

SYMPTOMS: WHAT THE HELL

Since we have agreed that, as a phenomenon, demonic possession is not an invention, we will have to take the symptoms on faith:

1. Excessive irritability and temper. The person himself may consider that this is a feature of his temperament. But if the aggressiveness in it is noted by others, then this, alas, is so.

2. People are afraid to fall asleep, they scream in their sleep, they hear knocks and steps in an empty apartment, objects fall by themselves in the house.

3. They look for any excuse not to go to church (say, yes, I want to go, but there is a lot of work).

4. And the pagans advise to clap your hands and say "hal" - hearing this, the possessed will jump.

BISHOP: "THE POSSESSED KNEW ALL MY SINS"

In the Catholic Church, the chief exorcists are the bishops. “In 15 years I have only seen a few possessed people. More often, people inspire themselves that a demon is sitting in them,” says the Kiev-Zhytomyr Bishop of the RCC Stanislav Shirororadiuk. He says that it is quite easy to define false possession. It is worth sprinkling a person with plain water, and then consecrated, and watching the reaction: “A different person starts growling or screaming from the one that flows in the tap, which means he is playing obsession. But I had a chance to look at Satan. One demoniac shouted at the whole temple about my sins, about what no one but me knew. Say, you are fighting with me, but what is he like? I admit, my hands dropped. I thought: “Am I really a good priest?” And the devil did just that. Another time a stench came from a man. Like a decomposed corpse. And the possessed one showed his tongue to my predecessor ... half a meter long. But the devil was expelled - people stopped raging."

According to the holy father, in order to save a person from a demon, one session of exorcism is not always enough. Sometimes it takes years for the evil spirits to leave for the next world. Sometimes this fails. “It’s a pity for one guy from Zhytomyr. He sewed a shirt with satanic symbols, performed some rituals... No matter how hard we tried to help him, we couldn't, - the bishop sighs. - But don't be afraid. All those baptized are under the protection of the Lord, and in order to become possessed, one must meet halfway to Satan: they visited a psychic, indulged in spiritualism, and the devil himself begins to play with you.

IGUMEN: "DEMONS TORTURE IN THE CHURCH"

Christians without rank could cast out the devil. But their spirit of life is weakening, and now only priests can cast out demons, without fail with the permission of the bishop or the abbot of the monastery.

“In the mid-80s, interest in various occult teachings increased in the country,” says the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, hegumen Longin (Chernukha). - At the same time, the Church began to revive. Many became interested in exorcism, whole pilgrimages were organized "to the elders for proofreading." And people gradually formed a wrong attitude towards casting out demons. Many for spiritual healing began to consider reading more important (a prayer for the expulsion of evil spirits). But this is an aid. First of all - the sacraments of Confession and Communion, daily prayers, the struggle with passions, such as constant sitting in front of TVs, gluttony, fornication, pride, etc. But instead, many simply went to the proofreading and became a laughing stock, a toy in the hands of the devil. During the prayers, they screamed and writhed, but the demons did not leave them,” says the father.

Often people who are unfamiliar with exorcism come to temples, and the sight of demoniacs can frighten them or turn them away from the church. “Often I had to see demoniacs in the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, for example, a mother with children - she howled like a beast, her babies screamed in adult male voices,” recalls Father Longin. Therefore, the UOC limited places for expulsion.

BORTNICHI. Back in the last century, proofreading was “transferred” from the Lavra to the “Kitaevskaya Hermitage” monastery. Now the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bortnichi (a district of the capital) is very popular.

They say in the district that Father Varlaam can cure both drunkenness and the evil eye. For the ability to look into the depths of the soul, he was even called the seeing father. But the 70-year-old priest himself says this: “I'm not helping. I only read prayers, and according to your faith, be it to you. Sometimes it happens in proofreading that it’s scarier than in the movies. People are screaming, writhing. But that's not what hurts the most. Many people are sent to me by psychics and healers. They will examine the person and say: "A curse has been imposed, proofreading is needed." I don’t understand why finish off a person with stories about a “birth curse”, it’s not easy for him because of his illness!? Sometimes you want to close your eyes and run. Because of impotence, because there are no demons in them and there is no need to come to special prayer services. It is not because of Satan that they get cancer. But for such patients, the temple is the last resort. I serve, I calm them down, I pray to God for healing. Or that was the case. A girl in tears comes from a fortune-teller and says: "They put a crown of celibacy on me." What kind of "crown" is this ... We talked heart to heart with her, it turned out that she would meet someone - either a drinker, or a gamer ... So is the "crown" to blame or that there are no sensible men now? Calmed her down. And soon she forgot about the “curse” and met a good guy.”

