On Dreams, Imaginations and Drugs – Father Theologos

What is the relationship between dreams, imagination, God and demons? These things, as the Holy Fathers tell us, are very important and can to a large extent influence a person’s spiritual life.

Watch this video to learn more about the topic.

Enjoy!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and now and ever and unto the ages and ages. Amen.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

We talked about the stages of detachment and alienation from the world. A first effect of these facts is the liberation, the relative clearing of the mind, and therefore, if we are not careful, dreams come to us and our imagination develops.

The mind now is like a swimmer escaping the algae that surrounds it. I don’t know if you know, algae is very dangerous for a swimmer because it wraps itself around him and to escape the swimmer has to calm down. Because if they wriggle more, the algae will wrap around them, but if they stay still, then the algae will leave on its own.

So the mind, the moment it separates from the world, must be quiet.

Another image that the mind can be likened to when it separates itself from the world, when it alienates itself, as we talked about in the previous episodes, the mind is like a bird that has finally managed to free itself from the worries of everyday life, from the worries of everyday greyness that held it captive, and rises up to God by itself.

Because you must know that the natural movement of the mind is towards itself and through itself towards God. This is what St. Basil the Great talks about.

The problem at this stage is that we don’t actually know who God is and we are wandering – and – as happens very often – we can absolutize all kinds of idols in our hearts and mainly in our minds. These idols can start from ideas, people and end with things and social positions.

So we don’t really know where we are going and because of that we have all kinds of dreams, all kinds of images, all kinds of misplaced imaginations.

Beyond that, another cause of the appearance of dreams and the high activity of the imagination is that the devils, wanting to turn us back, bring back memories of those with whom we had fun or had a good time away from God and show us how they are now sad and need help from us, crying, all sorts of things.

I remember the case of a very educated man, he had graduated from a very demanding university in Romania – I won’t say which one. And the moment he came to the monastery, he was constantly having, because of the very great demonic energy that this man had, demonic energy acquired from gambling, he was constantly seeing dreams that his house was burning down, that his parents had died in the fire and so on. Do you understand?

Of course things were far from true, but I mean that the devils bring these dreams not only to show us heaven, so to speak, pseudo-heaven, but also to show us hell.

I mean, you have to go back because, oh God, what’s going on. And this of course is true first of all for monks, but beyond that it is also true for people in the world who want to live a higher spiritual life.

Mainly, however, it is not the devils who bring images of hell, (but) it is the devils of vain glory who are prophets in dreams, playing the prophet. Like the cunning beings that they are, they make up what is to come and foretell it to us beforehand. And because these visions come true, because of this we marvel and exalt our thoughts as if we had the gift of foreknowledge.

Now you must know that devils do not have the gift of clairvoyance, but they conclude instead.

If anyone obeys this devil, then they have often considered themselves a prophet, they’ve become a prophet, but to those who despise him he always just lies. Why is what, what happens then? Being a spirit, he sees what is far away, what is beneath air, and knowing that someone is dying or what is happening far away, he preaches through the dreams of the most light-hearted. We must not pay attention to thoughts, we must not pay attention to dreams! Remember that I have said this many times.

And I even know of very concrete cases where someone… it is also said in the Patericon, but I know people who were… I remember one case: he was in the toilet and someone had discovered that the abbot was coming. It doesn’t happen here. Somewhere else it happens and this one comes out and asks the abbot, tells him: Father, bless me! You know, I had a vision in the toilet that you were coming. From whom did I get this vision?” And then the abbot told him: “Well, who’s in the toilet? You had the vision from the one who is in unclean places.” Do you understand?

So it’s not to be trifled with. Don’t think these are theories. But it is true that in the world it is very difficult to discern.

In any case, as I was saying, be careful not to believe your dreams, not to pay attention to your thoughts!

As I said, the devils know nothing of the future, from previous knowledge. That is, they do not have the gift of clairvoyance nor the gift of foresight. The devils deduce.

For example, even doctors can tell us about death before it happens. Because doctors and other specialist deduce that through science. Do you understand?

I tell you this, why? So you don’t get scared. Don’t think the devils know everything. No, no way. They are really trying to make us angry, but no. It’s not about that. That’s why we have to be careful not to talk about things. Let’s not talk about things to boast or do ungodly things because the devils hear us and then they can act.

