International conference on Church Care for Mentally Ill People

Below are papers read at the International conference "Church care for mentally ill people: religious mystical experience and mental health"
November 7-8, 2019, Moscow (continuation)

The virtue of discernment and mystical experience

Archpriest Pavel Velikanov

The question of distinguishing genuine spiritual experience from what seems to be the one is the most difficult in theology. Diacrisis, or the virtue of discernment, is essential in spiritual work, according to many Holy Fathers and ascetics, because otherwise it is easy to fall into self-deception and take a deceptive state that only seems to be spiritual, for the true one. "Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God" (1 Jh 4:1), writes St John the Theologian. "Discernment (discretionem) is the source and root of all virtues", St John Cassian the Roman elaborates on the Apostle's thought¹.

The epistles of Apostle Paul mention this virtue as a gift of the Holy Spirit. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle refers to the gift of discerning spirits (διακρίσεις πνευμάτων) (1 Cor 12:10). In his epistle to the Hebrews, St Paul speaks of the "perfect", who "have their senses exercised to discern (διάκρισιν) both good and evil" (Heb 5:13-14, KJV).

Abba Isaiah of Scetis Ascetic Discourse speaks of the three most important virtues of mind: reasoning (the ability to discern one from another), anticipation of everything in advance, and disagreement with anything alien. In interpreting these words, Archimandrite Emilian (Wafidis) writes, "A man who has no reasoning always throws himself into temptations in which neither God nor himself can help himself. Lack of discernment leads to disappointment and fatigue"².

What is the virtue of discernment according to the Holy Fathers? Let us make note of some of the most important aspects.

1. Discernment is not at a prove of high IQ, education, or intelligence, however strange this may sound. Above all, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit that not everyone possesses. For example, St. Anthony the Great received this gift after 35 years of ascetic feats. "It is extremely important for everyone who is a soldier in this spiritual warfare to seek the gift of discernment from God", writes Evagrius Ponticus³.

2. According to the Holy Fathers, the gift of discernment is not attached to issues requiring worldly wisdom, but rather to complex and ambiguous phenomena of spiritual life, such as the distinction of spirits that affect man. The main problem is that demons, like Satan himself, take the form of angels of light in order to seduce (2 Cor 11:14). Note that light is a traditional symbol not only of the nature of God's angels, but also of God Himself. "I am the Light of the world", says Christ the Saviour about Himself (Jh 8:12). Thus, demons are very insidious and skilful in implanting something evil in the soul under the guise of good ("light"). The devil always wraps his destructive message into a harmless package, meaning for the greater good. The gift of discernment means that he who possesses it can separate a truly good thought from just what seems to be good without opening the wrapper. For this reason, an analytical reflection on the package itself seems meaningless, if not dangerous and very harmful, from the viewpoint of the Fathers, especially for the beginners: studying what is depicted or written on the package does not help to understand what is disguised underneath - something it states or the opposite. Evagrius writes that demons "disguise themselves in the images of feelings and memories to mislead the soul rushing to experience Christ"⁴.

3. Being a gift, the ability to discern spirits is not something supernatural for man, but it is inherent to his nature and was given to him at the moment of creation. Availability of this faculty (gift) made our ancestors responsible for breaking the commandment. This is an important point: even before they tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve had been able to distinguish the truth from a make-believe - otherwise they would not have been free sinners, but helpless victims of the devil's manipulation with a predetermined result.