So that readers do not get the impression that our hero is more of a psychologist than an exorcist, let's give an example from his practice. One girl was brought to Bortnichi by her parents. While studying in another city, he went crazy. But at the same time, she was afraid to step even on the threshold of the church. After the prayers of Father Varlaam, the girl felt better, she began to pray herself, to be baptized. After one of the readings, she said that her friends envied her. They didn’t like that the girl had a handsome boyfriend, they decided to beat him off and spoiled him. Moreover, the girl told this story not on her own behalf, but as if a friend was repenting, and with details that she could not know.

FATHER VASILY: "ONE TIME THE SPIRIT OF MUMBABILITY PASSED ON ME"

The most authoritative Lviv fighter against demons is Father Vasily Voronovsky, who serves in the church of St. Michael. An 80-year-old priest with half a century of experience has been exorcising for three decades. During this time, he learned to feel "those who are not in the caress of God" with his fingertips. “I smear the sign of the cross on the forehead of the parishioners with peace. When the turn comes to the possessed, the hand begins to tingle,” says the holy father.

In his experience, the demon usually appears in the form of fire. “In one house in the village of Komarno, a fire broke out for no reason. They extinguished it with water, and it ignited again. When they decided to call me, an inscription appeared on the wall: “Do not call the priest, otherwise I will take revenge,” Father Vasily recalls. After the prayers, the priest assures, the unclean one was no longer naughty.

In another family, in the village of Yaktorovo, a barn suddenly burned down, one child suddenly found himself on the roof of the house, although the door leading to it was closed from the outside, and the other was sitting tied up in the garden: “The owners of the hut were not married, so first I married them, and then cast out the demon. Since then, they've been fine."

On the day of the ceremony, the priest goes hungry. Like, on a full stomach, the devil can harm, which once happened. “I had dinner and was getting ready for bed when I was asked to help a girl who saw a demon at a New Year's party and became numb with fear. After the expulsion, she spoke, and I woke up in the morning and could not utter a word. The spirit of silence passed over me. After long prayers, the devil receded, and since then I have been reading prayers on an empty stomach, ”explains Voronovsky.

And once the impure allegedly took revenge on the priest - when he was driving to conduct the rite of exile, the rear window shattered in his car for no reason at all, and the alarm turned on, which the driver cannot cut down in any way. And somehow, during the service, the temperature suddenly jumped at the priest, and dropped only after long prayers. Voronovsky believes that the fortune-tellers, who sometimes come to the temple to harm, have done this.

WAX, EGG AND DRAMA

Exorcists were and are among the pagans. “When I get rid of “malicious entities”, I see their faces: either animal, then wrinkled children, then senile,” says the Supreme Magus of Ukraine-Rus Volodymyr Kurovsky. Slavic exorcism is pagan prayers, rolling out an egg, hitting a tambourine, and even traveling to worlds where spirits live in order to find an ally in exile - they say, there are good-natured people among the spirits. “Somehow, a frightened mother brought her daughter:“ Whatever I think, she retells word for word! It turned out that the girl's friend performed the ceremony, and an evil spirit settled in her. They kicked him out - he no longer reads thoughts. But my daughter’s clairvoyance remained.”

ENERGY ENTITIES

ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS

Science considers possession to be nothing more than a disease - in psychiatry there is even the concept of "Delirium of possession." With various mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, the patient believes that someone has moved into him. “We have a model of behavior in our head: “How to behave when possessed”, read in books, newspapers, seen in the movies. That's why people scream during exorcism, just like movie characters do. At the same time, a “collective feeling” works: at first one person starts screaming, a second one picks up, a third one ... As for the demons that the priests see, these are illusions and hallucinations,” says Oleg Chaban, professor, doctor of medical sciences, head of the department of borderline states of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Social and Forensic Psychiatry.

The main devil fighters of Ukraine talked about why you can’t watch TV shows and how they expel the unclean from people.

"Get out, Satan!" - the priest shouts menacingly, and sometimes confirms his request with a pair of silver bullets. Numerous films paint a picture of the battle between good and evil in this way. But what does exorcism really look like? We talked with the most famous exorcists of Ukraine. We were told about their methods of fighting evil Orthodox and Catholic priests, pagans and psychics.

