The oldest Center for Crisis Psychology, created with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II 10 years ago, is located next to the Semenovskaya metro station, at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. Highly professional Orthodox psychologists serve here who have already helped thousands of people overcome such terrible, but, alas, typical phenomena of our time as divorces, separations, family crises and troubles. People come here both in grief of losing loved ones and learning about their own serious illness. People experience shock from physical or psychological violence, experience mental suffering associated with participation in hostilities, natural disasters, disasters, acts of terrorism, forced migration, hazing in the army, crimes against the person, experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. They help adults and children, members of any religious denomination, people of little faith, doubters and atheists. The main payment, remuneration for the assistance provided by the center’s employees, is, according to the permanent head of the center, M.I. Khasminsky, the joy of the fact that, with the assistance of Christ, you can see how a person overcomes the hell within himself, how his gaze clears, how a long-awaited sincere smile appears. We are talking with Mikhail Igorevich - editor-in-chief weblog“Russian Orthodox Psychology”, the main expert of the group of sites “Survive!”, a member of the Association of Oncopsychologists of Russia, compiler of a series of books for those experiencing grief, author of publications and interviews, as well as co-author of popular books on crisis psychology, many of which have been translated and published in Serbian , English, Romanian, Chinese, Ukrainian, German languages, presenter of seminars and trainings on practical crisis and Orthodox psychology- about the rules of operation of the center he heads, about the reasons why thousands of people come here, about men-boys who cannot grow up, about the importance of honest and good smile for a Christian, about the fact that being afraid of your opinion is not always a sign of Christian humility, and about much more.
M.I. Khasminsky immediately said: “The provision of assistance in our center has nothing to do with the amount of the donation (or its complete absence). If you have a difficult financial situation, then this should in no way stop you from receiving psychological assistance. The center’s employees primarily perceive their work as serving God, and not making money.”
When help is helpful
Mikhail Igorevich, after ten years of working at the Center for Crisis Psychology, you probably feel like a squeezed lemon? So much horror befalls you and the center’s specialists every day! What keeps you going no matter what?
Probably, first of all, these are the results of assistance. After all, to see that it has become easier for a person, that he has moved away from the edge, that he has begun to live, despite the most severe crisis, you must agree, it is pleasant. In addition, for example, thanks to the work of the center, we even have several married couples. One day, a young man, in despair, already close to suicide, went to our website “Pobedish.ru”. I read stories there, talked to other people, and then came for a consultation at our center. Came several times, met a girl who also had serious problems in life. But in the end they turned out to be a wonderful couple, a family where everyone supports and loves each other, and the baby is growing. Another girl came when her mother was dying. The prognosis was most disappointing. I understood perfectly well that for such a pure, smart, bright girl, who had no one except her dying mother, after her death it would be extremely difficult for her to be alone. And he introduced her to one of the activists of our anti-suicide website “Pobedish.ru”. Once again it was a wonderful union. I named these pairs offhand, but there are others - they became such “unaccounted for” results of the center’s work.
- A very good “side effect”.
But of course, this is not what we base our main ministry on. We still do not have a dating agency, although in principle even Orthodox dating clubs sometimes cannot boast of such results.
The roots of many problems are in infantility
- By the way, about Orthodox dating clubs. What is your attitude towards them?
It is clear that Orthodox Christians need to get acquainted somewhere, and such places should exist, but it seems to me that the mere fact of acquaintance is not enough. It is better for Orthodox people to get to know Orthodox people in order to create Orthodox families, so such clubs are needed.
But we must take into account that often people come to them who in life experience enormous difficulties in communication, in building communications with the outside world and people suffering from neuroses; There are also those who come to assert themselves, being in a certain delusion, or even pride: “I am a special Orthodox Christian, run around me, give me something special, something that corresponds to my special status.” Not all of them are ready to sacrifice for the honest ones, Serious relationships, but are always ready to use what falls naturally into their hands. In addition, say, if a person comes with psychological problems in the hope of solving them in such a society, but declaring that he wants to start a family, then, most likely, the problem will not go away, and may even intensify, as well as his own exaltation. That is, when in dating clubs it is not so much about getting to know each other, but about trying to solve one’s own psychological problems, then this is wrong.
- Are they somehow interconnected - psychological problems and pride?
Not always, but very often the psychological state is determined by the spiritual. And this is not surprising, because the root cause is sin. At least the sin committed - common reason mental disorder. Sin, after all, gives rise to pride, passions, and experiences, which then manifest themselves in such psychological states.
That is, there is often a relationship, but sometimes it is not visible at all? Sometimes it's very subtle, and in some cases it's really non-existent?
It cannot be said that only spiritual state affects mental health. A person’s mood, his goals and objectives, maturity, responsibility, and sometimes his past experience, especially the ability to overcome some difficulties and give in, also influence. Because, returning to the dating club, if a man is childish and afraid of responsibility, then what’s the point of going to such clubs? He will still be afraid of responsibility. He is not ready to responsibly start a family. Well, I met you. They've been getting to know each other for years. They get to know everyone until they get to know everyone. The point is not at all about dating, but about the fact that the man is childish. He's still like a child.
- Are there many such infantile guys now?
Now there are a lot of them. What do you want? For a man to be responsible, he must learn to bear this responsibility from childhood. And if he is raised, for example, in a single-parent family by one mother? If he doesn't see, how should an authoritative father behave? Moreover, if everyone around him is jumping, pleasing him, shaking over him... Those around him do not insist on him doing certain rules, commandments, life according to them. In the family it is the same as in the army: what could a spoiled conscript learn if, for example, he joins the army, and “grandfathers”, officers, warrant officers and generals start jumping around him? Agree, he won’t learn anything. The situation is absurd. But, unfortunately, it is repeated in many of our families.
Egocentrism looks exactly like this and brings up exactly the kind of boys that neither the army nor the family can be proud of. Let's take a typical, blatant, in my opinion, everyday example: a bus in any city middle zone Russia. Who usually sits in the seats and who stands next to them? That's right: children and men are sitting, and grandparents are standing. Children are not taught respect for age; grown men are allowed to feel small, weak and defenseless. This in many ways leads to family problems.
Infantility is also very harmful in the Church: such a person goes to the Church not to seek God, but to be controlled
In addition, this infantilism of a person greatly harms him in the Church. After all, it turns out that he goes to Church not for the sake of searching for the meaning of life and God, but in order to be controlled, to be relieved of responsibility, because he himself has not learned to bear it. Cannot take responsibility for his life. So he goes for every sneeze “to be blessed by the priest.” His father finds himself in the role of a father, solving all his problems for him, and in the end this often leads to bad consequences.
- Isn’t such a role harmful for the priest himself?
Almost always harmful. But sometimes the priest cannot refuse this role; he is drawn into it. This happens because sometimes he cannot say: “You know, your question does not relate to spiritual life, so you decide for yourself.” If a priest is approached with a question, then he thinks that he should help in some way, participate. If someone asks you a question on the street, do you consider it your duty to somehow answer? And in church, too, the question is often asked in such a way that the priest is forced to answer. But not every priest can understand psychological characteristics person, to understand why this person has such a request, why, let’s say, he comes at all. That is, it is so complex, subtle question- separate the spiritual from the mental, the psychological from the mental. But this is a topic for a separate, complex and large conversation.
In our center we do not provide spiritual support to people. We can only help decide psychological problem and refer to an experienced priest who will help solve a problem of a spiritual nature, but only together with the sufferer himself, if he wishes. It’s like in a hospital: a neurologist cannot take on the responsibilities of a surgeon, and a surgeon cannot take on the functions of an endocrinologist. They all work together and hold consultations in severe cases. This is the most successful form of joint activity for the benefit of the patient. And the same thing happens here.
But treatment often implies that the patient himself must not only understand his illness, but also work to heal it.
This is, of course, true, because if a person doesn’t want anything, if he just wants to come and find free ears, a free “vest”, just complain so that he can be heard, then there is little benefit here. I always give consultations that include some tasks. By the way a person solves them, it is clear what he actually wants. If he wants some changes, he will work on tasks, and then you can discuss with him what he is doing wrong, maybe something is not working out, but in any case, there is already something to discuss. And if he comes: “oh, no, no, I’ll sit on the sidelines,” then all our “jumping” and “dancing” will not help. In such cases, our communication does not go beyond one consultation. I don't see the point in further work, if a person doesn’t try, but just passively looks: here I am, and here are my problems, and I’ll look from the outside as you solve them for me.
