According to the Holy Fathers, false visions are associated with pride. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says that those people, who want to see visions, and whose mind was not renewed and recreated by the Holy Spirit, are filled with pride.<ref name="ign1">{{Ru icon}}[http://www.hesychasm.ru/library/stbrianch/prelest.htm St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov). On prelest.]</ref> Archimandrite Seraphim (Alexiev) says: "Where there is pride and at the same time one has a vision - it can not be from God, but by all means - from the evil one."<ref>{{Ru icon}}[http://www.3rm.info/10811-nastavlenie-o-voznoshenii-sebya-i-lozhnyx.html Archimandrite Seraphim (Alexiev). Instruction on the self-conceit and the false visions.]</ref>

Romanian elder Cleopa (Ilie) specifies 7 ways of falling into delusion of false visions and dreams:<ref>{{Ru icon}}[http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/43216.htm Elder Cleopa. On dreams and visions. 2012.]</ref>

Elder Joseph If the Hesychast says that true visions are always preceded or followed by very intense suffering and sorrows and are given by God only as person who saw a consolation.<ref>Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Monastic wisdom. Letter 37.</ref> Even if the vision is truehumble, it is very difficult to withstand the fight with thoughts and not to get proud of the fact of he rejects the vision. as elder Cleopa also writes in his book "What happens after that? A person becomes the mock of the demons. They fool him with writings On dreams and visions", with dreams and revelations, with symbols and numbers, with oracles and a heap providing examples of superstitions."<ref name="joseph"/> Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain tells a story about a woman who had one true vision. Then the Devil suggested her a thought that she was chosen by God and she believed it. Then the demons started to torment her with different visions and revelations. In Saints from the end, she had another true vision and was told to write to elder Paisios so that he could help her.<ref name="paisios"/> So out of all her visions, only 2 were from GodPatericon.

Elder [[Joseph the Hesychast]] says that true visions are always preceded or followed by very intense suffering and sorrows and are given by God only as a consolation.<ref>Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Monastic wisdom. Letter 37.</ref> Even if the vision is true, it is very difficult to withstand the fight with thoughts and not to get proud of the fact of the vision. "What happens after that? A person becomes the mock of the demons. They fool him with writings and visions, with dreams and revelations, with symbols and numbers, with oracles and a heap of superstitions."<ref name="joseph"/> Elder [[Paisios (Eznepidis)|Paisios of the Holy Mountain]] tells a story about a woman who had one true vision. Then the Devil suggested her a thought that she was chosen by God and she believed it. Then the demons started to torment her with different visions and revelations. In the end, she had another true vision and was told to write to elder Paisios so that he could help her.<ref name="paisios"/> So elder Paisios says that out of all her visions, only 2 were from God. False visions as any demonic action can be very harmful to the soul. Elder [[Daniel Katounakiotis ]] writes in a letter about one hierodeacon by the name of Ierotheos who had a lot of visions. Even though he confessed everything, nobody of the confessors understood that this was a delusion. Then elder Sava advised him how to find out the truth. When the delusion was revealed and when the visions ceased after repeated exorcism, the injury to the soul of Ierotheos remained very serious and later he broke all monastic vows.<ref name="daniel"/>