Archpriest Grigory Grigoriev. And how did you yourself come to God, Grigory Igorevich? Why build an "artificial brain"

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and how to survive in difficult times

On the bright day of the Nativity of Christ, we publish an interesting interview with Archpriest Grigory Grigoriev, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, professor, MD, psychotherapist-narcologist, teacher of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy, rector of the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in the village of Yukki.

– Today the topic of our conversation is “Captive of Depression”. Our topic is serious, but I would like to express my great joy that today we met in the Conversations with the Father program. Thank you for taking the time to come.

- Thank you very much, Michael. I think that this is providential, because the time is autumn, there is no snow, dampness, dirt, especially in St. Petersburg, so people's mood is lowered. WITH God help Let's try to cheer up.

- Let's try to define what people today call depression, a condition so common in our time.

- You can give a lot of definitions, but if we are talking about real depression, I would say that depression is when there are no desires, the absence of desires. In other words, if one of the people caught a goldfish, it fulfilled all the desires and the person would have no desires, then he would become depressed. We see how, in the fairy tale about the goldfish, an old woman enters depression: first a trough, then a hut, then a noblewoman, then a queen, then a mistress of the sea. And when she becomes the mistress of the sea, she wants the fish to serve her and be on her parcels, there is a desire to humiliate the fish. This was the beginning of a very serious depression, because the acquisitions that the old woman received with the help of a goldfish did not please her for long, on the contrary, the joy of life was lost and she became depressed.

Depression is the absence of desires, this is when a person lies down on the road of life and does not move anywhere, like a bear that lies in a den for the whole winter. But a person is not a bear, a person has little time and it passes quickly. Therefore, depression is when there are no desires, I would say so in a language understandable to people. If a person's life motivation disappears, if he loses interest and meaning in life, if he does not see his own path, then he is on the path that will lead him to depression.

– Where does it come from? Here a person lives, lives, works, works, is inspired by something, admires and suddenly falls into depression and becomes completely demotivated.

- I told about the goldfish, this case is more fabulous than practical. In practice, things are completely different. The Lord God gave man a road - the road of joy, love, the road of God's commandments - and said: “Here, go through the world along this road, do not turn off it anywhere. And when it seems to you that you are faced with insurmountable obstacles that are completely impossible to overcome (for example, impassable abysses or high mountains, or dense forests, or marshy swamps, or wide rivers will appear in front of you), - do not be afraid, I will be next to you. you. What is impossible for man is possible for God.” After all, faith in God is not only the observance of the commandments of God, the movement along this road, but also trust in God, thanksgiving to God for everything.

So, on the road of God's commandments, we constantly meet with difficulties. Sometimes these difficulties are absolutely insurmountable for us, and then we see detours: how can we turn off this road and bypass these difficulties. And when we leave this road, this is the beginning of the road of depression. Everything that takes us away from the path of Divine love, from the path of God's commandments, is the beginning of the path of depression. In other words, difficulties are the way to God. Here the holy fathers sometimes met with each other and said: “Well, father, how was the day?” “Yes,” he says, “it was a disgusting day. No one slandered, no one slandered, no one poured mud. We are not praying well, we need to intensify our prayer.” Then they meet joyful, happy: “We were plentifully manured, now we will flourish in a magnificent flower.”

I remember one woman who, being in a Byzantine temple (it was around the 6th century), came every day to the service and sobbed incessantly, as if she had great grief. And one of the clergy, noticing this, came up and decided to comfort her: “Tell me, mother, what happened to you?” He thought that someone close to him must have died. She says: “Father, that’s the trouble, that for three years the trouble has bypassed me, not even a single chicken has gone missing. The Lord must have left me." For the people who moved along the path of God's commandments, difficulties, trials and stresses were harbingers of grace.

Yes, it can be difficult to understand how one can rejoice in difficulties. They rejoiced not in difficulties, but in the grace that would come after them. Now, if this is translated into medical language, then in the human brain, in the central nervous system, there are centers that produce stress hormones, and there are nerve cells that produce hormones of joy. The area of ​​the brain that produces hormones of joy is seven times larger than the area of ​​stress. More than one and a half thousand hormones of joy are known, there are only five hormones of stress. Stress hormones stimulate the zone of joy, turn it on, turn it on.

Man is designed in such a way that the brain is the laziest physiological organ, he would sleep and eat all the time. But in order to encourage him to act, there is stimulation. The stimulus, in ancient times, is a pointed stick, studded with iron, which the driver poked into the back of the ox so that he would run. And when a person is in a blissful slumber, in captivity of despondency, depression, an incentive appears. And if he stimulates a person well, then in an instant despondency and depression disappear, a zone of joy wakes up, a second wind opens in a person, he overcomes difficulties, meets God and receives grace.

This is precisely the task of stress - to awaken the zone of joy. This is a trigger, so stress for spiritual people was a harbinger of grace. The more stress, the more grace. And when there was no stress for a long time, people understood that something was wrong. Have they strayed from this path? After all, this does not happen, this is the most difficult road in the world, the road to the Kingdom of Heaven. That's when the navigator of the human soul is set on a course for the Kingdom of Heaven, then all difficulties turn into joys and all stresses turn into a fair wind for a ship that has a rudder and sails. But if there is no rudder and sails, then such a ship breaks against sharp stones from a strong wind. It is very, very important to understand that stress is like a starter in a car that starts the engine. And the car starts moving. So is man. But if the engine won't start, you won't get very far on the starter until the battery is dead.

So people who live only in a stress zone move all the time on this starter. Naturally, they are exhausted; Naturally, they get depressed. Strictly speaking, depression and despondency are signals that a person, the navigator of his soul, has placed on the kingdom of the underworld, on another department, on the power of chaos, the power of the evil spirit, death, as it were, in the other direction. Because as soon as he transfers the navigator to the Kingdom of Heaven, he will be like Christ in his bosom; he will be in the Kingdom of God.

It is the road to the Kingdom of Heaven that is stress, difficulties and obstacles on the way, and the road to hell is wide, calm, paved with good intentions and, it would seem, easy. That is, in fact, depression is the result of choosing easy life paths.

– interesting moment: I was hooked on the thought of two fathers who knew how to laugh at themselves. Probably, it is very important for a person to be able to laugh at himself, so as not to fall into despondency. Because a person who is discouraged, as I understand it, is obsessed with his ego: “I was not understood, not appreciated”, something else ... Does such healthy self-criticism matter here?

– It can be said that despondency as a pre-stage of depression, depression as a more pronounced form of despondency are forms of the evil spirit, human pride. And, of course, it all comes together. It is not for nothing that despondency and depression come in the ladder of development of sin before the main sin of pride. This is, as it were, the penultimate step before the main sin of pride, the root system of pride, that is, the sin of pride grows out of despondency and depression. And, of course, pride is not able to laugh at itself. The best medicine, the best vaccine, the best antidote against the poison of pride is a sense of humor towards oneself.

And indeed, I would say, another cure for pride is not to consider yourself smart, remembering that fools do not go crazy. As amazing as it is, they go crazy smart people, that is, before a person's psyche is damaged, he feels very smart. Sometimes he really is like that, but if he had a sense of humor towards himself, if he were able to laugh at himself, then he would never fall into such a negative state. I would say that a sense of humor is the most important weapon against the dark forces of the invisible world.

- And it helps to produce those same hormones of joy, which are very numerous?

- Certainly. The fact is that the hormones of joy help to produce everything: the sun shines, the bird sings, the grass turns green. And, in general, when a person goes to meet difficulties, then joys inevitably come. The most important thing is not to get away from difficulties under the anesthesia of pathological addictions: alcohol, smoking, drugs, gambling or something else. When a person goes into these addictions, the stress zone turns off, it is under anesthesia; and under anesthesia there is a huge part of the brain of the zone of joy, a person becomes, as it were, a living dead. Then, of course, there are very big problems.

There is another problem here: if the zone of joy does not turn on for a long time (and a sense of humor is one of the main inclusions of the zone of joy), then it begins to atrophy, the brain begins to hurt. Brain death is Alzheimer's disease, it's because the joy zone is not used. Any organ that does not work begins to atrophy. If a healthy person is put on a bed for several days and then abruptly forced to rise, his head will spin and his muscles will tremble. And if the zone of joy in the brain does not work, then it begins to atrophy; then, of course, develop serious illness brain, including mental. But the trigger is avoiding difficulties.

Let us remember the knight at the crossroads, the three roads on which the knight stood: “If you go straight, you will lay down your head, to the right you will get married, to the left you will be rich.” A strange inscription, it would seem; who will go straight? Left and right - there is an ambush, death and robbers. That is, such joyful invitations to be rich and marry lead to the power of death, in other words. And straight ahead is the road to God, but it is overgrown with forest, there sits the Nightingale the Robber, who, it would seem, is invincible for a person. But what is impossible for man is possible for God. Ilya-Muromets passes along this road. That is, when a person chooses difficult roads, he will never fall into depression. When a person goes on easy ways, inevitably the chaos of the realm of death overtakes him. After all, "hell" in Greek is chaos; and this chaos begins to penetrate inside, a person gains the spirit of chaos. The spirit of chaos has a paralyzing effect on him, all desires disappear from him, he finds himself in an inner emptiness, in depression. And, of course, depression always begins with resentment against God. Against the backdrop of pride, thoughts always arise that the world is unfair ...