In the case of confession, you must know, brethren, when we say things and tell our weaknesses, the devil has no right to use this against us, and if we counsel if we are in the will of God, then the benefit is far greater than the possible attack from the enemy. And if God blesses, the devil does not attack, that is, he has no right. Do you understand?

That’s what I’m saying, don’t ever give up counseling with those whom God validates before us because then we will indeed fall prey to dreams and thoughts and be smitten mercilessly, without mercy. Because the devils make terrible use of our inexperience.

They often pretend to be angels of light and the faces of the disciples and saints and show us those coming to us, in dreams and visions, yes. And when we wake up, we sink into pride and joy – a kind of dark and very dangerous enthusiasm. Very dangerous! That’s what happens today in spiritualism, in yoga, in all these Eastern things, and of course in the syncretism between Eastern religions and Protestantism and other heresies.

You should know – the moment a thought or especially a vision comes to us and promises us greatness, great success, that we have hit the jackpot and so on and we have that eye-watering excitement – that yes, we have succeeded – know for sure that the thought, the vision is preparing shame for us, brothers. This is dogma!

So you see any thought that promises you greatness, prepares shame for you. I didn’t say that, Avva Mark said it and take it as dogma as if from the Ecumenical Council.

That’s why you should never, ever, ever get one such thought!

This dark and superficial enthusiasm should be a sign of deception. Angels – that is, true angels, for even devils are angels, but fallen angels – true angels show us damnation, judgment, the thought of death, and once they awaken us they make us tremble and grieve. But with redemptive sorrow, yes! An awakening, attention that generates humility, diligence and especially a tacit joy in our humility of course, for our salvation. Those are very different things.

Brethren, when we begin to believe in the dreams from devils, you must know that they’re mocking us even when we are awake. He who believes in dreams is totally inexperienced. And he who believes in neither this nor that, that is, in nothing, is a philosopher. If we still want to believe, it is better not to believe, but if we still want to believe, it is better to believe those who proclaim, as I said, judgment, death, eternal damnation, the possibility of hell – God forbid! Do you understand? But if these cause us to despair, then these too are from the enemy.

This dream thing, be careful! Pay no attention!

On the other hand, imaginative power comes from the fact that man is the image of God and therefore a creator – like God – but of course man is a relative, limited creator whereas God is an absolute Creator. God does absolutely anything at the moment he wills, so God only wills and does. As it says in the Genesis: let there be light! And there was light.

Whereas man imagines in order to create, designs in order to create, to improve and improve himself.

Man has this imaginative power planted in his soul by God, but his imagination works distorted after Adam’s fall and because of this imagination is the gate through which the devils enter.

That’s why this is very important and pay great attention to imagination!

As I said at the beginning, one of the main problems here with the imagination is also that we don’t actually know who God is and so we have a wrong view of God, of reality – and this is exploited by the enemy.

For this reason, the Holy Fathers recommend not to imagine anything during prayer, but to close our minds in its words. All the Holy Fathers, St. John of the Ladder, St. Simeon the New Theologian and so on speak at length about this. So all the Holy Fathers speak about the guarding of the mind.

To be very honest, you must know, brethren, that we should not imagine anything all our life – that is, we must have that simple, immediate and total knowledge, that is, by revelation from God, but this is very difficult to achieve at the measures we all are at. Do you understand?

The way there – to this contemplation in the super-luminous cloud of the surpassing of all thoughts passes through three kinds of prayer. Prayer is the way and it has three steps.

The first two are deceitful, only the third is “the begetter light,” as St. Simeon (the New Theologian) says.

The first kind of prayer, the first step is indeed accompanied by the work of the imagination. It is sullied by the work of the imagination. The one who prays raises his hands, his eyes, kneels down, his mind to heaven and begins to imagine with his mind the divine things, the heavenly goods, the angelic hosts, the places of the saints, in short, all that he has heard from the Holy Scriptures he gathers in his mind, while he prays, moving his soul through them towards the love of God, sometimes even shedding tears. If God has mercy on him.

Well, we are now talking about the good case because, as I was saying, this first step in which imagination is used, and because imagination is the gate of devils, man should imagine the divine, but very often, his mind spreads and he imagines the wrong things. So all kinds of passions, starting from everyday things and ending with, God forbid, all kinds of bodily things and so on. Do you understand?