The best helper is the one who has experienced the same pain.
Mikhail Igorevich, please explain how it turns out that people who feel bad, who ask for help, who demand it, suddenly come together and a good family turns out. They help each other while they themselves are in difficult conditions.
- There is a direct parallel here with the words of the Apostle Paul: “Having been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18).
In serious crises, you cannot help formally; there is no hiding behind either a diploma or a textbook.
I remember this case: at one of the churches, a kind of crisis center for addicts was opened, and a completely inexperienced young man was hosting the reception. All this lasted for two, maybe three, months. In the end he simply couldn’t stand it and ran away. The center has closed.
After all, many experiences and suffering, for example, the death of a loved one, suicide, addiction, really depend on the spiritual state of those experiencing it, and it is necessary to very unobtrusively, tactfully, and technologically give certain knowledge so that these people can get out of trouble. As for addiction specifically, in our center we fundamentally do not deal with it. The fact is that helping addicts is a rather specific area. And you can’t be competent in everything. You must be able to choose a specific area for yourself and not try to embrace everything, because, as Kozma Prutkov said, “you cannot embrace the immensity.” We do not strive for this. We deal specifically with crises.
And the person who works with people with addictions in the church must be very professionally competent, he must have the support of his colleagues, and live a spiritual life. In the end, he must also understand what burnout is and be able to cope with it.
Professional burnout can affect all people in the so-called “helping professions.” They deal with this in different ways. And if a person didn’t think about it, didn’t understand it, then you look, and the lone rescuer was crushed by burnout, crushed by problems, crushed by demons.
On the “benefits” of consolation, humility and initiative
Mikhail Igorevich, in one of your articles you stated: “Consolation is not always useful.” How to understand this? It seems surprising to hear such harsh words from a psychologist, a Christian. Clarify please.
When people are consoled, the results vary. Someone is consoled, and then overcomes difficulties and comes out of them. You can compare this situation with an illness that a person, with the support of doctors, tries to overcome, and he recovers and is discharged healthy. This is wonderful. But there is another option, when the patient likes the attention to himself so much that the desire to get better disappears. These are the so-called and often unconscious secondary benefits. A person can, instead of crawling out of an illness, seek more and more attention, encouragement, and relationships, which he receives thanks to his illness. Then it is very difficult for him to get out of this situation. He is already so stuck in these benefits that he does not need a decision, he no longer wants to change anything in life in order to continue to receive his various benefits, which he does not want to give up at all.
- That is, here: “Hello, I am professionally poor. Are you sorry, gentlemen?
Yes, you can say that. Professionally poor, professionally unhappy, offended in all my best feelings. By the way, this is very typical for infantile people. You don’t have to decide anything, let people decide for you, and you are a sufferer, go with the flow and get your secondary benefits.
- But maybe this is just humility?
Let me make a reservation right away that I will not talk about monastic obedience - a truly Christian phenomenon and virtue - this is completely different, I cannot even comment on this, since the monastic world is mysterious, special and I do not dare to judge it.
But if we talk about worldly passivity, then any inertia or laziness can be called “humility.” A person doesn’t go to do something, he’s afraid of difficulties, he doesn’t want to take responsibility, he doesn’t want to prove his point of view, he’s afraid to propose, he’s afraid to defend - is this really humility? The Apostles, the greatest Fathers of the Church, were not afraid of anything and were proactive, being deeply humble. They walked, they preached, they wrote, they helped, they were compassionate, they were in action! They had an idea and a ministry. As well as the sacrificial desire to sincerely carry what they had in abundance. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill constantly calls us to responsibility and initiative. Look how much has been created, how much is being done! And without initiative, everything will turn into a swamp. Infantile, indecisive and cowardly are incapable of action.
As I understand it, humility is a sober vision of oneself, dispassion, peace in the soul, the desire to reveal God’s will about oneself. Is it really possible to understand her with the thoughts: “I don’t decide anything”, “As they bless me, so it will be”? A person gives up the initiative, deprives himself of the initiative, fearing even a hint of the existence of his point of view. This, according to spiritually experienced people, the holy fathers, is “humility,” the opposite of virtue. After all, God called each person from non-existence to existence, created him as a unique personality, and endowed him with an eternal soul so that it could grow. And it is clear that in this a person must also have the desire to serve God, to show initiative, otherwise why does he need a personality? In my opinion, it’s scary when, out of laziness and fear, they hide behind such “humility” that goes against their conscience. Well, in the world this often, in my opinion, very often takes the form of simply disguised infantilism and unwillingness to think for oneself, defend one’s values, take initiative, and take responsibility for one’s life.
Initiative is really needed now. If there is initiative, we will break through
In order for there to be a strong Motherland and an influential Orthodox Church, there must be people with a creative, active soul, who want and can bear their burden, their cross, who are reasonable, careful, know how and what to do, who are ready to defend the interests of the Fatherland and faith, then is to serve, and not just work from “now to now,” formally and exclusively according to instructions and “blessings.” A healthy initiative is required from a person. What is needed now is initiative state region, and absolutely any. If there is an initiative, we will break through. A smart initiative, of course. Strategic thinking. Not “the main thing is that everything is fine in my yard, and then it’s none of my business - decide for yourself.” No matter how hard you try, your yard cannot be made confined space. The world must be considered as a whole. Even if you make everything beautiful and wonderful in your yard, there are flowers everywhere, then some hooligans from the neighboring yard might trample them. Service is a sacrificial state when you give everything that is given to you, while remembering the reasoning, and then the Lord gives you even more.
- What is this initiative? Specifically, yours?
We work hard on suicide prevention. I have already held seminars in all groups and commissions on this issue of governments, probably in all regions; I conduct seminars in dioceses on issues psychological aspects counseling; I am a member of the Public Councils of two security forces, where I also try to promote useful and necessary practical initiatives. Together with our colleagues, we support and develop the Perezhit.ru group of websites, where about 60,000 people come daily. And there is much more, even ordinary educational activities. I have no problems with initiatives and plans, but there are always difficulties with time.
Once again about love
If a person does not understand that love is sacrifice, he will certainly have problems in the family
In my opinion, now we need to do more educational programs, and so that they are in a language understandable to modern people. After all, many simply do not know basic things! For example, in student audiences, when asking the question “What is love?”, you will almost never hear the correct answer. Some kind of mooing begins: “This is such a feeling...” What if tomorrow I have the same feeling for my neighbor? Will it be love? - Everyone laughs, seeing the inconsistency, but not understanding that love is not a feeling, but a sacrifice. But, unfortunately, this has disappeared from life. And if this is not the case, if people have not realized this even in school, they will inevitably encounter difficulties in the family in later life, because they do not understand the meaning of creating a family, nor the fact that they must be sacrificial, nor the saving meaning of the word “sacrifice.” " This means that conflicts will begin, and they, in turn, can lead to divorces in our time of simply unbridled pride. Divorces will lead to children being raised in single-parent families, which will lead to difficulties in creating happy families already in the next generation. All this is worsening progressively, because there is no main thing, there is no foundation - a spiritual and moral foundation.
- And it turns out that we punish ourselves to the seventh generation?
I was told that from five-ruble coins, if you place them one on top of the other on a flat surface, you can build “turrets” several meters high. And if the surface is uneven, then you yourself understand what will happen. We have the same thing now. If you place your life on an uneven foundation or there is no foundation at all, then everything falls and is destroyed. It is important to carry out educational work - not everyone will reach it, but at least some will understand that there must be a foundation.
Life is cut short or maimed because they do not understand its meaning
- Nowadays they talk about new suicides almost every day. What caused this “epidemic” in our society?
The reasons, if we do not concern people with mental pathologies, affective states, are a lack of understanding of the meaning of life, a complete lack of moral standards, spiritual and moral understanding of the situation, etc. We encounter this very often at our center.
- Are Orthodox Christians who have decided to commit suicide also turn to you?!
Orthodox - never! But here we must make a reservation: a truly Orthodox person is one who truly believes and lives in Christ. Because you can go to church, but at the same time not be Orthodox at all. No, by the way, Muslims are the same, suicidal. Quite often Muslims come to us with the problem of coping with the death of a loved one. People of other confessions and faiths come with other problems, not suicidal. Once I even had a rabbi at my consultation.
