Imp is a real entity
Demons contain in themselves (unlike people) only a psychic shadow (it is hostile to all living things) - a reasonable, to a varying degree conscious shadow - will, their own strategy of behavior, motives and a single, common plan (action). They are not able to approach the Light of Love even theoretically, potentially, because their structure is devoid of it absolutely without the possibility of establishing any connections with It. Nevertheless, demons are conscious, but …
Demons, as strange or paradoxical as it may sound, represent an existence outside of being. What does this mean? They exist because they have "consciousness" (local "chiaroscuro"), but do not have a biological body. And from a spiritual, esoteric point of view, "to live", "to be", as well as the ability to act on others - means, first of all, the presence in any kind of consciousness. And demons do not exist … because they are completely devoid of the Light of Love - the only real indicator of Life!
The demon does not have his own flesh, his own organism, and at the same time he uses other people's bodies, exhausting them …
“We cannot see demons as we see our body, but they see us. When godly thoughts enter our souls (and we accept them), then through this they seem to enter into us and become visible in our body”(St. Anthony the Great).
Imp is an energetic predator or vampire that parasitizes in the body of other creatures. Demons continuously take away their vitality from people, provoking, causing certain negative states in them, and the corresponding mental secretions are concentrated and absorbed …
In a sense, humanity is driven by demons, because it would seem that even all bright motives (not to mention everything negative) are rooted in the Ego (pride, vanity, self-interest, self-affirmation) …
The demon is a real entity, but for the most part he acts covertly, secretly and carefully. Demons are invisible, but they can be "visible"!
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Moreover - they are able to develop - any shadow (consciousness) is eventually capable of "thickening" and condensing, accumulating and increasing its strength. And for some time, demons have become independent, autonomous energy structures. And although they are constantly in search of additional sources of power for the purpose of "their own" use, they have one powerful Master - the World, global Shadow, planetary Mind, "Prince of Darkness", whose tasks and plans they fulfill …
The prefix "demon" (or "without") is a negation - the energetic nature of demons deliberately rejects good, light, creation, life in all forms (for example, "heartless", "lifeless" …). The common Slavic word "demon" is primordially related to the Lithuanian baisus - "terrible", and ultimately goes back to the Indo-European bhoi-dho-s - "causing fear, horror". And St. Dimitri Rostovsky defines these negative entities as follows:
"The word" demon "is a translation of the Greek word demon, devil. In the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, demon usually means an evil spirit or the devil. Demons, although they believe and tremble, and recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God, are the servant of Satan. People who have fallen under the power demons are called demon-possessed, suffering from unclean spirits (Matthew 4:24; Luke 6:18) Healing of the demon-possessed, in relation to demons, is called exile (Matthew 8:16), and in relation to the suffering themselves is called healing …"
In general, demons should be understood as ANY local or fixed (stable) chiaroscuro of consciousness that affects a person in a certain negative aspect and direction. Locality, minimally accumulated and stably stored negative psi-charge, constantly (often) requiring "recharging" - this is the difference between demons and the world's omnipresent energy of destruction.
Let's turn directly to the Orthodox Christian texts and descriptions, which set forth the innermost spiritual experience of the elders, the holy knowledge of demons …
Spiritual Light reveals to its adepts a behind-the-scenes game, so to speak, “directing” the acting primary invisible world gradually. This is how it happened with St. Macarius (Alexandrian):
“And Macarius went to church … And then he saw how, all over the church, jumping and flying from one place to another as if on wings from one place to another, some exactly undersized - Ethiopians, ugly in appearance. There was such an order in the assembly: one reads the psalms, the others sit and listen … The Ethiopians scattered around the church, jumping up to everyone, seemed to be flirting: to whom they would cover their eyes with two fingers, and he began to doze; another will put a finger in his mouth, and he is already yawning …
The reading of the psalms was over, and the brethren were thrown down to prayer; here the image of a woman flashes in front of one, a view of the building in front of another, in front of everyone in general - one thing or another … And as soon as the evil spirits present something, like actors in the theater, this enters the heart of the praying person and generates thoughts … But it also happened this: here the evil spirits ran up to the praying person with some kind of deceit, - suddenly they jump away headlong, as if being driven by some force … But to others, weaker ones, they jumped on their necks, on their backs: apparently, they were inattentively praying …
The prayer ended, and Macarius wished to be convinced of the truth of the visions. Calling each of the brethren separately, over whom evil spirits mocked in different forms and images, he asked them if they had thought during prayer about this, about this, according to demonic suggestions, and each confessed what Macarius had accused him of …"
And here is how, for example, an everyday and very ordinary situation can be connected with demons …
“After a very long time, Saint Vassian (Bishop of Lodia) had a chance to go to Mediolan on church affairs. When entering the city, he saw a weigher on the square, who was hanging various goods on the scales. This weigher was unjust, he deceived many and by this he tried to get himself a profit. The saint saw a demon on the scales in the form of a little Ethiopian, pulling the scales, which was used by the unjust weigher.
The saint asked those who were with him: “Do you see something strange?” They answered him that they did not see anything special. Then the saint prayed that the eyes of others, too, would open their eyes for reliable testimony, too, what he had seen. the spiritual eyes of Presbyter Clement and Deacon Elvonius were opened: they saw the same thing that the Bishop of God saw, namely, a little Ethiopian sitting on the scales and carrying out the orders of the weigher …
The saint called the weigher and asked him:
- By what unrighteous measure do you increase weight and deceive merchants?