Of course, there are no aspen stakes in the arsenal of priests. “An exorcism session” is, first of all, prayers for many hours, and a demon, like fire, runs from holy water and a censer. Sometimes it’s enough to go to a prayer service once to exorcise the devil, but often only after years a person is completely cleansed.

Officially, the Church comments on the exorcism of demons very carefully. According to UGCC spokesman Pavel Drozdyak, exorcisms can only be performed by priests who have received permission from the bishop. The press service of the UOC (MP) told us that His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr does not bless exorcism, but nevertheless it is carried out in some monasteries and churches.

"IF YOU START BARKING...".

Every Wednesday, the Intercession Cathedral in Donetsk (GCC) becomes an arena of struggle between light and dark forces. On this day, one of the most famous exorcists of Ukraine, the holy father Vasily Pantelyuk, conducts seances of exorcism here. We saw the rite of struggle with the army of Lucifer with our own eyes.

Immediately after matins, the communed citizens descend into the basement room. The women, crossing themselves, whisper: “There is not a single window here. It is very scary.” But what begins to happen after a few minutes is much more terrible. The priest reassures: "If you start barking, croaking, laughing, crying, screaming, yawning, you will feel a gag reflex - it means that an evil spirit comes out."

Ladies in fashionable raincoats, who smoked on the threshold of the church a couple of hours ago, are tearing their hair out. Literally. They do not pull out with roots, but jerkily pull their head in different directions. Others are shaking as if with a fever. But the worst thing is the screams. It's not like acting, it's not like pretending. Some squeal so that the heart freezes, as if you were standing not in a temple, but in a slaughterhouse where pigs are slaughtered.

And it's not just a screech. It folds into words. "I won't eat anymore!" - a plump woman who reproaches herself either for gluttony, or for her love for a glass. "Don't hit me, please!" her neighbor screams to herself. "Stop drinking!" - the woman who came to the temple drunk screams heart-rendingly. The old grandmother almost loses consciousness, we help her to reach the bench. The woman starts to kick her legs, her eyes roll back. We are asked to leave. The last thing we hear is thuds, people fall to the floor …

HELL NOSTALGIA FOR THE USSR.

"I will make sure that she does not live to see the morning. I will make her hang herself," - with these words the devil "greeted" father Vasily 17 years ago during his first rite of exorcism. No, the unclean one did not appear in the form of a devil with horns and hooves. The girl who was brought to the church spoke in a low male voice. Later, she remembered her suffering. The hand itself reached for the noose, but then the image of the Virgin appeared, and the rope fell to the floor. “It was necessary to save that girl, and I began to pray,” recalls Father Vasily. The prayer went on for 20 hours. The girl either felt better, or she began to rage with renewed vigor.

"She shouted:" You must be killed! Temples have been erected! It used to be so good, but now I go into the bus - there is a cross, into the minibus - an icon, ”recalls the priest. After a grueling struggle, the demon left the girl, and the priest became famous as a master of exorcism. He traveled all over Ukraine, cast out demons in Spain and Italy. He admits that over many years he has learned to “smell” the devil. With the help of his techniques, he shines through a person like an x-ray and finds Satan, even if he is hiding in the tip of his little finger. disgusting green creatures appear or are seen in the temple.

“There have been different cases over the years. Once the devil shouts to me: “Don’t try, I won’t go out! She smokes!". It took a long time to persuade the obsessed woman to quit smoking. Another demon did not want to part with the sinner because she worked on Sundays (according to the Holy Scriptures, work on Sunday is a sin, this day should be devoted to prayers. - Auth.), - says Father Vasily. - Somehow I was in a prison where mentally ill people, murderers, maniacs are kept. But I didn’t see any signs of possession in any of them.”

TRANSLATION FROM SATAN

One day, after a prayer, a girl confessed that she herself called the unclean and signed a contract with him. Like, she gave her soul in exchange for money. And what did you think? “Money transfers” from the other world never reached the girl. She didn’t receive a single hryvnia from the demon, and depression covered her - they say, neither soul nor money. “The task of the devil is to drive you to despair,” says the father. - Make your thoughts so gloomy that suicide seems to be the only way out. You will hang yourself, and he will take your soul.”

