It's Not Stress That's Dangerous, But Our Attitude Towards It

Winter frosts have come to Moscow, with temperatures expected to reach -30°C at night. Interestingly, the frosts started right after the new moon, which again can help detach from instincts and desires.

I recall with a smile a question about the devil — I was asked whether he really exists. In response, I said that he does not and cannot exist. If there is a devil that does not obey the Divine will, then monotheism ends there. But there is a tendency to lose sight of the Divine will and to reject it.

There is no devil, but there is devilry, which essentially represents a state of dependency on instincts, i.e., a return to animalistic beginnings. Hence, the devil is traditionally depicted in the form of an animal, often as a goat. Why not a sheep? Because a sheep is dumb and meek, whereas a goat is intelligent and aggressive. Then I was asked another question: do angels exist, or is that also just a tendency?

I replied that, in my opinion, they do exist, as angels can be the souls of not yet born or already deceased people. They are indeed real. I look out the window again. It's a frosty day, the houses brightly lit by the sun, the snow sparkling on the roofs. A new, interesting time begins. Many changes and stresses are ahead. Medicine has now come to the clear conclusion that stress is the cause of all diseases.

The thing is, our subconscious operates over vast periods of time. Thousands of years ago, a person could easily be killed and eaten — stress was associated with the danger of getting wounded, losing a hand, a leg, a life. Therefore, the immune system automatically launched a protective mechanism — all vessels sharply constricted to reduce blood loss in case of a wound or loss of a limb. Proteins that enhance the inflammatory process, aiding in wound healing, stopping bleeding, and creating a scar, were released into the blood. Moreover, inflammation helps to reduce energy leakage at the site where it occurred.

Hans Selye, the founder of stress theory, initially thought that stress was death, but then he began to assert that stress is life. The secret of this paradox lies in the fact that the main thing is not the stress itself but our attitude towards it. If we see Divine will in any situation, if we understand that everything happens for the sake of love, then troubles and diseases strengthen us and purify our soul.

But if we approach stress with fear, condemnation, or despondency, then it is not overcome, our negative emotions grow and gradually seep into the subconscious. In this case, the vessels constrict for a long time, and inflammatory processes flare up in many places of our body. Diseases begin, people suppress inflammation with medications, try to cure cardiovascular diseases with pills, and the results get worse.

Recently, at an international cardiology conference, the luminary of Russian medicine, Academician E. I. Chazov, openly admitted that massive investments in the fight against cardiovascular diseases have not yielded any results. Moreover, the situation has worsened. Modern medicine only sees the external manifestation of the disease: the main cause of most deaths in the world is heart problems.

But the heart gets sick when the vessels stop working properly, and the vessels cease to function correctly when there is unovercome stress in the subconscious or when the blood changes its composition, which is also a result of the wrong attitude towards stress. It turns out that current medicine is trying to fight the body's protective mechanisms.

We need to treat not the disease, but its cause. After all, Hippocrates said: "Remove the cause, and the disease will go away." Probably, medicine will eventually come to the conclusion that the main source of disease is not stress itself but the wrong attitude towards it. And the wrong attitude towards stress is the inevitable consequence of the loss of love and faith. For humanity to survive, medicine, science must unite with religion. Or, more precisely, not with religion but with faith. The most dangerous of stress states is despondency.

I constantly explain in seminars: other people are somewhat protected from our hatred, but we are open to ourselves. Therefore, self-hatred leads to terrible destruction in our soul. I searched long for the causes of despondency. In recent years, I explained that despondency is the result of condemnation, hatred, and grievances towards people. And recently, a new understanding of this most dangerous ailment has emerged.

Despondency is the loss of the goal that a person was striving for. It is the goal that helps us generate energy. When instincts become the main goal in a person's subconscious, even the slightest loss of them causes pain. If an instinct is the main goal, then its infringement automatically induces hatred or depression. In recent centuries, the current civilization worshipped instincts. Well-being, stability, luxury, money, power — all this has subtly become one of the main sources of happiness in the minds of modern people. Another instinct was realized as enjoyment of sex, food, beautiful clothes, as an obsession with alcohol, smoking, gambling, as a search for all sorts of pleasures.

In January 2012, a truly mystical event occurred. A giant cruise liner, holding about 5,000 people, ran aground and sank. The ship's crew, pushing aside passengers, rushed to the boats to leave the ship as soon as possible. The captain not only did not stop the crew's criminal actions but was one of the first to leave the ship, abandoning the passengers to their fate. Once, a captain would die with the sinking ship, as the concepts of honor and conscience were more important than the instinct of self-preservation. The complete moral decay that has struck the elite of Western countries will be costly for the current civilization. But there is a way out. Humanity has long known the recipe for salvation — it is prioritizing love and faith over instincts.

So, spring is beginning. On a subtle plane, we already feel the future, touching the upcoming stressful events. Nature, the Earth's energy, economy, politics — all this will change tumultuously. The wrong attitude towards stress on a massive scale can lead to serious consequences. A lot now depends on how we perceive the world, how we answer the main question of all times: Who are we, where did we come from, where are we going?

S. N. Lazarov, «Experience of Survival», part 5