The Ouija* Board Spelled, “Evil”.The story of Elena Smirnova, a former witch.Priest George Maximov, Elena Smirnova

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.

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

Elena Smirnova.

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.

I told fortunes to a few girls and understood that this gave me power over people.

On Suffering.Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh.

"Suffering has burnt everything out of me.  

Love only has survived..."

 Priest Confessor.

Archbishop Anthony Bloom
London-1964

Archbishop Anthony*: I think there are two tendencies in the modern world which are equally wrong. The one is to pretend that things do not exist which do exist because they are too painful to face; and the other one is when they come your way because you cannot avoid it, simply do away with them artificially: pain-killers, tranquillisers, anything, provided you do not face up to what is real.

    M.: In order to ease someone's agony you may administer a drug which may be ending the patient's life. How would you decide that dilemma?

    A.A.: I think you cannot impose on a man more than he can bear, and if you can, you must bring him to the most bearable limit. But, on the one hand, I think you must do all you can to avoid his losing consciousness unnecessarily, which I think is done very often because people think that if a patient is unconscious he suffers less and his death will come in an easier way which I think is wrong.