And those who live a Christian life have significantly fewer divorces, and they have significantly more children. Destructive behavior, again, significantly less. Although the Orthodox also swear, no one is perfect, but they still swear to a much lesser extent.
When there is an understanding of why, for whom you live, what higher purpose you have, a person is much more responsible for his life and for other people. Conflicts are perceived in a completely different way: as a reason for overcoming, and not for despair.
We have. And a lot. Of course, no one has calculated how many in ten years, but in my memory there are hundreds of such stories. Just last week, after several consultations, a couple came in - wonderful spouses - with the words: “Mikhail Igorevich, happy birthday and want to thank you: we sorted it out and realized that our problems are due to the fact that we stopped trusting each other. Now we want to have another child: we think this will help heal our relationship.”
- Isn’t there a utilitarian attitude towards children here?
Not here. But these spouses had mistrust of each other. The husband believed that the wife was not doing something, the wife believed that the husband did not want a child. And this mutual distrust alienated them. It took several consultations to somehow bring them closer to each other and save the family.
To keep distance
How do you bear such a terrible load? After all, even listening to stories about all these blows and problems is already painful.
Just like any professional traumatologist endures. If a person experiences acute pain, then for a specialist it should not be personal pain, but skill, opportunity, and most importantly, the desire to help professionally. A professional must be at a fairly safe distance, but at the same time one that allows him to help his neighbor.
Distance is needed to avoid burnout. There is no need to be a doctor, a patient, a “vest”, and a friend of the patient in one person. You must still understand that your role as a helper may at some point be limited: you are a rescuer, but you are not a Savior to resolve all issues once and for all.
- As far as I know, for some time the writer Yulia Voznesenskaya worked on the forums of the “perejit.ru” group of sites...
Yulia Nikolaevna Voznesenskaya is an excellent writer; she was a moderator of several forums. Our “grandmother Yulia,” or, as she was called by her nickname, “Agniya Lvovna,” helped people who do not want to live and people who are experiencing the death of loved ones. And she also wrote such special stories for us - the book “Quench My Sorrows” was made up of these stories. And it’s especially nice that she dedicated this book to my colleague and me.
You yourself know very well that often Orthodox online communication between brothers in faith comes down, to put it mildly, to a bazaar: they begin to condemn, hate, best case scenario- teach each other, “in a brotherly way,” of course. There is a constant desire for conflict. Your expert advice: how to communicate as Christians on the Internet?
A long time ago I participated in the work of one of the Orthodox Internet forums. Having observed myself, my own behavior, as well as the reactions of other participants in conversations on various topics that concern Orthodox Christians, I came to the conclusion: this for the most part empty chatter, even if it is on a topic that seems very important today. I try very hard to avoid these disputes, and the condemnations associated with this format of communication. When there is nothing to do, you begin to divide into groups, get into conflicts, etc. It’s like dogs running in the same team in the North and barking among themselves. But this barking interferes with movement!
We are all in the same harness of the Lord. And we must spend our strength on moving towards Christ, and not on meaningless quarrels
We are all in the same harness of the Lord: He put us that way. And we should save our strength, direct it to moving towards Christ, and not waste it on yapping.
Orthodox Christians, smile!
- It’s immediately obvious that you know how and love to smile. How useful is humor in crisis situations?
I believe that humor is simply necessary. When I conduct seminars on preventing suicidal behavior for specialists, many say with a smile: “Listen, it’s so funny with you. We will later tell you that we were at a seminar on suicide and burst out laughing..."
I believe that just the basis, the presentation of the material should not be some kind of gloomy “load”. Modern man experiences enormous difficulties when he hears even hints of something serious - spirituality or suicide. Humans are designed in such a way that it is much more difficult to perceive complex information. And when it is presented in an easy, understandable, accessible and interesting way, the information is absorbed in a completely different way. Let us remember the apostles. When they came somewhere, they did not stand on the podium, did not make speeches about difficult things. No one would understand them! And they knew how to talk about important and complex things easily and clearly.
I know people who came to faith thanks to a smile
I know people who came to faith thanks to the smile, creation and light that real Christians, simple Orthodox people brought. One family came to faith when their grandmother was ill. She had a stroke. And they ran into a Christian nurse in the hospital. She, of course, did not graduate from seminary. And she was so unselfish, treated them so kindly, supported them with a smile, while doing the hardest work, perceiving it as service to God, that two people who had not really thought about faith until then, said to a friend to a friend: “We must go to the temple: God exists.” And then I already read that In a similar way It worked for the apostles, for the first Christians, when the pagans looked at them and said: “That’s right, there is a God. Look how they love each other."
Here again the question is about the content and external form. And in our center, on the websites, we try to ensure that the content is appropriate. Our form is so-so. There is no particular place to receive people. We don’t have luxurious offices, we don’t have any super equipment, although, of course, it wouldn’t hurt. Our main thing is that we are super-professionals. Our sites have an administrator - simply a unique girl, herself a severely disabled person, but with her service she saved hundreds of people who came to the sites and forums. After all, it happens like this: one person saves another person: let’s say, pulls him out of the water - and he fully deserves the title of hero; and here a person who cannot walk himself saves dozens - and no one knows about her. They only know the nickname: “Wave”. Moreover, she generally lives alone! The Lord gives such amazing people who modestly, without exposing themselves, save dozens, or even hundreds of souls from death and despair.
- Probably, the experience of your center is in great demand?
Yes, both in the world and in the Church. I spend a lot of time on business trips; our center’s employees share their experiences and participate in various programs. Of course, we also help methodically: people come to us from all over Russia. And most importantly: people see the benefits of our work. We work for God. And we are very happy about this.
How to help a person who has experienced the death of a loved one? How to cope with pain and despair during illness? How to protect a person from suicide? What's happened real love? Are psychologists needed at churches?
Conversation with the head of the Center for Crisis Psychology at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on Semenovskaya, Mikhail Khasminsky.
An unusual combination - the Center for Crisis Psychology at the temple. Is this, perhaps, even the only such center at the temple of the Russian Orthodox Church?
No, not the only one, now there are two more such centers in Moscow, although they are somewhat different from us. Our Center was the first: in 2006, its creation was blessed by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. The two subsequent centers were created by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and are mainly concerned with helping in family crises. Similar phenomenon is no longer uncommon, I often travel to various regions and dioceses and see that such communities also gather there. Most recently, Metropolitan Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk created a community of Orthodox psychologists, and a Crisis Center is being created under him. Thus, this phenomenon can already be called a kind of vector or trend.
- How can you, psychologists, be useful to priests?
IN in this case The task is to be useful primarily not to the priests, but to the parishioners. Psychologists conduct a large and serious social work helping people. In fact, this is part of counseling, but not spiritual, but psychological. People often find themselves in difficult situations, serious crises, and the priest cannot deal with the psychological component of these crises, if only because no one taught him this. Of course, practice can be obtained through the service itself, but some specially trained people are also needed who could help a person who is thinking, for example, about suicide. I assure you that such people go to churches and seek help there. And very few clergy are able to help them; I emphasize the word “churchly” here, because these are not only clergy. Unfortunately, very often a person in crisis goes “behind the bench” and meets people there who are completely unprepared to provide such help. This can be compared to a situation when a person comes to a doctor’s clinic, goes to check out his clothes in the cloakroom, and there the cloakroom attendant tells him: “Don’t go to the doctor, I’ll tell you now what and how to do.” And when we ask people why they listened to them, they answer that everything is sacred in church! Such deep trust in the Church leads to the fact that even the grandmother in the church shop is endowed with certain sacred properties, but, to be honest, this is not always justified. Therefore, there must be people who can really provide effective assistance, and not just as psychologists, but at the same time as missionaries, and, of course, the approach should be from an Orthodox point of view.
- Please tell us how you came to this work.
The center was created with the blessing His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the initiator was the rector of our metochion, Archimandrite Augustine, and was actively supported in this endeavor by the current Metropolitan of Murom. I came from an oncology center, where I worked for several years, helping cancer patients. There were practically no working conditions there, it was very difficult - there were almost no offices, there was nothing. However, the school there was excellent, especially since I combined this work with volunteering at a hospice for children. There it immediately became clear that psychological theories are often divorced from life. With the help of theory you can get PhD degrees, write abstracts for conferences and, thus increasing your status, move forward. But in practice, it is impossible to help patients with theses. My colleagues and I found some methods and used them, but in the end all methods depended on the person’s worldview, on how the person perceived the disease, how he experienced it. His somatic status directly depended on his spiritual state.
