How demons manifest themselves:

All of the following manifestations are common. It is important to keep your eyes open while serving in liberation, both for the sake of discernment and sometimes for your own safety. Some possible demonic manifestations:

Feeling cold.
Especially when spirits associated with death or serious demonic practices begin to manifest themselves.

Shiver.
Either some part of the body may begin to tremble, or the entire body may be seized with small tremors.

Shaking.
As the trembling becomes stronger, certain parts of the body in which the demon has a stronger hold may begin to shake, sometimes violently. The shaking can be so strong that a person falls to the ground.

Palpitations.
This can cause a person to panic. This is either natural fear or a consequence of the demon’s reaction to the need to come out.

Pressure.
Especially on the head and shoulders. Physical pain. When a demon is forced to manifest, it sometimes causes pain in the part of the body that it has influenced. This can happen with spirits of infirmity or spirits associated with the effects of past accidents and traumas.

Lump in throat.
Most often, demons come out either through the breath or through the throat. Sometimes, when demons come out, a person feels something like a physical lump in the throat.

Deep breathing.
When demons come out with their breath, there is usually a slowing of the respiratory cycle, which can sometimes turn into yawning or coughing. Interestingly, death spirits usually live in the lung area.

Movement in the stomach.
The demon that has been living in the stomach may sometimes move around a little before being released, creating the sensation that something is spinning in the stomach. In other cases, a person may feel the urge to vomit, although this rarely occurs. However, a person may experience a gag reflex or something like vomiting.

Sudden headaches.
This is a common symptom, especially when encountering mind-controlling spirits, religious spirits, or spirits of false religions and idolatry.

Unnatural movements.
Sometimes the arms and legs may move intensely when exorcizing demons. It happens that these movements indicate how the demon entered. In other cases, they may indicate the release of pain along with release.

Arching of the body.
When demons come out, for example, from the spine, the back can arch like a scorpion's sting. The fetal position can also indicate pain that has been hidden for a long time, so it is important to correctly discern what is really happening.

Screech.
Squealing often indicates that the demon is coming out, but if it continues unchanged, there are emotions involved that need healing. Sometimes the demon tries to cling to the throat, in this case you need to advise the person being freed to clear his throat well, this will help to tear the demon off

Dilated pupils.
The eye is the lamp of the body. From the place where the light enters, demons can also look out. As a result, pupil movements may be unrelated to their natural response to light and dark when demons manifest.

Eyes apart.
Or pinched on the bridge of the nose. Rolling eyes. Usually you encounter a similar situation when there is evidence of some form of witchcraft. Demons do everything. To make it impossible to look a person in the eyes, they avoid an authoritative gaze.

Sexual movements or feelings.
When they manifest themselves, sexual spirits sometimes cause a person to experience feelings and have reactions in the sexual sphere.

Sudden violent actions.
Be careful when ministering especially to severely demonized people. Do not serve alone, but at least in twos.

Demonic tongues.
It is relatively easy to sense the harshness of demonic language that is in conflict with languages ​​that are gifts of the Spirit.

Escape.
Sometimes people will be tempted by their demons to jump up and run away when deliverance approaches. People need to be established in the knowledge that their body is their own and they do not have to obey what demons tell them to do.

Hiss.
Belching.
Curses.
Growling and barking.
Moo.
Stench.
Scratching movements.
Writhing across the floor like a snake.
Sudden pain in a specific part of the body.
Sideways glances.

Remember also that angels “are ministering spirits” (Heb. 1:14), so ask the Lord to send His angels to minister to the person you are praying for. Sometimes we heard the demons screaming in horror when we prayed like that! We have no power over angels; they are at the disposal of the Lord, so we must ask Him to send them.

how the demons come out:

- Come out without any visible manifestations
- Through the throat and mouth, sometimes the nose, with deep yawning, belching, coughing, vomiting, through choking, through breathing.
- Through the genital openings.
- Through the anus. ...

We often watch horror films at night. We see how demons possess people and torment them, controlling human consciousness. After watching the film, we calmly fall asleep, without even thinking that demons actually exist and also inhabit people in our real lives. Believers claim that demons can only possess a person who subconsciously gives permission to do so. Basically, those people who are engaged in occult sciences, magic, and fortune telling are subjected to the torment of “evil spirits”.