In his Perelandra, C.S. Lewis describes with sophistication how this extra-rational distinction, diacrisis between the proper and improper could have happened. Mr Ransom, the protagonist of the phantasmagory, found himself on a planet where everything was in the paradisiac sinless state, and got very tired and hungry at some. "Now he had come to a part of the wood where great globes of yellow fruit hung from the trees-clustered as toy-balloons are clustered on the back of the balloon-man and about the same size. He picked one of them and turned it over and over. The rind was smooth and firm and seemed impossible to tear open. Then by accident one of his fingers punctured it and went through into coldness. After a moment's hesitation he put the, little aperture to his lips. He had meant to extract the smallest, experimental sip, but the first taste put his caution all to flight. It was, of course, a taste, just as his thirst and hunger had been thirst and hunger. But then it was so different from every other taste that it seemed mere pedantry to call it a taste at all. It was like the discovery of a totally new genus of pleasures: something unheard of among men, out of all reckoning, beyond all covenant. For one draught of this on Earth wars would be fought and nations betrayed…. As he let the empty gourd fall from his hand and was about to pluck a second one, it came into his head that he was now neither hungry nor thirsty. And yet to repeat a pleasure so intense and almost so spiritual seemed an obvious thing to do. His reason, or what we commonly take to be reason in our own world, was all in favour of tasting this miracle again; the child-like innocence of fruit... Yet something seemed opposed to this "reason". It is difficult to suppose that this opposition came from desire, for what desire would turn from so much deliciousness? But for whatever cause, it appeared to him better not to taste again. Perhaps the experience had been so complete that repetition would be a vulgarity-like asking to hear the same symphony twice in a day. As he stood pondering over this and wondering how often in his life on Earth, he had reiterated pleasures not through desire, but in the teeth of desire and in obedience to a spurious rationalism…"⁵. Here Lewis uses the artistic form to show how diacrisis strongly differs from rightmindedness or rationality - it is deeper, more primary and holistic than actions of a formal intellect.

This faculty of pre-conscious discernment has weakened considerably because of the Fall, disintegration of the powers of the soul and dominance of sin; however, it can be restored through the feats of internal doing and prayer.

4. Discernment is capable of penetrating, "seeing", into the very essence of an event or phenomenon and, thus, recognizing the disguised slyness of demons. St. Anthony the Great, following Erm's and Origen's tradition, says that different spirits undertake different actions in the soul, and through this you can recognise them: the state, the soul rushes in, can quite accurately indicate what the "wrap" hides. St. Antony "sets the golden rule for this distinction: good suggestions create "unspeakable joy in the soul, good mood, courage, inner renewal, firmness in thought, strength and love to God", while the others, on the contrary, bring "spiritual fear, confusion and disorder in thought, sadness, hatred for ascetics, despondency, depression, memory of relatives, fear of death and finally evil desires, cowardice in virtue and lack of order in habits". Angels inspire κατάστασις ("peace, tranquillity") in the soul, while demons bring ακαταστασία ("confusion, excitement"). "Thus, we can say that angelic inspiration is "congenial (to the soul)", "secondo natura", while demonic inspiration disturbs the good natural order"⁶. At the same time, it should be noted that this "good natural order" opens up in its entirety only in dispassion, which was the central concept of the entire ascetic system for Evagrius Ponticus. In the state of dispassion (ἀπάθεια) - which also has its own dynamics, from imperfect to complete victory over all demons⁷ - the ascetic "easily recognizes (ἐπιγνώσεται) the schemes of enemies"⁸. The intensions of the soul return from the state of passionate domination to their original places determined by the God-created nature - the "haze of passions" that has clouded the "eyes of the soul" disappears - and then the ability to discern reveals itself.

"If I find - writes Gerhard Tersteegen - that man lives in humble and unexalted godliness, that his feelings and thoughts, soul and spirit are calm and peaceful; that conversation with him is edifying; that, having experienced unusual spiritual phenomena, he becomes even more pious and humble; that he does not aspire to high spiritual states, does not boast of them, but abides not yearning for them in fear of God; that he remains faithful to God until his blissful death; that the contents of his revelations, visions, etc. accord with the Holy Scriptures, or at least does not contradict them in the slightest (Gal 1:8), but serves to glorify God and brings others to Him; and, above all this, that his prophecies could not have been obtained by natural means, but come true upon their delivery - if, I say, such signs are found in the man and in his extraordinary spiritual gifts, then I will be guilty of great impudence and unforgivable ingratitude towards God, rejecting such testimonies of God's grace, and paying no heed to them, instead of accepting them with appropriate reverence"⁹.

