The Occultism Apology of Archbishop Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky)
A Church is known by its saints. A new saint of Moscow Patriarchate Archbishop Luke , Voyno-Yasenetsky (1877—1961) was known for his plaudits for tyrant Stalin and also for his occult views in his book "The Spirit, the Soul and the Body". Here we present a brief analyses of some passages from his book. This is a part of a larger article of I. Voloshin printed in Russian in Vertograd # 6(63), pp 8—17.
a. "The Spirit in Nature"
…A significant part of The Spirit, the Soul and the Body work is compiled from the Scripture excerpts as well as some hagiographic stories merged to a certain amount of paranormal tales, or demonical stories, as Church is used to calling them. Thus, in the 3rd chapter the story of how Saint Sergius of Radonezh and Stephen of Perm’ greeted each other despite a few miles between them is followed by a large pile of tales of clairvoyance and telepathy precedents with the reference to the opus of Richet on metapsychology. The metapsychology (or parapsychology, as it is called now) is considered a true science by Archbishop Luke, so he is quite satisfied with the hypothesis inferred by Dr. Kotik to explain the paranormal precedents: "A thought is an energy that is poured outside from the body… This energy, born in the very depth of the brain, goes to every part of the body, to the arms and legs… moreover, it quite possible that all the things emanate some vibration energy". Quoting again the Richet’s book, Voyno-Yasenetsky writes: "Why not try admitting, as it does Richet, that in the base of telepathy and clairvoyance are forces completely unknown to the science at its present state, unexplainable and, to say more, strange. No wonder you feel yourself a bit aggravated when you browse the Richet’s work".
These facts are widely known by the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, and the nature of these facts is firmly recognized as the action of the fallen spirits surrounding us. As Richet witnesses, the main attribute of the spirit apparition is fear, which is a doubtless evidence for the presence of demons. But there is no mention of the demons’ presence in the work, the cause, according to Archbishop Luke, is the "spirit energy", the favourite term of nowadays’ psychics. The author can devote whole pages to the descriptions of cases of spirit manifestations. Some of these interpretations are by no means brilliant examples of blasphemy, like this one: "How else can we name this omniconquerant force, if not spirit energy, for it is the force that spawned psychic epidemics and persuaded hundreds of thousands people to participate in the Crusades!.. With a sweet flow makes the mother’s love its way to a new-born child, and a husband’s passion to his beloved wife… What is it but the spirit energy of love? I will pour my spirit on all flesh, says Joel 2:28". The prophecy of the spirit’s pouring is implemented to the natural, sinful drawbacks of human life. There follows yet one more passage concerning "spirit energy": "The spirit energy, coming from the Holy Ghost, the energy of love moves all the nature… All inorganic nature is full of the spirit energy, the whole universe" etc. Pursuing his goal to prove the pantheistic unity of the world, Voyno-Yasenetsky goes on with saying that "in certain minerals an enzyme [!] of action similar to that of sex hormones is found".
Despite the title of his book, the author hasn’t bothered to define what the soul is and what the spirit is. E.g., the author argues that the Holy Spirit, the human spirit and even "matter spirit" are quite the same thing. "We should think about the depth of the Job’s words: By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens. The relations between spirit and its form is of great importance. A spirit native to the matter is represented in the material forms. Moreover, these forms are created by the spirit. A harsh and tough spirit affects the developing of somatic elements in order to create tough and harsh forms suitable to it. A spirit of purity and mildness creates a home full of beauty and tenderness. You can think about Raphael’s Madonnas or Mona Lisa of da Vinci". You can see another strange opinion of Voyno-Yasenetsky, esthetical one this time, for he considers beautiful spirit forms the Raphael’s Madonna’s that the models were the artist’s mistresses, or obviously demonical art of Leonardo.
At the end of 3rd chapter you could find a funny statement: "One must have a truly tough heart, if he cannot hear the voice of God speaking in the beauty of nature’s material forms. It is understandable that women like flowers, and it is of honor for their hearts".
b. The spirit of animals and plants.
