What is "prelest"

Prelest (from , from - cajolery; (charm, seduction), ), also known as: spiritual delusion, spiritual deception, delusion, illusion, – according to Holy Fathers of Orthodox Church, a false spiritual state, a spiritual illness, "a wounding of human nature by falsehood" (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov). The concept of prelest should not be confused with somatic mental illness of any kind; prelest is rather a spiritual illness, an illness of the soul in its personal relation to God, an illness that originates from vainglory, pride and demonic suggestion and that is to be cured by humility and Holy Sacraments and under the guidance of the spiritual father. In the broadest sense, everyone is in prelest: everyone has some wrong thoughts and views, everyone does not fully understand the meaning of life, the degree of own sinfulness etc. When the word "prelest" is used in the narrow sense, i.e. that some particular person is in the state of prelest, that usually means that this person, initially being on the path of pious Christian life, became possessed with the strongest pride and self-conceit right up to the thought about personal sanctity. The state opposite to prelest is spiritual sobriety. This article is dedicated to different manifestations of prelest mostly in the "narrow" sense.