It is Foolish to Pay Attention to Night Dreams

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov). "On prelest". About Night Dreams.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Demons use dreams to disturb and injure human souls. Likewise, inexperienced monks, by paying attention to their dreams, harm themselves. It is therefore essential here to determine the exact significance of dreams in a person whose nature has not yet been renewed by the Holy Spirit.

During sleep, the state of a sleeping person is so designed by God that the whole man is in complete repose. This repose is so complete that a person loses consciousness of his existence and is in a state of oblivion or self-forgetfulness. During sleep, all voluntary activities and labour governed by the will and reason stop. Only that activity continues that is essential for existence and cannot be relinquished. In the body, the blood continues its circulation, the stomach digest food, the lungs maintain respiration, the skin perspires. In the soul, thoughts, fantasies, and sensations continue to be produced, only without dependence on the will and reason, but by the action of our unconscious nature.

A dream consists of such fantasies accompanied by their peculiar thoughts and sensations. It often seems strange, as if it bore no relations to the person's voluntary and purposeful thoughts and imaginings, but appears spontaneously and whimsically in accordance with a law and demand of nature. Sometimes a dream bears an incoherent impression of voluntary thoughts and fancies, while sometime is a result of a particularly moral state of mind. Thus, a dream in itself cannot and should not have any significance. The desire of certain people to see in the ravings of the dreams a prediction of their future or the future of others or some other meaning is ludicrous and quite illogical. How can that be which has no cause for its existence?

The Third Kind of Prayer Requires Seclusion with Setting aside the Cares

Letters of Valaam elder schema-hegumen John (Alexeev). Letter 233.

Schema-hegumen John (Alexeev)

9.9.1956

Christ is in our midst.

Most God-loving Elena,

I received your letter and will answer it briefly. I can hardly read your illegible handwriting, it is impossible to decipher it at once.

You are writing, ‘I got into the maelstrom of daily routine and cannot set myself up for the prayer’. It is good to speak in person about prayer, but I am going to write briefly with my own words. The prayer has three names, i.e. oral, noetic and noetic-cordial. The oral prayer is spoken by the tongue aloud, when you are alone; and in silence, when you are in the company of the others. The noetic prayer is said by the mind only. The noetic-cordial prayer is the unity of the mind and the heart; do not strive to it, it is unsuitable to your lifestyle. This kind of prayer needs seclusion, it cannot exist without seclusion and the seclusion also cannot exist without the prayer. It is the seclusion in the full sense of the word that I am talking about, the seclusion with setting aside the cares[1] of this swift-passing temporary life. You have an active life, and, as you have said to me, your attentiveness is in your chest, so be satisfied with that. Do not strive to the high stages, everything is good in its time and in its place. If you enclose you mind in the words of the prayer, then, according to St. John of the Ladder, it is the second stage of the prayer (Step 28, chapter 19).

The Monk, who did not Repudiate a Vision, Became Possessed

“The Great Watch”. From the private diary of Hieroschemamonk Jerome.

Father Ephrem in spiritual delusion

Fr. Ephrem, a native of Don, came to our monastery being already a mature man, and since he in the world had his own ship and was familiar with seamanship, the monastery ship was entrusted to him, where he worked hard for several years. He was an attentive monk who had accepted the image of repentance, he prayed diligently to God for the abandonment of his sins in the world. In this mood of spirit, he accepted imperceptibly a temptation from the enemy to find out, whether God had forgiven him for his sins or not. As a result, he became keen to see any sign of his absolution, but did not feel the need to first consult his spiritual father on this important matter. Having received such a proud and presumptuous compulsion from the enemy, he began to pray hard for it, while the enemy prepared him for acceptance of the delusion by tricking him with such manner.

Other People’s Sins were Revealed to Abba Eulogios

St Ignatius (Brianchaninov). "Paterikon".

A presbyter (hieromonk) Abba Eulogios, while celebrating the Holy Liturgy, was overwhelmed by the Divine Grace so much, that he could see the spiritual condition of anyone who came to him. Often he forbade to some monks who drew near to take the Holy Communion, saying, ‘How dare you draw near the Holy Communion, having unclean thoughts? This night you enjoyed unclean lustful thoughts, thinking, that both an unclean sinner and a pure man can draw near the Grace of Christ’. He also rebuked other people of different sins. ‘Do not take the Holy Communion for a short time,’ he used to say to them, ‘and repent sincerely to have your sins be pardoned and you became worthy of the Communion with God. The man who does not repudiate any communion with sinful thoughts cannot draw near to the Holy Mysteries of God.’

The communion with sinful thoughts means agreeing and enjoying them by one’s own will, but not the involuntary submission to their flood: the second cannot be avoided, but anyone can withstand them.

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