In the 4th chapter of the book the author draws our attention to the Old Testament prohibition of eating animals’ blood, and concludes unexpectedly: "The blood of sacrificial animals is holy, for it contains the soul of the animal, the breath of the Holy Spirit". If there is Holy Spirit in animals, why not worship them? So we go for a pagan sympathy: "The Hindus and other peoples in Asia regard the plants not the way we do in Europe. They think that plants have their own soul". The Orthodox bishop is clearly sympathetic for this view. Later he writes: "In the evening of the meadow in bloom all the flowers turn to the sun, as if they were praying to it, and after dusk fall asleep; for in the morning they are here again to turn to the east and to greet the sun with a morning prayer". Now we see that flowers are worshipping the sun.
The 5th chapter gives us a host of some expressions concerning the soul and the spirit, the origins unknown. There is clearly no definitions for the terms the author implement. For example, here is a list of so-called "acts of conscience": "They are evoked by: 1. the perceptions going from the senses; 2. the organic sensations of our body; 3. the perceptions from our transcendental self; 4. the perceptions from the spirit world of a higher level; 5. the actions of our spirit". It is quite impossible to distinguish point 3 from point 5, but the worst thing is the fourth point. Contradicting the Church dogma of that we are surrounded by a world of fallen spirits that are trying to seduce and trick us with the "perceptions" of all kind, Voyno-Yasenetsky regards the world of spirit as the highest one. "In sorting up the list of act-of-conscience’s possible causes, we have mentioned the acts that we perceive from a world of a higher level. Here we talk about the action of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Satan over the human spirit".
Possibly we should the Orthodox doctrine about the body, the soul and the spirit. Ignati Bryanchaninov in the "Word on the man" writes: "A body is the wearing of the soul and in the same time, its tool". "The soul is surrounded and clothed with the members of the body", says Macarius the Great. "The soul, says John of Damascus, acts by the means of organic body, transfers to it the life force, growing, feeling and the power of birth… It uses body as its tool". The Saint Fathers commonly used the "spirit" word as a name for every creature whose nature is higher than the nature of our body so it can mean either a man’s soul, either an angel or a demon. But when regarding the soul more exactly, we can see that the spirit is the purest part of man’s soul, the one that gives man the opportunity to equal God. Before the Fall, our spirit of creature was maintained live the Spirit of God, that controlled the sensitive part of the soul that, in its turn, gave life to the body that was than immortal and resistant to the harmful elements. The Fall has corrupted all of our compounds, and the revolt against God resulted in the death of our spirit, the "Civil war" of all the parts of our self, and made us slaves for the Satan.
But here follows what Voyno-Yasenetsky writes: "An animal is a compound of a spirit, a soul and a body, just like a man is". There follows a long-awaited definition of the animal’s soul: "It’s a complex of organic and sensitive perceptions, thoughts, feelings, memories, united by the means of self-conscience". That is a clear materialistic view, denying the idea of autonomic existence of the soul. The materialistic dogma is like that: a brain produces thoughts and emotions, so "soul" simply means "brain". Archbishop Luke goes on with saying that "there are men that are like animals, ones that are like weed, others are angels. The former are quite similar to animals, for their spirituality is very low, and the latter are quite like spirits without flesh, those who possess neither body, nor soul’. And later: "A spirit that can exist without any connection to the body and the soul… is immortal… Those who are used to the words of the soul’s immortality would understand what we say on the immortality of the spirit". The Archbishop reinforces this sentence by quoting the Bible: Her spirit returned and she got up at once. The author’s conclusion is unexpectedly that "only those elements of the soul that are connected to the life of the body are mortal, these are feelings and thought processes that have their cause in the brain activity". But, at the contrary, "the spirit of animals is, without any doubt, immortal, for its source lies in the Spirit of the God, in the immortal Spirit".