But let’s say that he overcomes this dispersal of the mind and prayer is no longer stolen and yet he begins to imagine the divine: Christ on the cross and so on. Eh, that’s a little better than the dispersal of the mind but in this case he starts to take pride without realizing it and counts this state as a grace from God. Eh…well, what shall we say?!…

Sometimes this kind of prayer is also accompanied by alleged extraordinary phenomena, such as luminous visions, sensations of scents, unreal voices. All these are signs of a wandering that can drive a man to madness. That’s what we have to confess and what our spiritual father says, that’s what we do! As we have not yet acquired piety and virtues.

And of course, the standard response from the spiritual father is generally, don’t pay attention to these things! How God wills and has mercy on man. Why? Because man in this state of prayer with images, with imagination is among the beginners.

In the second kind of prayer, the mind, having turned away from sensible things and sensations coming from without, now concentrates on the words of prayer, after which it examines the thoughts that are surging in the soul, seeking to cast them out.

On the one hand it focuses on prayer and on the other hand it is like a steel, like a spring that strikes and knocks out the thoughts that come. Do you understand?

This struggle, however, does not let the man calm down and work his virtue. The great danger that besets one who is at this stage of prayer is vain glory, which makes him despise others who still pray with images, with parasites of the imagination.

This stage is much more advanced than the first – it is a stage of spiritual maturity, the stage of struggle.

The third kind of prayer begins with obedience, brethren, we must listen, be obedient to our spiritual leader!

And it consists – this third stage, when man is on this spiritual level – (in that) in the time of prayer the mind guards the heart and from its depths raises its prayers to the Lord. Do you understand? Already there is silence, there is hesychasm. It is the prayer of the spiritual man. This is where true prayer is, and this is only possible if the soul has reached a more or less perfect impassioned state, having cast off all affections, all love for the world, all the impassioned-ness – the alienation we spoke of in the previous episodes. Do you understand?

And by obedience to the spiritual father they were taught not to do their own will, but mortified all their passion for the world and for their own will, for any interest. Thus, his mind can no longer be lured by the devil, can no longer be lured by any trap, by any will, by any trickery towards different thoughts, because man is not passionate, he has no interest and then his mind remains free from everything, being able to easily chase away any thought that comes to him, to pray with a pure heart.

This is in fact, brethren, the long-lasting beginning of perfect prayer, of prayer without imagination, without thoughts, without anything, of contemplative prayer as it is called.

Thus, the sinful imagination disappears, as I was saying, and what remains, in fact, is the imaginative faculty enlightened by God, which is something else, the faculty, the possibility of conceiving, the conceptual capacity, and the imagination as a parasite of Adam’s fall is something else.

And the moment man prays in this way, then this imaginative faculty is enlightened by God and then this conceptual, creative capacity of man is cured of parasites and man really can do God’s will and only God’s will.

This can be seen, for example, very well in the artistic creations of the Saints in icons, music, texts, mass canons, verses. The hymn of the Annunciation for example, how beautiful it is! It is a proof of the fearlessness of an author, we don’t know who it is, some say it is St. Roman Melodist who indeed, that author reached a very great enlightenment from God. Do you understand?

And so he did not write this out of imagination, but out of his conceptual capacity, enlightened by God’s grace.

Of course, unfortunately, in today’s society, imagination in the distorted sense is exacerbated, it is used to the full in almost every aspect of everyday life. Do you understand?

If God disappears, everything is possible, as Dostoevsky says, and then the imagination spills its bubbling, dizzying spiral over the mind’s eye. People end up stimulating their imagination in a variety of ways, including drugs.

In fact, one of the main reasons why people use a certain category of drugs – or rather, most drugs, mainly hallucinogens, never mind – is precisely these trips, these outings into the realm of the imagination. They do this to escape the pressures, the stress, the grey life of sin they have ended up in, or simply to have an experience they consider more intense than reality.

But there’s a very big problem here. Why? Because imagination with a high dose of pleasure and therefore sin, caused by various forms of drugs, that is chemical drugs, natural drugs, pornography which is a form of drug, certain types of computer games which are also a form of drug and of course virtual reality, extreme art forms – think extreme movies, extreme music and so on.

All these imaginations with a large dose of pleasure destroy man’s mind and break him from the reality in which he must be saved. And here we have here some inversions of reality that are very dangerous for man’s balance – existential and mental balance, for his future here on earth, in society and in eternity.

