Prelest

In a narrow sense, it refers to a person initially on the path of a pious Christian life, instead becomes proud and conceited about his or her own sanctity and triumph over sin.

His writings were compiled in the book On prelest, which details different forms of delusion (wrong ways of prayer, trusting dreams, excessive zeal, false humility etc.

Pestov writes that the safest spiritual path to avoid prelest is to habitually submit to an experienced and holy elder, or at least to respect the advice of others.

[12] According to Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, "Spiritual deception is the state of all men without exception, and it has been made possible by the fall of our original parents.

St. Macarius the Great says: "if you see that someone is arrogant and proud of that he is a partaker of grace, then even if he created miracles and raised the dead, but if he does not recognize his soul as honourless and despised, and himself poor in spirit and vile, he is robbed by malice not knowing that for himself.

"[15] St. John Cassian writes that "a cleaner look notices more, a reproachful life gives rise to a great sorrow of self-reproach, the correction of morals and zeal for virtues multiply wailing and sighing.

St. Ignatius writes about it: "This kind of prelest – is terrible: it is equally fatal for the soul as the first one, but is less evident; it rarely ends in madness, suicide, but definitely corrupts both the mind and the heart.

Elder Joseph the Hesychast says, mentioning the examples from his life, that true visions are always preceded or followed by very intense suffering and sorrows and are given by God only as a consolation.

[26] In the book "The Great Watch",[27] in the notes of Elder Jerome (Solomentsov) from St. Panteleimon monastery on Mount Athos, the life of hieroschemamonk Theophan is described.

In the years of his life to follow, father Theophan was unable to free himself from his delusion: he left Athos, engaged in trade and died in a state of torment.

Arrogance arises from superficiality, demonic envy is provoked by our spiritual progress, and the need for correction is the consequence of our sinful way of life.

"Upon entering the Church, winged with new sensations, the newly-born reaches with his consciousness straight for the Kingdom of Heaven, to the heights of mysteries that are hidden behind the impenetrable curtain of Divine revelation.

This initial period is particularly dangerous, for this sweetness still resonates with the nature of the fleshly man, and finds sympathy and response deep within his soul.

"[45] Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman) reminisces about his youth, when he did not pray with the Jesus Prayer, did not know any experienced elders, and did not read the books of the Holy Fathers.

He read for the first time the conversation of St. Seraphim of Sarov with Motovilov,[46] but understood it in a primitive way and began to pray about acquisition of grace.

A novice by the name of Alexander from Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra arbitrarily increased his prayer rule and started to see visions.

Several years later Archimandrite Kronid met Alexander who was already tonsured a monk as Athanasius and, for his humble and good monastic life, was made hierodeacon.

"[50] Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov) tells a story about a deluded woman who arbitrary increased her prayer rule to 1000 prostrations every day because of conceit.

When the Holy Fathers of the monastery unraveled the demon tricks and cast the "angel" away, St. Nicetas lost his supernatural abilities and even could not read at all.

In the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete:[56] "I lie naked and ashamed, for the beauty of the tree, which I saw in the middle of the garden, deceived me" (Monday, Ode 2); "O God, Trinity yet One, save us from delusion, temptations and misfortune!"

However, this height is very dangerous, when the ladder to it is not founded on the solid rock of humility"[59] (Holy Fathers use the words "memory of God" as a synonym for the Jesus prayer).

St. Hilarion of Optina writes that though we should pray about each other, the view on prayer that every petition is necessarily executed originates from pride and leads to delusion.

For very many people, Orthodoxy consists in placing candles, 'venerating', donating something, leaving prayer requests, ordering Liturgies, molebens and pannikhidas, joining in the cross processions, visiting holy shrines, confessing and receiving Communion.

However, without spiritual transformation (in Greek, the word for repentance is μετάνοια [metanoia], which means to change one’s way of thinking), all of these external activities are at the least useless, and at the worst harmful, for they can cause one to feel self-righteous and raise his self-opinion over “sinners.”"[66] Also some holy fathers wrote about such "automatic" attitude to the Sacraments (i.e. without faith and willingness to fight with passions): St. John Chrysostom,[67] St. Mark the Ascetic,[68] St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

Father Nikita Grigoriev in his book "Faith and delusion" writes about Antichrist that "in appearance, he will be kind, gentle, patient and merciful.

The anti-Christ will not rebuke passions and call people to genuine contrition of heart in order to forgive and heal them, but on the contrary will justify them just as they are.

Osipov analyzes teachings on this subject by St. Ignatius and points at a significant difference in Orthodox and Roman Catholic view on spirituality, repentance and humility.

He writes in a book which is a textbook for the Basic theology course in the Moscow Theological Academy that there are many phrases attributed to St. Francis that reveal his true degree of humility:[59][73] Saint Francis's very life's goal, ("I have labored and want to labor … because this brings honor," "I want to suffer for others and redeem the sins of others"), shows his fall which he himself does not see; it shows his own sins.

[76] The interpretation of such words and relation to humility is explained, in particular, in the book by Mitrofan Lodyzhensky "Light Invisible" adapted in the shorter article by Father George Macris.

Osipov says that deviations in the Roman Catholic Church started from such things that are rather subtle and not easy to understand for everyone, even for the person who knows the basics of the spiritual life.