These speculations neither based on the scientific researches, nor on the Church law, lead the author to a conclusion of great weirdness: "The depth of a creature we can recognize using our spirit, not the mind. The self-conscience is a function of spirit, and not that of mind. The action of God’s grace given to us we recognize not by the spirit of this world, but by the spirit that God gave to us". In the clerical tradition the name of "the spirit of this world" is usually applied to the Satan. In the Archbishop’s quote we see yet once again a pagan speculation. The Bishop Ignati alerts us: "Pagans thought that a man’s soul is a particle of the Deity. It is a false thought, and also very dangerous, because it is a blaspheme!" He quotes John of Damascus: "In this way, then, God brought into existence mental essence, by which I mean, angels and all the heavenly orders. For these clearly have a mental and incorporeal nature: "incorporeal" I mean in comparison with the denseness of matter. For the Deity alone in reality is immaterial and incorporeal. But further He created in the same way sensible essence, that is heaven and earth and the intermediate region… and it was also fit that there should be a mixture of both kinds of being, as a token of still greater wisdom and of the opulence of the Divine expenditure as regards natures…"
"The Spirit, the Soul and the Body" is an evident proof for that without basic respect to the Saint Fathers’ interpretations, you can easily find in the Scripture a host of heresies and blasphemes. For example, the author concludes with ease that it is possible to transfer a spirit of one person to another: The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha (2 Kings, 2:15), I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them (Numbers, 11:17).
As we can see here, the Bible’s metaphoric phrases are interpreted literally, that opens the possibility to introduce here the idea of metempsychosis. It is unclear why Archbishop Luke does not quote the occultists’ favourite verse in the Scripture, that can "prove" the possibility of soul transfer: and if you are willing to accept it, he [John the Baptist] is Elijah who is to come (Matthew, 11:14).
Having closed the matter with the human "spirituality", the author goes on to the animals. Though considering their spirituality to be at a lower level that the human, he proclaims: "The lower is the spirituality level of the animal the lower in the zoological hierarchy of perfection is its position. The exception of this rule is a phenomenon of love feeling of birds. But it can be explained with the fact that the highest kinds of love and religiousness are rather frequently demonstrated by the simple people without education".
c. The spirit’s relation with the soul and the body isn’t unconditional.
Finally, we follow to the 6th chapter, that yet by its title proclaims a thing completely contradictory to the Orthodox faith: "The spirit’s relation with the soul and the body isn’t unconditional". There we go again in the somber sphere of the occultism apology, that is based, as it is widely known, on permanent blurring and speculating on the meanings of "spirit", "spirituality" and its derivates. In the first paragraphs the author makes a reverence to psychotherapy, a "science" that has replaced the practice of spirit-leading of ancient times. "The psychotherapy is… a common method of treating diseases, that frequently produces excellent results", puts the archbishop. The following paragraph tells us about Lourdes’ miracles, that the archbishop considers true and divine. Furthermore, he names Lourdes "the holy city". After the description of the city, the author adds: "We know lots of other precedents of cure when opening the relics of Saint Seraphim of Sarov; from the hagiography of Pitirim of Tambov and many other saints". The author proves himself totally unable to distinguish one kind of spirit to another.
In the next passage the Archbishop draws the reader’s attention to the experience of spiritical séances. The official Church view on that is the following (quoting from Ignati Brianchaninov), "Nowadays many a person dare to contact the fallen spirits by the means of magnetism, and these fallen spirits appear usually in the form of angels of light, so the deceive and cheat men with certain tales of interest, carefully mixing true and false things, and always do they affect the human mind, that often results in mental diseases. Using magnetic powers is a kind of wizardry… without any attention to the will of God, the experimenter without any precautions contacts the spirits, believes their lies, acts under their influence. What are they doing but betraying God?"