How can you protect yourself from the wiles of the devil? Our experts-exorcists told the following parable: "The light was asked:" What is darkness? He replied: “I don’t know.” The moral is simple: be pure in soul, and no demon will be afraid of you. For the devil, daily prayers and Holy Communion are more terrible than exorcism. Also, according to priests, visiting psychics and fortune-tellers, you are at risk and you can "catch" the demon.

SYMPTOMS: WHAT THE HELL

Since we have agreed that, as a phenomenon, demonic possession is not an invention, we will have to take the symptoms on faith:

1 Excessive irritability and temper. The person himself may consider that this is a feature of his temperament. But if the aggressiveness in it is noted by others, then this, alas, is so.

2 People are afraid to fall asleep, they scream in their sleep, they hear knocks and steps in an empty apartment, objects fall by themselves in the house.

3 Looking for any excuse not to go to church (say, yes, I want to go, but there is a lot of work).

4 And the pagans advise to clap your hands and say "hal" - hearing this, the possessed will jump.

BISHOP: "THE POSSESSED KNEW ALL MY SINS"

In the Catholic Church, the chief exorcists are the bishops. “For 15 years, I have seen only a few possessed. More often, people inspire themselves that a demon is sitting in them,” says Stanislav Shirororadiuk, Kiev-Zhytomyr Bishop of the RCC. He says that it is quite simple to determine false possession. , and observe the reaction: “Another one starts growling or screaming from the one that flows in the tap - that means he is playing obsession.

But I had a chance to look at Satan. One demoniac shouted at the whole temple about my sins, about what no one but me knew. Say, you are fighting with me, but what is he like? I admit, my hands dropped. I thought: “Am I really a good priest?” And the devil only achieved that. Another time a stench came from a person. As if there was a decomposed corpse. And the possessed one showed his tongue to my predecessor ... half a meter long. But the devil was expelled - people stopped possessing."

According to the holy father, in order to save a person from a demon, one session of exorcism is not always enough. Sometimes it takes years for the evil spirits to leave for the next world. Sometimes this fails. “It’s a pity for one guy from Zhytomyr. He sewed a shirt with satanic symbols for himself, performed some rituals ... No matter how hard we tried to help him, we couldn’t,” the bishop sighs. obsessed, you need to go to meet Satan: they visited a psychic, indulged in spiritualism, and the devil himself begins to play with you.

IGUMEN: "DEMONS TORTURE IN THE CHURCH"

Christians without rank could cast out the devil. But their spirit of life is weakening, and now only priests can cast out demons, without fail with the permission of the bishop or the abbot of the monastery.

“In the mid-80s, interest in various occult teachings increased in the country,” says the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, hegumen Longin (Chernukha). “At the same time, the Church began to revive. ". And people gradually formed a wrong attitude towards casting out demons. Many for spiritual healing began to consider reading more important (a prayer for the expulsion of evil spirits). But this is an aid. First of all - the sacraments of Confession and Communion, daily prayers, the struggle with passions, such as constant sitting in front of TVs, gluttony, fornication, pride, etc. But instead, many simply went to the proofreading and became a laughing stock, a toy in the hands of the devil. During the prayers, they screamed and writhed, but the demons did not leave them,” says the father.

Often people who are unfamiliar with exorcism come to temples, and the sight of demoniacs can frighten them or turn them away from the church. “Often I had to see demoniacs in the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, for example, a mother with children - she howled like a beast, her babies screamed with adult male voices,” recalls Father Longin. Therefore, the UOC limited places for expulsion.

Father Varlaam: "Sometimes in the temple I see things that are scarier than in horror films

They say in the district that Father Varlaam can cure both drunkenness and the evil eye. For the ability to look into the depths of the soul, he was even called the seeing father. But the 70-year-old priest himself says this: “It’s not me who helps. I just read prayers, and according to your faith, let it be for you. Psychics and healers send many people to me, they will examine a person and say: "A curse has been imposed, proofreading is needed." I don’t understand why finish off a person with stories about a “birth curse”, it’s not easy for him because of his illness!?

Sometimes you want to close your eyes and run. Because of powerlessness, because there are no demons in them and there is no need to come to special prayer services. It is not because of Satan that they get cancer. But for such patients, the temple is the last resort. I serve, I calm them down, I pray to God for healing. Or that was the case. A girl in tears comes from a fortune-teller, says: “They put a crown of celibacy on me.” What kind of “crown” is this ... We talked heart to heart with her, it turned out that she would meet someone - either a drinker, or a gamer ... So " crown "is it to blame or that there are no sensible men now? Reassured her. And soon she forgot about the "curse" and met a good guy."