5. St Gregory the Theologian and St Basil the Great correlate the virtue of continence with discernment. "Continence in everything is perfection (Πάντων μέτρον ἄριστον) - St Basil the Great liked to repeat this saying of Greek philosophers and follow it. In his Homily On Thanksgiving, St Basil shows how it is necessary to look for the extremities - including in doing good - as without understanding thereof it is impossible to determine the "golden mean" or "Divine measure". "Invoking the memory of the measure (μέτρα), given to us by the Lord, let us never step beyond the limits of eunoia"¹⁰. "The Holy Father illustrates what the "mean" looks like with the example of the virtue of courage: the lack of courage makes a man timid, and excessive courage makes him impertinent. Just the way the line turns into a curve, diverting either to the right or to the left, so does the man "become stubborn, when he is now elevated by arrogance, now humiliated by sorrows and anguish"¹¹.

6. St. Gregory of Nyssa calls Jesus Christ the main criterion for distinguishing between good and evil. "Any doing, word or thought that is not directed to Christ, is necessarily directed to the things that oppose Christ", so he who is "honoured with the great name of Christ" must "carefully distinguish (φυλοκρινεῖν) thoughts, and words, and works in himself... And it is very easy to discern them (διακρίσεως)". What the person thinks or does under the influence of a passion, "has no agreement with Christ and bears the features of the opponent", and what "is clear of any passionate disposition, is directed to the One who is the beginning of all dispassion, which is Christ"¹². Discernment is a God-granted ability to realize relevance and timeliness, which lies underneath thinking, feeling and desire. The one who has the virtue of discernment, "sees" the appropriateness or, conversely, the inconsistency with the Divine purpose (logos). Discernment can equally be called a special "spiritual hearing," which can distinguish the "pure" sound from a "false" one.

7. Spiritual mentors are allotted special importance in the development of the virtue of discernment, since they have already become dispassionate and therefore "perfect" in recognising spirits, and can teach this to their followers. The mind of such an ascetic, who "has cleansed all his inner strength from all kinds of evil" and reached dispassion, "will become light-like and join the truth and highest purity, and will somehow become transparent in it, imbued with light, and will become light", thus the soul acquires the ability to "see God"¹³.

8. Anger, as a manifestation of a passionate action of the soul, blocks discernment, even if it is obviously present in a person. "The obscured eye of the soul, as if in a night battle, cannot distinguish (διακρῖναι) friends from enemies and the honest from the dishonest"¹⁴. Jealousy produces the same action, as the person "easily believes everything and, equally opening his ears to all, cannot distinguish (διακρίνειν) slanderers from non-slanderers"¹⁵. According to archimandrite Emilian (Wafidis), discernment is "the Divine grace penetrating into us, and therefore it is impossible to acquire it unless you have sown the seeds of the Spirit"¹⁶. Discernment develops first of all through silence, by which "we mean silence in your heart and mind, in your whole being, as well as in your surroundings, at work: some calm, quiet and peaceful state. You have a calm smile, a calm voice, a calm thought, a calm prayer. And Divine jealousy never destroys the true tranquillity, which is the foundation, the beginning of cleansing ... If there is no such silence, it is impossible even to assume that one day we would be able to achieve a good result"¹⁷.

The question of discerning between spiritual phenomena has always been a key one for divinely revealed religion. Who, if not God Himself, was interested in the objectivity of His entering into a specific human experience? The story with Judge Gedeon is quite typical. Gedeon "saith unto Him, `If, I pray Thee, I have found grace in Thine eyes, then Thou hast done for me a sign that Thou art speaking with me" (Jdg 6:17). Twice he asks God to confirm that what he hears is neither the product of his own fantasy nor the work of some evil spirit, but the direct work of God the Creator Himself (Judges 6:36-40). And God works a miracle twice: first the dew falls on the wool in the morning, while it is dry around, then the opposite happens. Then fire comes out of the stone and burns the offered sacrifice in the same miraculous way. Unlike man, it is not characteristic of God to "take offence" when a man shows "prudence" - the initial discernment - in the face of supernatural.