- ... something was missing ...

- Undoubtedly. And such a person feels like a poor orphan, feels that no one loves him, no one appreciates him, everyone is unfair to him. And in fact, according to the figurative expression of Paisius Svyatogorets, he begins to turn from a “bee” into a “fly” in terms of his worldview, he begins to find garbage dumps in any flowering garden.

–And if this situation is considered from the point of view of a person who is depressed? He hears these words that he needs to tune in to the Kingdom of Heaven, this is all right, but he feels that he has no strength. How can a neighbor help such a person? Or if he himself does not want to, then he will not get out of this state?

– The fact is that depressions are of two main types: depressions of the neurotic circle (minor psychiatry), when a person needs to be encouraged in every possible way, lifted, dragged, involved, awakened, got, not left alone; and depression of the psychotic circle in mental illness. In this case, there is a real danger to life, and hospitalization may be necessary and drug treatment on initial stage. And when the acute period is stopped, then again begin to involve the person in a full-fledged real life to overcome difficulties. So it could be either way.

Therefore, at home, psychotic depressions are extremely rare in mental illness, more often these are different forms of neuroses. And I would say that these depressions can be divided into true and false. False - this is pre-depression, it's still like only flowers, but there are already berries. And in that depression, a person has one thought that it is necessary to leave life as the highest manifestation of pride, a protest against the world, against God, against the Universe, against all people, because he, such a person, was not appreciated. Here you need psychiatric treatment Sometimes.

- The problem of suicide, you know, is very relevant today. Recently, a terrible tragedy happened to the guys in Pskov.

- All this, of course, is an amazing thing, but if we pay attention to such conditions that occur with our youth (or to the fact that Holland is one of the first countries in the world in terms of depression and suicide, and 30% of the population of Europe have brain diseases ), - this is all an indicator that it is with an increase in the standard of living that the number of depressions increases, no matter how amazing it is. If anything, with an increase in physical health and material well-being, the number of depressions increases. Take our Paralympic team. They, in fact, are in a very good moral and psychological state, healthy people can only envy them; it would seem that they should be taken as an example.

And what the children had (in Pskov) is just a search for their own life path. They didn't understand why they were doing it; apparently, to some extent they felt lonely, abandoned, useless, they wanted to somehow establish themselves, somehow manifest themselves. We do not know all the details that happened at their home, at school. There was love. Apparently, the parents were against it, and they decided to establish themselves in this way. Undoubtedly, it was all connected with the intake of alcohol ... It is difficult to analyze the situation; they actually died during the assault - something was done wrong in principle. It shouldn't be like that, there had to be a different way to deal with this situation. It seemed to me that no one was ready for it, everyone was confused, they took some steps, not very accurate and not very correct; as if there were some kind of graceless asceticism, they started “for health”, and ended “for peace”.

There was no depression, of course, there was youthful bravado. Indeed, in the new virtual world When children watch a lot of different games, in particular those related to murder, for them murder and suicide become to some extent the same as pressing a button on a computer, as in a game version, on a game simulator. But life, as experience shows, is not a gaming simulator.

I would say that gambling and computer addiction is one of the factors that leads to the deepest depression. In Las Vegas, in America, in the world gaming center, many people die right during the game. I once lived for a whole week in Las Vegas on purpose, I was interested to see how people play, how they live. You know, there is a party all night, a very interesting place, very cheerful; and right there a skyscraper for suicides, where the losers constantly, almost in a queue, jump off this roof in order to crash. Because when people have big debts, all this together (on the one hand, joy, on the other hand, death, grief) are very interesting sensations. As in Sodom and Gomorrah. The world seems to have gone crazy. But the Lord is everywhere, He is there too. It is gambling addiction that leads to depression.

And I think that in last moment when these children did so many things, they had some kind of depressive reaction, an acute depression; it seemed to them that there was no way out, that the only way out was suicide. After all, suicide happens when there is no way out. And there was a way out. They would have surrendered, and nothing would have happened to them, because they didn’t kill anyone. Somehow they would have been conditionally condemned, everything would have ended normally, but it seemed to them that there was no way out. Yes, indeed, at the last moment, there must have been depression, otherwise they would not have been able to commit suicide. By at least, someone alone. They didn't even tell us how it happened, they probably shot at each other. Because if someone killed another, and then himself, it would probably be difficult to kill himself. That is, apparently, they did it at the same time, into each other, on command.

As for the standard of living, it’s true, because, as our older generation, looking at the younger: “What kind of depression are we talking about? We didn’t even have time to breathe, we had to survive in the war and after the war, then rise to our feet and raise our children.” And now abundance, probably, in many ways; the availability of free time, the absence of any shocks (thank God, of course, but this also plays a role) ...

- That is, the absence of great stress, shocks?

- Sometimes they ask me: “Do you ever have a bad mood?” Everyone can get tired, but, of course, I don’t have such a bad mood, because I always remember my emergency submarine on which I served. And there was a day when we had a collision with another submarine; this was the third accident for me in two calendar months on three different submarines. I went to sea three times and had an accident three times. I remember when I went up to the bridge, I saw the night sky; there was such a state that I wanted to jump and swim somewhere far away, but there was nowhere to swim.

And, looking at the starry sky, I suddenly realized that each star goes its own way, each atom in the molecules rotates in its orbits, there is order in the Universe, and since there is order, there is the Lord Who watches over everything. I was still unbaptized at that moment. And that's when all the fears instantly disappeared. Then we were towed to the base, and from the base the commander sent me to Vladivostok for medicines. We went out for several days, and we did not have a supply of medicines, but we had to go on foot, go in portable cars. While I was getting to Vladivostok, I had three car accidents on the same day: a submarine accident and three car accidents.

The third accident was the most amazing. I was on a bus and very sharp turn car jumped out. We have done flip flop, a dump truck jumped out, touched us with the edge, and our car overturned on an oak tree, and from below there was an abyss of thirty meters. And on this oak tree we balanced. Everyone got out through the side window, and I was sitting in the conductor's seat on the side, I was the last one. And the more people got out, the more machine swayed. The last woman to get out was a large woman. She is stuck in this window - and neither here nor there, but in her hands is a bag with a broken three-liter jar of sour cream, which she holds in a stranglehold and waves this bag, sour cream flows from it. I’m covered in sour cream, there’s a stuck woman in front of me, I’m trying to somehow push her out with my feet, the bus is rocking ... When I finally got out and the people who got out of the emergency bus saw me, everyone laughed, because I looked like that … Never lose your sense of humor.

When we got to Vladivostok, I went to the steam room, and it was probably the happiest thing in my life. I remember it all the time. When people talk about difficulties, about problems... you know, all of us for one day in Aleppo - and that's it, all depressions will go away instantly. Yes, indeed, we do not have enough grace, we need a huge grace in order to make up for lost time in the joy of life. And for this you have to overcome great difficulties. After all, the Lord told us: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened.” He meant: come to the sacrament of Holy Communion. “Come to Me, accept the Body and Blood, kindle the fire of your soul” - and all depression will go away.

I would also recommend to these people who are discouraged and depressed to take communion regularly, at least once a week. And when depression, take communion every day, five days, seven days, ten days in a row and see how the state will change. I am sure that there will be no trace of depression, because getting up every day in the temple is hard, it is hard to overcome the road, it is hard to stand at the liturgy for a person who is not accustomed to this. And that would be the first way out of the depression.

Indeed, the Lord gives us the Spirit of Comfort, and no one will take away our joy from us. If our joys can be taken away from us, we have not yet received that Spirit of the Comforter, about which the Lord says: “I will give the Spirit of the Comforter, and no one will take away your joy from you.” I thought for a long time, what is the Comforter Spirit? I think the Comforter Spirit is not only when a person is comforted by God, but gets the ability to comfort other people. And this is not only an ability, but also a need, because by consoling others, you receive grace.

In order to get out of depression, you need to find a person who is worse than you, help him, and depression will instantly pass. Such people are always around. Sometimes it seemed to me that I got into some kind of difficult life situation, but somehow the Lord arranged it so that I met people who were much worse off than me. It has always been that way in my life. And when I saw a person who is worse than me, and he asked for my help, I never said to him: “Well, why are you pestering me? You see, I myself am in such a state. I understood that this is a lifeline that the Lord gives me. You start helping this person, and depression goes away. And, of course, you have to laugh at your difficulties. You have to laugh: how can it be, I got lost in three trees, how can it be, I lost my heading to the Kingdom of Heaven, how the navigator of my soul got lost ...