That’s when I myself began to come closer to Orthodoxy. It so happened that until that moment I “understood everything” and respected it, but I was quite far from it and unchurched. And then I realized that in this case it is simply necessary. My churching began, deeper work in this direction began, I began to understand some connections that were not obvious to me before. It turned out so well that it was at that moment that a request appeared, and I became the head of the Center for Crisis Psychology, since then our group of psychologists has been working for 8 years.
Our science is new, but there have always been crises, and accordingly, there have always been solutions to crises. It should be noted that people have always lost loved ones, experienced illness, and with every war there was violence. However, 200 years ago there was not a single psychologist, not a single psychiatrist and not a single antidepressant. So if we are talking about the complete irreplaceability of the science of psychology, then perhaps we can argue about this. Previously people lived more harmoniously than now - in our time, according to some estimates, in very successful Western countries about 40% of the adult population regularly use antidepressants. Even if it’s not 40%, but 20% of the population, this is still a colossal figure, and this fact makes you think.
On the other hand, I cannot say that our science is completely unnecessary and useless. Crisis psychology is developing. What is a crisis from a psychological point of view? This is when a mentally normal person finds himself in circumstances that are abnormal for himself. For example, the death of loved ones is a very sharp departure from the framework of the worldview to which a person is accustomed. The same applies to experiences of violence and serious illness. Suicidal thoughts, strictly speaking, are more related to suicidology, but nevertheless they also often accompany crisis states.
In principle, a crisis can be considered, oddly enough, and marriage is also a very sharp turn in life, when old behavioral norms can no longer work, and new ones have not yet been formed. The same applies to the psychology of refugees; this topic, unfortunately, is now relevant, and we also work with it and conduct various events, including educational ones.
Despite the fact that this is taught in various educational institutions, it must be said that, judging by the textbook on crisis psychology, it will basically be one theory: what it looks like, what gradations of states there are, relationships, and so on. However, almost nothing is said about how to actually help people in such conditions. For example, a person has died - secular psychology cannot work here. Symptomatically, you can ease the tension, but helping a person is fundamental: it is impossible to understand where his loved one has gone and what to do now. In any case, frustration appears - the inability to achieve some result. This is why almost no one helps people through grief.
If you look at it in general, a huge number of psychologists help with neuroses, behavior changes, and provide career guidance. What to do when grief comes? Of course, there are specialists who declare that they can help in grief, but I have not yet seen a psychologist working in a secular way who could effectively help in case of severe grief of a person, and we have such potential. Naturally, the point is not in our super-knowledge, but in the foundation on which we are based. If we also introduce a missionary element in a certain way, helping a person to integrate into the Orthodox faith, then he receives a colossal resource, and he receives it from God himself, which determines the efficiency with which we work.
All this does not mean that we force everyone to be baptized, take communion, and so on. Each person makes his own decision. Often I have to say: “You know, you are in despair, you are thinking about very bad things. You are grieving so much, but a certain path is being offered to you. In essence, this is a helping hand, why are you pushing it away? Actually, what are you risking if you grab it? I can roughly suggest where you need to grab a hold, and you can grab it yourself. If it helps you, then you will know that it works." Many people, according to sober reasoning, perceive the situation this way and follow this path.
- Who can contact your Center, what problems do people most often come to?
Any person in a crisis situation can contact our Center. Moreover, the problem must be really serious. The fact is that we do not have the opportunity to deal with people who are, for example, in a state of chronic neurosis not associated with a crisis. We have outlined our specialization as follows: helping people who are grieving, grieving - with the loss of a loved one, with difficult divorces; psychological assistance to people with serious illnesses, refugees, and survivors of violence. We are ready to work across the entire spectrum of crisis conditions; we try not to take on mild cases.
- Tell us a little about the Center’s employees.
We have five psychologists, all Orthodox people, leading church-going lives. Of the most famous names, I will name the wonderful psychologist Lyudmila Fedorovna Ermakova, whom many people know. Of course, we keep in touch with specialists from other centers; we all know each other more or less.
- Are your services free?
Yes, everything is completely free with us, anyone can come, if you wish, you can leave donations, no one forbids this. But our services are certainly free from the very beginning of the Center’s existence.
It's no secret that it is impossible to overcome grief in one go. In your experience, how long do you lead a person who comes to you?
Everything we do is designed for a fairly quick effect. Personally, I usually have two, maximum three consultations. In psychoanalysis, the patient is kept for three to four years, but during this time any crisis will pass on its own. Our specificity is that we need to help effectively and precisely quickly. And here it is important to clearly understand, at the first consultation, what the problem is. The task is not to turn grief itself into joy. It is necessary to direct the black grief, which for some reason went “wrong”, in a different direction, so that it ultimately ends in bright sadness for the deceased person. It is necessary to find where grief is going wrong. If the process proceeds correctly, in accordance with the stages that are determined for grief, then you should not even interfere. If the process is going wrong, then you need to point it out, explain it, and provide some materials. We often encourage people to independent work, because no psychologist can do everything for a person; in any case, the internal work of the patient himself is important.
You and your colleagues are still “piecemeal specimens”. All over the country, people need such specialists, but often they simply cannot find them. As far as I know, you travel a lot around the regions and give many training seminars, including for priests. What is the purpose of these classes, and can priests provide psychological assistance after this?
With the blessing of the ruling bishops in many regions, I have already conducted seminars dedicated to analyzing the mistakes of pastoral counseling and certain resources that modern conditions pastors could use it much more effectively. What are the main topics we discuss? Let's take the feeling of guilt as an example. Sometimes a shepherd, without understanding it, can impose an excessive feeling of guilt on a person. Everyone is human and everyone makes mistakes. This does not mean that all priests are mistaken, it just happens that a very small percentage of cases, but severe ones, are enough. You can give this analogy: it is enough for a good surgeon to make mistakes 10 times out of 1000 cases, but these will be serious mistakes. Therefore, it is best to practice prevention here.
In addition, we talk about what tools and psychological knowledge can be used. There is an opinion that priests should know different theories, for example, personality theories and so on. And, strictly speaking, why? We offer priests exactly practical materials, which they can easily understand without special psychological education and then use in practice. We present all this in an understandable and convenient form. As far as I know, all the participants in the seminars and the ruling bishops are very pleased with them.
We are on television, so I can’t help but ask, what role does television play in terms of a person’s psychological state?
Television is a kind of tool. It's like asking what role does an ax play in a person's life? An ax can do very good and very bad things, depending on whose hands it is in. It is very important for a person to shape the environment in which he lives, and first of all, the information environment. We are all human, and psychology has absolutely established that we are imitative, social creatures. If we see that there is only one sin around, then it is easier to cross the line. And sin pours out from television screens a lot and often. Although it should be noted that now there has been some kind of turning point, programs that are important and interesting from the point of view of moral content have begun to appear. I’m not even talking about the Soyuz TV channel, which has long been known as a mouthpiece for morality and responsibility. I see that in some places the situation is starting to change. In general, I and all our specialists often appear on television, on central and non-central channels, so to some extent we also take an active part in this process.
How to protect yourself from bad influence central TV channels, if present? Not to watch at all or to watch selectively?
I think there is no single recipe - everything is determined by the spiritual and moral core. If it is there, a person can protect himself from dirt; he is able to distinguish this dirt. A broad outlook is also important. If vision is narrowed, then a person will bury himself in the “box” and think that the whole world is exactly as it is shown. When one's horizons are broader, a person has more room to maneuver in order not to succumb to such temptation.
Transcript: Tatyana Bashilova
Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky
- Born in 1969. Police major. He received his psychological education at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (department of psychology, pedagogy and organization of work with personnel). Married, has a son. For more than three years he worked as a psychologist in a hospice for children with cancer. One of the organizers and psychologist of the Orthodox crisis center at the Patriarchal Compound - the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on Semenovskaya (Moscow, metro station Baumanskaya). Orthodox psychologist, one of the pioneers and initiators of the development of the direction of modern Russian psycho-oncology, member of the Association of Psycho-Oncologists of Russia, author and expert of the site "www.memoriam.ru - Blessed Memory", expert of the site on suicide prevention "www.pobedish.ru - Pobedish.ru" . Professional interests:
- Psychological rehabilitation of people who have experienced grief,
- psychological trauma losses.