As can be derived from the above, discernment as such is inherent in human nature and, in this sense, is a natural virtue. However, it reaches its fullness only in dispassion, when all aspects of the soul stop passionate movements and turn to its centre, i.e. Jesus Christ. If the initial discernment can be seen through certain formal features (kind and peaceful state of mind, lack of anger, non-contradiction to the Holy Scriptures, moderation in all kinds of activity, the "golden mean", etc.), discernment in its entirety - capable of distinguishing, manifesting, extraction of the hidden meaning - is the realm of those who have succeed in dispassion.

Thus, the gift of reasoning is not "rationalization", or "analysis", or some other form of discrete thinking. Reasoning is about seeing with the heart that has been cleared of passion, rather than about thinking carefully, weighing all the pros and cons as it may seem at first sight.

Let me conclude with a phrase from "Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye"¹⁸.

¹Иоанн Кассиан Римлянин, прп. Собеседования 2, 9. [St John Cassian the Roman, Collations 2, 9].

²Эмилиан (Вафидис), архим. Толкование на подвижнические слова Аввы Исаии. - 2-е издание. - М., 2015. с. 208. [Archimandrite Emilian (Wifadis), Commentary on Abba Isaiah of Scetis Ascetic Discourse].

³Евагрий Понтийский. Послание 4, авве Лукию 5. [Evagrius Ponticus, Scholia 4, to Luke 5].

⁴Евагрий Понтийский. Послание 4, авве Лукию 5. [Evagrius Ponticus, Scholia 4, to Luke 5].

⁵C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Ch. 3. In Chapter, 4 Mr. Ransom faces again a similar temptation, not with food this time, but with a shower that refreshes and give more than a mere replenishment of energy - it gives life an extraordinary high quality. "Looking at a fine cluster of the bubbles which hung above his head he thought how easy it would be to get up and plunge oneself through the whole lot of them and to feel, all at once, that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold. But he was restrained by the same sort of feeling which had restrained him over-night from tasting a second gourd. He had always disliked the people who encored a favourite air in an opera-"That just spoils it" had been his comment. But this now appeared to him as a principle of far wider application and deeper moment. This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards . . . was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself-perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defence against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film".

⁶Фома Шпидлик. Духовная традиция восточного христианства. Систематическое изложение. М., 2000. С. 290. [Spidlik Т. The spirituality of the Christian East: A systematic handbook].

⁷Дунаев А. Г., Фокин А. Р. Евагрий Понтийский // Православная Энциклопедия, том 16. 2012, С. 557-581. [A.G. Dunayev, A.R. Fokin, Euvagrius of Pontus // Orthodox Christian Encyclopaedia, V.16. 2012]

⁸Евагрий Понтийский. Слово об [аскетическом] делании, или Монах 83 [Evagius Ponticus, Homily on [Ascetic] Doing, or Monk].

⁹См. Г. Терстеген, "Об отношении к особым духовным дарам, видениям, откровениям и тому подобному". [G. Tersteegen, On the Attitude to Special Spiritual Gifts, Visions, Revelations, etc.] http://sdsmp.ru/ns/item.php?ELEMENT_ID=3417&fbclid=IwAR1YSkyuajZA-JYKVXYOzO8mQ1DqLiO5a4OOr6fr_AK3rhEMY3X-mGPaTd0

¹⁰Василий Великий, свт. Беседы. Беседа 4 "О благодарении" 7. [St Basil the Great, Homily. Homily 4 On Thanksgiving].

¹¹Рябинин Глеб, свящ. Дар различения (рассуждения) по творениям святых отцов и церковных писателей II - нач. V в. //Магистерская диссертация, г. Сергиев Посад, 2018. С. 68.[Rev. Gleb Ryabinin, The Gift of Discernment (Reasining) in the Works of Holy Fathers and Church Writers of 2-early 5 cent.// Masters degree paper, 2018].