A person can’t even imagine: our genome alone (scientists have deciphered the genome scheme) is like a galaxy in terms of structure. That is, a person consists of billions of galaxies, he has such opportunities, he was created for the joy of life. It's just that a person does not understand his abilities, which are realized to the maximum on the road of God's commandments, when meeting with God, through overcoming difficulties. And then the law turns on: you sow an act - you reap a habit, you sow a habit - you reap a character, you sow a character - you reap a destiny. This was said by the great English writer William Thackeray in his novel Vanity Fair.

– Yes, a powerful book. And when a person tries to help, he has a need to help, to drag someone behind him, but the person who needs it, as if he sat down in a shell, like a mollusk, barricaded himself very well there and does not get out? ..

– If this happens, we can assume that, apparently (as St. Seraphim of Sarov said: “Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved”), you need to kindle the fire of your own soul, you need to get closer to God yourself, there is not enough inner light. That's when the fire in the forest begins to fade, mosquitoes swoop in and attack from all sides. You have to kindle the fire of your own soul. That is, you yourself must begin to regularly take communion and ask God to give the Spirit of Comfort. Because the Comforter Spirit comes to man from God. And when the fire of the soul flares up and the Comforter Spirit comes, then it will become very easy to help a person, because we do not help a person, the Lord helps.

Our task is to help a person who has fallen into the abyss of depression, into the swamp of depression, into the dense forests of depression, again head towards God, lead him to the path of God's commandments and disappear, not obscure God from man. That is, in this help we must always remain like transparent glass, so as not to hinder anyone from meeting with God, so as not to hinder the movement of such people towards God.

– It is very important to designate a medical moment. Because you and I know: often a person who is depressed comes to the doctor, he is prescribed pills, he drinks them, and they begin to have a hard effect on his psyche. A person becomes wonderful, but, it would seem, everything becomes dull. They say: "You drink these pills for three months, and everything will pass." What can we say about this?

– You know, on the shores of the Swiss lake in Lausanne, scientists are building an artificial brain. It will cover an area of ​​many thousand hectares. Tens of thousands of people in this team. They manually assemble millions of billions of neurons. Why are scientists building artificial brains? Today in Europe, as I said, more than 30% of the population have mental illness, including depression. On this experimental model, they want to establish links between disorders: why do these depressions develop in the brain? But, as I said, one of the connections is when the zone of stress does not include the zone of joy. Because a person, faced with stress, leaves them, hides. And he needs to go towards difficulties, as in this song: "We are not created for easy ways." Only hard roads lead to God. This is one side.

On the other hand, connections between individual parts of the brain are disrupted. Here is a drug treatment - this is an emergency shutdown of diseased areas. We don’t know how to help, but with the help of anesthesia we “knock them out”. If psychotropic drugs are assigned to a person with mental illness, then these emergency areas will be turned off for him and his behavior will practically not change, and if assigned to a person with neurosis, he will feel like a zombie, he will actually be like under anesthesia: not alive and not dead. That is, the reaction to medications will also show the depth of damage to this person.

Therefore, of course, with deeper injuries, medical treatment is needed ... One of the causes of neurosis is the accumulation of negative information, negative memories. I served on a submarine, there are many devices, from the work of which the hull of the submarine is magnetized. The induced magnetic field knocks down the indicators of the devices, and they begin to "fail". A ship approached, threw a wire, passed a current, removed the induced magnetic field, and the devices worked normally.

A person also has devices - five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell. If a person accumulates negative memories in his memory, then he turns from a “bee” into a “fly”. Why are they piling up? Internal, endogenous alcohol is responsible for the destruction of negative information in memory. Bursts, the production of alcohol occur during stress, with emotional upheaval. Stress and emotional upheavals are necessary for a person. Normally, a person produces 10-12 grams of 80% alcohol, a glass of wine. With some current stresses, this will erase negative memories, but if there are big memories, then they will not be erased. You need a big emotional shock, a lot of stress, then maybe a bottle of vodka or more will stand out inside - and everything will be erased. Here, in fact, is a medicine that enhances the production of internal alcohol - valerian extract. Why does the cat love valerian? Because it enhances the production of internal, endogenous alcohol. And a person begins to get drunk from his own alcohol and almost quickly forgets the bad.

But valerian extract should be taken long-term, like all herbs; it will accumulate in the body for only one month, that is, there may not be an immediate effect. Daily dose should be up to 2000 milligrams for despondency and depression, and only then, when a person comes out of them, it will be possible to reduce it. There is no addiction to valerian, dependence on it does not develop.

Therefore, in such groups, some should be given valerian, others should be given psychotropic drugs, and everyone should receive communion. Communion will also show to what extent the spiritual component has connected to this state, because when a person is always in the stress zone of his brain, he goes into the zone of chaos of the invisible world, into direct contact with negative forces. A person in such a state should in no case be engaged in the study of his sins, the connections of sins with the events that have occurred, because it turns out that at this moment a person is trying to penetrate the thoughts of Satan, which leads to the very terrible damage- the pride of the mind. In order to see your sins, you need to come to a blessed state. Only through the grace of God do we see sins, and so the Lord hid them for the time being for our spiritual strengthening. Infants are first fed with soft food, food of joy, and when a person is strengthened spiritually, he is given more solid food. But the Lord does it. That is, the vision of sins does not occur through the study of sins, but through an encounter with God. Light appears, and in that light we see our own darkness.

And today, many people who are trying to study sins from books, to establish a connection between life events and sins, are like students of medical schools who study a psychiatry textbook in the Psychiatry cycle and make themselves all the diagnoses that they read there. But that's not the case at all. The professor always excludes these diagnoses. Therefore, here it is also necessary to understand this very clearly. When we find ourselves in depression, we must collect positive, bright, joyful emotional memories, we must become a hunter for bright memories. Walk down the street - stop, watch the sun set over the horizon. See the blue sky - stop, look, the world is beautiful. It is necessary to accumulate these views, images, memories. I've been hunting for positive memories all my life. And when it's hard for us, you can hide there, like a submarine hides during a storm in sea ​​depth. She dives deeper than the waves. But for this, the soul must be narrow, in which only the Lord God is placed, then the water of the storm will not stir up the soul to the bottom, there will be a part of the soul that is not subject to the storm. It is in this place that all positive memories are stored.

Why don't many people have such positive memories? Not because they don't exist, but because there is nowhere to store them. “The soul of a Russian person is wide,” said Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, “both God and Satan fit in it.” And when a strong wind blows over a wide and shallow reservoir, the water mixes to the very bottom and turbidity appears in the soul.

One autumn, I was driving along our dam, and the "Marquis Puddle" - the Gulf of Finland at strong wind was brown. So is the human soul, because in the soul modern man both God and Satan. You have to shrink your soul. We narrow the soul by regular, constant communion. The soul narrows, depth appears, and when we fall into the storms of the worldly sea, our emotions boil, they produce hormones of joy, alcohol, which erases everything, and in the depths we have silence. This is the road to the Kingdom of Heaven that is inside. After all, the Lord said to the disciples: “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, everything else will be added to you.” “And where to look for this Kingdom of Heaven?” – His disciples asked, because they were simple Galilean fishermen. And He answered them: “The Kingdom of Heaven will not come in a conspicuous way, and they will not say: behold, it is here or there, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” He also gave one hint: "Unless you are like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

I want to say: the criterion for checking that a person is on the road of the commandments of Divine love is that he lives like in Christ's bosom. This is a prerequisite. If a person has set a navigator, but in the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of God is a prototype of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth) does not live in Christ's bosom, the navigator is set incorrectly. You have to rearrange it again. And how to set the navigator? The Lord puts the navigator, ask - and He will put it up for you.

These words of our Lord are very valuable, that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us and that we must be like children. When children run out into the street or out of kindergarten, it is probably worth paying attention to them in order to accumulate positive impressions, positive emotions.

How do they turn stress into joy? And like a crying child, if he is given a candy, he instantly enters a state of joy.

It is amazing.

So we must behave in the same way. Children are always "bees", they always find a flower in the garbage, and for them the world is a blooming garden. In fact, the image of the man of God is the image of Ivan the Fool from a Russian fairy tale, because there is no evil spirit in him. The evil spirit is the spirit of death; it is the opposite of the spirit of love. There was no cunning in Ivan the Fool, and therefore he was perceived as a fool by crafty people. Because the apostle Paul said: “We are like rubbish swept out of a hut.” Ivan the Fool was not a fool, since he becomes king at the end of the tale. And smart brothers were not smart, since they received ten caps of silver instead of a kingdom. But this is how it turns out if we remember the definition of love by the Apostle Paul: “Love is long-suffering, merciful, does not seek its own, does not rejoice in iniquity, rejoices in the truth, believes in everything, hopes in everything, covers everything, forgives everything.” Think: “He believes everything, hopes for everything, forgives everything, covers everything” - this is the image of a “divorced sucker”. We are like rubbish swept out of the hut.

