These quotes and the account listed below are from
Hieroscemamonk Michael the last Elder of Valaam
http://www.roca.org/OA/29/29d.htm"Everything needs a certain preparation.' Pay no attention to all these methods and breathing techniques you’ve been reading about; they can only harm the soul-and there have been such cases. The Jesus Prayer must come as a cry from the depths of the heart-then it is true prayer."
"When the devil tries to irritate you over trifles, or stir you to anger, to destroy your peace of soul, just say, 'Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen!' He fears these words above all. They scorch him like fire and he will flee from you."
His astonishing eyes, bright and clear, looked at me. I realized at once that Fr. Michael read my thoughts and knew my past.
"Father", I asked him, "what do you think of death?"
"There is no death," he answered, "there is merely a passing from one state to another. To me personally, the life of another world is much more real than my life here."
"I know one Archimandrite, " I said, " who thinks likewise."
" Blessed is he," the Starets answered. "He is on the right road and perhaps nearing that other life. The more the Christian lives the interior life, the more he is detached from this world, and imperceptibly he approaches the other world. When the end comes it is easy: the thin curtain simply dissolves."
"Can you feel a living contact with the dead, Father?"
"Certainly. The prayers for the dead maintain this contact. Those who omit that prayer break off contact, with deplorable results. Prayers for the dead are needful not only to them, but to us as well."