But the work of Archbishop Luke is obviously supports the idea of this betrayal. He writes: "I can’t help trying to reproduce here some of the facts of the materialization". Thus, the imp ghosts are regarded by a doctor and an orthodox high hierarch as a real materialization. A great blaspheme follows: "How can we explain in the other way, if not the materialization of the spirit, the apparition of Elijah and Moses through Jesus’ Transfiguration on the Tabor Mountain? And as for the apparition of angels in human figure?" A slight knowledge of the works of Holy Fathers would explain to Voyno-Yasenetsky that the possibility to view spirits is not a result of "materialization" but comes with the "opening of the eyes". As for Elijah the Prophet, his body is quite material, for he had died not, but was taken along with his body to heaven. By the way, the author quotes Bible prohibiting such spiritic experiments at all: Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them (Leviticus, 19:31), No one shall be found among you… who casts spells, or who contacts ghosts and spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead (Deuteronomy, 18:10-11). But Archbishop Luke is evidently concerned that the scientific setup of spiritual "experiments" make it possible not to follow the Commandment of God. There are dozens of examples of such advertisements of the Evil in this book.
The subject follow on to the hypnosis, and it is considered by the Archbishop as a positive phenomenon. "Why does seem impossible, - questions the author – the fact that the spirit of Saints always possesses those transcendental abilities that are demonstrated by common people only when in somnabulic condition." There’s what the sanctity is from the archbishop’s point of view: a Saint is "supersomnabulic". Thus, everyone can become this kind of "saint", it even isn’t necessary to have faith.
d. Transcendental spiritual abilities
As a natural continuation of the 6th chapter one can see the 7th one, titled "Transcendental spiritual abilities". In the very first paragraph a Scripture episode is told, one about the woman who was diseased with an issue of blood and was cured after having touched Christ’s garment, in the second there is a description of some telepathic experience. The author sees a clear correspondence between these events: "The facts are undoubtedly true, and by observing the medium it is established that a medium in trance… and sometimes even in a normal condition… pours some particles of his kinetic power. The fact of this power exteriorization explains the amazing phenomena of movement or flight of objects, knocks, a self-writing pen… When a spiritic séance is over, the medium is purely exhausted, for while moving hard objects, he was using his muscular forces. Lord Jesus Christ felt the power that cured the woman with a blood disease was pouring from him to her. These are the fact of the same order, of transcendental order". How nice to protect all the kinds of nowadays’ wizards, clairvoyants and mesmerizers, that have always tended to use this Scripture tale as an evidence of their demonical gift’s divine origin. There go pages and pages narrating of demons’ apparitions. There are examples of "oracular dreams" as well as the experiments with hallucinogenes. Maybe the members of Moscow Patriarchate should follow the example of Archbishop Luke in reading and practicing Castaneda’s experience? Another metempsychosis mention is there: "but upon death there will appear, as time passes, memories of the lives lived before… as it [the soul] grows away from the body, it will revive things forgotten in the corporeal state" (Plotin, The Enneades, IV, 3, 27).
e. On the internal man
The 8th chapter is devoted to the pseudo-theoretical explanations of these experiments. Yet once more, the Archbishop show his complete ignorance in this matter. For example, he suggests: "Why not try admitting that… the spiritual energy, the energy of love, likeness and unlikeness can act outside the time and the space?" The Saint Fathers, notably Ignati Bryanchaninov, write that "outside of time and space" only Absolute, Not-Created Spirit could dwell, that is God. Creatures, created spirits including, depend on time and space. The ignorance of Archbishop Luke’s point of view breaks out when he speaks about the phenomena of clairvoyance, forefeeling, foreseeing. His interpretation of the Scripture goes wild: "I sleep, but my heart waketh (Song of Solomon, 5:2). It is a word of great depth. The heart is an organ of the highest kind of cognition, and organ which permits to contact God and the transcendental world. Never does it sleep…" Alas a heart of the sinner is deeply asleep, if not sunk in the mortal sins. The Holy Fathers interpret this verse as a mention of those who after many a deed of honor were given a grace of a prayer of heart and mind, never stopping.