So that readers do not get the impression that our hero is more of a psychologist than an exorcist, let's give an example from his practice. One girl was brought to Bortnichi by her parents. While studying in another city, he went crazy. But at the same time, she was afraid to step even on the threshold of the church. After the prayers of Father Varlaam, the girl felt better, she began to pray herself, to be baptized. After one of the readings, she said that her friends envied her. They didn’t like that the girl had a handsome boyfriend, they decided to beat him off and spoiled him. Moreover, the girl told this story not on her own behalf, but as if a friend was repenting, and with details that she could not know.

FATHER VASILY: "ONE TIME THE SPIRIT OF MUMBACITY HAS PASSED ON ME"

The most authoritative Lviv fighter against demons is Father Vasily Voronovsky, who serves in the church of St. Michael. An 80-year-old priest with half a century of experience has been exorcising for three decades. During this time, he learned to feel "those who are not in the caress of God" with his fingertips. "I smear the sign of the cross on the forehead of the parishioners with peace. When the turn comes to the possessed, the hand begins to tingle, ”says the holy father.

In his experience, the demon usually appears in the form of fire. “In one house in the village of Komarno, a fire flared up for no reason. They extinguished it with water, and it ignited again. When they decided to call me, an inscription appeared on the wall: “Do not call the priest, otherwise I will take revenge,” recalls Father Vasily. After the prayers, the priest assures, the unclean one was no longer naughty.

In another family, in the village of Yaktorovo, a barn suddenly burned down, one child suddenly found himself on the roof of the house, although the door leading to it was closed from the outside, and the other was sitting tied up in the garden: "The owners of the hut were not married, so first I married them, and then he cast out the demon. Since then, everything is calm with them.

On the day of the ceremony, the priest goes hungry. Like, on a full stomach, the devil can harm, which once happened. "I had dinner and was getting ready to go to bed when I was asked to help a girl who saw a demon at a New Year's party and became numb with fear. After the expulsion, she spoke, and I woke up in the morning and could not utter a word. The spirit of dumbness passed over to me. After long prayers the devil retreated, and since then I have been reading prayers on an empty stomach, ”explains Voronovsky.

And once the impure allegedly took revenge on the priest - when he was driving to conduct the rite of exile, the rear window shattered in his car for no reason at all, and the alarm turned on, which the driver cannot cut down in any way. And somehow, during the service, the temperature suddenly jumped at the priest, and dropped only after long prayers. Voronovsky believes that the fortune-tellers, who sometimes come to the temple to harm, have done this.

WAX, EGG AND DRAMA

Exorcists were and are among the pagans. “When I get rid of “malicious entities”, I see their faces: either animal, then wrinkled children, then senile,” says the Supreme Magus of Ukraine-Rus Volodymyr Kurovsky. Slavic exorcism is pagan prayers, rolling out an egg, hitting a tambourine, and even traveling to worlds where spirits live in order to find an ally in exile - they say, there are good-natured people among the spirits.

“Somehow, a frightened mother brought her daughter:“ Whatever I think, she retells word for word! It turned out that the girl's friend performed the ceremony, and an evil spirit settled in her. They kicked him out - he no longer reads thoughts. But my daughter has clairvoyance.”

ENERGY ENTITIES

Here, special portals are created for the exiled entity, with the help of which it is moved to another world. According to psychics, screams, convulsions during exorcism without a portal occur because the "demon", exiled to nowhere, is uncomfortable outside the body. And the "devils" look like clots of light a few centimeters in size. There is another non-trivial view of obsession. The sun-eater, healer Nikolai Dolgoruky, claims: “Star brothers from Sirius complain: “We are mistaken for demons.”

ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS

Science considers possession to be nothing more than a disease - in psychiatry there is even the concept of “Delirium of possession.” With various mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, the patient believes that someone has moved into him. “We have a behavior model in our head:“ How to behave during possession", read in books, newspapers, seen in the movies. That is why people scream during exorcism, as movie heroes do.

At the same time, a “collective feeling” works: at first one person starts screaming, a second one picks up, a third one ... As for the demons that the priests see, these are illusions and hallucinations,” says Oleg Chaban, professor, MD, head of the department of borderline states of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Social and Forensic Psychiatry.