Deception of the Spirit: Distorted Clarity of the Soul
Spiritual deception distorts the true vision of the soul and hinders clear thinking, primarily by introducing false, biased, and seductive ideas into the mind. When the intellect is "poisoned by prejudices, darkened by false thoughts and ideals," as stated in source link txt, it loses the ability to clearly and sharply distinguish truth from error and good from evil. This state of mind is compared to an eye that no longer clearly sees its path but instead wanders, unable to detect obstacles, leading to erroneous judgments and a mistaken perception of spiritual reality.Furthermore, in source link txt, spiritual deception is described as "a perversion of righteousness" – a deceived intellect that justifies itself with lies, complacency, and concealment, further blinding the soul and hindering the process of self-knowledge and discernment of true spiritual teaching. Thus, false assumptions and self-deception, spawned by deceit, render the mind incapable of clear and logical thinking, diverting the soul from the path that leads to true spiritual understanding.Supporting citation(s):"If the mind was poisoned by prejudices, darkened by false thoughts and ideals, such a mind loses the ability of clear and sharp sight and can no longer properly orient itself... False thoughts," says St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, "are always accompanied by and aided by the dark and cunning spirit of deception. The father of lies — the devil, as the Gospel states, deceit is a devilish trait." (source: link txt)"Deception is a perversion of righteousness, a deceived intellect, a false justification of its own goodwill, oaths, prone to suffering, ambiguous words, concealment of the heart, a bottomless pit of flattery, the habit of lying transformed into the nature of self-opinion, an adversary of humility,..." (source: link txt)