It is about faith. Faith is a phenomenon that is difficult to explain, it can be recognized through experience. This was said in the program "Face to Face" on bTV by psychiatrist Vladimir Sotirov in connection with the "Petrohan" case and the closed community in which the deceased lived.
"Secret is a very important psychological phenomenon that characterizes not only human relationships. Secret is a socializing factor, we organize ourselves around a secret. Functioning around a secret is something normative for our culture. This community also certainly had secrets to guard zealously – whether they were spiritual secrets or some dirty secrets, we still don't know for sure. I would like to believe that they were spiritual secrets, and these secrets must be guarded very jealously," Sotirov said.
"For me, these are people who were tempted by the secret, by the hidden, by the transcendental. They were researchers, they were curious people. We all must carry this desire within ourselves and finally answer the fundamental question - why do we exist? I think these were people who were not afraid to ask this question. These were people who were a bit extremist, but brave enough to penetrate the bowels of the earth - in the caves, and to reach knowledge there", added the psychiatrist.
Asked if it was not strange for adult men to live in closed communities with underage boys, he gave an example from Christian practices in the past in Bulgaria and life in monasteries.
"In the Bulgarian spiritual communities in the Middle Ages, boys were traditionally sent to live there and be taught to read and write and the sacraments in this religious community. This is a common practice - for adult men to take care of little boys who would one day become their followers. Note that poor children, orphaned children, were not sent there, but children of pious families", commented Vladimir Sotirov.
"The existence of such communities is a value for society, and now we will crush them. This community is currently being reviled, but these communities are not something bad in themselves, these communities are valuable in themselves. Let's not forget that our religion - Christianity - was initially declared a sect. Early Christians were also persecuted, only in 313 was Christianity recognized as an official religion. This is exactly how these communities are being persecuted now. Let's realize that sect is not a dirty word," Sotirov also said.