How to Determine Demon Possession

The following rules will help you calculate this:

• The first suspicion that a person is possessed by demons is a sudden change in character. The person becomes irritable, aggressive, shouts at everyone and utters nasty words towards the people around him. In this situation, it is worth talking frankly with the person, maybe he has problems in his personal life.
• The next suspicion is that the patient has difficulty falling asleep and does not sleep at night, he has no appetite, he looks sick and tired.
• The most terrible and common sign that allows one to identify demons in a person is when the patient howls or laughs for no specific reason. This is a very scary sight.
• To check whether a demon has possessed a person, you need to bring a lighted candle taken from the church to the sick person. If you saw that dark smoke began to emerge from the flame, then there is an evil spirit in the person.
• If your friend used to be a normal, adequate person, but now he makes faces, clowns around for no reason, imitates those around him... Here you definitely need to think about what pushes him to these actions.
• Those who have been possessed by a demon begin to show a strong interest in gambling. If the suspect has never been interested in this, and then suddenly started, in this case you should think about it and try to talk frankly with the person, find out what prompted him to take this step.
• To identify demons in a person, take the suspect to the church. If a person is truly possessed by a demon, he will not be able to come close to the church, much less go inside. If such a person hears church bells, he may feel ill, nausea, vomiting, and chills will begin.

Signs of demonic possession

The Bible speaks about people who are possessed by a demon like this: people become angry, irritable, can use physical force against other people, they can have hallucinations, incomprehensible visions that other people do not see. Some people possessed by a demon exhibit clairvoyance and can predict the future. In some cases, such people may lose speech, hearing, or vision.

Obvious signs of a person being possessed by demons are conversations in other people's voices and not in one's own name, aggression towards everything related to the church, the ability to levitate, the smell of sulfur. However, the demon is cunning, and he does not always show himself - this may end in his expulsion back to hell.

In the article:

Signs of Possession - Possessed Among You

Passion in marriage coupled with fidelity is a fulfilled desire, without which humanity would die out. The desire to satisfy lust without marriage, promiscuity, frequent changes of sexual partners are the influence of dark forces. It is considered normal to want to drink on holidays, while meeting with friends. Alcoholism, drug addiction - from the demon.

The love of culinary experiments is a hobby, an attempt at self-expression, a good way to please others. However There is corruption - demonic gluttony, when the sorcerer introduces evil spirits that cause an excessive appetite. The victim consumes food in such a way that it is undesirable for the faint of heart to see the process.

Envy that pushes a person to self-improvement is normal. The one that makes you harm others is demonic. Any passion that makes a person a slave to his desires and forces him to act not according to his conscience can be an obsession.

Possession - signs other than mental disorders

Those possessed by demons are often mistaken for mental illness. If a person has always been aggressive and unkind, there is a high probability of the presence of evil spirits.

Another sign is a clear aversion to Christian shrines. Talking about religion, an inadequate reaction to the smell of incense, holy water, reading prayers, icons are manifestations of demon possession.

There is a very simple way to check - offer two glasses to the person suspected of possession. One will contain plain water, and the other will contain water consecrated in the temple. Naturally, a person should not know about this. The possessed person will definitely choose a glass of plain water - evil spirits will easily distinguish between two identical glasses. However, do not discount chance; this method is suitable in conjunction with the others.

According to priests, more often we have to deal with a situation where a serious mental illness is mistaken for possession. It's not just about devout relatives. Sometimes those allegedly suffering from the influence of evil spirits themselves mistake this phenomenon for a nervous disorder. Often in this way they attract attention to their person.

How a demon possesses a person and how to prevent it

The priests are sure that a person personally prepares housing for demons through his actions. The demon enters along with sin. Murder, rape, fornication, cynicism, interest in the occult, and all this opens the way for demons. Everyone who leads an unbridled life and is far from repentance is at risk.

If a person adheres to Christian morality, attends church, confesses his sins, fasts, reads prayers and regularly receives communion, demons will not be able to approach him. The believer is under God's protection, and feasible asceticism will always be a plus for getting rid of troubles of a black magic nature.

The clergy argue that people who did not find the strength to fight passion should lead a Christian life. Demons run away from God's grace.

According to medieval sources, the interest of demons in members of the clergy has always been high. The purer a person is, the more interesting and valuable his soul is to evil spirits. Records have been preserved of the monks' struggle with it. The means are still the same - faith, prayer, Christian lifestyle and, of course, willpower.

