Sometimes the demons can "help" a deluded person. This "help" can include either recommendations about certain things, even theological and very complicated, or can take the form of false spiritual gifts: false healing ability, false clairvoyance, false gift of prophecy, false unceasing prayer, false power over demons, false reading of thoughts, false dispassion, etc. The term "false" here means "not Divine".

Great Entrance is a procession of the gifts of bread and wine being offered by the people (Orthodox Christian believers). God takes what we offer to Him, and then blesses and transforms them. This is a reminder that all we have is God's, and we are called to offer back to God the gifts that He has given us. We show our gratitude to God by offering back to Him from our many blessings.

When the Russian Prince Vladimir's emissaries visited the Church of Holy Wisdom (Agia Sophia) in Constantinople, back in the 10th century, and attended a worship service, they explained to their leader: "We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. One thing we understood, that God was in our midst!"

After the Fall, mankind became predisposed to self-centered choices directed by the passions (lusts) rather than choices based on the highest form of love (agape). Saint Isaac of Syria tells us: "Pandering to the flesh produce(s) in us shameful urges and unseemly fantasies." (Kadloubovky and Palmer, trans., 1954).

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) writes there are many kinds of prelest (πλάνη). Each kind corresponds to the particular passion, from which it resulted, and each kind is somehow association with pride. All kinds of prelest (πλάνη) are also associated with improper prayer and occur when repentance is not the basis of the prayer. Saint Ignatius notes that in terms of prayer, there are the distinct kinds of prelest (πλάνη):