¹²Цит. по: Рябинин Глеб, свящ. Дар различения (рассуждения) по творениям святых отцов и церковных писателей II - нач. V в. //Магистерская диссертация, г. Сергиев Посад, 2018. С. 77. .[Rev. Gleb Ryabinin, The Gift of Discernment (Reasoning) in the Works of Holy Fathers and Church Writers of 2-early 5 cent.// Masters degree paper, 2018].

¹³Григорий Нисский, свт. О девстве XI, 2. [St Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity XI, 2].

¹⁴Иоанн Златоуст, свт. О священстве III, 14. [St John Chrysostom, On Priesthood III,14].

¹⁵Иоанн Златоуст, свт. О девстве LII. [St John Chrysostom, On Virginity LII].

¹⁶Эмилиан (Вафидис), архим. Толкование на подвижнические слова Аввы Исаии. - 2-е издание. - М., 2015. с. 418. [Archimandrite Emilian (Wifadis), Commentary on Abba Isaiah of Scetis Ascetic Discourse].

¹⁷Эмилиан (Вафидис), архим. Толкование на подвижнические слова Аввы Исаии. - 2-е издание. - М., 2015. с. 418. [Archimandrite Emilian (Wifadis), Commentary on Abba Isaiah of Scetis Ascetic Discourse].

¹⁸Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Little Prince.

Pathological religiosity

Sister Youanna (Mikhail)

What is religiosity

The Greek word for 'religion' is derived from the ancient word that implies 'ascend', and therefore, with the term 'religion', the ascent of man towards God is implied.

Faith/religiosity is a personal relationship with a transcendent reality, named God, that takes shape and is lived through or experienced in practice.

Types of religiosity¹

1. Extrinsic Religiosity: refers to a "means" approach, in which a person uses religion as the means to some secular end, like ego reinforcement or social approval, and is generally found to correlate with higher levels of psychological distress, less effective coping abilities, and a higher likelihood of prejudice, intolerance, and socially inappropriate behavior.

The extrinsically religious person uses religion as a means of obtaining security or status.

2. Intrinsic Religiosity: refers to an "ends" orientation, in which the belief and practice of the religious life is the goal; this style of worship is related to greater well-being, more realistic and effective coping, and more appropriate social behavior

The intrinsically religious person internalizes beliefs and lives by them regardless of social pressure.

What is religious maturity (mature religion)

Religious maturity = Integrated faith = Mature faith. It means that one's faith is integrated in one's daily life and one's daily life, in turn, is integrated in the perspective of one's faith.

Criteria of mature religiosity

• Willingness to look for answers to existential questions about death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness
• Deciding on one's own attitude both freely and responsibly
• An orientation to 'being' rather than 'having'
• Striving for the highest values of love, truth and justice out of a sense of inner freedom
• Developed along with the personality
• Supportive of one's sense of self-esteem and identity
• Sincere rather than out of obligation or fear
• An open and at the same time serious quest for God
• Being guided by values that transcend mere biological and social adaptation

• Finding meaning and significance in one's life in relation to God
• The sense of integration in a relationship with God
• Trust in God, also in times of trial and tribulation
• A move toward entrusting oneself more and more to God
• The experience of God in one's life motivates one to take difficult decisions for the sake of the good
• Knowing God's love as fundamental for one's entire life

Factor III: Responsibility for fellow humans and creation

• Praying for and doing justice to as being inextricably linked
• Willingness to account to God and one's fellow humans for one's own faith and actions in the world
• Applicable to all areas of life
• Striving to love one's fellow human beings as they are, out of the knowledge of God's love for human beings
• Accepting that one's personal freedom is limited by responsibility for God's creation
• Realizing that all aspects of the personality are comprehensively involved

Attitudes toward oneself, toward God and toward one's fellow man and creation are well expressed in the above three factors and their labels.

They are also recognizable in the biblical golden rule. Jesus's command contains all other commands and, in the way it is put, amounts to a promise as well (Luke 10:27): 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.'

'The main purpose of religion is not to make people healthy, but to help them fit themselves into the Creator's context for them'².