People possessed by demons and their inherent diseases

Symptoms may include disturbances in well-being. However, all this should be considered as symptoms of the disease. If examinations do not show its presence, one may suspect a negative program or the entry of a demon.

This is especially true for parents who are sure that their offspring has been possessed by an evil spirit. The crime chronicle is replete with similar stories, and for children they end in tears. The demon may also be in you, pushing the “possessed” person to deprive you of medical care.

Throughout the history of mankind, many cases have been recorded when people behaved strangely, spoke in a voice that was not their own, convulsed, and so on. It is believed that such behavior indicates that a person has been possessed by a demon.

What is obsession?

When a person is possessed by a devil or a demon, they speak of possession. Settlement can happen intentionally, and in this case they talk about one of the types of damage. Another obsession is the result of an incorrectly performed ritual. Sharing can occur if an energetically weakened person ends up in cursed places. The peak of the spread of demon possession occurred in the Middle Ages. There are three groups of possessed people:

1. The first are controlled by violent or aggressive demons.
2. The latter live together with the demon of contradiction or the evil one.
3. Still others have an unbalanced character and can be either a “sheep” or a “wolf.”

Obsession in psychology

Official science completely denies the possibility of different demons attaching to a person. Obsession is a mental illness called cacodemonia. More often than others, people who are susceptible to seizures are those who have addictions, are passive, open or impressionable. In most cases, they are easily influenced by other people. A famous psychologist called cacodemonia a neurosis in which a person invents demons for himself, and they are the result of suppression of desires.

Is obsession a disease or a curse?

Scientists who believe that there are no demons attribute numerous symptoms of possession to specific diseases. It is worth noting that often doctors cannot help people with similar problems using medical methods.

1. Possession, from a scientific point of view, is a manifestation of epilepsy, in which convulsions occur, loss of creation and a person feels contact with intangible things.
2. A symptom such as sudden mood swings from euphoria to depression is characteristic of bipolar affective disorder.
3. Another disease that can be confused with obsession is Tourette's syndrome. As a result of a disorder of the nervous system, multiple motor tics are observed.
4. A disease known in psychology as split personality is when there are several personalities in one body that show themselves in different periods. As a result, one person appears as different people with their own tastes, habits and character.
5. Another comparison is obsession or, since the disease causes hallucinations, delusions and speech problems.

Signs of an Obsessed Person

If an entity has been transferred, then a person’s life begins to change. At first, the symptoms appear rarely and not so severely, but over time everything gets worse. The main signs of demonic possession:

1. Demons can speak through the mouth of a person, cursing those around them or calling on them to renounce the Lord, and not only known languages ​​can be used, but also animal roars.
2. Possessed people can practice prophecy, fly, see spirits, and so on.
3. Demons give a person enormous strength, and he can break iron chains, move heavy objects and push away even strong men.
4. The possessed person can either degrade or, conversely, exhibit an increased level of intelligence.
5. Sleep disturbances occur, the person often has nightmares and feels as if someone is watching or even walking on the body.

What does a possessed person look like?

If some entity lives in the human body, then this is directly reflected in its appearance.

1. A kind of drying out of the body occurs as a result of complete exhaustion.
2. Weight is quickly lost and dystrophy is observed, and this happens due to the fact that a person either eats little or completely refuses to eat. This is accompanied by other consequences: fatigue, weakness, headaches, and so on.
3. If you are interested in how to understand that a person is possessed by demons, then it is worth knowing that one of the obvious signs is a change in the eyes, which become cloudy, although vision remains the same.
4. The color of the skin also changes, becoming darker. This symptom is very scary.

Signs of demonic possession in Orthodoxy

The clergy point out that the main sign of the presence of demons in a person is intolerance towards everything that has to do with the Lord. Even talking about faith will cause unpleasant feelings in him. Those possessed are afraid of priests, consecrated objects, various shrines, and so on. Believers claim that signs of demonic possession manifest themselves in different ways, since demons damage a person's mind. They are capable of inflicting many known and unknown diseases on their victims.

What feelings does a person experience when possessed?

Since the possibility of demons inhabiting them has not been scientifically proven, we can only rely on the testimony of people who claim that demons lived in them.