It’s serious because – yes, ok, we don’t have the mind guard at the level of the Holy Fathers but, nevertheless, we have a rudimentary mind guard, so to speak, we still have – a self-control. They, through these imaginations, destroy even this self-control – as much as it is – and man becomes a slave. You see the young man focusing somewhere, looking at you like an open window, focusing behind you. Do you understand? He doesn’t even know what kind of world he lives in. Do you understand? God forbid!

Of course, perfection is that man should have no thoughts – that the mind should be still in loving contemplation, like a simple, single, unitary open window to the Simple, One, Unitary God.

Below that is simple, unimaginative thinking.

The moment imagination appears, images appear, we have a problem. Already, as the Holy Fathers say, the problem is beginning to stink, and this is the Greek term and it is very good because it is already beginning to smell that something’s not good there.

Why? Because the moment the imagination appears, the simple and boundless mind is molded, confined within the very narrow frames of that image. Of course, we’re not talking about visions right now because we’re not at these measures.

But the moment I compose myself, the problem grows. What does composing oneself mean? I mean I put my selfishness: ah, I want this too, it suits me, I want. Well, then there’s a problem… God forbid!

It’s true that in the world, for people in the world, for you, the two things – that is, imagination and composition, composed thought – happen almost simultaneously. And for me, of course, being a sinner.

Unfortunately, why am I talking so much about images and imagination? Because today’s people, par excellence, are people of the image, of the imagination, and if you are unimaginative you are considered second-rate.

I should know very well that I wouldn’t want to make pictures, podcasts, but people today can’t read anymore. We live in an age of neo-illiteracy which stems from a lack of human ability to focus on writing. Normally one can concentrate on the written or conceptual, but unfortunately, today we can’t. Why? Because being a normal, ordinary human being today is considered a lower rung. Do you understand?

It’s an understandable thing… Do we understand why? Because today people have forgotten eternity, the world beyond, spirituality, spirituality, and consider this world and the glory of this world the ultimate reality.

And so, people – especially young people – are under a lot of pressure from the image civilization to imagine all sorts of things, stories, worlds that have very little connection with reality, if any – of course.

So we are witnessing a disintegration of the human mind by a lot of more or less conscious forces that press us to compose almost continuously, to be “new” continuously, to bring something new, to imagine something new, to be different by our imagination at any cost. That’s to be fashionable, if you will, to be in the games.

Eh, this disintegration of the mind is also accentuated by the massively parallel nature of image streams. Think of all this data coming from a lot of parts, and so the imagination that we are subjected to, the images that generate the imagination that we are subjected to, are enormous, and so man drowns his mind in the ocean of meaningless data. Meaningless, in fact!

I don’t say information because information is data with meaning, with human meaning, and the meaning cannot be other than our salvation. Do you understand?

Let’s not be desperate to find meaning in the data clutter that drowns us. It’s 1%, if that.

Beyond that, the massively parallel nature I mentioned also kills the human effectiveness that is lost in the switching time between streams. Now I have to look at that one, then that one, and so on.

The destructive effects of this switching continue beyond the loss of time: it also destroys the mind and gives man a false sense of happiness, because of continuous bursts of excitement – of dopamine, it is the best known – because of the pleasure caused by these imaginations, these fantasies.

Yes, but these tire the mind, they tire the mind enormously.

The way is wrong, brethren, and so we must have the resoluteness to say stop to the pressure exerted by the enemy. Either directly through different stimuli, through thoughts and imagination and images that say see this, see that, this is important, pay attention to this, this is so. Either through various influencers, media, society that influence us, pressure us to have this behavior.

Brethren, all wars have been fought and all history revolves around the enslavement of the human mind. You know, that’s what it’s all for.

Let us remember that the true value of man comes from his humility, from the normality of his love that shines in the small and beautiful gestures of everyday life and not in the glitter of an imagination at any price. Let us be normal brethren, let us be loving, humble!

We remember the dramas experienced by artists who sought the new at all costs, destroying their thinking and hence their lives.

Today the Church is not only the way to holiness, as all the Holy Fathers say, but also the way to remain in normality. So Orthodoxy, brethren, is the only way that keeps us sane! Do you understand?

We don’t need imagination to make movies in our heads, to imagine a pseudo-heaven because we, with God’s help, can live heaven, partially, but real in our hearts. The Lord said: The kingdom of heaven is within you. And this can still be experienced from here on earth. For us reality beats film, beats imagination.

But we must have the courage to fight, not to be a slave to dreams and imaginations, and then our spiritual dreams in God will be fulfilled with the Lord’s help.

So help us God!

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen!

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