Marina Onopriichuk

Connection: Friend and spiritual conversation partner Context: Deep spiritual discussions about men's roles, spiritual warfare, and God's design for society

Key Insights & Perspectives

On Spiritual Warfare & Demonic Deception:

• Recognizes current times as spiritual warfare, not just political/economic issues
• Sees the enemy working to eliminate those faithful to God through subtle corruption
• Believes demons use good intentions as entry points: "Demon will not whisper go rape someone... Will whisper, oh yeah. Do good. Build a new society... for god"
• Emphasizes only humility works against demonic attack: "demons never sleep. They never eat... nothing works against them except humility"
• Has extensive personal experience with sleep paralysis involving demonic presence since childhood
• Advocates Jesus Prayer as constant protection: "if we see thoughts which comes in and they not relate to anything from Bible, then we can already assume it's like demons"
• Views information overload and AI acceleration as new forms of spiritual warfare targeting human minds

On Pride and Love Deprivation:

• Believes pride stems from childhood love deprivation and parental wounds
• Sees tech elite (Bezos, Zuckerberg, Thiel) as "neglected, unhappy kids" seeking love through self-worship
• Notes how intellectual gifts without character lead to spiritual possession
• Advocates for constant recognition of dependence on God's grace

On Orthodox Christianity and Spiritual Practices:

• Practices Orthodox confession with spiritual father for humility and guidance
• Views Holy Communion as essential spiritual sustenance: "If I wouldn't take communion, I think I would just freaking die"
• Values timeless truth over trendy messaging: Orthodox Church "say the same shit again and again... but truth doesn't change"
• Emphasizes mystical reality of sacraments for spiritual strength

On Tech Industry Corruption:

• Has completely abandoned crypto/tech conferences as spiritually draining
• Previously passionate about building "new social economic systems" but now sees this as pride
• Recognizes tech acceleration and futuristic thinking as spiritual traps
• Advocates for live human connection over digital solutions

On Divine Calling and Patience:

• Currently uncertain about specific calling but trusting God's timing
• Believes God may want her to start smaller to develop humility before larger ministry
• Advocates for moral standards over financial pressure in choosing work
• Emphasizes daily service and small acts of love while waiting for clarity
• Working on museum pop-up concept about human aspects being extinct by technology
• Exploring various professional opportunities while caring for parents in war-torn Ukraine

On Men's Challenges:

• Believes there's a deliberate "war on men" because men are foundational to society's structure
• Notes that when men lose connection to their role as servants of God, they lose their identity
• Emphasizes men need embodied examples of Christ-like leadership and integrity
• Sees men without godly fathers struggling to understand true masculine identity

On Gender Roles & Marriage:

• Strong believer in biblical hierarchy: "God creates Adam first and then he creates Eve"
• Cites biblical model: husbands love wives as Christ loves the church, wives respect husbands
• Views women as naturally designed to follow strong, God-centered male leadership
• Believes deviation from God's order leads to family breakdown and high divorce rates

Personal Transformation Journey

From Global Activism to Orthodox Faith:

• Originally motivated by childhood injustice observations in corrupt Ukraine
• Spent years trying to build alternative economic systems and "save the world"
• Traveled globally seeking philanthropists and partners for systemic change
• Was extremely naive about human nature: "lie doesn't existed in my system"
• Lost biggest love of her life (7-year relationship) due to prioritizing world-saving over love

Wilderness Experience and Breakdown:

• Lost everything during crypto crash and FTX collapse - money, home, relationship
• Experienced complete breakdown: "I was freaking just alone, dying in the desert, and burning"
• Realized for first time she "can't do this myself" - complete dependency on God
• Found God as only answer after 3-4 years of spiritual searching
• Now 4 years into Orthodox Christian journey

Current Spiritual State (Updated November 2025):

• Lives in complete uncertainty about future direction but trusts God's timing: "It's really living with God trusting God that he will provide for tomorrow"
• Burning through savings since 2022, experiencing deep financial pressure
• Emphasizes patience, humility, and small daily acts of service
• Has abandoned all crypto/tech industry involvement as spiritually corrupt
• Focuses on real relationships and mystical sacramental life
• Writes daily for spiritual reflection and growth
• Only child supporting parents in war-torn Ukraine with financial and emotional pressure
• Experienced disassociation episode during Pentecost week that was healed through Orthodox liturgy
• Advocates for simplicity over grandiose "world-saving" projects as antidote to pride
• Planning "Human as a Service" art project at Metropolitan Museum to reconnect people
• Seeking transition from content consumption to contemplative presence and Jesus Prayer
• Wrestling with job search while maintaining moral standards (rejected transhumanist and erotic event opportunities)

Relationship Dynamic

Marina serves as a profound spiritual conversation partner for Gary, offering both personal vulnerability and theological depth. Their relationship has evolved from mutual secular humanistic worldviews toward shared Orthodox Christian faith. She provides:

• Spiritual warfare analysis from lived experience escaping tech industry corruption
• Humility teaching through her own pride-to-brokenness transformation story
• Orthodox sacramental wisdom about spiritual practices and divine grace
• Patience modeling in uncertain seasons of divine calling
• Vulnerable authenticity about past mistakes and ongoing spiritual growth

Their conversations represent mutually sharpening spiritual friendship, where both can share deep struggles, theological insights, and practical wisdom for living faithfully in corrupt cultural contexts.