- Psychological support for patients suffering from severe somatic diseases with a poor prognosis.
- psychological rehabilitation victims in the war zone.
- Comprehensive psychological systemic-family rehabilitation.
Sight modern science: does the soul exist, and is Consciousness immortal?
Every person who is faced with the death of a loved one wonders whether there is life after death? Nowadays, this issue is of particular relevance. If several centuries ago the answer to this question was obvious to everyone, now, after a period of atheism, its solution is more difficult. We cannot simply believe hundreds of generations of our ancestors, who, through personal experience, century after century, were convinced that man has an immortal soul. We want to have facts. Moreover, the facts are scientific. From school they tried to convince us that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that science says so. And we believed... Let us note that we BELIEVE that there is no immortal soul, we BELIEVE that science allegedly proved this, we BELIEVE that there is no God. None of us has even tried to figure out what impartial science says about the soul. We simply trusted certain authorities, without particularly going into the details of their worldview, objectivity, and their interpretation of scientific facts.
And now, when the tragedy happened, there is a conflict within us:
We feel that the soul of the deceased is eternal, that it is alive, but on the other hand, the old stereotypes instilled in us that there is no soul drag us into the abyss of despair. This struggle within us is very difficult and very exhausting. We want the truth!
So let's look at the question of the existence of the soul through real, non-ideologized, objective science. Let's hear the opinions of real scientists on this issue and personally evaluate the logical calculations. It is not our FAITH in the existence or non-existence of the soul, but only KNOWLEDGE that can extinguish this internal conflict, preserve our strength, give confidence, and look at the tragedy from a different, real point of view.
The article will talk about Consciousness. We will analyze the question of Consciousness from the point of view of science: where is Consciousness located in our body and whether it can cease its life.
What is Consciousness?
First, about what Consciousness is in general. People have thought about this question throughout the history of mankind, but still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some of the properties and possibilities of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of oneself, one’s personality, it is a great analyzer of all our feelings, emotions, desires, plans. Consciousness is what sets us apart, what makes us feel that we are not objects, but individuals. In other words, Consciousness miraculously reveals our fundamental existence. Consciousness is our awareness of our “I”, but at the same time Consciousness is a great mystery. Consciousness has no dimensions, no form, no color, no smell, no taste; it cannot be touched or turned in your hands. Even though we know very little about consciousness, we know with absolute certainty that we have it.
One of the main questions of humanity is the question of the nature of this very Consciousness (soul, “I”, ego). Materialism and idealism have diametrically opposed views on this issue. From the point of view of materialism human Consciousness is a substrate of the brain, a product of matter, a generation biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. From the point of view of idealism, Consciousness is the ego, “I”, spirit, soul - an immaterial, invisible, eternally existing, non-dying energy that spiritualizes the body. Acts of consciousness always involve a subject who is actually aware of everything.
If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then religion will not provide any evidence of the existence of the soul. The doctrine of the soul is a dogma and is not subject to scientific proof.
There are absolutely no explanations, much less evidence, from materialists who believe that they are impartial scientists (although this is far from the case).
But how do most people, who are equally far from religion, from philosophy, and from science too, imagine this Consciousness, soul, “I”? Let's ask ourselves, what is “I”?
Gender, name, profession and other role functions
The first thing that comes to mind for most is: “I am a person”, “I am a woman (man)”, “I am a businessman (turner, baker)”, “I am Tanya (Katya, Alexey)”, “I am a wife ( husband, daughter)”, etc. These are certainly funny answers. Your individual, unique “I” cannot be defined general concepts. There are a huge number of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your “I”. Half of them are women (men), but they are not “I” either, people with the same professions seem to have their own “I”, not yours, the same can be said about wives (husbands), people different professions, social status, nationalities, religion, etc. No affiliation with any group will explain to you what your individual “I” represents, because Consciousness is always personal. I am not qualities (qualities only belong to our “I”), because the qualities of the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.
Mental and physiological characteristics
Some say that their “I” is their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and preferences, their psychological characteristics, etc.
In fact, this cannot be the core of the personality, which is called “I.” Why? Because throughout life, behavior, ideas and preferences change, and even more so psychological characteristics. It cannot be said that if these features were different before, then it was not my “I”.
Realizing this, some people make the following argument: “I am my individual body.” This is already more interesting. Let's examine this assumption as well.
Everyone knows from the school anatomy course that the cells of our body are gradually renewed throughout life. Old ones die (apoptosis), and new ones are born. Some cells (the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract) are completely renewed almost every day, but there are cells that go through their life cycle much longer. On average, every 5 years all the cells of the body are renewed. If we consider the “I” to be a simple collection of human cells, then the result will be absurd. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years. During this time, at least 10 times a person will change all the cells in his body (i.e. 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person, but 10 different people lived their 70-year life? Isn't that pretty stupid? We conclude that “I” cannot be a body, because the body is not permanent, but “I” is permanent.
This means that the “I” cannot be either the qualities of cells or their totality.
But here the particularly erudite give a counter-argument: “Okay, with bones and muscles it’s clear, this really cannot be the “I”, but there are nerve cells! And they are alone for the rest of their lives. Maybe “I” is the sum of nerve cells?”
Let's think about this question together...
Does consciousness consist of nerve cells?
Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “testing harmony with algebra” (A.S. Pushkin). The most naive misconception of militant materialism regarding personality is the idea that personality is a set of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, be they even atoms or neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - the “I”.
How can this most complex “I”, feeling, capable of experiences, love, be simply the sum of specific cells of the body along with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectric processes? How can these processes shape the “I”???
Provided that nerve cells constituted our “I”, then we would lose part of our “I” every day. With each dead cell, with each neuron, the “I” would become smaller and smaller. With cell restoration, it would increase in size.
Scientific studies conducted in different countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration (restoration). Here is what the most serious biological international journal Nature writes: “Employees of the Californian Institute for Biological Research named after. Salk discovered that in the brains of adult mammals, fully functional young cells are born that function on a par with existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue renews itself most rapidly in physically active animals."
This is confirmed by the publication in another authoritative, peer-reviewed biological journal - Science: “Within two recent years Researchers have found that nerve and brain cells are renewed, like others in the human body. The body is capable of repairing disorders related to the nervous tract itself, says scientist Helen M. Blon.”
Thus, even with a complete change of all (including nerve) cells of the body, the “I” of a person remains the same, therefore, it does not belong to the constantly changing material body.
For some reason, in our time it is so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that since none of the parts has life, then life can be created by their totality... moreover, it is completely impossible for life to be produced by a heap of parts, and that the mind was generated by that which is devoid of mind. If anyone objects that this is not so, but that in fact the soul is formed by atoms coming together, that is, bodies indivisible into parts, then he will be refuted by the fact that the atoms themselves only lie one next to the other, not forming a living whole, for unity and joint feeling cannot be obtained from bodies that are insensitive and incapable of unification; but the soul feels itself”1.
The “I” is the unchanging core of personality, which includes many variables, but is not itself variable.
A skeptic can put forward a last desperate argument: “Maybe “I” is the brain?”
Is Consciousness a product of brain activity? What does science say?
Many people heard the fairy tale that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain back in school. The idea that the brain is essentially a person with his “I” is extremely widespread. Most people think that it is the brain that perceives information from the outside world, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case, they think that it is the brain that makes us alive, gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.
But this tale has nothing to do with science. The brain is currently being studied in depth. The chemical composition, parts of the brain, and the connections of these parts with human functions have been well studied for a long time. The brain organization of perception, attention, memory, and speech has been studied. Functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A huge number of clinics and research centers have been studying the human brain for more than a hundred years, for which expensive, effective equipment has been developed. But, opening any textbooks, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find scientific data about the connection of the brain with Consciousness.
For people far from this area of knowledge, this seems surprising. In fact, there is nothing surprising about this. It’s just that no one has ever discovered the connection between the brain and the very center of our personality, our “I”. Of course, material scientists have always wanted this. Thousands of studies and millions of experiments have been conducted, many billions of dollars have been spent on this. The efforts of scientists were not in vain. Thanks to these studies, the parts of the brain themselves were discovered and studied, their connection with physiological processes, a lot has been done to understand neurophysiological processes and phenomena, but the most important thing has not been achieved. It was not possible to find the place in the brain that is our “I”. It was not possible even despite the extreme active work in this direction, make serious assumptions about how the brain can be connected with our Consciousness.