What is human wisdom? The wisdom of a person is “I don’t trust anyone, I don’t want to live, I’m depressed.” Sometimes people say: “Well, how come, here they are without God, but so successful.” To say so, you need to know what this successful man without God thinks about in long sleepless nights. When he wakes up at night, what thoughts he has, what hellish abysses of chaos open up to his soul. It's just an externally varnished coffin. And if this coffin is opened, everything will be different.

This does not mean that the rich cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. If for them main goal is the Kingdom of Heaven, then neither wealth nor power - nothing can harm a person. Navigator must be set correctly. In spiritual life, it is not the speed of getting rid of sins and not the vision of sins that is important, but what is important is firm directional stability, a correctly chosen vector of movement, the end point of our life is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within us.

- At the end of the program, you can tell our viewers some brief wish, the crown of all of the above.

- I think that all mental illnesses are associated with the loss of the highest moral spiritual values ​​in society in the broadest sense of the word. And the lack of joy among Orthodox people is associated with a rare communion. The first Christians for the first three hundred years took communion every day. Yes, of course, we do not have the practice of Reserve Gifts, we cannot take communion every day, but according to the commandments of God (work six days, give the seventh to God), I personally think, take it out and put it down.

And those people who are discouraged should begin with regular communion. Of course, all this happens when you receive the blessing of your spiritual father, but I always bless such people to take communion regularly. In our Vyborg diocese, in our Yukka church, many priests do this. And people come out of these depressions. Eighty percent of the exit cases are due to the fact that five or six times a person takes communion, adds valerian - that's it, he rises, he has a sense of movement. And most importantly - the joy of difficulties. After all, we have enough difficulties. This is pure gold, pure diamonds, all these tests. And when life fills us with difficulties, the Lord has blessed us. Difficulties will quickly pass, this is just a winter storm, which will soon melt, and there will be a beautiful, wonderful, spring flood of rivers.

Find this bonfire of Divine love in the winter forest, like a freezing traveler, move towards this flame - and your soul will melt.

Host Mikhail Prokhodtsev

20 years of life Archpriest Grigory Grigoriev, graduate-nickname Military Medical Academy gave to the sea. He served in the Pacific Fleet, took part in long and difficult campaigns, survived three submarine accidents. Just after the third, which took place in the Indian Ocean, he thought for the first time about God's providence.

When the boat nevertheless surfaced (although many had already said goodbye to life), I got out onto the deck. Looked into the high dark starry sky and suddenly I realized: in the Universe, it turns out, there is an incredible order, - Father Gregory recalls that day. - And at that moment I realized that it could not have arisen out of chaos by chance. At that moment I believed in God.

It turned out that in three months I did not take alcohol for only three days. As the doctor realized: this has already become a problem. Since then, 35 years have passed. And for all the years of alcohol did not take a sip even once!

Grigory Grigoriev was lucky to learn from Alexander Dovzhenko, founder of the method of stress psychotherapy for alcohol addiction. He became one of the students to whom the famous doctor bequeathed his business. Grigory Igorevich began to improve the method, giving it a name - spiritually oriented therapy, or a healing vow. Today, Father Grigory is an honored doctor of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Doctor of Theology. Under his leadership, 3 doctoral and 15 master's theses on the treatment of addictions were defended.

All my life I have been building a bridge between medicine and the Church, - explains the priest.

The road to the temple

On weekends, 400-500 people gather in a small church in the village of Yukki (Leningrad Region), where Father Gregory serves as rector. Basically, these are former, present and, alas, future patients of Father Grigory. Here, even out of 12 altar servers, half are former alcoholics and drug addicts. Today they all have families, children, many have become successful businessmen. Batiushka proudly says about them: “I am sure that God will not leave them as long as they strive for him.”

- But narcologists believe that alcoholism is incurable? - I ask.

Yes, it is possible to get rid of binge by medical means, to restore the violations that occur when taking harmful substances, - Father Grigory explains. - But only God can free a person from spiritual dependence. Therefore, the basis of the method is a vow, an appeal to God for help. According to the Apostle Paul, the Power of God is made perfect in human weakness.

The treatment takes... one day. First, a 3-hour general conversation. Here the task is to convince a person that he is sick: not a single alcoholic considers himself to be such. Then an individual reception where the patient takes a vow on the cross and the Gospel. Thus, the visitor asks God for help and admits: if he starts drinking again, then he will refuse God's help. After that, a prayer is read over it. And... traction disappears. If a person again feels anxiety, a desire to drink, irritability, confession awaits him. This repeated individual technique helps to regain strength to fight addiction.

I notice that many people buy pectoral crosses right before the start of the conversation.

Strictly speaking, they cannot be called believers, - the priest confirms my observations. - Under the bombardment, a man shouts "Lord, help!" not because he believes in God, but because there is nowhere to go. So they came here, because life has driven them into a corner. But after the conversation, many become parishioners.

Often, entire families come to Father Gregory for public discussions. Alas, cases when the wives of alcoholics who took them to the doctors themselves begin to drink are not uncommon.

Russians are drunkards?

Gregory does not share the belief that female alcoholism is incurable:

A woman is a more perfect being than a man. They are made from more quality material(Adam is from mud, and Eve is from his rib), and therefore they heal faster.

With the fact that alcoholism - hereditary disease, father also disagrees:

The doctor-priest does not agree with the fact that “a Russian person has drunkenness in his blood”:

Alcoholism is a well-studied disease. In Russia, alcoholism is common in the same way as in other European countries. It's just that a Russian person has always been a person of spiritual values. When they disappeared, they occupied a niche different dependencies. But with God's help we will overcome everything.

Dear brothers and sisters, today is the first Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of Gregory the Dialogist in this Great Lent. This is a great joy for us - we take communion for the first time during the first week of Lent. The attitude with which we entered the fast was that fasting is the most joyful and brightest time in a person's life. And all the temptations that abide in us materialize in fasting because we entered it with these temptations.
One of the main temptations, which is mentioned in the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian, that we read today: “Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk” - idleness and idle talk. Before Lent, we talked about condemning our neighbor, but today we are talking about idleness and idle talk. What is this sin? The fact that idleness is a state of doing nothing, when spirits of malice in high places are connected to a person. An idle mind is the workshop of the devil, the holy fathers said. When we spend time in idleness, then voluntarily or involuntarily the door to the hellish abyss opens and demons in the form of thoughts come into our head. Therefore, it is extremely important that during Great Lent we should not have idleness. This is the only sin in the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian, which is repeated twice: idle talk is the same idleness filled with idle talk.
It would seem that idle talk, idleness is a petty sin, an excusable one. But in the course of life, huge sacks of such sins are collected along a grain of sand. When people divide sins into mortal, grave and insignificant, a very big mistake is made: any sin removes a person from God. And the concepts of "little demon" and "little sin" are very erroneous. It's like in a fairy tale about a fox and a bunny. The bunny had a bast hut, and the chanterelle had an ice hut. And when the fox got cold, she asked the bunny to let her left front paw warm up, then the right front one, and in the end the bunny ended up on the street, and the fox in the hut. So are minor sins: they seem to be invisible to us, but gradually fill all the idleness of our soul. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, remember that fasting is the most joyful, brightest time for an Orthodox person, but there should be no idleness.

Dear brothers and sisters, today is a very important day for entering into great post. As I said today at the Divine Liturgy, Lent can be a time of great temptation and it can be a time of great joy. It depends on us how we want to see it, on our condition: our irritation, our resentment, our doubts. After all, in fact, all grievances are the road of self-destruction. Our grievances harm only ourselves and no one else. And if, before the beginning of the fast, we turn to God for prayerful help, so that He will help us get rid of all offenses, so that the great peace of the Kingdom of Heaven descends into our souls, in order to be at the beginning of the fast like in Christ’s bosom, then the whole fast will pass like Christ in the bosom. And if we enter the fast in a state of great sorrow, in anticipation that many temptations await us, then it will be so. That is, today is the day when we program our post: as we tune in, so it will go.

I suggest that you tune in to fasting as the brightest, most fertile, most joyful time of your life. But someone may want to tune in to fasting as a time of sorrow and suffering, this is also not forbidden, because the road of suffering eventually ends, and it can also be the road to God. The path of love and joy and the path of sorrows and suffering - each person chooses the direction of movement, the vector that he personally likes. I have already told you that I like the road of joy, but this does not mean that if someone likes the road of sorrow, then this is bad.

Dear brothers and sisters, now I would like to briefly remind you of the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise. When Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, God had a special plan for him - Adam was to be the gardener in this garden. The gardener is an image. Those who read the Bible remember how the Lord led Adam through paradise, showing different trees, as the owner shows the garden to the gardener. It is clear that then there was no such thing as a gardener, but for us this is the most appropriate word. Adam had to take care of the trees, communicate with God, and in the process of communion with God and labor had to come closer to God - to reach the state of deification. And then he had to go to new level spiritual evolution, not in the sense of the evolution of Darwin's theory, but the evolution of a further approach to God.

