“But the person feels better, easier after my prayers! Isn’t it necessary to help people?!” the ‘love-abundant healer’ interrupted me, surprised.
“Help is necessary, doing them good, not evil! (Don’t be surprised, if the person were sane—the discussion would have already ended long ago after the above arguments with explanations, but with the sick you need to talk about the same thing, approaching from different sides—maybe something will finally click in their sick soul; and of course, incessant proper ascetic prayer!). Let’s look at the gospel example that the Lord gives: when a demon leaves a person, it wanders through waterless places and when, returning to the house from which it came, finds it empty, then settles back in it, but not alone, but with seven other spirits more wicked than itself—and the condition of that person is worse than before! The demon does not leave a person by itself—someone frightened it (scared it—V.A.) or drove it out! (Driving out a demon can be done by any person, especially after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the main thing is to want to and use human strength! The demon fears and trembles before a person—it’s a fallen, former servant spirit and especially when it’s narrowly functional; a demon is a frightened creature by definition, existing in a state opposite to love; and it gains power over a person only through her voluntary servitude—who commits sin, is a slave to sin, passions—demons! And is it beneficial to engage in exorcism and when?!) Did the one who did this do good to the possessed?! A blind man would say: ‘of course, it became easier for him, he stopped suffering!?’ But in reality—made it even worse than it was! A blind egotist, a slave to passions, dreaming that he ‘loves’! Rushes to help another blind man, who senselessly allows help, and instead of helping does (receives) harm—and both end up worse off than before!
“What do demons have to do with this? We’re talking about diseases—I’m not casting out demons!” the ‘healer’ joined the dialogue.
“Recently you claimed to know the causes of diseases, and now you’re asking about demons?!” I played along in response and continued—”haven’t you read in the Scripture and the Holy Fathers that demons are responsible for certain diseases. (You haven’t forgotten that my task, which I pursue throughout the conversation: to show the blindness and ignorance of the opponent to himself…).
“I’ve never heard such a thing!” the ‘healer’ replied, surprised.
“And in the Gospel have you never read?” I ask, “that there is a demon of muteness and deafness (‘mute and deaf spirit, come out…’), a demon of contortion (‘Satan has bound a woman for 18 years’), Satan’s thorn in Apostle Paul (a head disease, and behind it stood Satan) and so on. And you, approaching the treatment of a disease, can scare a demon, and it will flee, it becomes easier for the person (symptom-disease will be removed—see above)—and you think that you have prayed to God (cruel and just) for the health of the sick—when in reality, made it worse for both than before! (If you at least secretly ‘prayed’ [mumbled, recited, squeezed tears from yourself, beat your chest, crushed yourself], to yourself, so that no one, even the sick, would know—it’s one thing—harm only for yourself and there is a chance that you won’t scare the demon and won’t ‘help’ (not harm) the sick. But you pray publicly, and even beside the sick… Does geography matter to a healer? For example, Saint John of Kronstadt prayed for those who were thousands of kilometers away and only sent names by telegram, and you say, I will walk with you! This is already a spell, magic, and not a prayer to the omnipresent God—I say this to somehow enlighten…).
Let’s talk a bit more about help, about doing good. Imagine a scene: two neighbors live on the edge of a large chasm. One neighbor has a huge tree growing in the yard in front of his house. The neighbor complains to the neighbor: this tree has ‘gotten to me’ (finished me off)—it’s dark in the house, the sun doesn’t reach the window all year, nothing grows in the garden in the shadow of that tree, half the fall I only do that rake leaves, and how many good deeds I could do, during the time I spend on leaves: read the Bible, akathists, canons… visit the sick, help the needy, visit prisoners… But trouble, I can’t cut this tree—I don’t have a chainsaw, and with an ax—no way. And the neighbor says, I hate you but my heart breaks looking at your torments and sufferings, and you ask for good. I will help you—I have a chainsaw. And the neighbor cut down the neighbor’s tree—and there was great joy in both… one thanks, the other says, it’s nothing… They went to sleep with their families. That night there was heavy rain, and their houses slid from the edge, on which their houses stood, into the abyss! They forgot (or didn’t see, didn’t know—blind senseless ones) that this tree held the boundary with its roots. One asked, and the other had mercy, felt sorry, and helped—and they perished together with their families…