By St. John Climacus
- A
dream is a movement of the mind while the body is at rest. A phantasy
is an illusion of the eyes when the intellect is asleep. A phantasy is
an ecstasy of the mind when the body is awake. A phantasy is the
appearance of something which does not exist in reality.
-
The reason why we have decided to speak about dreams here is obvious.
When we leave our home and relatives for the Lord’s sake, and sell
ourselves into exile for the love of God, then the devils try to disturb
us with dreams, representing to us that our relatives are either
grieving or dying, or are captive for our sake and destitute. But he who
believes in dreams is like a person running after his own shadow and
trying to catch it.
-
The demons of vainglory prophesy in dreams. Being unscrupulous, they
guess the future and foretell it to us. When these visions come true, we
are amazed; and we are indeed elated with the thought that we are
already near to the gift of foreknowledge. A demon is often a prophet to
those who believe him, but he is always a liar to those who despise
him. Being a spirit he sees what is happening in the lower air, and
noticing that someone is dying, he foretells it to the more credulous
types of people through dreams. But the demons know nothing about the
future from foreknowledge. For if they did, then the sorcerers would
also have been able to foretell our death.
-
Devils often transform themselves into angels of light and take the form
of martyrs, and make it appear to us during sleep that we are in
communication with them. Then, when we wake up, they plunge us into
unholy joy and conceit. But you can detect their deceit by this very
fact. For angels reveal torments, judgments and separations; and when we
wake up we find that we are trembling and sad. As soon as we begin to
believe the devils in dreams, then they make sport of us when we are
awake, too. He who believes in dreams is completely inexperienced. But
he who distrusts all dreams is a wise man. Only believe dreams that
foretell torments and judgment for you. But if despair afflicts you,
then such dreams are also from devils.
From The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 3; Translated by Lazarus Moore (1959).