1. There is a constant presence of some entity inside that is constantly trying to suppress thoughts and words.
2. People possessed by demons hear a voice that forces them to do unacceptable things and subjugates them in every possible way.
3. There is evidence that the victims felt either a surge of strength and wanted to move mountains, or, conversely, their decline and it seemed as if death was approaching.

Real cases of obsession

There is a huge amount of evidence about people who were attacked by dark forces. Some of them are just a figment of fantasy, but there are stories that have documentary or photo evidence.

1. Clara Hermana Celje. Clara, who was 16 years old, lived in South America. In 1906, in confession, she said that she felt a demon inside. At first they didn’t believe her, but the girl’s condition worsened every day. There were documented testimonies of people who heard that she did not speak in her own voice and behaved inappropriately. The exorcism ritual takes place over two days.
2. Roland Doe. The list of people who were possessed by demons includes this boy, whose story took place in 1949. He had fun with a Ouija board, and a few days later his aunt died. Trying to connect with her, Roland said that strange things were happening around: the icon of Jesus was shaking, various screams were heard, objects were flying, and so on. A priest was invited to the house, and he saw how objects were flying and falling, the boy’s body was covered with various symbols, and so on. 30 exorcism sessions were performed to achieve recovery. There are more than 14 documentary evidence of how the bed with the boy floated in the air.
3. Anneliese Michel. This girl's obsession began to manifest itself when she was 16 years old. She was diagnosed with epilepsy, but treatment was futile. The girl's condition worsened and in 1975, the first exorcism ritual was performed. 70 rituals were performed and 42 of them were recorded on a voice recorder. Annelise could not be saved.

How to help an obsessed person?

If suddenly a person begins to behave strangely and becomes possessed, it is important not to become confused and to create all possible conditions so that the possessed person does not cause harm to himself and others. There are some tips on how to deal with obsessive people:

1. There is no need to provoke a possessed person and cause aggression in him, since he is not responsible for his actions. It's better to agree with everything he says while being in control of the situation.
2. It is best to put the possessed person on the bed or on the sofa. His movements around the rooms should be limited as much as possible so that he does not harm himself.
3. Try to calm the person so that he returns to normal consciousness as quickly as possible. If the attack was provoked by some object, for example, an icon, then remove it away.

How to get rid of obsession?

Since ancient times, the main fighters against evil spirits have been clergy who perform exorcism rituals. Not everyone can fulfill this mission and there are special church schools where they teach the sacraments of rituals to remove possession. There are magical rituals that you can perform on your own, without any preparation, the main thing is to follow all the rules and believe in their power. Possessed people should ask that the ritual be performed by close people who have a close connection with each other.

1. For the ritual, you should prepare water, which should be collected from a clean reservoir during the morning dawn. When you come home, place it on a flat surface and light a candle bought in church next to it. Read plot number 1 over the water seven times.
2. After this, you need to yawn heavily and say conspiracy No. 2 three times to remove the obsession.
3. When the last words are spoken, turn over your left shoulder, blow, spit and sprinkle the possessed person with the enchanted water. The remaining liquid should be given to him to drink. You can perform this ritual on yourself.

Prayer for obsession

There is a special prayer text that can be used to exorcise the demon. You must read it completely alone, otherwise the demon may move on to another person. It is important to wear a pectoral cross, no matter how the demon inside resists. The prayer against possession should be repeated at moments when evil spirits manifest themselves. The text must be repeated until the condition improves. It is important not to succumb to the influence of the demon and continue to read the prayer text. When demons are cast out, it is imperative to put yourself under Orthodox protection.

Books about demonic possession

The topic is popular, so you can find several decent books on this topic in bookstores.

1. "The Exorcist" by W.P. Blatty. The story follows the life of a film actress who notices that her daughter's behavior has changed and she ends up seeing signs of demonic possession in her.
2. "Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology" by R.H. Robbins. This work collects and systematizes a lot of information related to demons and the Devil.

Obsession, the holy fathers believed, can be of two types. There is obsession in its extreme manifestations, when a demon lives in a person as a second personality, and the personality of the possessed person is in a depressed state. But the saints also called the state of a person whose will is enslaved by passions obsession. Moreover, these two types may simply be different forms of obsession.

The holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who observed a huge number of people, noted: “Demons enter ordinary people because of their simplicity... The evil spirit enters educated and intelligent people in a different form, and it is much more difficult to fight it.”

