My Grandmother was a Whisperer, and now they've Refused to Hold a Funeral Service for her

Question for a priest.

Archpriest Andrei Efanov

My grandmother died. In life, she was a “whisperer” (sorcerer). The priest didn't hold a funeral service for her and didn't even allow me to buy candles at the church. I go to church, and my children and I attend confession and communion. It pains me greatly that now I can't even submit a commemoration note for her at the church. Are there any prayers that can be read for such people? Is it possible to hold a memorial service?

Answered by Archpriest Andrei Efanov, 2014-06-13

I would distinguish two main types of so-called "whisperers." There are people who cast spells out of superstition. They believe that saying certain words in a certain sequence is enough to trigger a particular desired effect. Often, a person doesn't even intend to appeal to any force, believing that the words themselves have the power. Sometimes even the words of prayer are interpreted as a spell, and people who believe in the magic of words seek "special, powerful prayers" to achieve results. There is even a so-called "prayer of opposition"—a classic spell that, through an oversight, has even found its way into some prayer books. The second type of people who practice spells are classic magicians and sorcerers. These people, to a greater or lesser extent, understand that they are turning to demonic help. Of course, this is a far greater sin than superstition. But a person who foolishly or knowingly practices magic is always outside the Church of Christ. That is why the priest refused to perform the funeral service for your relative. All you can do is pray for her at home with the words of the prayer of St. Leo of Optina: Seek, O Lord, the lost soul of Thy servant (name): if it be possible, have mercy. Thy judgments are unfathomable. Do not account this prayer of mine as a sin, but may Thy holy will be done.

Source 

False Orthodox "Healer" Offered Sodomy

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov). "Orthodox sorcerers" – who are they?"

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov)

What spiritual trouble a person can get into if even for a moment he allows himself to be spiritually careless is told by a young parishioner V.:

"Once, when I was in Orekhovo-Zuevo, I complained to a woman I knew about my passion for the wine drinking, which was bothering me from time to time. 

- You should go to Strunino, to Schemamonk Theodosius," she said, "he's an elder, fool for Christ, he heals with prayer, and predicts the future. 

When she saw that I was hesitant, she added: 

- Have no doubt, both teachers and professors from Moscow go to him - he is such a wonderful clairvoyant elder! 

I did not risk going without the blessing of my spiritual advisor and told him about the Monk Theodore, or simply "Father Theodosius". All he said was, "Be careful," but then something distracted him and there was no time for the discussion. But I was so eager to get to "the elder" and get help as soon as possible, and I lied to my conscience – I convinced myself that my confessor had nevertheless blessed me to go to Strunino. 

However, I met Theodosius for the first time in Orekhovo-Zuevo, when there were a lot of people there. They talked excitedly about his miracles: his mind-reading, and how he stopped a train. One woman didn't listen to him and went without his blessing. "You won't get there," said the elder. And sure enough – there was a broken wire, and the train stopped. "It was HE who broke the wire," the women said. 

A Woman Heals with Prayers

Question to a Priest on the website of the New Jerusalem Monastery.

Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

March 7, 2013

Question: Natalia, Moscow

Hello Father. My question to you is this. I have been able to heal myself and heal my loved ones by reciting prayers. Is it allowed to do this on Great Feast days, on Fasts, and on Sundays?

Answer: Hegumen Daniel

Natalia, that is a bold statement you've made. And what are these "wonder-working prayers" that help you achieve such remarkable results? In fact, there were saints who received the gift of healing from God after a lifetime of rigorous asceticism, sometimes decades, and yet they carefully concealed it because they understood that pride and vanity that might accompany such a gift are the passions that destroy human souls. And let me express my doubt that your "gift," if indeed it is a gift, is the one from God. And so I would strongly advise you not to use it not only on Sundays and holy days, but at all other times. Unless, of course, you prefer to be spiritually damaged...

Source

Woman Thinking that Healing and Biolocation Come from God

Question to a priest.

Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

Question: Anastasia

Hello dear Father,

I have a question that has been bothering me for a very long time: my mother believes that a person can be healed by biolocation, that besides the physical body, a person has other bodies (like the halo of saints, where one can see them), and that if there is a hole in the body, it can be "patched up" and thus heal the person. A book she reads (or rather, has read before) was written by a certain woman who was a mathematician and designed spaceships, she was a Christian, and somehow calculated it all with mathematics, as I have understood it. A pendulum is also used in this system, I don't know if I should call it a science. She used to practice it for a while, then she gave it up (thank God!). The woman who wrote the book left behind her disciples; I think there is even an institute for self-knowledge in Russia that deals with these matters. My mother believes that all this knowledge is given to us by God, and that she thanks Him for His help. I don't know what stimulated her interest, but one day her child (that is me) stopped talking as a result of a strong fright (it happened, as I now reflect at my current age, out of sheer foolishness, to be honest). When she tried everything, and nothing worked, with the help of her friends she found a man who could help her. After a while it helped and the child started talking, but she got hooked on it and became interested. She is a very religious person and believes that all this knowledge only comes from God (we go to church, but not that often, we don't go to confession, but we always ask God's forgiveness and pray and try not to do anything wrong). However, the fact that, for example, when she has inflammation of a gland of her eyelid and immediately takes out a book and reads a "prayer" to "an old man the witch doctor," should be added to this, and also her belief that old women who heal all kinds of diseases are also Christians.

Unwillingness to Lose "Gifts" is a Sign of a False Healer

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov). "Orthodox sorcerers" – who are they?"

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov)

Repentance is extremely frightening to the enemy of mankind, for it deprives him of his power over the human soul. I can recall a sincere conversation with a very experienced healer, who knew a lot of herbs, naturopathic treatment methods, diet, detoxification, and was conscientious and selflessly kind to people. She was unbaptized and could hardly go to church. She could go only when there was no service, because, as she said, those prayers "disturbed" her. 

- Why don't you get baptized, Marina? 

It is surprising that she was not at all mistaken about the source of the power she used in the treatment and diagnosis: 

- Yes, I am aware that my actions, from the perspective of God, are wrongful, that it may have other consequences than we expect in eternity. But I believe that we should live here and now. And to get baptized... One must repent in order to do so. Could it happen that after I am baptized I will lose these powers? I don't want that... 

So we see that the fear of repentance, the unwillingness to lose those wrongful "gifts" drives an outstanding, gifted person to atheism – the denial of God. 

Source

Differences between True and False Healers

Kalashnikova T.P. "True and false healings".

Qualitative characteristics	Russian Orthodox faith healers	False miracle workers
Moral character	Humility, meekness, respecting others before self, fear of God, modesty, truthfulness	Pride, arrogance, vanity, sometimes outward religiosity, guile, affectation, desire to be exalted, to attract, to seduce
Attitudes toward the reward for treatment	Non-acquisitiveness, gratuitousness	Pursuit of profit, gain, wealth, luxury, commerce
Attitude to publicity	Hiding one's gift of miracles and hiding positive results	Promoting successful cases of treatment, seeking publicity, self-glorification, and fame
Methods of treatment	Prayers, anointing sick body parts with holy oil, laying hands; using sacred objects, the sign of the cross, sometimes herbs, and holy water. Gentle calm voice, no violence	Hand manipulations, passes, non-contact massage, staring, incantations, conspiracies, shouting, elements of violence, suppression of other people' will, hypnotism, magnetism, etc.
Positive effect is caused by	divine grace through the faith of the patient and the healer's special divine gift	By natural causes, sometimes by coincidences, through self-hypnosis, faith of the patient, or through forces of a non-divine (demonic, mortal world)
The emergence of the gift of miracles	As a consequence and reward for righteousness, prayerful deeds, fasting, humility, while denying from following one’s own will	Often it is spontaneous just because of a longing for recognition as a miracle worker
The nature of healings	Healings are complete: both physical and spiritual, connected with the revival or strengthening of the healed person's true faith. It is possible to heal from all diseases and even to raise from the dead	Healings are only of an external nature, covering the physical aspect, but spiritually they have a negative impact
Side effects of healing	None	Multiple, mostly of a mental, spiritual kind. However, sometimes they can remain undiscovered for a long time.

https://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/1034-differences-between-true-and-false-healers

Metropolitan Anthony on Prelest

Conversations with Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. "On Prelest".

Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom)

Very often, way too often people talk about prelest and use this word with some mysterious expression on their faces because they found this word in the writings of the Holy Fathers, which they should not be reading yet. I remember a very experienced priest telling me, "Do not let people who have not yet matured in Orthodoxy read "Philokalia,"  because they will think that they already know everything that is described in there in such simple terms. In reality, none of us often has the slightest idea of what is being described there in such simple words." And that takes us to the topic of prelest. People can be charmed by their imagination. They can be deceived. Prelest is derived from the words "flattery, lies." And a deluded man is a man who is imagining something while the real situation is different. That man thinks he knows the secrets of spiritual life, while in reality he only knows something about his emotional life.

There is a wonderful excerpt in Theophan the Recluse’s writings where he doesn’t speak about prelest but rather says that very often we, thanks to prayer, sacraments, deep reflection, and our attempts to live worthy of our Christian calling, start having some unexpected feelings or even corporal experiences – we feel warmth or some light rising in the soul.  And he says: all of that is only emotions and corporal experiences. He even says that if during prayer we see some golden light, we should know that that phenomenon is not divine but is of an emotional and corporal nature. For this reason, we should be very cautious in such matters and should live soberly instead of wondering whether it is prelest or not. In other words, we shouldn’t get intoxicated with our desire to live a spiritual life.

Saint Isaac of Syria says: if you see a novice who begins to ascend from earth to heaven, grab him by his legs and throw him to the ground, because if he rises too high, his fall will be ever more painful.  Thus, we should learn to live simply and soberly. As one priest told me, where there is simplicity, there are a hundred angels, where there is intricacy, there is none. We fall into prelest because we are lost in contemplation of ourselves. When we pray, fast, read, or have a conversation, we direct our attention to ourselves and think, "What am I like, what is happening in me now, what am I like in God’s eyes?" — but we cannot answer those questions ourselves. We can only say, "If what I am experiencing now is from You, oh Lord, strengthen it; if it is not from You, dispel it."

How to Distinguish Whether the Gift Is From God or From the Devil

Question to Archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye in the air of TV channel "Soyuz". April, 2008.

Archbishop Vikenty (Morar')

In the studio: Archbishop Vikenty and Hegumen Dimitry (Baibakov).

- Please tell how to distinguish the gift of God from what gives the sly one?

- First, God's gifts God gives to man for the great labors, feats, renunciation of oneself, from all worldly things, for the feat of humility. The basis of these gifts - humility. Because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble – when there is a virtue of humility and the man no longer is proud of his achievements. When he thinks that they are not his but belong to God, then the Lord gives some gifts: the gift of healing, the gift of insight, the gift of advice, many, many gifts. And, of course, the person who is working on himself and tills the soul, eradicates all the weeds, does not think how to get any gifts. He thinks of salvation, and the Lord Himself gives him. And it often happens that he does not want it and does not see, but people notice it. And he says, 'This is not mine - this is the Lord".

- He runs away from this glory...

- Yes, he runs from this glory. The Lord is merciful, He wants to give a benefit to someone who needs through that person. Now extrasensory individuals believe that they have gifts from God. This way they only believe, and this is actually not the case. They wave their hands, foresee, see, hear, notice something and think that it is from God. They have a candle lit as well, and an icon next to it, "Behold, I am with God's help". There are no such gifts. According to my knowledge of the Holy Fathers, they reached such gifts only with labors.

- And with incredible labors!

- Yes, with incredible labors. Take St. Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov. For example, a man came to St. Sergius, brought a sick baby, and the baby died. And the man in despair and grief threw it to the saint: do what you want. Sergius went and prayed, and the Lord heard his prayer. And he said to the man, "Go home, but do not say anything to anyone while I'm alive". He went with joy that his son was revived and recovered. Of course, it is a great joy. Here the Christ the Savior Himself was saying: "Do not tell anyone what I've done". Here is an example of how the Lord shows us how to receive the gifts and to have them in a contrite, humble heart. But when a person receives the gifts is such simple way...

