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"Upon another day it happened that the Lord sent our father Pachomios a vision. He looked and saw the aspect of a dark and gloomy hell, in the midst of which stood a pillar.
Voices were heard from all sides making an outcry and saying, 'Here is the light, here close to us.' The men in that place were groping their way, for great was the darkness of that gloomy place and very frightening. Then when they would hear, 'Here is the light, here close to us,' they would run there seeking the light and wanting to see it; but when they ran forward they would hear another voice behind them, 'Here is the light, over here'; and at once they would turn to the rear seeking the light because of the voices they had heard.
He saw also in the vision some of those who were in the darkness, as if circling a pillar and thinking they were going forward and drawing near the light, not realizing that they were only turning around a pillar.
He looked again and saw in that place the community of the Koinonia (his brotherhood of 7500 monks) walking one after the other, holding fast to each other for fear of getting lost by reason of that deep darkness. Those who were in front had a small light like that of a lamp to light their way; only four of the brothers saw that light, while all the rest saw no light whatever.
Our father Pachomios watched their way of progressing; if one let go his hold on the man in front of him, he would lose his way in the darkness, along with all those who came after him. He saw one of them, called Paniski, a great man among the brothers, refusing with a few others to walk behind the man in front showing them the way.
Then the man of God Pachomios called them each by name in his ecstasy before they should give up, saying, 'Hold to the man in front for fear of going astray!' The small light that went before the brothers continued in front of them until it reached a great opening through which a great light on high was coming; they climbed up to it. This opening was fitted with a great trap to keep the light from falling below and to keep those who were in the dark from going out by it.
After he had seen this our father Pachomios was likewise instructed on the interpretation of the vision by the one who had shown him all this: 'The image of the hell that you saw is this world; the gloomy darkness that reigns there are all the stupid errors and vain cares. As for the men who are there, they are the souls without knowledge; and the voices crying 'Here is the light, here close us,' are the heretics and the schismatics, each of which says, ‘Ours is the right opinion.’
The pillars around which they walk in circles are the authors of error the simple ones trusted in, because they said, ‘We are they who save; the others are those who lead astray.’ The brothers showing the way are all those who love the Lord and walk in the right Faith as it is written, ‘For ye are all one in Christ.’
He was told also, ‘Those of the brothers who let go their hold stand for bishops who are in the right Faith of Christ, but are in communion with the heretics and mislead many of those they teach and especially men who have no malice; they neglect those who behave well and give scandal to many, as it is written, 'Woe to him through whom scandal comes.’
The small light guiding the brothers is the Gospel, divine truth; truly he who is deluded by himself and by his passions is not pure, as it is written, ‘Among them God has blinded the hearts of the faithless ones of this age that they might not see the light of the Gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God.’ That is also why that light is small, for in the holy Gospels it is written about the kingdom of heaven, ‘It is like a mustard seed,’ which is small.
As to the flood of light coming in on high through the opening, it is the word spoken by the apostle, ‘Until we all might come to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ (Eph. 4:13)'.
When our father Pachomios had seen this, he called the brothers whom in his vision he had seen letting go their hold and advised them to struggle in the fear of the Lord and to live. And when they had left him, they did not pay heed to getting rid of their negligence and their contempt; on the contrary, they persevered in their former attitude so that they became strangers to the brothers and to the everlasting life of the Lord Jesus.”
[Source: "Pachomian Koinonia: the Lives, Rules, and Other Writings of Saint Pachomios and His Disciples"]