I told you that in modern physical string theory there is a hypothesis that our universe is ten-dimensional. When Adam lived in Paradise, he was in the fullness of the universe of Divine love. And God asked him only one thing: not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not because the tree was bad, but because it was special. It was called the tree of eternal life. Perhaps the Lord would have offered this fruit to Adam when he graduated from the Garden of Eden school. That is, God asked Adam not to pluck these fruits willfully - everything has its time.

The evil one, of course, could not influence Adam, who was not subject to him, but he could influence the serpent, who whispered to Eve: “Why study at this school for so long? If you pick this fruit and eat it, you will be like gods.” He suggested how to immediately get a diploma, without wasting time in vain. And when Adam ate this fruit without God's blessing, he received such knowledge that he could not bear, and his mind was damaged from this - he began to hide from God in the Garden of Eden, although you and I understand that you cannot hide from God anywhere, over in paradise. And Adam understood this, but at the same time he began to hide, which means that we can say that he had some kind of spiritual madness.

Once, on the day of Forgiveness Sunday, a priest said this sermon: “Do you know why it is necessary to forgive offenses to other people? Because your grievances, except for you, do not harm anyone. Remember this. All insults harm only us, and when we forgive insults, we do better for ourselves. And when we do not forgive, we live with these grievances. I understand that sometimes a person is not able to forgive an insult to other people: insults deeply entered his soul painfully. But what is impossible for man is possible for God. No one can forbid us to ask God for the grace of forgiveness of those who offended us. At the same time, when we forgive insults, we not only do good to ourselves, but the Lord also forgives us our sins. We can always draw a connection between resentment and sin. If we take offense at someone, then we become like hypocrites who fast for show. After all, insults are always our philanthropy. How much people's opinion about us is dear to us, how much we try to please others, so touchy.

A touchy person always pleases people, and it is clear that he receives only sorrows from them. But we must please God, then the treasure of our heart will be in Heaven and no offense will concern us. Therefore, remember what is said in today's Gospel (Matthew 6:14-21): where your soul is, there your treasure will be also. Where is the soul of a man living in resentment? In the realm of insults, the realm of death, the realm of the evil spirit, i.e. a person who is offended by other people truly lives in hell and destroys himself. And when it comes to the soul Forgiveness Sunday, then paradise comes and man is resurrected. Each of us who has forgiven other people by the grace of God knows what kind of grace comes with this. This is probably one of the most blessed and joyful spiritual states, when by the grace of God we forgive those whom we are offended by.

Dear brothers and sisters, today is the feast of the First and Second Findings of the head of John the Baptist. Those who returned from the Holy Land are in their thoughts in the place where we served the Divine Liturgy, Sebastia, on the ruins of an ancient temple from the time of Queen Helena, on the site of the dungeon where the beheading of John the Baptist was performed. Sebastia, where Herod's residence was located, is a rather inaccessible place, this is the toughest part of the Palestinian Authority, where there are often closed territories. Almost only Muslims and only one Orthodox Arab family live in Herod's residence - the only keepers of these saints of revenge, they took communion with us and all wept when we served the Liturgy. The weather was amazing: continuous torrential rains were falling, the Jordan and mountain streams had never overflowed like that. When we served the Liturgy in the cave of the robber in the Lavra of St. Khariton, the stream below overflowed so much that we could not get out: it washed away the road. During the service, there was a thunderstorm and a downpour, the whole gorge rumbled, but when we went out, the sun shone above us, we got into the bus, and it rained again. During this service, the rain was somewhere nearby, and as soon as we finished the service, it immediately began to rain.

Today's Gospel (Matt. 6:1-13) was dedicated to pleasing people, and the beheading of John the Baptist is also pleasing to people. After all, King Herod Antipas the tetrarch (governing the fourth part of the empire of his father, Herod the Great) greatly revered John the Baptist, although he kept him in prison. He loved to talk with him, considered him a prophet and carried out many recommendations and instructions, with the exception of the fact that, contrary to him, he took his brother as his wife. Herodias was very touchy and held a grudge against John the Baptist. When, during the feast, her daughter Salome danced and pleased King Herod and the rulers reclining with him, then, being sufficiently drunk and in a good-natured state of mind, Herod said to her: whatever you ask, I will give you, even up to half the kingdom. I do not think, of course, that he would have given Salome half the kingdom, but at least he said so. Her mother, too, probably understood that it was unlikely that Herod would give up half of the kingdom and decided to use the situation in order to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. When the king heard this, he was very sad, but, as it is said in the Gospel, he fulfilled it for the sake of the oath and those reclining next to him: what will they think, how will they react to this, will they not condemn, will they not laugh, will they not lose respect? That is, he was obsessed with human pleasing to such an extent that he cut off the head of the prophet.

In today's Gospel (Matt. 6:1-13) it is said that when we do some good deeds, it is highly desirable not to please people, but to please God, i.e. we are talking about some demonstrative actions that show the piety of a given person, or, in other words, about pleasing people. The Lord says that any deed done out of human pleasing - pleasing other people and demonstratively, brings less grace than a deed that is done secretly, when, as Christ says, your left hand doesn't know what the right one is doing.

St. Seraphim of Sarov says that all good can be divided into three categories. Kindness for the sake of reciprocal kindness: you - to me, I - to you. Kindness for the sake of pride, when we do a good deed in anticipation of praise. And good in the name of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, when the right hand does not know what the left is doing. Sometimes we do good deeds and we often get punished in return. They say: never do good, good deeds are punishable. In order for good deeds not to be punished, we must strive to do them in such a way that we cannot be punished for them. When you do good deeds in secret, no one will punish you, while we receive grace from God. That is, if we receive praise from people, we do not receive it from God and suffer a great spiritual loss in this.

Human praise is often hypocritical: when they tell us one thing, but they think another about themselves, in other words, they keep a fig in their pocket (you all probably know this expression). Of course, there is sincere praise, then this also gives a person grace, but hypocritical praise is a form of spiritual slavery, and from such praise a person is sometimes ready to sink through the ground, and then he will be punished for it.

"Point of support. Conversations with the doctor of medical sciences priest Grigory Grigoriev” (St. Petersburg)

Today the topic of our program is "Slander as a fulcrum." We read a lot about the holy fathers, who endured a lot of slander. In the lives of the saints there is such an episode when two fathers meet each other and ask: “Well, father, how was your day?” - "It's bad, father, no one slandered, no one poured mud, we pray badly." At another time, joyful and happy people meet and say: “We were plentifully manured, now we will flourish with magnificent flowers. Lord, we have forgiven those who slandered us, according to Your example. Forgive us our transgressions and “forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

I want to read the sayings of the saints about slander so that we can discuss the most important spiritual topic about how the holy fathers perceived this. We have all heard about the healing power of slander. But when sometimes it touches us personally, we are not very comfortable and not very pleased. So, let's turn to the sayings of the holy fathers.

In the St. Petersburg studio of our TV channel, Archpriest Grigory Grigoriev, Doctor of Theology, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, psychotherapist-narcologist, teacher of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy, rector of the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in the village of Yukki .

We are entering during the preparation for Great Lent, there was a week about the publican and a Pharisee, the week about the prodigal son begins. The spiritual task of these days is to distinguish within one's own soul between the Old Testament and the New Testament man. The task is to discover in oneself the signs of an Old Testament person who was good in many ways and, undoubtedly, better than you and me. The Jews of the Old Testament fulfilled all the rules, all the commandments much better than you and me. They prayed a lot, did everything that the law prescribes, but at the same time they turned into a Pharisee, who, towering over other people, began to despise them, or into the eldest son from the gospel parable of the prodigal son, who despised his younger brother I didn't even consider him my brother.

We all should look into our souls and internally answer ourselves the question: what more of a person is in me - the old or the new?

The Gospel parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is one of the central ones in the New Testament. It is here that you see the image of God the Father, which is not displayed anywhere else, but here it is presented under the image of a loving father. special value this parable is that it is told by God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I told you that New Testament is a kind of spiritual reflection of the Old Testament. The main lines are in Old Testament, and there is also the image of the prodigal son and the image of God the Father. When the Old Testament prodigal son comes to the Old Testament father, he drives him out with the words: you loved pigs, go to them. We see that the perception of God by people occurs to the extent of the hardness of heart and hardness of heart that is inherent in these generations. Telling this parable, the Lord shows us: God is not what you imagine Him to be, God is a loving Father...

This year in Russia, after a long break, the National Day of Sobriety, which arose exactly 100 years ago, has been revived. The growing attention of the church to the issue of addiction prevention, cooperation with the state in the fight against alcohol and drug addictions allow thousands of Russians to get out of vicious circle. The priest Grigory Grigoriev, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Medical Sciences, psychiatrist-narcologist, professor of the Department of Psychology of the North-Western State Medical University named after A.I. I.I. Mechnikov.