In addition, in our daily life, passions often take over us and sometimes make us uncontrollable. A striking and very common example of this is irritation. Therefore, as long as the devil has something of his own in our being, we are more or less subject to him, and therefore, in some sense, we are also possessed.

Through sin, our soul opens up to demonic influence! The entry of the devil into the human soul can be compared to the entry of pathogenic bacteria into the human body. If a person is physically insufficiently protected, has a weak immune system, then he is open to the penetration of various microbes and viruses, the consequence of such penetration is illness. So the devil, when a person’s soul has no protection, gains access to it. But what is the protection of the human soul, its immunity, a barrier to demons, and why can it lose this protection?

While a person slowly but persistently improves, while his spirit is directed towards God, while falls are followed by sincere repentance, he is in the sphere of action of God and in spiritual security, but when sin becomes a habit, when a person’s whole being is subject to some passion - he is deprived of the protective cover of Divine grace. He is deprived not because the Lord punishes the offender: the Lord always loves a person, is always ready to help him. But this is precisely the height and exclusivity of God’s love for man, that the Creator respects the freedom of His creation. And a person chooses himself with whom he wants to be: with God or with the devil. All that is required of a person is to turn to God, with his heart, his mind, his whole soul, and accept everything that the Lord offers him.

However, if a person turns away from God, he inevitably comes into contact with Satan, there is no third option: in everything good and beautiful - God, in the opposite (even if at first glance it is attractive) - the devil. Sin is our choice in favor of the devil; by sinning, we seem to turn our hearts to Satan. And this is the result of our free choice. In sin, a person, like Adam and Eve once did, refuses the gifts of God, leaves, hides from Him and opens himself to the influence of demons. Now it is not God, but the devil who has influence over man and gains access to his soul.

In the Gospel we find vivid characteristics of the relationship between man and the devil into which a sinner enters. The Savior, addressing the Jews who questioned Him, once said: “Your father is the devil.” What did the Savior mean? Just as to be “sons of God” means to belong to the heavenly world, to be in the proximity of God, so to be “children of the devil” means to have close, direct communication with him. From their earthly father, children receive their upbringing, character traits, attitude to life, but, above all, they receive their very existence from their father. Likewise, God's children are like their Heavenly Father because they live His life. People who have turned to evil, in their sins, are also similar to the devil as their father, because from him they receive their sinful existence and live his life.

Repeatedly the Savior compares the presence of the devil in the soul of a sinner with the life of a master in his house. A person ceases to be his own master; someone else controls his soul and body. The owner is free to do whatever he wants with his house: he can clean and repair it, or he can destroy it. Based on the fact that the essence of the devil is evil, that he is incapable of creation, but only of destruction, there is no doubt what the devil will do, being the master of the soul.

This is what St. says. John Chrysostom: “Demons, once they have taken possession of the soul, treat it so vilely and insultingly, as is characteristic of the evil ones, who passionately desire our shame and destruction.” And St. Basil the Great explains this passionate desire of Satan in such an interesting way: realizing his powerlessness in the fight against God, the devil seeks to take revenge on Him at least by inclining the image of God - man - to sin.

The Apostle Paul says about sinners that the devil “has ensnared them in his will”iii. They are like birds caught in a snare; the hunter who catches them can do whatever he wants with them - they are in his power. Thus, a person who is seduced by the bait of the devil (this bait is the deceptive sweetness of sin) finds himself in his snare. “Only birds,” correctly notes Saint Innocent of Kherson, “rush about, try to escape from captivity, but we rarely do.”

“The Kingdom of God is within you,” says the Savior. This means that not only after death, but already now we can join the Kingdom of Heaven, acquire it into our hearts. The Kingdom of God is within us - this, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, “when God is with us in unity.” But we have the power to create in ourselves both the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil. One enters the Kingdom of God through improvement in virtues and knowledge of God, while one enters the kingdom of the devil “through being rooted in vices” (St. John Cassian).

And just as we have the power to open our souls before God and let Divine grace into it or remain closed to him, so it is within our power to either let the devil into our hearts or to prevent him. “The devil takes up residence in demon-possessed people because these people have attracted evil spirits to themselves: they themselves have prepared a dwelling for the devils in themselves - swept and tidied up; by their unrepentant sins, instead of the dwelling place of God, they become a receptacle for the unclean spirit,” says the reverend. John of Damascus.