Where did the assumption come from that Consciousness is in the brain? One of the first to make such an assumption was the famous electrophysiologist Dubois-Reymond (1818-1896) in the mid-18th century. In his worldview, Dubois-Reymond was one of the brightest representatives of the mechanistic movement. In one of his letters to a friend, he wrote that “exclusively physicochemical laws operate in the body; if not everything can be explained with their help, then it is necessary, using physical and mathematical methods, either to find a way of their action, or to accept that there are new forces of matter, equal in value to physical and chemical forces.”
But another outstanding physiologist, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (Ludwig, 1816-1895), who lived at the same time with Reymon, who headed the new Physiological Institute in Leipzig in 1869-1895, which became the world's largest center in the field of experimental physiology, did not agree with him. Founder scientific school, Ludwig wrote that none of the existing theories of nervous activity, including the electrical theory of nerve currents of Dubois-Reymond, can say anything about how, as a result of the activity of nerves, acts of sensation become possible. Let us note that here we are not even talking about the most complex acts of consciousness, but about much simpler sensations. If there is no consciousness, then we cannot feel or perceive anything.
Another major physiologist of the 19th century is the outstanding English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, laureate Nobel Prize, said that if it is not clear how the psyche arises from the activity of the brain, then, naturally, it is just as little understood how it can have any influence on the behavior of a living being, which is controlled through the nervous system.
As a result, Dubois-Reymond himself came to the following conclusion: “As we are aware, we do not know and will never know. And no matter how much we delve into the jungle of intracerebral neurodynamics, we will not build a bridge to the kingdom of consciousness.” Raymon came to the conclusion, disappointing for determinism, that it is impossible to explain Consciousness by material causes. He admitted "that here the human mind comes across " world mystery", which he will never be able to resolve."
Professor at Moscow University, philosopher A.I. Vvedensky in 1914 formulated the law of “the absence of objective signs of animation.” The meaning of this law is that the role of the psyche in the system of material processes of behavior regulation is absolutely elusive and there is no conceivable bridge between the activity of the brain and the area of mental or spiritual phenomena, including Consciousness.
The leading experts in neurophysiology, Nobel Prize laureates David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel recognized that in order to establish a connection between the brain and Consciousness, it is necessary to understand what reads and decodes the information that comes from the senses. Scientists have recognized that this is impossible to do.
There is interesting and convincing evidence of the absence of a connection between Consciousness and the functioning of the brain, understandable even to people far from science. Here it is:
Let us assume that the “I” (Consciousness) is the result of the work of the brain. As neurophysiologists know for sure, a person can live even with one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, he will have Consciousness. A person who lives only with the right hemisphere of the brain certainly has an “I” (Consciousness). Accordingly, we can conclude that the “I” is not in the left, absent, hemisphere. A person with only a functioning left hemisphere also has an “I”, therefore the “I” is not located in the right hemisphere, which is absent in this person. Consciousness remains regardless of which hemisphere is removed. This means that a person does not have an area of the brain responsible for Consciousness, neither in the left nor in the right hemisphere of the brain. We have to conclude that the presence of consciousness in humans is not associated with certain areas of the brain.
Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences Voino-Yasenetsky describes: “I opened a huge abscess (about 50 cubic cm of pus) in a young wounded man, which undoubtedly destroyed the entire left frontal lobe, and I did not observe any mental defects after this operation. I can say the same about another patient who was operated on for a huge cyst of the meninges. Upon wide opening of the skull, I was surprised to see that almost the entire right half of it was empty, and the entire left hemisphere of the brain was compressed, almost to the point of being impossible to distinguish.”
In 1940, Dr. Augustin Iturricha made a sensational statement in Anthropological Society in Sucre (Bolivia). He and Dr. Ortiz spent a long time studying the medical history of a 14-year-old boy, a patient at Dr. Ortiz's clinic. The teenager was there with a diagnosis of a brain tumor. The young man retained Consciousness until his death, complaining only of a headache. When a pathological autopsy was performed after his death, the doctors were amazed: the entire brain mass was completely separated from the internal cavity of the skull. A large abscess has taken over the cerebellum and part of the brain. It remains completely unclear how the sick boy’s thinking was preserved.
The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is also confirmed by studies conducted recently by Dutch physiologists under the leadership of Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the most authoritative biological English magazine"The Lancet". “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness “lives” on its own, absolutely independently. As for the brain, it is not thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, performing strictly defined functions. It is very possible that thinking matter does not exist, even in principle, said the leader of the study, the famous scientist Pim van Lommel.”
Another argument that is understandable to non-specialists is given by Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky: “In the wars of ants who do not have a brain, intentionality is clearly revealed, and therefore rationality, no different from human”4. It's really amazing fact. Ants solve quite complex problems of survival, building housing, providing themselves with food, i.e. have a certain intelligence, but have no brain at all. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Neurophysiology does not stand still, but is one of the most dynamically developing sciences. The success of studying the brain is evidenced by the methods and scale of research. Functions and areas of the brain are being studied, and its composition is being clarified in more and more detail. Despite the titanic work of studying the brain, world science today we are just as far from understanding what creativity, thinking, memory are and what their connection is with the brain itself.
What is the nature of Consciousness?
Having come to the understanding that Consciousness does not exist inside the body, science draws natural conclusions about the immaterial nature of consciousness.
Academician P.K. Anokhin: “None of the “mental” operations that we attribute to the “mind” have so far been able to be directly associated with any part of the brain. If we, in principle, cannot understand how exactly the psyche arises as a result of the activity of the brain, then isn’t it more logical to think that the psyche is not, in its essence, a function of the brain, but represents the manifestation of some other - immaterial spiritual forces?
At the end of the 20th century, the creator quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize winner E. Schrödinger wrote that the nature of the connection between some physical processes and subjective events (which include Consciousness) lies “aside from science and beyond human understanding.”
The greatest modern neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, J. Eccles, developed the idea that based on the analysis of brain activity it is impossible to determine the origin psychic phenomena, and this fact can easily be interpreted in the sense that the psyche is not a function of the brain at all. According to Eccles, neither physiology nor the theory of evolution can shed light on the origin and nature of consciousness, which is absolutely alien to all material processes in the Universe. Spiritual world people and the world physical realities, including brain activity, are completely independent independent worlds that only interact and to some extent influence each other. He is echoed by such prominent specialists as Karl Lashley (an American scientist, director of the laboratory of primate biology in Orange Park (Florida), who studied the mechanisms of brain function) and Harvard University doctor Edward Tolman.
With his colleague, the founder of modern neurosurgery Wilder Penfield, who performed over 10,000 brain operations, Eccles wrote the book “The Mystery of Man.” In it, the authors directly state that “there is no doubt that a person is controlled by SOMETHING located outside his body.” “I can confirm experimentally,” writes Eccles, “that the workings of consciousness cannot be explained by the functioning of the brain. Consciousness exists independently of it from the outside.”
According to Eccles, consciousness cannot be a subject scientific research. In his opinion, the emergence of consciousness, like the emergence of life, is the highest religious mystery. In his report, the Nobel laureate relied on the conclusions of the book “Personality and the Brain,” written jointly with the American philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper.
Wilder Penfield, after many years of studying brain activity, also came to the conclusion that “the energy of the mind is different from the energy of the brain’s neural impulses”6.
Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, director of the Brain Research Institute (RAMS of the Russian Federation), world-renowned neurophysiologist, professor, doctor of medical sciences. Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva: “I first heard the hypothesis that the human brain only perceives thoughts from somewhere outside Nobel laureate, Professor John Eccles. Of course, at the time it seemed absurd to me. But then research conducted at our St. Petersburg Brain Research Institute confirmed: we cannot explain the mechanics of the creative process. The brain can generate only the simplest thoughts, such as turning the pages of a book you are reading or stirring sugar in a glass. And the creative process is the manifestation of a completely new quality. As a believer, I allow the participation of the Almighty in controlling the thought process.”
Science is gradually coming to the conclusion that the brain is not a source of thought and consciousness, but at most a relay of them.
