– Elder, the things that are said by those who go over to the Pentecostals—that is, about seeing visions, speaking in tongues, etc.—are those things from their own imagination, or from demonic influences?

– They are energies of demonic influences; because when they go over to the Pentecostals and are re-baptized, they are actually disregarding, denying the Holy Baptism: I confess one Baptism, in absolution of sins… as the Creed declares, in which case, they un-baptize themselves and become susceptible to demonic influences and then they … jabber-jabber, supposedly in tongues. "It is the Holy Spirit of the Pentecost talking" they tell us. But it is not the Holy Spirit; it is a whole mess of unclean spirits.

What tongues? They are merely uttering gibberish, which not even they can comprehend. They even record that gibberish and then produce statistics and reach conclusions: "That tongue has so many hallelujahs in it, and there are so many in the other tongue…" Well, it’s to be expected, among so much jabber-jabber, you will surely hear something that resembles the word hallelujah in one of the languages of the world! And so you can see, while it is something demonic, they actually believe that demonism to be the energy of the Holy Spirit, and that they are supposedly experiencing what the Apostles had experienced on the day of the Pentecost! It is blasphemies that they believe, which is the reason why they become demon-possessed.

– Elder, why are they re-baptized?

– Because they claim: "When I was baptized, I was young and didn’t know; now I am baptized and fully aware." They are re-baptized, and thus justify their sins. If the Church didn’t have infant Baptism, what would happen to infants in case of death before their Baptism? That is why a godparent becomes the child’s guarantor and recites the Creed and bears responsibility for the child until it is of age. Is the child treated unfairly, simply for being baptized young? No; on the contrary, it is helped because it receives Holy Communion. And when the child has grown up and is already baptized, even if any sin is committed, there is always repentance and confession, which can wash away any committed sin, without the need of being baptized again.

– Elder, they say that the fire-walkers on the feast-day of Saint Constantine trample across a patch of glowing coals on the ground and yet they don’t suffer any burns. What is that about?

– It is both demonic as well as a deception. The fact that they dance holding an icon or the Cross is impudence on their part—it is a denial of faith. The grace of God withdraws from them, which is why the devil assists them. Is it possible for the devil to not help them, after such behavior? Of course not; they are "entitled" to receive his assistance! However, it is also their own cunning that helps. They go beforehand to prepare the spot; in other words, they burn wood taken from plane trees—wood that leaves a lot of ash behind—and they also know where they tread, when they dance. Why don’t they choose wood that will retain the burning embers? Let someone else prepare the fire, and THEN let them go there and dance on it!

Someone once said to me: "It’s a miracle! The fire-walkers are standing on the fire and aren’t being burnt!" "Is that what you’re admiring?" I replied; "Demons have been standing inside the fires of hell for entire centuries and haven’t been burnt; that’s what you should be admiring, and not these people here, who are treading lightly over some coals and ashes without being burnt…"

– Elder, how can people—even educated people—believe in reincarnation?

– Reincarnation "accommodates" certain people, especially the atheists, the unbelievers. This is the devil’s greatest trick. The devil keeps them living the life of sin, by inspiring the thought that the soul comes back again and again in this world. "Eh, even if you don’t succeed this time around (says the devil), you will come back to life and succeed the next time; and if again you don’t succeed, you will again come back, again and again… you will evolve…"! So those people say to themselves "It doesn’t matter if I commit this sin also…" and they throw caution to the wind; they live carelessly, they don’t repent. See how the devil blinds them, and gets them hooked in hell? I have never seen bigger cunning and artfulness by the devil, for the purpose of getting people into hell! And if the devil gets his hooks into you once, do you think he will let you turn back? This is the worst theory of all the Hinduist theories.

Late one afternoon, a young man came by the my hut. "You know, around this time of day, I normally read Vespers" I told him. "Do you still preoccupy yourself with those things?" he said, and walked off. The next day he came around again and told me about his visions. "Did you smoke hash before?" I asked him. "I used to. Yes. But when I saw the visions, I hadn’t smoked any." "Did you perhaps read anything about reincarnation?" "Yes" he replied. Well, that’s where he was snagged. He had read about reincarnation, egotism entered the scene and it fashioned dreams that thousands of years ago, he was an important man, and wealthy! Then he saw in another vision that he went up to heaven but he wasn’t listed there, so he was told to go back down. The devil created that condition in him. So I remarked: "All of this is just fairytales, and you actually believe it?"