“I’m not doing anything wrong,” the weigher answered, and by an oath he confirmed that his weight was correct.
Then the saint showed him the hellish Ethiopian on the scales and said:
“This Ethiopian will immediately enter you, crush your body and pluck your soul out of you with terrible torment.
The unjust weigher trembled with fear and, falling at the saint's feet with repentance, promised to lag behind the untruth. The saint admonished him from the Holy Scripture and commanded him to give everything that he had acquired by falsehood to the poor. After that, by holy prayer, he drove away the demon from the scales and set off on his own journey "(" Lives of the Saints "by St. Dim. Rostov).
But you and I often visit markets and shops and often deal with dishonest sellers. Yes, something like that, but demons are more diverse and act in their "daily" mode. The demon is a person, individuality. And if in the first (church) story it was said about people with clearly spiritual aspirations (towards the knowledge of God), then imagine how actively and versatile, but again imperceptibly, demons influence “ordinary” people!
In the secret influence of demons on a person, all their strength and all their deceit are hidden - and without revealing the true cause of our problems, the problems themselves cannot be eliminated. In fact, roughly speaking, the human personality is controlled and guided by many demons in every possible way. In other words, a person is a puppet, the strings of which are pulled by these entities. In part, communication between people is nothing more than an explanation of the relationship between their negative subpersonalities, that is, demons.
And this is when people naively believe that they always “on their own” deliberately build their connections with others - show passivity or initiative at will. Yes, to a certain extent, human contacts are games organized by subconscious (shadow) structures. And in this sense, such a situation is generally guessed and originally described by the famous American psychologist and psychotherapist Eric Berne in his "transactional analysis" and the theory of "People's Game"
But it often happens that communication between people does not depend on a person at all! This is how it was revealed to Christian mystics, and many times: “Saint Niphon (Bishop of Cyprus) was also seen how demons walk among the people and tempt people, inspiring them with condemnation, slander, quarrels and various sorrows. Once he saw a man at work, and then a demon came to him and began to whisper in his ear, another man worked nearby, a demon came and whispered in his ear, then they, leaving work, began to quarrel. The blessed one, getting up, said: - O demonic temptation! How you sow enmity between people! " ("Lives of the Saints" by St. Dim. Rostov.)
But in reality, have you ever paid attention, for example, to such cases? Here you are, moving along a quiet, courtyard street, you are in a good, calm mood. But when you go out on a crowded avenue and plunge into the crowd (into the collective consciousness!), You suddenly begin to feel some external negative impulses and easily penetrate, "become infected" with the corresponding atmosphere. You suddenly become fussy, nervous and restless yourself, and for no reason at all you get angry at a person who is hurrying nearby and accidentally, who did not hurt you much. Now, hopefully, you should know "whose" influence you are under.
In another (instructive) episode, we learn about such extremes:
“In one monk the demons settled such anger towards the Monk Athanasius of Athos that he did not even want to look at him, and because of the action of demons, anger grew in him so much that he even attempted murder. Having prepared and sharpened his sword, he looked for a suitable opportunity to kill the reverend father. One night, when everyone was asleep, and the monk was in his cell in vigil at prayer, the murderer approached the cell of the saint, under the pretext that he had a very necessary word for him; at the same time he held a naked sword at hand; he knocked fearlessly on the door, saying:
- Bless, father!
The reverend father asked from the cell:
- Who are you?
And he opened the door a little.
The killer, frightened by the fatherly voice, fell to the ground with trembling. God, guarding His faithful servant, struck the murderer with a sudden horror: his hands weakened, the sword fell to the ground, and he himself lay at his father's feet stretched out on the ground like a dead man”(“Lives of the Saints”by St. Dim. Rostov).
In the above example, a reader who does not know anything (about spiritual phenomena) may discern artistic exaggeration, but there is no hyperbole in it. The fact is that in the case of spiritual ascetics (especially hermits), the problems of demonic misfortune are aggravated tens and hundreds of times. Well, if you and I take our "everyday", everyday life - have you at least once experienced inexplicable, spontaneous hatred (at least a strong antipathy) towards some person who has not done anything wrong for you personally, or, in general, whom you see for the first time? Happened?
From time to time I began to observe my "first" demons in other people. I remember … - and I in no way compare myself with the saints, we are only talking about the effects of my, at that time, prayer practice - I remember … Once I was talking on the street with my old friend. At first the conversation went smoothly, kindly. However, then suddenly … the woman's gaze became dull, thoughtless, her eyes were glassy, - and for no apparent reason she began to let go of taunts at me, reaching down to direct insults. At this time (naturally, in my subjective experience-perception) a small figure appeared on her shoulder - a hairy, gray and angry "midget" with a head similar to a rat, he bared his sharp teeth in my direction and at the same time venomously whispered exactly what my friend was saying …
Yes, people are completely unaware of "who" surrounds them and "who" takes care of them. That is why in Orthodox mysticism there is a separate knowledge - and we represent it - as a holistic teaching about the spirits of evil or demons.
Spiritual development (as well as self-knowledge) is a "purification", liberation from any negative structures acting on a person - the enlightenment of one's own psycho-energetic darkness. And you should not indulge yourself with the illusion that you are free from demons. According to some "arithmetic mean" data, there are several hundred of them in each person. Another thing is that they may not be so developed or active, and when they are developed or even overdeveloped, then, as a rule, one should talk about a pronounced mental or physical illness, at least about passion, vice …
T. Smirnov