Priest George Maximov interviews people who
converted to Orthodoxy on
the TV program “My Path to God”. Sometimes the
journey to the Light takes people through years of serving dark forces. This is
what happened to Elena Smirnova, today’s guest of Father George’s program. She
used to practice witchcraft and esoteric arts, and summon evil spirits. Elena
will tell us whether those who summon dark forces are masters or slaves of such
forces. We will also learn what led her to Christ and what she sees as her
mission now.
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| Father George Maximov. |
Priest George
Maximov:
Hello!. You are watching “My Path To God”, a program about people whose lives
were drastically changed after turning to Christ. Sometimes people convert
after being infinitely far away from Christianity. The story of the guest of
today’s program is a case in point. Before she found God, she used to
communicate with evil spirits. "Elena Nikolayevna", could you tell us how it all
started?!. Am I correct to assume that you grew up in a non-religious family?...
Elena Smirnova: My
family was Orthodox, but we weren’t religious. We would
go to church once a
year on a feast day to light candles. I had some idea about the Church, but it
was quite vague. My parents baptized me shortly after I was born. My
grandmother helped to arrange it. She invited a priest to our place and he came
over and performed the baptism. After that, she cast a spell to protect me from
hernia. My parents were just like her. They believed in God and yet they
believed in house elves1 too. My mother used to tell me that a house elf visited
her when she was at our summerhouse. My grandmother would tell such stories
too. They used to tell me many amazing stories when I was a child. I was into
it too. I liked fairy tales. As a child, I kept to myself and liked to daydream.
I think I learned how to tell fortunes when I was in the second grade. My
mother showed me some simple ways to tell if your wish would come true. These
were my first attempts at fortune telling.
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| Elena Smirnova. |
I told fortunes to a few girls and understood
that this gave me power over people.