And unfortunately there are even educated people who believe in such foolishness. There was a donkey near my hut which they had named Nasser, because he was such a frisky animal. One day, a Greek man who lived in Switzerland came to visit, and he heard me calling out to the donkey with the name Nasser. When he came to visit again after some time, he brought with him a box of plain sweets and another box with special sweets. "These are for you" he said, handing me the plain sweets. "These special sweets are for Nasser" he said. "I recognized him from the last time I visited that it was Nasser. When I went up to the donkey, it looked at me with a sad gaze that broke my heart"! He actually believed that Nasser (of Egypt) was reincarnated and had become a donkey! He actually believed it! "Are you out of your mind?" I said to the man. "I named the donkey Nasser because it was such a lively creature!" But the man simply couldn’t be convinced.

And that’s nothing! Let me tell you of another incident: Years ago, some Germans went to Crete to perform a memorial service for the Germans who were killed during the Occupation in Greece. During the service, a Cretan local passed by with his donkey that was laden with his goods. When the donkey spotted all the people gathered there, he began to bray. One of the Germans thought that the donkey was his brother who had been killed in the war and was reincarnated! Apparently the donkey had recognized him and was greeting him with its braying! The German stood at attention, and—snap!—greeted it in military fashion!... He then broke into tears!... so, he immediately went over to the Cretan and said to him: "How much do you want, so I can buy it?" "Get lost!" the Cretan replied… But the German was counting his money: "This much? This much?" "Go away, leave me alone" the Cretan kept saying. Finally, another local said: "You moron, he’s paying you the value of a Mercedes for the donkey, just give it to him!" So the Cretan unloaded the donkey, removed its saddle, set it free, and the German took it with tears in his eyes, and brought it back to Germany with him!

– Seriously, Elder?

– It’s a fact! If I hadn’t heard it from a reliable witness, I wouldn’t have believed it either.

– Elder, do Hinduists achieve a certain self-control because they are helped by the severe ascesis that they perform through yoga?

– They strive and they strive, and what do they achieve with it? Orthodox self-restraint and spiritual ascesis in general always aspire to a loftier spiritual purpose: the sanctification of the soul. Their satanic, worldly ascesis is only implemented to give them a flexible body so that they can contort arms and legs like a paper puppet, and so that other foolish people might admire them and the silly demons can ridicule them. From early childhood they learn to twist their legs and place the one leg over one shoulder and the other leg over the other shoulder, and that’s how they "pray." They practice by punching their fist for many hours against a sack of gravel, and then they are enabled to break stones, wood, etc.

But, even all the things they say that they feel have an explanation. For instance, they drag their tongue until it touches their nose or they suck it in until it touches their throat, and this causes an aggravation, the feel a certain sweetness—a tickling—and they say "This is nectar"… Then they press down on certain nerves near their ears and they hear a "hummmm" sound like music. Or they press their eyes and this makes them see little stars! They sit staring at the sun with eyes wide open and when they close them, they can see light! "There! We did it! We saw uncreated light!"

So the devil says: "Oh, so you want lights? Let me give you lights!" and he then cultivates their imagination so that afterwards, without pressing their eyes or holding them open to the sun, they will be able to see lights. The devil often tries to seduce us without being provoked, by presenting lights, etc., but we turn our backs to him, so just imagine what would happen if we provoked him! All he needs is an excuse to act!

– In other words Elder, the devil presents them with various images?

– Yes. He cultivates their imagination to a large degree and then he leads them to delusion. Some of our own people go to the Indians (the holy Elder is referring to the people of India, not to American Indians, Ed.), the Indians teach them to utter some vile remarks in their language about Christ, about the Holy Mother, about the saints—unbeknownst to them—and they become demon-possessed. Then they begin to utter all sorts of ineffable words. They reach a wild state and others who observe them think that they are in a spiritual state! But it is a demonic state.

The Indians, who are an extremely intelligent people, while having metaphysical concerns and lots of heart, preoccupy themselves with supposed philosophy, with delusions and with sorceries. They wreak havoc among Europeans with their theories. And you can see how their leaders are as fit as bulls, while the others in India are dying of hunger! They come to Greece also, and they fool people with nirvana, with laziness, with reincarnations… meantime in their books they even use quotes from the Holy Bible, from the Philokalia, from the Fathers, and thus attract people. In olden times, the Orthodox would in no way believe in Hinduist theories! Now—how can one say it—there are even some very correct people who support such nonsense and who give a whole lot of money. Hinduism has caused severe damage.

– Elder, are there any Indians who are Orthodox Christians?

– Very few. There were a few who remained from the Church that the Apostle Thomas had established, but they were abandoned. Others became (Roman) Catholics, others Protestants. Today, the Orthodox there are very few.

The things that other religions or para-religions present as miracles have nothing in common with the miracles of our Faith. Christ wants us to be honorable; He does not want us to love Him because He is Omnipotent. If He wanted, He could work a miracle and make the whole world believe instantly. But that way, He would be confining man’s freedom. That is why He said Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed. (Jn 20:29).