Professor S. Grof talks about it this way: “imagine that your TV is broken and you call a TV technician, who, after turning various knobs, tunes it up. It doesn’t occur to you that all these stations are sitting in this box.”
Back in 1956, the outstanding leading scientist-surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky believed that our brain is not only not connected with Consciousness, but is not even capable of thinking independently, since the mental process is taken outside its boundaries. In his book, Valentin Feliksovich argues that “the brain is not an organ of thought and feelings,” and that “The Spirit acts beyond the brain, determining its activity, and our entire existence, when the brain works as a transmitter, receiving signals and transmitting them to the organs of the body.” 7 .
English researchers Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Clinic came to the same conclusions. They examined patients who had returned to life after cardiac arrest and found that some of them accurately recounted the content of conversations that medical staff had while they were in cardiac arrest. clinical death. Others gave an accurate description of the events that occurred during this time period. Sam Parnia says the brain is like any other organ human body, consists of cells and is not capable of thinking. However, it can work as a thought detecting device, i.e. like an antenna, with the help of which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. Scientists have suggested that during clinical death, Consciousness operating independently of the brain uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves entering it, and then converts them into sound and image.
If we turn off the radio, this does not mean that the radio station stops broadcasting. That is, after the death of the physical body, Consciousness continues to live.
The fact of the continuation of the life of Consciousness after the death of the body is confirmed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Professor N.P. Bekhterev in her book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life.” In addition to discussing purely scientific issues, in this book the author also cites his personal experience of encountering posthumous phenomena.
Natalya Bekhtereva, talking about her meeting with the Bulgarian clairvoyant Vanga Dimitrova, speaks quite definitely about this in one of her interviews: “Vanga’s example absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead”8, and another quote from her book: “I can’t help but believe what I heard and saw myself. A scientist does not have the right to reject facts (if he is a scientist!) just because they do not fit into dogma or worldview”9.
First sequential description afterlife, based on scientific observations, was given by the Swedish scientist and naturalist Emmanuel Swedenborg. Then this problem was seriously studied by the famous psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross, the equally famous psychiatrist Raymond Moody, conscientious academicians Oliver Lodge10, William Crookes11, Alfred Wallace, Alexander Butlerov, Professor Friedrich Myers12, and the American pediatrician Melvin Morse. Among the serious and systematic researchers of the issue of dying, Dr. Michael Sabom, a professor of medicine at Emory University and a staff physician at the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta, should be mentioned; the systematic research of psychiatrist Kenneth Ring, who studied this problem, was also studied by the doctor of medicine and resuscitator Moritz Rawlings. , our contemporary, thanatopsychologist A.A. Nalchadzhyan. The famous Soviet scientist, a leading specialist in the field, worked hard to understand this problem from the point of view of physics. thermodynamic processes, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus Albert Veinik. A significant contribution to the study of near-death experiences was made by the world famous American psychologist Czech origin, founder of the transpersonal school psychology doctor Stanislav Grof.
The variety of facts accumulated by science undeniably proves that after physical death, each of those living today inherits a different reality, preserving their Consciousness.
Despite the limitations of our ability to understand this reality using material means, today there are a number of its characteristics obtained through experiments and observations of scientists studying this problem.
These characteristics were listed by A.V. Mikheev, research fellow St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in his report at the international symposium “Life after death: from faith to knowledge”, which took place on April 8-9, 2005 in St. Petersburg:
"1. There is a so-called “subtle body”, which is the carrier of self-awareness, memory, emotions and “ inner life» person. This body exists... after physical death, being, for the duration of the existence of the physical body, its “parallel component”, ensuring the above processes. The physical body is only an intermediary for their manifestation on the physical (earthly) level.
2. The life of an individual does not end with current earthly death. Survival after death is a natural law for humans.
3. The next reality is divided into a large number of levels differing in frequency characteristics their components.
4. A person’s destination during the posthumous transition is determined by his attunement to a certain level, which is the total result of his thoughts, feelings and actions during his life on Earth. Just as the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a chemical substance depends on its composition, so too a person’s post-mortem destination is determined by “ composite characteristic"of his inner life.
5. The concepts of “Heaven and Hell” reflect two polarities, possible post-mortem states.
6. In addition to such polar states, there are a number of intermediate ones. The choice of an adequate state is automatically determined by the mental and emotional “pattern” formed by a person during earthly life. That is why negative emotions, violence, the desire for destruction and fanaticism, no matter how they are justified externally, in this regard are extremely destructive for the future fate of a person. This provides a strong rationale for personal responsibility and ethical principles."
All the above arguments are simply amazingly consistent with religious knowledge all traditional religions. This is a reason to cast aside doubts and make a decision. Is not it?
As part of the XXIII International Christmas educational readings in the diocesan DPC, crisis psychologist Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky met with practicing psychologists Kamchatka institutions. Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky is the head of the Orthodox crisis center at the Patriarchal Compound - the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, a member of the Association of Oncopsychologists of Russia, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Russian Orthodox Psychology", editor-in-chief of the portals memoriam.ru and boleem.com; co-chairman for Russia international movement"Family. Unity. Fatherland."
The conversation was about all sorts of crisis situations that anyone can find themselves in.
Both participation in war and life failures, loss of loved ones. When experiencing a crisis, a person is in a disassembled state: he experiences serious psychological disorders, anxiety neurosis, fear, despair. His consciousness gets stuck on experiencing the same picture, on the event that happened to him. Hyperexcitation sets in, a person in this state looks for his enemies among people and becomes aggressive. "Any methods psychological impact in such situations they don’t work,” Mikhail Igorevich emphasized, “only working with a person’s soul helps!”
The conversation with practicing psychologists was somewhat tense. The impression was that almost everyone came for some ready-made practical recipes on how to deal with a crisis patient in one case or another. And although the Orthodox psychologist spoke clearly about the fact that working with a person who is in crisis situation necessary through his soul, he was not heard by many. In the conversation, it was as if two directions of psychology collided, two completely different views of man. If Orthodox anthropology sees man as three-component: spirit, soul, body and proposes to work with the human soul, then secular psychology is egocentric, placing man at the head of the universe, turning to his mind and his ego. Modern psychology works using Western technologies.
Valentina Doroshenko:
Since I work with Ukrainians, I am the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian diaspora, and today there are many refugees in the city, I was interested in listening to an experienced Orthodox psychologist on issues of working with people whose Peaceful time The war burned with people who lost everything, their homeland, home, property, and some even their loved ones. And it was absolutely clear to me that two psychological approach to a person encountered in today's conversation: Egocentrism and Christocentrism. Egocentrism is understood as a person’s position in which he is focused on his own needs and interests and is unable to accept another point of view, even if his own is clearly inadequate. With this approach, everything depends only on the person, on his will and intelligence, and luck. And another approach is Christocentrism - the understanding of Jesus Christ brought by Christianity as the Foundation for the correct knowledge of God, man and the entire universe; in this understanding, Christ is the head of our spirit and soul.
Denisenkova Tatyana Viktorovna, teacher-speech therapist, kindergarten № 41:
I was happy to hear the approach of an Orthodox psychologist to a person, about his three-part structure: spirit, soul, body. Unfortunately, this did not find understanding among secular psychologists, so I think Mikhail Igorevich did not risk giving Orthodox advice on working with a person in a crisis situation. And although we are not professional psychologists, everything that was said was clear and close to us, and the methods of working with people from the perspective of Orthodox psychology were also clear.
Speech pathologist-defectologist of kindergarten:
Kindergartens expect that children of refugees who survived the war and have received enormous stress will soon come to us. And to know what to expect, what to be afraid of and how to work with them, I came to this meeting. I understood a lot, not only for working with children, but also for myself personally. After all, Mikhail Igorevich spoke not only about refugees, but about all of us. This was the first time I heard the term “grieving people.” In fact, we are all mourners, everyone loses their loved ones, everyone worries and grieves about the loss; Divorces are the same. And how to learn to live with this loss, to get out of the state of grief? And the fact that an Orthodox psychologist offers spiritual help to his patients and an appeal to patristic traditions simply made me happy. After all, practicing psychologists often use Western methods that are simply not suitable for Russian people and do not give useful results. This is the first time I have met such a wonderful Orthodox psychologist and I am glad that such conferences and such wonderful meetings are possible.