Notable Quotes

On Spiritual Warfare: "The root is literally spiritual war. Evil is fighting against those who stay faithful with God. And he wants to completely eliminate us."

"Demons never sleep. They never eat... nothing works against them except humility."

"Demon will not whisper in your ear, go rape someone or go kill someone... Will whisper, oh yeah. Do good. Build a new society... for god. Oh yeah. You're a chosen one."

On Pride and Humility: "Our pride kind of comes deeply from absence of god love. Because we're so deprived of someone loving us, and especially it starts with parents."

"If we every minute of our life, understand that I'm literally with nothing without God... but with God, I can do anything in Jesus' name."

On Orthodox Faith: "If I wouldn't take communion, I think I would just freaking die from despair and depression and pain... He gives the strength and clarity to keep going."

"Orthodox Church... they basically just say the same shit again and again and again. But it's like the truth doesn't change."

On Time and Purpose: "Time is ticking, we need to do good every day. Every day counts. It's so precious. Because god gives our heart beating and breeze to do something good for each other."

On Transformation: "I was freaking just alone, dying in the desert, and burning. Without anything... first time in my life, I realized I can't do this myself."

On Men's Roles: "If men haven't seen embodied example what is to be men with integrity and responsibility... to lead the family, to lead your community, to lead society, they can't grasp even what does it mean."

"Any female wants to believe and feel like she's behind a man who knows what he's doing, who knows where he's going."

On Information Overload and Spiritual Warfare: "This is literally making us insane. Like, literally. And now was like the speed of information because AI the speed of information moving like 50,000 times more."

"If we see thoughts which comes in and they not relate to anything from Bible, then we can already assume it's like demons. Like putting sauce in our head."

On Faith Development: "Because if I had a complete perfection face, right? I would be able to not at all think about anything... I would be in complete bliss. Joy and peace. 24/7. This is what complete face is."

"The Christianity in orthodox sense. It's not just to become a moral nice person. Who doesn't do bad things. The idea is to acquire the Holy Spirit. To become like God."

On Simplicity and Calling: "God doesn't expect from us big mission and things... we have this, like, system thinking. Just like, ever since should scale... But I think for people like us to find enjoyment to make it a little things. In simplicity."

On Sleep Paralysis and Deliverance: "Usually I say, like Jesus, right? But in the moment, like I said, mother of God saved me. And I was, like, freaking, like, teleported from, like, one universe to another in, like, a second."

Interaction History

2025-11-16: Career Struggles and Parental Relationships

Context: Phone conversation while Gary was traveling from Vegas to Houston/Austin, Marina in New York

Gary's Parental Struggles: Gary shared profound difficulty with parents after month-long stay: "Being around my parents is terrible. I love them deeply. But they create a very bad atmosphere for my authentic growth." Parents told him "it's time to give up" regarding his entrepreneurial and faith pursuits. Recognized pattern: "They'll say oh, stay longer... then quickly it'll be like very negative." Concluded: "I feel my spirit is very suppressed when I'm around them."

Marina's Family Context: Shared parallel struggles with parents fighting and survival mentality from post-USSR poverty: "They grew up in a very poor country... constantly survival culture." Expressed guilt about financial inability to help: "If I could just make money and help them maybe instead of self-fighting." Recognized parental wounds affecting God relationship: "Most people in Ukraine didn't have a good father, mostly abusive father... now like this guy say like I don't want like God who loves me if I do specific things."

Career Uncertainty: Both wrestling with job search. Marina: "I'm at the point like fuck probably I need to go... it's really living with God trusting God that he will provide for tomorrow." Gary struggling with feeling "too good for certain jobs that are not that high pay" yet "not super qualified for certain specialized roles." Both resistant to traditional 9-5: "We're definitely not 9-5 job position person."

"Human as a Service" Project: Marina planning artistic intervention at Metropolitan Museum: "Put two chairs and sit there with human as a service thing... we forgetting what does mean to be a human, we forgetting how to listen to each other." Seeking creative approach to membership clubs and events roles: "I would really love to work something related with events and membership club... where I can interact with people not looking at my screen everyday."

Catholic Reflections from Rome: Gary shared evolved perspective after Italy trip, meeting faithful Catholics including mother who lost son to Character.AI suicide. Woman's insight: "I have more understanding of how much of a sacrifice it was to have Mary's son get crucified." Gary acknowledged: "The architecture is really incredible... you devote a significant portion of your resources towards godly architecture and that makes a pretty powerful statement."

Orthodox-Catholic Theological Discussion: Marina explained key split: "When the pope has the power to forgive sins that's when it kind of went all downhill... that's when the collapse happened between orthodox and catholic church." Clarified Orthodox position: "The priest doesn't [forgive sins], there's just perhaps a mediator between god and you but he's not forgiving sins at all like just god can do this."

