In the brief year since this book was printed it has become something of a “best-seller” among Orthodox books; if one includes the original articles in The Orthodox Word from which it was compiled, there will now be close to 5,000 copies in circulation—something rather rare for a serious and uncompromising Orthodox book in the English language. It would seem that, despite the almost universal apostasy of our times, there are still many who are striving to understand and remain in genuine Orthodoxy.
In this year the “religious” phenomena described in this book have become much more widespread. The “Dialogue” of the World Council of Churches with non-Christian religions and with anti-religious Communism (as manifested at the 1975 World Assembly of the WCC in Nairobi, Kenya) has encountered so little opposition that it no longer needs to apologize for itself; the age of spiritual “detente” has arrived, in which, it would seem, no one any longer presumes to think that he possesses the truth, much less wishes to preach it to others. Likewise, the activity of the “Temple of Understanding” [1]steadily expands and finds a welcome audience among the political and religious leaders of humanity, as attested by its activities in New York City in connection with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in the spring of 1975.
In such a spiritually “neutralized” world, the various forms of “meditation” described in this book—and many other new ones—have become the “latest rage,” especially in America, where its various cults receive nationwide publicity. A recent article in U.S. News and World Report[2] describes them as “consciousness cults” and says of them: “Few of the mind-therapy groups espouse religious views. They have a wide middle-class, even middle-aged, following among lawyers, doctors, teachers and other ’establishment’ types.” Among these cults may be mentioned the “Erhard Seminars Training” established in 1971, “Rolfing, ” “Silva Mind Control, ” and various forms of “encounter” and “biofeedback, ” all of which offer a “release of tensions” and a “tapping of the hidden capabilities” of man, expressed in a more or less plausible “scientific” jargon. By far the fastest-growing of these cults is “Transcendental Meditation” [3], which now claims 600,000 followers in America and is being widely used in the Army, public schools, prisons, hospitals, and by church groups, including parishes of the Greek Archdiocese. In a word, what is described in this book as a demonic initiation experience is now being accepted as a normal and harmless part of ordinary American life, as simply a form of “mental therapy. ” Can we still be so bold as to say that this experience is demonic?
It is most important for Orthodox Christians to be precisely aware of what demonic experience is. It is by no means necessarily something black and overtly satanic; it is often something apparently light, attractive, and found in conjunction with some of the best qualities of human nature. All the gods of the pagans are demons[4]—but this does not mean that all the pagan religions are degenerate and bloody (although some of them, indeed, are). Some of the pagan religions are comparatively light and noble and are capable of inspiring a relatively moral and refined life, but the power of the prince of this world, the devil, is such that he makes all the pagans his children, destined for hell—unless they find the grace of God, which alone can save them from perdition. The Church of Christ saves men from the world—not merely from the dark, overtly evil side of the world, but even from its highest qualities and aspirations. All merely human devices are powerless to effect our salvation. Not logic, not good intentions, not a tenderly-loving heart—can save one if he find not the grace of God which lifts one above this world.
The demonic religion described in this book is a striving of the human mind and soul deprived of the grace of God; all its good qualities—and who will deny that it has them?—only serve to entice men into a religious experience that cannot save their souls, and by its apparent success prevents them from finding the true path to salvation.
Over a century ago Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov recorded with awe and foreboding the vision of a simple Russian blacksmith in a village near Petersburg at the dawn of our present age of revolution (1817). In the middle of the day he suddenly saw a multitude of demons in human form, sitting in the branches of the forest trees, in strange garments and pointed caps, and singing, to the accompaniment of unbelievably weird musical instruments, an eerie and frightful song: “Our years have come, our will be done!” [5]
We live near the end of this fearful age of demonic triumph and rejoicing when, as our recent Fathers have warned us, grace itself will seem to be departing from the earth. The religion of the devil, the religion of Antichrist takes possession of men’s souls in direct proportion to the departure of grace; it is the participation of apostate humanity in the general rejoicing of the demons at the end of time to see the virtual disappearance of true Orthodoxy from the face of the earth.
Orthodox Christians! Hold fast to the grace which you have; never let it become a matter of habit; never measure it by merely human standards or expect it to be logical or comprehensible to those who understand nothing higher than what is human or who think to obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit in some other way than that which the one Church of Christ has handed down to us. True Orthodoxy by its very nature must seem totally out of place in these demonic times, a dwindling minority of the despised and ‘foolish,’ in the midst of a religious ‘revival’ inspired by another kind of spirit. But let us take comfort from the certain words of our Lord Jesus Christ: Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom [6].
[1] see above, pp. 5, 34
[2] Feb. 16, 1976, p. 40
[3] see above, p. 85
[4] Ps. 95 5
[5] S. Nilus, Svyatynya pod Spudom, Sergiev Posad, 1911, p. 122 – Сергей Нилус, Святыня под Спудом, Сергиев Посад
[6] Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Luke 12 27-36
by Saint Seraphim of Platina [†1982]
The Orthodox Word, 1976, V12, no. 3 (68) May-June, pp 78–80
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