Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov defined prelest as “a wounding of human nature by falsehood” or “man’s assimilation of falsehood as truth”. 

There are many difficulties on the spiritual path. One of the worst dead ends we can find ourselves in is a spiritual delusion (Gr. Plane, Slav. Prelest) or deception. Prelest manifests itself in different forms but the most deceptive aspect of it is a firm belief that you are on the right spiritual path and you are constantly instructing others as to why they are wrong or not living correctly, while others who see your error try to point it out and are often condemned as misguided and themselves delusional. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we must be careful to run this race, this spiritual journey, in truth and love with a healthy dose of discernment given to us by the Holy Spirit. These are some of the various ways prelest manifest itself:

Disobedience: In the first stage of our spiritual walk (purification), absolute obedience must be given to the spiritual father (spiritual guide) regarding thoughts or noetic struggles. It has long been the practice in the Orthodox Church that one should have a spiritual father to guide one through the dangers of the spiritual journey and help keep you on the Royal Path. Absolute obedience does not mean blind obedience or opening oneself up to spiritual abuse, it is about a conscience self-emptying (Gr. Kenosis) to escape the desire for recognition i.e. pride. Obedience remains a precarious matter in our day of skepticism towards authority and clergy. It is essential that a spiritual father must be chosen carefully and vetted as qualified for soul guidance.

Laxity: Realistically, we all fall into sins repeatedly, this occurs in the first stage (purification) and the second (illumination). The difference between the two is seen in the speed and the depth of the repentance that follows the sin. If we are lax with seeing the seriousness of our sins, we begin to develop a sense of “routine,” which is a result of spiritual delusion, especially when we begin to think our sins are really just a “part of oneself,” then all progress is blocked. We then become accustomed to rote prayers, lukewarm spirituality. In doing this we allow our passions to become powerful, and they eventually overwhelm us. The delusion in this is the mistake of identifying with intrusive thoughts. This must be avoided. If your thoughts lead you to sin, they are from the evil one. They must be starved through spiritual practice, the Jesus prayer etc. Making peace with these thoughts or living with them leads to delusion. In the battle against the delusion of laxity we must not work against the body and mind but always with and for them (by fighting bad thoughts with the Jesus Prayer). Orthodox Hesychastic spirituality places Christ at the center of all our struggles, and so must we!

Phyletism: A different form of delusion can be national, race-based, or religious. Many can fall into this spiritual delusion, believing that one is superior to other groups because of nationality, ethnicity, country, race, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, etc. What is important here is to remember that the goal of the spiritual life is deification, redemption, and the salvation of all mankind, NOT just a particular group, race, nationality, but ALL peoples and nations. Christ said go into all the nations and preach the gospel. But the delusion of belonging to a certain group, such as we see today in the pan-heresy of ecumenism is really a complete leveling of all Orthodox Christianity and a denial of Christ, His Church, and the Gospel. It is the formation the Anti-Christ’s satanic Anti-Church. It is for this reason, beloved, that we must strive to enter the strait gate, the narrow path, the royal path and focus not on the spiritual delusion of phyletism but seek a city whose builder and maker is God! You have been called out of the world and told not to love the world or the things in the world, and if you do, the love of the Father is not in you. God forbid!!

Conclusion: “Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5).

These are your marching orders! Remembering that the battle begins in your mind and that the source of self-delusion and demonic deception is the false thought. I close with this quote from Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov:

“By means of falsehood, the devil infected mankind at its very root, our first parents, with eternal death. For our first parents were deceived, i.e., they acknowledged falsehood as the truth, and having accepted falsehood in the guise of truth, they wounded themselves incurably with mortal sin, as is attested by our ancestor Eve, when she said: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Gen. 3:13). Thenceforth, our nature, infected with the poison of evil, has, voluntarily or involuntarily, inclined toward evil which, to our perverted will, distorted reason, and debauched heart, presents itself as good. I say voluntarily because there still remains within us a remnant of the freedom to choose between good and evil. And I say involuntarily because that remnant of freedom does not function as complete freedom, but rather under the unavoidable influence of the wound of sin. Thus is every human born and cannot be otherwise; and for this reason, we all, without exception, find ourselves in a state of self-delusion and demonic deception. From this view of man’s state with regard to good and evil, the state which is necessarily characteristic of each human being, we arrive at the following definition of spiritual deception which explains it satisfactorily: spiritual deception is man’s assimilation of a falsehood which he accepts as truth…” (Excerpted from a longer article in Orthodox Life, July-August, 1980).

Beloved, be not deceived, but run your race with perseverance, faith and discernment.

GOD LOVE YOU!

Published on rocana.org in August 2025