"Petersburg diary": What is the church's view of harmful addictions?

Grigory Grigoriev: The Savior said: Seek first of all the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and everything else will be added to you. The Monk Seraphim of Sarov deciphered it this way: there are three types of capital –monetary, bureaucratic, and spiritual. Over time, this has not changed, the basic values ​​are the same - spirituality, money, power.

If spiritual capital, the highest moral and spiritual values, becomes the main thing for a person, then neither money, nor ranks, nor anything else will ever harm him. Often there is another plot, when moral values ​​are replaced by others, false ones. To date, more than 400 species have been described in the international classification of addictions, and the number will undoubtedly increase. Church version of the description of addictions – Orthodox guide to sins – "Philokalia" in five volumes. We can say that for each of God's 10 commandments there are about 90 sins. In fact, any sin is an addiction, deviant behavior.

"Petersburg diary": What are the mechanisms of addiction?

Grigory Grigoriev: We know from the Bible that the Lord creates the first man Adam and shows him the Garden of Eden. But why does it show? He was supposed to be a gardener there, to communicate with God and gradually draw closer to him. The serpent suggested a shortcut – eat the fruit and take a short cut. Any person in dependence wants exactly this – to shorten the path. The road to God is very difficult, one must live according to the commandments, work on oneself, and the Lord will always help on this road.

When you go out of God's way, the emergency sensor – conscience turns on. She always reminds you that you are moving in the wrong direction. If a person at this time begins to take drugs, alcohol, then the conscience calms down, turns off.

Addictions appear where the highest moral and spiritual values ​​disappear, where a person does not take the path of the commandments, but goes under the anesthesia of sin. This is an attempt to receive the grace of God from the back door – ate and order. Even Sophocles said that all the properties of a person will grow in accordance with what he meets on the way. If a person meets with God, all his properties turn into talents, if with a negative influence - into sins. So in fact, sin  is a sick talent, just a talent minus God, minus the quality of love. Therefore, in healing from sin, from addiction, the main component is the spiritual.

"Petersburg diary": What are the steps involved in returning to a healthy life?

Grigory Grigoriev: The green serpent has three heads - physical, mental and spiritual. Therefore, the joint efforts of the doctor and the priest are important, their cooperation is synergy, then we achieve results. Any addiction begins with a decrease in critical self-esteem. If we proceed from the fact that alcoholism, drug addiction are mental illnesses, then a person simply cannot realize his illness. The deeper he went into her, the less he would consider himself sick. And therefore, he simply cannot have a desire to be treated.

Those who come to dispensaries ostensibly on their own, in fact, just want to get out of binge, reduce the dose, and get temporary relief. There are only two forces that can heal a person - love and fear. Divine love that everyone can receive, and the love of loved ones. Methods based on Divine love - repentance and restoration of man's relationship with God. In order to cope with vice, one must understand that one cannot cope without Divine help. Help here comes rather not by faith, but by need.

If a person has not turned to Divine love, and the love of loved ones no longer helps, he is left with only the second path - fear. It's creating stress and directing it against cravings for some substance. For example, when a wife in an ultimatum form makes her husband go for treatment, she creates a lot of stress. Let the husband come formally, as long as they leave him behind, but gradually this can turn into true treatment.

A lot depends on the doctor, he must conduct a conversation in such a way that a person, having come “healthy”, feels his illness. I have not been drinking for 34 years, and in a conversation with patients I sometimes tell how I used to drink and sometimes I could not stop, how I did not consider myself an alcoholic - this realization came only after 10 years of sobriety. Sometimes such frankness of the doctor leads the patient to a confidential conversation. In overcoming addiction, it is important to "win sobriety time." When a person does not drink for a year or two, the chance to realize oneself as sick is much greater.

"Petersburg diary": In this regard, the question arises - what is the point of view of the church on such methods as coding, filing?

Grigory Grigoriev: The mechanism of fear, of course, can be physiologically used to temporarily inhibit a person from drunkenness and drugs. All Methods modern medicine based on fear. Coding, filing, spirals, chemical protection - one way or another, a person has a medical effect that inspires the formula "you drink - you die." The patient, if he believes in it, of course, does not drink, because he is afraid to die. But at the same time, he waits for how much time remains, when the “term” ends. And this time of sobriety should be used in order to restore relations with God, lead to the spirit of love, “wake up” the conscience and stand on the right way. If we use sobriety time for this, medical methods go for good, to help.

"Petersburg diary": How to protect the next generation? What are the basic principles of prevention?

Grigory Grigoriev:“God is not in power, but in truth” –  so said Alexander Nevsky. Therefore, the main method of prevention is true. Before the revolution, all schools had a special subject - the science of sobriety. Now it falls on the shoulders of parents  to speak honestly with their children about addictions, to show a personal example of sobriety, to promote the formation of spiritual immunity.

"Petersburg diary": What will be the first step towards overcoming the pernicious habits of unchurched people?

Grigory Grigoriev: Of course, ask for help. If not spiritual, then for a start at least medical. Now, one way or another, people are trying to get to a doctor they trust. Even if they go to an ordinary city dispensary , they are still on the advice of friends, on the recommendation. And, probably, it is correct. We choose both the doctor and the priest so as not to be disappointed and to go on the right path together.

Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor G. I. Grigoriev has been the head of the International Institute of Human Reserve Capabilities (IRHR) for about 20 years. With the spiritual guidance of the archpastors and pastors of the Russian Orthodox Church, Grigory Igorevich leads the Sobriety and Mercy Society of the Holy Right-believing Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, which operates at our church.

About teachers

— Grigory Igorevich, how do medicine, psychiatry, healing, and church service come together in your work?

— All my conscious life I have studied working with drug addicts, including Dr. A.R. Dovzhenko. I really was one of his closest students, whom he bequeathed to continue his work. And although Alexander Romanovich did not have the opportunity to bring people to church, he himself was a deeply religious Orthodox person, and his healing sessions were built according to an analogy that outwardly resembled a church liturgical service. However, the atheistic time in which he lived was unfavorable for the disclosure of his spiritual gift, so the content and design of A. R. Dovzhenko's sessions was adapted to the everyday and medical level of understanding of his contemporaries.

accumulating positive experience treatment according to the method of A. R. Dovzhenko, indicating the removal of painful cravings in a significant number of patients with pathological addictions, I saw, however, how after, it would seem, successful treatment the disease returned again, the person broke down. Therefore, there was a need for further improvement and fundamental transformation of the methodology. Thus, the method of emotional and aesthetic stress psychotherapy(EESPT), where the suggestion to the patient of the fear of death was removed and replaced by an intelligible, built on a scientific and clinical basis, a detailed, but easily perceived figurative explanation of the causes and mechanisms of the development of the pathological dependence syndrome. The next significant stage in the activities of the MIHR was the formation of the method of spiritual oriented psychotherapy pathological addictions in the form of a healing vow for Orthodox basis(DOP TsZ). Having the EESPT method as its predecessor, the DOP CZ method outgrew it, becoming independent method treatment of patients with alcohol-drug-addiction plan at the International Institute of Human Reserve Capabilities.

- Do you connect the causes of the development of alcoholism and other addictions with the spiritual state of a person?

- Yes. For some time now, I began to largely link the roots of these causes with the spiritual state of a person, and interpret addiction itself not only from psychophysiological positions, but also from the standpoint of sinful passion and the consequences that are detrimental to the body and soul arising from it. At the same time, the role of the patient himself in overcoming the painful attraction was sharply actualized, and instead of fear, only a friendly warning appeared not to tempt fate, not to commit sin as an act that inevitably brings spiritual, mental and physical destruction. My colleagues and I began to partially use the patristic experience of resisting sins since 1988, when our institute was created. Even then, before a psychotherapeutic session, an Orthodox priest (and my spiritual father), the ever-memorable Archpriest Vasily Lesnyak, who had 44 years of pastoral experience and was revered by parishioners as an elder, delivered a short sermon and served a prayer service for the pre-revolutionary Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood of Sobriety and Mercy. It should be noted that Fr. Vasily Lesnyak, as well as all the confessors who subsequently collaborated with the institute, had a blessing to work together with our doctors His Holiness Patriarch Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II and his ruling bishop Vladyka John (Snychev) of ever mint, at that time the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Ladoga. At present, the Institute operates with the blessing of Vladyka Vladimir, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga.

About faith and parents

- And how did you yourself come to God, Grigory Igorevich?