Job Philosophy and Divine Calling: Marina's perspective on work: "Any job you do unless it's like very harmful job... like if you can feel by this servant god." Referenced Genesis: "When god saw adam leave from the garden he told to adam that you will work like you know in sweat." Gary questioning: "Am i just copping out am i just being lazy when i look at particular job opportunities?"

Content Consumption and Presence: Marina shared watching Saint Paul series in Greek, but emphasized: "I'm so tired of consuming content and like i want just like either be in silence or you know pray a bit like jesus prayer... i want just like a presence a presence of being." Both seeking more contemplative practice over constant information consumption.

Key Quotes from Marina:

• "Once a saint showed like that if in order for a person to believe that there is God that they have to see like Christ eyes like in another person's eyes"
• "Nothing teach you more about [God] than desert... when in desert definitely you will learn about God"
• "We forgetting what does mean to be a human, we forgetting how to listen to each other, forgetting how to look at each other eyes"

Current Status: Both in transitional period - Gary heading to Protestant church service outside Houston after leaving parents' home, Marina in New York exploring creative job approaches while burning through savings since 2022. Both wrestling with balancing practical needs with spiritual calling, seeking God's direction while facing family pressure and financial uncertainty.

2025-12-29: Spiritual Resilience and Demonic Warfare

Context: Phone call while Marina was walking in New York after being randomly pushed by a stranger

Physical Attack as Spiritual Warfare: Marina was pushed hard by a well-dressed man on Upper East Side street with no provocation: "There's like demonic forces are now left and right, literally." Interpreted this as targeted spiritual attack: "The devil knows you're powerful... it feels like because it's like so many people. It could be any other person. But choose to push me."

Severe Demonic Attack and Suicidal Ideation: Marina shared experiencing profound depression lasting multiple days with voices telling her to kill herself: "I was like hearing this voice like just kill yourself. Just kill yourself." Physical manifestation included being unable to move: "My body couldn't really move. I was like half dead." Questioned God during the attack but immediate relief came through confession and Holy Communion: "Right after communion like this kind of dark force which kind of like enslaved me or something. It was just like it just left."

Orthodox Practices as Deliverance: Emphasized that demons "really flee away from communion. Because it's a body and blood of Christ. So they're like really like burning in it." After crisis, received teaching through YouTube priest about praying for "spirit of love" to replace "spirit of fear." Referenced Saint Silouan's teaching after 15 years of feeling abandoned: "Keep your mind in hell and don't despair."

Job's Story and Humility: Extensively discussed Job as model - lost everything including wife's support but responded: "God knows better. And like he kind of stays faithful." Applied humility lesson: "Have you been there when I was creating?... We try to explain so much things with our mind. You know just this little peanut brain."

Tech Generation's Control Problem: Both acknowledged struggle with control: "We grew up with this technology mindset... everything can be fast forwarded... So for us it's so hard to comprehend that things might take time and that you kind of have no control over it." Marina: "This is the hardest. This is the hardest to give up control to God."

Simplicity as Antidote: Recommended "The Shepherd" film about pure-hearted simplicity: "What are we lacking off. The simplicity of the heart... this humility, the simplicity is like what God is looking for. It's like childish trust to God."

Muslims Converting: Shared psychotherapist friend Daniel's client story of hearing Christ during ayahuasca: "I'm a medicine. This is not a medicine which you are taking." Also mentioned Muslims converting after Christ visions despite deadly persecution.

Meme Culture as Coping: Discussed memes as generational response: "Meme culture is like emerge in our generation... using humor because there's so much shed that people start just using memes to have laugh about the freaking collapse of society."

Current Status: Marina dealing with stomach health issues through herbal medicine. Gary waiting on AI community offer response and helping friend with YouTube script generator. Both committed to day-by-day approach: "Day by day. All will be okay."

Transcripts

Transcript ID	Date	Summary
2025-08-27-gary-marina-spiritual-warfare-and-faith-journey-dialogue	2025-08-27	Extended spiritual mentorship and mutual encouragement during periods of spiritual warfare and career transition
2025-08-13-gary-sheng-marina-onopriichuk-spiritual-warfare-conversation	2025-08-13	Extended spiritual direction discussion exploring spiritual growth, pride versus humility, divine calling, and personal transformation stories
2025-07-09-gary-sheng-marina-metanoia-mens-roles-spiritual-warfare	2025-07-09	Deep spiritual conversation about men's roles, spiritual warfare, and God's design for society
2025-11-16-gary-marina-career-spiritual-uncertainty	2025-11-16	Career struggles, parental relationships, and spiritual uncertainty while both face family pressure and financial challenges
2025-12-28-gary-marina-christian-education-pilot-self-doubt	2025-12-28	Gary shares self-doubt between funding opportunities; lands on Christian education pilot idea targeting special needs parents in San Antonio with TEFA vouchers; Marina counsels on God's unconditional love and experimentation as valid path
2025-12-29-gary-marina-spiritual-resilience-demonic-warfare	2025-12-29	Marina shares severe demonic attack with suicidal ideation relieved through Communion; discusses random physical assault as spiritual warfare; both reflect on Job's suffering, childlike faith, and tech generation's struggle with patience and control