What is pathological religiosity

"When pure light of spirituality, emanating from the mystical source passes through the prism of human experience, it transforms into a spectrum of radiant religious colors. Each color has its own beauty, but the more it distances itself from the source of light and tries to be exclusive, the deeper it falls into the darkness of unhealthy religiosity"³.

"Whenever the religious experiences or practices injure the psychical or physical condition of the individual or group, or retard their growth so that they cannot think, act, or feel in relation to their environments , in accordance with the standards normal to their stages of development, they are positively pathological"⁴.

Forms of pathological religiosity

I. Religious psychiatric patients incorporating religious elements into their symptomatic presentation

• Delusions with religious contents in Mania, Depression and Schizophrenia: persecutory (often involving Satan) - grandiose (messianic delusions) - guilt delusions.
• Hallucinations with religious contents: seeing and hearing demons, spirits, saints - seeing visions and receiving commands from God.
• Obsessive compulsive religious rituals in OCD and OCPD patients: religious rituals aiming to address and absolve dysfunctional guilt. Common scrupulosity rituals related to PG include prayer, confession, purification/washing, mental neutralization, and pact making (with God).
• Religious grandiosity and narcissism in Hubris Syndrome, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Paranoid Personality Disorder.
• Death anxiety in Thanato-phobia (phobia of death).
• Religious experiences associated with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: ictal - postictal - interictal.
• Pathological dissociation, depersonalization and derealization in Pathological Trance Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder.

II. Psychopathology lying behind wrong religious attitudes, dogmas and heresies

• Repressed sexual Drive lying behind Gnosticism - Manichaeism - Pathological Misogyny and celibacy - Self-Castration.
• Pathological guilt and religious masochism lying behind wrong asceticism and wrong mortification practices.
• Hopelessness and despair lying behind Fatalism.

III. Pathological religiosity among clergymen and monks

• Abuse of power and authority.
• Spiritual abuse.
• Perfectionism.
• Messiah-Complex.
• Pharisaism.
• Narcissism.
• Hubris Syndrome.
• Paranoia.
• Repressed sexuality.
• Fanaticism.
• Workaholism.

Conclusion

• Religiousness remains an important aspect of human life and it usually has a positive association with good mental health.
• Faith and belief systems are very important constituents of psychological well-being and could be fruitfully utilized in psychotherapy.
• Yet, when religiosity deviates from soundness it has a great negative influence in psychiatry including symptoms, phenomenology, and outcome.
• Increasing awareness about pathological religiosity among clergy, church leaders and congregations is a must.

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). True sound religiosity must then fulfill this ultimate goal of our Lord Jesus Christ

¹Allport G.W., Ross J.M. Personal religious orientation and prejudice. // Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1967. V. 5. № 4.

²Gordon W. Allport. Mental Health: A generic attitude. //Journal of Religion and Health. Vol. 4, No. 1 (Oct., 1964).

³Xavier N.S. The two faces of religion.Tuscaloosa, AL: Portals. 1987.

⁴Josiah Moses. Pathological Aspects Of Religions. Worcester, Mass.: Clark university press. 1906.

References:

1. Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos; The Illness of Religion, URL: https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/12/illness-of-religion.html
2. Lee A. Kirkpatrick and Ralph W. Hood, Jr.; Intrinsic-Extrinsic Religious Orientation: The Boon or Bane of Contemporary Psychology of Religion? // Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 29, No. 4 (Dec., 1990), pp. 442-462.
3. M. R. de Vries-Schot et al.; Healthy Religiosity and Salutary Faith: Clarification of Concepts from the Perspectives of Psychology, Psychiatry and of Theology. // Journal of Empirical Theology 21 (2008) 88-108.
4. Moreira-Almeida A, Neto FL, Koenig HG.; Religiousness and mental health: a review. // Braz J Psychiatry. 2006 Sep; 28(3):242-50.
5. Harold G. Koenig.; Handbook of Religion and Mental Health, Elsevier Science, 1998.