- It was still in the Navy, when I served as a doctor on a submarine in the Far East. During long trips, I was a direct participant in the liquidation of emergencies on submarines three times. And when we miraculously escaped in the third accident and surfaced in the Indian Ocean, I clearly remember how perfect and amazing the world seemed to me: the night, the starry sky above my head and such an order in the Universe, it takes my breath away. And it suddenly became somehow especially clear to me that such an order could not arise by itself, without a plan and a Creator. And this chilling fear passed after the accident, when I wanted to throw myself into the water and swim away from this submarine. And such silence in my soul, such peace. Thank you, in a word. After that I was baptized.

Tell us about your parents, about your ancestors. Are they believers?

Yes, believers. And also heroic people. My grandfather, Nikolai Grigorievich, was a peasant poet and full Knight of St. George, a favorite of General Brusilov. He began participating in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer, and ended up as a commander of a regiment of sappers.

Unfortunately, my father, a Hero of the Soviet Union, a reconnaissance partisan, is no longer with us, although I constantly feel his presence, support and help. He was a fairly well-known poet, winner of two state prizes. On the back cover of one of his collections of poetry, Steep Road, it is written in his handwriting: “I am a believer, Russian, rural, happy, ready for everything that is not against my Conscience! What else? And the signature is Igor Grigoriev. Back in 1984, in my letter to my father, published in the same collection, I wrote that the longer I live, the more I understand his poems. I often reread them, many of them are like a prayer for me. They contain true pain and the cry of the things of the Russian soul. In his poems, the fusion of times, their inseparable unity ... Now I know: my father, before others, alone, began the battle for our future, which we only learned about now. My mother, Daria Vasilievna, is also an absolutely amazing and unique woman. For many years she has been the head of the Pushkin Lyceum, where children from kindergarten to secondary education study according to programs from the times of Pushkin and Delvig. The main stake in this lyceum is placed on spiritual enlightenment and moral education, not excluding, of course, a solid basic education for further successful admission to universities.

About the miracles of God

Have real miracles happened in your life?

- The main miracle of my life happened to me exactly 25 years ago, all in the same Far East, where I served as a senior psychoneurologist in the Pacific Fleet. At the end of July 1982, while reading morning prayers, a certain text came to my mind, clear as a telegram: “In two weeks you will get married.” For me, this message was tantamount to a statement that tomorrow you will become president. I didn't have a bride, or anyone who could even potentially become my wife, and in general, marriage was not at all part of my plans. But since such a message came, I began to wait, not knowing what or whom. A week passed - nothing happened, and when the second was already coming to an end, I began to lean towards the idea that everything was just imagining to me.

And now, 15 minutes before the end of the last of the allotted two weeks of the working day, when I had already begun to get ready to go home, a friend of mine came into my office and said: “You relieve pain?! Maybe you can help one of my friends with a spinal injury, the doctors didn’t help her well.” And I set out to meet my destiny. On the first day, I successfully relieved Elena of pain, and on the second, I proposed to her. Now we have three children, two grandchildren, a beautiful house, joint work and a very close-knit big family. On October 15, we celebrated our silver wedding with the whole family. In all these years we have not said a single bad word to each other. The second clear miracle happened to me when, together with my spiritual father Vasily Lesnyak, in 1994 I came to Jerusalem for the first time at Easter. I was told that if, during the descent of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, you ask God for everything hidden, then all wishes will come true. I wrote a big wish list and we spent 30 hours in the temple without food or water, exhausted from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. When the time for the descent of the Fire was approaching, consciousness was already floating away, but the feeling of God's grace that seized me at that moment told me that there was no need to ask God for anything, He already knows everything. And for some reason I mentally shouted: “Lord, I ask only one thing: if I live and if it is Your will, I want to come here every year, to see Holy Fire…” And for 14 years now the Lord has favored my trips. Since over the years I have made friends there, they help us get to the church on Easter.

About the work of MIHR

— Does anyone help you in your work to rid people of pathological addictions?

— Of course, a wide range of specialists from various branches of medicine and related disciplines are involved in the work of our institute. A scientific council has been created at the institute, and the publication of the peer-reviewed scientific and practical journal “Bulletin of Psychotherapy” of federal significance has been organized. Over the 18 years of its activity, the MIHRH has employed and temporarily collaborated about 300 doctors and scientists in the rank of academicians and corresponding members, professors, doctors and candidates of sciences. I am a professor at the Department of Medical Psychology at the St. Petersburg Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education (MAPO) and conduct training for psychologists and graduate doctors on the problems of psychotherapy of pathological addictions.

How are your sessions going?

“Everything starts with information, with changing people's perceptions of the problem. Information - both scientific and medical, and spiritual and religious, is given in the doctor's public conversation in a clear, accessible form. Particular importance is attached to clarifying the concept of repentance: what is its meaning and what is its place in the system of spiritual values. You cannot force a person to repent. But to explain, to call him to repentance is simply necessary for his own good. At the same time, faith is in no way imposed on patients, they are generously given the precious knowledge of what is contained in the experience of Orthodoxy.

Repentance for everything that goes against the commandments of God should not be formal and ostentatious, but sincere, deep, coming from the soul, with contrition of heart and hope in the Lord, with a firm intention never to commit repentant sin in the future. God does not look at the face, but at the heart of a person: what is in it - either passions rage and the desire to please them, or genuine pain about their unworthy deeds and a firm intention to improve. Repentance is the awakening of conscience, a great and significant event in a person's life. Sincerely, having repented from the heart, a person is cleansed, renewed, one might say, transformed. He turns away from sinful destructive passions and turns to the true life values: love for neighbor, work, health, personal dignity ... Or maybe he will think about joining church life. A person who deeply repents of drunkenness will not regret that he stopped drinking and envy his drinking friends, but will appreciate a sober life and enjoy it. Without repentance, such a result is doubtful.

About results

- Do you have statistics confirming that with the help of church repentance a person gets rid of his sinful addictions more easily, maintains sober convictions longer, and breaks down less often?

— Yes, from the very beginning of the institute's activity, we keep strict statistics of all our clients. From January 1, 1988 to January 1, 2007, about 125 thousand people were treated for alcoholism, tobacco smoking and drug addiction. According to these statistics, approximately 92 percent of them profess the Orthodox faith. However, about five percent of our patients call themselves atheists, the rest express involvement in others. religious denominations. Therefore, the medical and spiritual parts of the DOP CZ method, with the blessing of the Church, are separated.

Announcement conversation is conducted by a doctor in the tradition of rational psychotherapy. However, it is rather a conversation-sermon, covering both the medical and the spiritual side of the problem. After such a conversation, the number of patients who want to come after medical treatment to an Orthodox church to take a vow of sobriety on the Cross and the Gospel. During the years of our practice, the number of such patients amounted to 45,677 people, or 36.8% of all those who came for treatment.

And if the majority of our patients called themselves believers, but did not attend church regularly, then after our treatment 4431 people began to visit Orthodox churches to perform Church Sacraments at least once a month. That is, the number of people who became churched after treatment amounted to 10% of the number of all those who came to the temple to give church vows. But even unbaptized people sometimes change their attitude to faith and to God after our sessions.

According to statistics, 13,220 patients who were not baptized in Orthodox Church, which amounted to 10.7% of all those who applied to the doctor. After medical treatment and an open conversation with a doctor, 4,786 people voluntarily accepted the Sacrament of Baptism, that is, more than 36%.

The results of observation of patients showed that after medical treatment, 25% of patients do not take alcohol during three years of observation. And among patients who, in addition to medical treatment, wished to come to church to take a vow of sobriety (church vow) on the Cross and the Gospel, 52% of patients have not taken alcohol for three years already. This ratio clearly indicates the need for joint work of doctors and clergy in the healing of people from alcoholism and drug addiction.

- What else is included in the treatment program, in addition to the doctor's public talk and the performance of the Church Sacraments for those who wish?

- The last stage of the medical part of the treatment is an individual appointment with the attending physician, during which the clinical affiliation of the vow and its duration are specified, the vow is individually and psychotherapeutically fixed.

As a result, physical and mental dependencies are removed or significantly reduced (in the latter case, a second appointment is made by the attending physician for a conversation and fixing the vow). Spiritual dependence is also removed or at least mitigated if patients participate in Divine Liturgy, repent of the sin of their alcohol-drug or other addiction, with the testimony and permissive prayer of the priest. After confession, patients are admitted to Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In conclusion, a special prayer service of Alexander Nevsky is served. sobriety societies.

This does not mean that such patients never violate the healing vow. It is characteristic, however, that in the event of a breakdown, they do not receive the same effect from taking alcohol-containing liquids. Moreover, they experience spiritual discomfort and remorse, which makes them turn to the Institute for help after breaking the vow. I want to emphasize that the main success factor is the voluntary desire to become a sober, drug-free person, so we are against any kind of violence against a person. It is no coincidence that in our method the medical and spiritual parts are separated organizationally and in essence, although to a certain extent a “bridge” is thrown between them due to the targeted spiritual orientation of the medical part of the method.

About the causes of our troubles

— Doctor, what is the scientific and practical novelty of your method?

