ВИДЕНИЯ
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(see also: Sleep, Attention, Jesus Prayer). Regarding voices and phenomena, even greater caution is needed: here the demonic charm is closer and more harmful. Many of the holy and skillful Fathers were deceived by demons, cunningly hiding and exposing their lies and darkness with the ghosts of truth and light: the more conveniently they can be deceived now and more incomprehensibly. It takes a long time and experience to accustom the mind and heart to distinguish good from evil, no matter under what guise evil may be disguised. Therefore, the Holy Fathers commanded that the novices should not entrust themselves to any voices or manifestations, but should reject them and not accept them, leaving the matter to the court and the will of God, and recognizing humility for themselves as more necessary than any voice and manifestation. The Voice of Christ is the Gospel; Let us listen to him and obey him.
True spiritual visions and sensations belong to that age, are completely immaterial, cannot be explained in the land of feelings, by a material word; This is a sure sign of the truly spiritual. The voice of the Spirit is immaterial, it is completely clear and completely immaterial, it is a mental voice. Also, all spiritual sensations are immaterial, formless, cannot be interpreted, clearly conveyed by human material words, and at the same time, they are tangible, strong, overcome all other sensations, make them inactive, as if non-existent, and whoever has a spiritual feeling, this feeling explains to him what is inexplicable by a material word.
The lowest level of visions consists of those visions that a person becomes a spectator of from ineating, vigil and other exhaustions of the flesh; these visions are reached not only by people of ascetic life, but also by many vicious ones who have somehow come to the exhaustion of the flesh. Their bodily senses reach some special subtlety, and they begin to see spirits, hear voices, smell fragrances and stench. This state is dangerous, and many, having come to it, fell into delusion. 129.
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