“Prelest is that state in which a person sees himself as a saint. Perfect. Worthy of God, worthy of all God’s gifts…because flattery, self-flattery is essentially present in all of us. Here a person has, or so it seems to him, labored, and through his own labors has attained very much, acquired very much—and he falls into prelest.”

(Professor Alexei Osipov in pravoslavie.ru)