Khomchenko Anastasia Nikolaevna, lieutenant, military psychologist UKVS:
I work with new recruits. Sometimes we come across situations in which a young fighter needs psychological help. Boys now coming into the army are pampered by their mothers; weak-willed and difficult conditions of service always keep their psyche under strain. Our task is to learn to identify and help.
I am a believer and I like the proposed Orthodox methods of working with people prone to suicide. I am a young psychologist, I learn everything that is taught. And such meetings are not only useful to me, but simply necessary.
Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky, Orthodox psychologist: Today I offered serious arguments in favor of Orthodox psychology. After all, if a person does not agree with something, he must offer something in return. I am firmly convinced and know from experience that no methods work for people in a crisis situation except working with the soul. And Orthodox anthropology is a matter of faith.
We have websites “Pobedish.ru” - for those who want to commit suicide; Family of sites “Survive. ru" - for grieving people. And I always suggest that psychologists get acquainted with the materials presented there, as well as people who cannot get out of a crisis situation, ask for our advice and help. A person will find a blog on the sites: “How to survive a divorce, separation, www.perejit.ru”, “For those who do not want to live, www.pobedish.ru”, “About fortune telling and love spells, www.zagovor.ru”, “ How to become happy, www.realisti.ru" and other topics.
The Perezhit.ru website has the highest missionary value. Maybe even the only real one of all those currently available on the Internet. For missionary activity There are only two ways to lead: go and teach. That is, by personal example Christian life, as well as the transmission of the doctrine of salvation.
The team of Prezhit.ru co-authors managed the incredible - without the use of modern mass media technologies, to provide a stable audience of interested visitors. Getting to know Perezhit.ru is like a breath of fresh air in the dusty, demagogic and unmerciful space of the Internet, these sites are so humane and compassionate towards the visitor.
Perishit.ru
Is life a train to nowhere? Answers to the question about the meaning of life(Site “Pobedish.ru”)
Is the world unfair?
Often for a person thinking about the meaning of existence, about God, the stumbling block that prevents him from coming to sincere faith is the thought of the injustice of the world. The world is unfair: people who live according to their conscience suffer, and children who have not committed any sin suffer, but those who live dishonestly prosper.
This argument is valid only if you look at life from the perspective of this, earthly world. If you believe that everything ends in death, then it is indeed impossible to understand the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the unrighteous.
However, if you look at the situation from the point of view of eternity, then everything falls into place. Firstly, God does not proceed from the law of justice, but from the law of Love. Secondly, He considers every good or evil not from the point of view of a person’s earthly life, but from the point of view of the spiritual benefit for his soul, which is eternal. And for these two reasons, a great manifestation of God’s love for us is, paradoxically, the suffering that He sends to us, to each according to his strength. Because it is suffering that to a large extent educates our soul, teaches it not to cleave to this world, but while already living on earth, with the soul to strive for the enduring benefits of the future life.
It is the suffering that is sent to each of us to a greater or lesser extent that, like nothing else, helps us understand that all the blessings of our world are illusory and fragile, and living for the sake of acquiring these blessings is futile, since none of us can take them from us. yourself into another world; and moreover, even here on earth, no one can be completely sure what awaits him tomorrow, and expect that these blessings will remain with him until his death.
In addition, by allowing sorrow and suffering, the Lord thereby wants to lead us to understanding important fact: This world is a damaged world, and it is impossible to achieve complete happiness in it. We suffer precisely because we have fallen away from the source of all good and have deprived ourselves of divine life.
The acquisition of eternal meaning and eternal happiness, free from all melancholy, is possible only through the knowledge of all the sorrow of life in isolation from God. Only by feeling “in our own skin” this sadness of this world can our soul grieve over the break with the source of true happiness - with God.
Support for a young mother
If we talk about the suffering of children, we can say that this, like everything else, is allowed by God out of Love: this is the strongest factor in rethinking the world for their loved ones, a factor in understanding that it is useless to seek well-being in this world that has fallen away from God; that you should not cleave to the blessings of this world, but, loving your children, you should first of all wish them spiritual benefit, raising them not for illusory success in temporary life, but for lasting bliss in eternity. And God shows Love towards children, if you look again from the perspective of eternity. By giving them the opportunity to suffer, by taking them to himself, God gives them an infinite benefit that we cannot even appreciate...
“Giver of meaning” - Christians also address God with these words. And this is also a reason to think. It is through understanding eternal life, through turning to God we find the true meaning of our existence in this world. And if we look for it, denying God, our search is doomed to failure... Undoubtedly, we can find something that we call the meaning of our life, and we can live it all, focusing on this something. But when we die, won’t we tell ourselves that we shouldn’t have deceived ourselves to the grave, drowning out the voice of the soul (which is “by nature a Christian”) with the vanity of the world?
St. Theophan the Recluse wrote clearly and comprehensively about the Orthodox view of the meaning of human existence. “The purpose of life... you need to definitely know. The general situation is that as it is afterlife, then the goal real life, in its entirety, without exception, should be there, and not here... Make it a law for your life to pursue this goal with all your might - you will see for yourself what light will spill over your temporary stay on earth and on your deeds. The first thing that will open will be the conviction that, therefore, everything here is only a means for another life. Look at the sky and measure every step of your life so that it is a step there. God gave us this life so that we would have time to prepare for the next. This one is short, but that one has no end. But even though it is short, in its continuation you can prepare provisions for an eternity. Every good deed goes there as a small contribution; from all such deposits the total capital will be formed, the interest on which will determine the content of the investor for all eternity. Whoever sends more deposits there will have richer contents; whoever has less will have less rich content. The Lord rewards everyone according to his deeds.”
Prepared by Nina Doronina, photo from the archives of the diocese and the open Internet
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Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Crisis periods inevitably arise in the life of every person - these are crises of development and the meaning of life, crises of relationships and losses. Sometimes this condition is the result of physical, nervous or emotional trauma, which affects the most significant values of the individual and human dignity, and sometimes threatens human life itself.
Features of the crisis period
Most often, in such a situation, the usual measures of psychological defense do not work. As a result, a person loses psychological balance and loses the ability to adapt to the reality around him.
A protracted chronic crisis causes suffering of a neuropsychic or psychosomatic nature, entails the danger of social disappointment and often becomes the cause of suicide attempts.
This situation is characterized by a huge, sometimes unbearable emotional stress, which is due to the strength of mental trauma and individual characteristics personality. A person “loses himself”, cannot rely on his inner “I” and does not find support in the outside world. He is unable to plan not only ways to solve the problem facing him, but also his future in general.
As a rule, he develops a narrowed, often panicky view of the problem. He feels the sensation constant fear, anxiety and despair, suffers from loneliness and, in some cases unreasonably, from a feeling of guilt. The situation is aggravated by insomnia and intrusive thoughts. And all this can ultimately lead to severe depression and the development of psychosomatic diseases.
The significance of a particular problem cannot be “measured” from the outside. By virtue of personal characteristics Some people experience extremely stressful situations that are integral part human life(admission to educational institution, change of job, deterioration of relationships, etc.). As a result, stress causes a real crisis, caused by an overwhelming emotional and psychological load that they cannot cope with on their own.
Help from a psychologist
In such a situation, not just psychological help is required, but the help of a crisis psychologist who has undergone special training to work with people who find themselves in difficult life situations. In addition, a crisis psychologist must have subtle professional intuition in order to determine the nature of the individual and choose an adequate strategy and tactics to help the client.
People with a pronounced accentuation of character, an insufficiently mature worldview and too tough life attitudes especially in need of psychological help during a crisis, which seems to them not only as difficult period, but also as a hopeless dead end, making further life meaningless. In such cases, timely assistance from a crisis psychologist can often prevent a person from attempting suicide with irreparable consequences.
The goal of the work of a crisis psychologist is to restore the self-regulation of the nervous system after a traumatic impact (psychotrauma), be it violence experienced, including in the family, loss of loved ones, divorce, separation from a loved one, professional problems etc., and the return of a person to normal life.
A crisis psychologist with experience working with difficult life situations will be able to quickly identify the “key points” of the problem. He will help the client mobilize his psychological, physical and intellectual resources to overcome the crisis, objectively assess internal and external factors that help or hinder the solution of the problem, and will open up new opportunities for the client to overcome difficult situation and further successful development.