Changes

Nevertheless, as there is no common pattern of development of prelest, there is no universal and suitable for everyone advice for curing it. From the general point of view, fight with prelest is a fight with demonic thoughts mostly containing pride , which, as St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) notes<ref name="ign1"/>, in the deluded persons sometimes changes into deep sadness and desire of suicide. Keeping this in mind, the means of curing prelest should include some means of fighting with sinful thoughts and decreasing their influence on the deluded person. Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain says<ref name="paisios"/> that if a spiritual person trusts his thoughts - that is already the beginning of delusion. Pride darkens the mind and even the prayers of holy people do not help such person. He should understand that keeping such thoughts (like "I am holy", "I am better than others" etc.) in the mind - that is prelest. Such thoughts should be disclosed either to the elder, or to the spiritual father, or to the abbess of the monastery, and then thrown away. Because of that, the first way to get rid of prelest is the Sacrament of Confession. If the person saw any vision, he should tell it immediately to his spiritual father not concealing anything.<ref>[http://www.saintseraphimbookstore.com/?page_id=243 Nun Macaria, The Angel of Light and Spiritual Discernment in the Orthodox Tradition.] The article contains a story about a deluded monk who concealed from his elder the fact of talking with an "angel". Concealment of something from the elder can be a sign of delusion or can cause delusion.</ref> Then the person should follow exactly the specific advices of the spiritual father. Other Sacraments are needed as well but sometimes deluded persons are forbidden to take the Holy [[Communion]] by their spiritual father for some period of time, sometimes rather long (1–3 years).