- For the first time in scientific and practical medicine as the most important pathogenetic factor in the formation of narcological diseases, a spiritual factor was singled out and introduced, which gives grounds to interpret these addictions as diseases of a spiritual and moral nature. Unity, union (but not confusion of functions!) of medicine and the Church is natural, moreover, necessary, especially when it comes to alcoholism, drug addiction and other sinful passions. For only such a community can ensure the completeness of treatment-healing, save not only from mental and physical addictions, but also from spiritual addiction. Thanks to such a unity of medical and spiritual approaches to the treatment of addictions, the medical and therapeutic effect extends not only to the psychophysiological status of a person, but also to his spiritual and moral state, to the restoration of a holistic and harmonious unity in a person - his physical, mental and spiritual essences. Built on a solid foundation of gospel truths, on the principles of Orthodox psychotherapy, the DOP CZ method opens the way to churching, to the spiritual development of a person.

- Grigory Igorevich, why, in your opinion, people themselves, sometimes very educated, drink without feeling for a long time the dangers of what is happening, why does not the instinct of self-preservation work in them, does not common sense turn on?

- Over the years of my medical practice, it has become clear to me why an outwardly reasonable person, constantly drinking, does not see where he is going, and does not realize the disease itself, does not understand what is happening to him and how it all can end. Having many examples when others, like him, had a catastrophe as their life outcome, he still believes that nothing like this will happen to him personally, that he has "everything under control." Typical delusion!

Who overshadows the human mind? If we turn to medical science, then it does not give an answer to this question, and in principle cannot give it. For, I repeat, not only the material and psychological factor but also a spiritual factor. The crafty spirit, the invisible force of evil, overshadows the mind of a person, depriving him of self-criticism and understanding of the real threatening danger, in order to destroy not only his physical, bodily nature, but also his soul. Therefore, I am convinced that all pathological diseases- these are, first of all, diseases of a spiritual and moral nature, according to Orthodox teaching. Man voluntarily gives his will to the will of the spirits of malice in high places and finds himself in the trap of dark forces.

The Apostle Paul spoke convincingly and simply about the consequences of such an extremely widespread eclipse of reason and the loss of one's own will: “For I do not understand what I am doing; because I do not what I want, but what I hate, I do” (Rom. 7:15). And again: “The good that I want I do not, but the evil that I do not want I do” (Rom. 7:19). Having eclipsed the mind of a person and seized power over him, the dark crafty power dulls his conscience, which is the Voice of God. And a person does not realize that, indulging in vicious passion, he thereby creates evil and sin against himself, his health, as well as against the health and life of loved ones, plunging them into worldly disorder, mental confusion, depression and despair.

The same crafty spirit cultivates selfishness, self-confidence, a tendency to self-justification in its victim, moving the person more and more away from understanding what is happening to him. "Drink? Yes. And who cares, everyone drinks, ”the patient declares boldly. However, the evil one is evil, but the responsibility for the evil done is not removed from the person. After all, he himself voluntarily let the evil one into his heart.

About the evil spirit

- How can one explain the fact that a person who is already leading a sober life after treatment, suddenly, with increasing importunity, thoughts of drinking are piled up, and he sometimes drinks it down?

- Being a psychiatrist with more than 30 years of experience and having such examples in practice, I will say that here there is no smell of a symptom of Kandinsky's mental automatism - Clerambault. What is it then? Is it not the action of the same evil spirit? In my opinion, there is no other way to explain this situation. “Demons first try to darken our mind, and then they inspire what they want,” says St. John of the Ladder. In essence, spiritual dependence is dominant, holding and provoking mental and physical addiction. And until a person realizes that he is doing an evil sinful deed, does not understand that he is sick, he will not go for treatment, but will continue to drink, smoke, inject, indulge in gambling passion. Perennial clinical practice also testifies that, getting into spiritual dependence, a person changes in his qualities, his positive personality traits are replaced by opposite ones, it becomes, as it were, the antipode of itself. This happens gradually, imperceptibly for the person himself, but steadily and inevitably...

— So, from spiritual dependence, along with others, it is necessary to be freed without fail. How?

— The answer is simple and, as they say, unambiguous. The path is the only and absolutely reliable one: it is repentance with an appeal to the Lord for help. It is possible to get rid of spiritual damage only by spiritual means, by the healing power of God's grace. A person should do everything in his power to free himself from addiction, but it is possible to achieve this only with God's help. And to get it, you need to be willing to change your mind and lifestyle.

— How is communication between patients and specialists of your institute maintained in the future?

– Patients who have undergone treatment are under the supervision of our doctors and can contact us for help at any time with all health-related issues. If necessary, we carry out rehabilitation of patients - either in the appropriate center of the institute, or in Orthodox monastery with the blessing of the priest.

— What are the requirements for doctors of your institute?

– In addition to high professional knowledge and experience, a specialist doctor conducting treatment on the basis of Orthodox psychotherapy is required to special requirements: first of all, he must love people, be a believer and a church-going person, accumulate spiritual experience, to have a blessing for the treatment of a priest-confessor, to have a sense of compassion, empathy for a suffering person, to be patient, attentive and responsive. And, of course, lead a completely sober life.

— Grigory Igorevich, do you consider yourself a happy person?

— Yes, definitely. I have a wonderful family, a job I love, the opportunity to serve and help a lot of people. I love and know how to relax, enjoy life in all its manifestations and thank God for everything. I can feel the endless God's grace. And with God's help, I no longer need any techniques and techniques to remove negative energy from myself after communicating with difficult patients, I do not need to suffer from the problem of choice when making decisions. I simply gratefully offer myself and my life to God and know that He will manage everything and lead me to the path of salvation.

Interviewed by Svetlana TROITSKAYA

Priest Grigory Grigoriev

The opinion of the narcologist Orthodox priest Grigory Grigoriev. Priest Grigory Grigoriev - teacher of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy, member of the board of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Rector of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist in Yukki of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, co-chairman Alexander -Nevsky Sobriety Society, Director of the International Institute of Human Reserve Capabilities.

- What methods do you use and are there any methods that you consider unacceptable?

- Methods that lead a person to sobering up and churching cannot be considered unacceptable. This is my deep conviction. There is no need to analyze whether the methods that have proven their effectiveness are Orthodox. It is pointless to look for Orthodox methods in a secular society. There is no Orthodox medicine, she scientific medicine, initially physiological and methodologically atheistic. But what brings a person to the Church cannot but be from God. It doesn't matter which way a person comes to the temple, if in the end he comes. It is necessary to church the program "12 steps" and other effective methods. The main thing is that the personality of the doctor should not obscure God. The essence of these methods is the same. They are all based on a confidential conversation, on contact. The main task of a doctor is to explain to a person what is happening to him, what addiction is, what is physical dependence, there is mental, and there is spiritual. Healing always begins with a person's understanding that he is sick, and, therefore, only his will, without the help of a doctor and God, cannot overcome addiction. The trouble is that most addicts do not consider themselves sick.

Is coding based on conversation? Many Orthodox people they think it's nonsense.

- Bullshit. Demons have no such power. In fact, there is no coding in nature. Today, many narcologists call any medical manipulation that way. It's just a term of fear that many are based on. modern methods treatment: chemical protection, filing of the drug "Esperal", infusion of "torpedo", acupuncture programming and a number of others. If there was a force in nature that bound the will of man and at the same time led to one hundred percent healing, the one who discovered it would receive Nobel Prize. If someone coded a heroin addict to stop taking heroin, a monument would be erected to him during his lifetime. But this is impossible. Coding is just a term with nothing behind it. And it's not true that all coded people don't drink - some do. There is no 100% efficiency in any method, and coding is no exception. But it helps someone to sober up, and therefore I don’t see anything ungodly in coding. But the fight against the term "coding" confuses, confuses, divides people, deprives them of hope for sobriety and leads them away from God. When people sober up, someone will come to the temple. And if they don't sober up, no one will come.

- And the chief narcologist of Russia Evgeny Bryun says that coding keeps a person at bay. Is it permissible?

“Do you remember what the Lord said when he showed Adam the Garden of Eden: “You will eat from every tree in the garden, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it you will die by death.” "(Gen., 2, 16-17). He frightened the immortal and sinless man, spoke to him about death and sin! But for us, sinners, both fear and love are all the more necessary. Fear cannot heal, but it can stop for a while. Is it not enough for a person who, because of libations, is sinking to the bottom, is at risk of losing (or has already lost) his family and job? That's when he stops, he will have a chance to heal. And only love heals.

“But there are also occult methods?”

- I have not heard that they were used in official narcology or that someone stopped drinking from occultists or sorcerers. Satan will not cast out Satan. Dark forces cannot restore the body - the temple of the spirit. They can only destroy. I repeat, among the methods that have proven their effectiveness, are widely used and help a certain percentage of people sober up, I do not know of a single one that is fundamentally contrary to Christianity, denying Christ as God.