Voyno-Yasenetsky quotes Leibniz, saying that "for every man, the less sensitive even, there is an ability of cognition other than using his five senses. The higher is this person’s spirituality, the stronger is this ability of higher cognition…" The examples of the highest cognition is, of course, another demonical revelations. The somnabulics are again equaled to saints, and when speaking on the importance of the solitude in the spiritual life, the chapter follows: ‘The Christian and Buddhist anachorites were trying to ignore any impression of the real life by living all alone in the desert, by a prayer, lent, or wake they intended to submit flesh to the spirit".
In the list of major authorities in the matter of "transcendental life of the spirit" an Orthodox bishop counts "ancient Indian magi and philosophers of Greece… Plotin, Porphyre… In the Middle-Age the same idea was expressed by Paracelsus, van Helmont, Tommaso Campanella… Immanuel Kant, Swedenborg."
Thus no matter if that is Buddhist meditation or philosophic speculations, this diabolic somnabulism in the end "leads us the point that when the passions and lusts of the flash weaken, when the shine and noise of this world becomes worthless for us, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24). "The new man" in this passage of Paul is, surely, the same thing as "the internal man"… And by this we might be partakers of the divine nature, by the word of Peter (2 Peter, 1:4)". There is not a word on the Orthodox faith, of the True Church that is necessary for the "conversation to the new man", that is Christ, not the "internal man" of the old Adam, as Voyno-Yasenetsky argues.
f. The Immortality.
The last chapter of the book, "The Immortality", depicts once yet again the materialistic picture of the evolving world. "It is impossible to suppose that countless astral worlds were but enormous masses of dead matter, that the world of living creatures was limited by the man, this first step of spiritual evolution. What can prevent us from supposing the these sky objects are habitats for countless numbers of intelligent creatures, the highest forms of intelligence?", questions Archbishop Luke. His Weltanschauung, as we have seen it before, in materialistic with slight inclusions of Christian figures, that is interpreted by the Archbishop in a clear Unorthodox way. The "Spirituality" means for him just a delicate form of matter. Despite having written in the 3rd chapter of his book that: "There is no eternal matter, there is no matter at all", in the 9th chapter he puts it like that: "If the matter and the energy in its physical forms are completely indestructible [thus meaning that their nature is divine, for only God is indestructible], then the spiritual energy, the spirit of man and of all the life must be subject to it. Thus saying, the immortality is an unconditional postulate of our mind… Lord Jesus Christ has clearly witnessed the fact of human immortality: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (John 11:26), he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life (John 5:24)". So it just seemed to be clear, that the eternal life is the effect of true faith in Jesus Christ the Savior, and is very conditional. But there is no mention of the word "faith" in the Archbishop’s conscience, and he uses other quotes from the Scripture to "prove" the occult thought of that "man is but a first level of spirituality".
The Voyno-Yasenetsky’s Weltanschauung is quite similar to Gnosticism. The soul is more perfect than the body, and the spirit, following his words, is a part of the deity. "Simply speaking, the spirit of man is free, the spirit bloweth where it listeth, and its lowest part, the sensitive body, is subject to the law of causality". So the Scripture quote where the Holy Spirit is understood, is implied to a created, limited, and subject to the law of causality human spirit! The goal in our saving is to inject God completely in our spirit-and-body compound, that has been destroyed violently by the sin, connecting in the fullness of his nature the New Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of his human nature. But the Archbishop Luke’s view is different: "The immortal spirit of the first men of God, enlightened and recharged with power after its liberation from the body, gains the ability to develop infinitely in the direction of Good and the love of God, in the permanent contact with God and all the forces that do not have flesh". The body is thus an evil compound, disturbing the develop in the direction of God. But this is a point of view of the Bogomils and the Khlysts, isn’t it?
In the end Voyno-Yasenetsky adds some paragraphs about the Church doctrine on the resurrection of corpses, but this teaching is evidently preferred to the image of the most perfect condition of a spirit without flesh: "The eternal life would be not only the life of the spirit liberated from body and soul, but a life in the Heavenly Jerusalem …" The final passage of the book assures us that the animals would resurrect too.