- And travels on tour between the concert halls...

- Yes, all painted, overdressed. What is his feat, a feat for which he received these gifts? Received for his pride? Yes, received for the pride, not from God but from the Devil. There is no third power: there is Divine one and demonic one.

- Either, or...

- The Divine power can only be obtained through humility, through a great feat, and demonic - safely and easily...
http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/505-how-to-distinguish-whether-the-gift-is-from-god-or-from-the-devil

Healing Ability from the Demons

The Letters of Elder John Krestiankin.

Elder John (Krestiankin) (1910 - 5.2.2006)

Dear in the Lord, A.

And I will tell you categorically that your healing ability comes from the enemy of mankind. He won’t cure anybody or anything but he aims to destroy, to kill. It all starts with good, but many people, who have already passed this first and seemingly good step, come to me daily – and they pay expensively for their ignorance of the spiritual life – because at the second stage the healer and his patient fall into demon possession, and at the final stage they become obsessed with the idea of suicide. And many people execute it now.  And an immortal soul perishes in hell and a body dies.

Listen to me and repent for having touched the forbidden. And, my dear, if you were in the Church, you would have already known that the demons are not to be trifled with. Certainly take the Holy Unction and never get involved with healing – do not inflict misery neither to yourself nor to others.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/341-healing-ability-from-the-demons

Three Sources of Spiritual Gifts

Saint John Cassian. "Conferences".

Conference 15. The second conference of Abbot Nesteros. On Divine gifts.

Chapter 1. Discourse of Abbot Nesteros on the threefold system of gifts.

After evening service we sat down together on the mats as usual ready for the promised narration: and when we had kept silence for some little time out of reverence for the Elder, he anticipated the silence of our respect by such words as these. The previous order of our discourse had brought us to the exposition of the system of spiritual gifts, which we have learnt from the tradition of the Elders is a threefold one. The first indeed is for the sake of healing, when the grace of signs accompanies certain elect and righteous men on account of the merits of their holiness, as it is clear that the apostles and many of the saints wrought signs and wonders in accordance with the authority of the Lord Who says: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." (S. Matt. 10:8). The second when for the edification of the church or on account of the faith of those who bring their sick, or of those who are to be cured, the virtue of health proceeds even from sinners and men unworthy of it. Of whom the Saviour says in the gospel: "Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many mighty works? And then I will confess to them, I never knew you: Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity." (S. Matt. 7:22, 23). And on the other hand, if the faith of those who bring them or of the sick is wanting, it prevents those on whom the gifts of healing are conferred from exercising their powers of healing. On which subject Luke the Evangelist says: "And Jesus could not there do any mighty work because of their unbelief." (S. Mark 6:5, 6). Whence also the Lord Himself says: "Many lepers were in Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian." (S. Luke 4:27). The third method of healing is copied by the deceit and contrivance of devils, that, when a man who is enslaved to evident sins is out of admiration for his miracles regarded as a saint and a servant of God, men may be persuaded to copy his sins and thus an opening being made for cavilling, the sanctity of religion may be brought into disgrace, or else that he, who believes that he possesses the gift of healing, may be puffed up by pride of heart and so fall more grievously. Hence it is that invoking the names of those, who, as they know, have no merits of holiness or any spiritual fruits, they pretend that by their merits they are disturbed and made to flee from the bodies they have possessed. Of which it says in Deuteronomy: "If there rise up in the midst of thee a prophet, or one who says that he has seen a dream, and declare a sign and a wonder, and that which he hath spoken cometh to pass, and he say to thee: Let us go and follow after other gods whom thou knowest not, and let us serve them: thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or of that dreamer, for the Lord thy God is tempting thee that it may appear whether thou lovest Him or not, with all thy heart and with all thy soul." (Deut. 13:1-3). And in the gospel it says: "There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall give great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the elect should be led astray." (S. Matt 24:24).

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/321-three-sources-of-gifts