This is also confirmed by Saint Theophan the Recluse: “Our inner being is always contained; The Lord Himself stands outside and knocks for it to be opened. How does it open? Sympathy, predisposition, consent. For those who have all this leaning towards Satan, he is the one who enters... That Satan enters, and not the Lord, man himself is to blame for this.”

Examples from life fully confirm this pattern. It is important to note that hardly any of the priests are skeptical about the possibility of the devil invading a person, since it is to them, to the temple, that people come to tell about the mysterious and frightening phenomena that they have encountered.

Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko, a famous priest who lived in the 19th century, collected a number of characteristic examples of possession in his book “Spiritual World”. Let's list some of them. It is important for us that all these examples illustrate the fact: possession is not necessarily a consequence of extraordinary sins and threatens people who find themselves in some special situation; Most often one encounters the presence of the devil when the most ordinary person ossifies in the most banal vices.

Thus, a rural priest talks about what happened in a peasant family belonging to his parish. The woman, the mistress of the house, was famous for her sullen disposition and grumpiness; she was constantly seen quarreling with someone. It is not surprising that after one of these quarrels, when she shouted at the neighbor’s children for an insignificant offense, terrible things began to happen to her, about which her husband said in horror: “My wife was so furious that it was scary to approach her.”

In another case, the reason that gave the devil access to the soul turned out to be something that many consider not only not a sin, but, on the contrary, a positive trait, namely an easy, frivolous attitude towards life. Two girls chose the grave of a very sinful man as their place of “rest.” Having drunk, they began to jump over the grave and...dance. When the girls returned home from the cemetery, they began to scream and made inhuman sounds. Not knowing what to do in such a situation, the girls were locked in a separate room and a priest was called. If there were children in their place, there would be no harm to them, but these were adults, conscious people...

It must be said that there are known cases of possession of children, and at an age when they are not yet responsible for their actions, and therefore cannot be guilty of possessing the devil in them. Of course, all this remains a mystery: why the Lord sometimes allows demons to dwell in an innocent creature, but there is still logic here: most likely, this happens to the children of especially sinful people. Just as a child of drug addicts or alcoholics suffers as a result of the sins of his parents, so the soul of an infant may be given to the devil due to the inappropriate behavior of his parents. Just as in the case of parents who are drug addicts, there is no mystical punishment of God here, but the laws of spiritual life apply. The child develops in the atmosphere that he sees around him; he does not know anything else. If there is an atmosphere of holiness in the family, then from birth the child learns to communicate with God, learns prayer and a good, bright life. It is not for nothing that saintly parents and children often become famous saints (let us recall, for example, St. Sergius of Radonezh). But if the devil dwells in the souls of the parents, then the child also gets used to sin and his soul becomes open to demons.

I’ll cite an incident that happened to us several years ago, when our whole family was vacationing in the south. We were returning home from the beach by trolleybus. At the next stop, a fairly young man and woman with children – a girl of about six and a boy of about the same age – entered the trolleybus. The parents were obviously alcoholics, they talked rudely to each other, laughed at some vulgar jokes. The girl, having pushed everyone away, sat down with her brother (or friend) next to us and began to behave so boorishly and vulgarly that Father Konstantin was forced to ask her to at least be quieter. Then something unexpected happened. The girl turned to us, her face was distorted with anger, and she began to shout in a hoarse, shrill voice that she had seen Father Konstantin in the church, began to grimace and imitate the actions of the priests. We were dressed completely like a beach person, nothing showed us any special involvement in the church, moreover, we arrived in this resort town the other day, and Father Konstantin had not yet appeared in the church. And from the girl’s screams it was clear that she really didn’t know anything. The mother tried to silence the girl, as the whole bus looked in surprise at the literally raging child, but she couldn’t, and the whole family got off the trolleybus.

And in particular danger are children whose parents either themselves are involved in the occult sciences, or turn to people involved in this (for example, taking a sick child to their grandmothers in order to help in a magical way).

So, by deigning to sin, we place ourselves (and perhaps our children) at the disposal of the devil, who penetrates into the soul and takes hold there as we take root in sin. And the holy fathers noted that sin does not enter the soul at once, but gradually, passing through stages of development from an extraneous, external impulse knocking on the soul, to the master’s disposal of it.

O. Konstantin Parkhomenko