Aren’t you assuming purgatory to be a specific location?
I have heard theories that for some individuals the purgatory is to stay here, as spirit, and witness the suffering their sins have wrought upon others.
Although I am uncertain how much I would believe such a claim, there is a certain amount of appeal there.
I actually used to believe that - in a way. I no longer do.
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there, because I said that I
was under the assumption. I’m no longer under that assumption.
However, that said, although souls from Purgatory have appeared to Saints in the past, I’m pretty sure we’re talking about ‘everyday’ type ghost occurances that you hear about all the time. I only think a small percentage of these are souls from purgatory, but of course that’s just speculation. The souls from Purgatory appeared to the Saints for a reason, so I’m assuming they would have a reason for appearing to people today as well. The average Joe who has seen a ghost, probably has no belief in Purgatory and therefore would not be able to grasp why that particular soul is appearing to him. There would be no point in such a soul appearing to someone unless they understood that the soul needs prayer. At least that’s how I see it.
I remember watching Ghost Hunters a few years ago when they went to that resort that inspired Stephen King to write “The Shining” (can’t remember the name, but it’s in Estes Park, Colorado). I was pretty freaked out by what was happening. I remember one of the crew saying that ‘spirits’ will sap the energy from a fresh battery in a matter of seconds. I remember hearing a woman laughing and talking to the men in the cellar by themselves - which was just creeped me out. I still get chills thinking about it. I also remember going to bed petrified and waking up the next morning. Something had happened to my digital wrist watch. The power completely went dead in the battery for a brief time during the night and when I woke up, the time was flashing on it like you would see on your home alarm clock when the power goes out and then comes back on. Whenever my watch battery starts to lose power, the display goes ‘wonky’ and then the watch just goes dead. This was different, the power just stopped and then came back on again. I had to re-set the time the next morning. That never happened to me previous to that or since then.
After that little incident, I vowed never to watch Ghost Hunters again. I believe it was a sign from God to stay away from that sort of stuff. They
do try to encourage whatever spirits they are looking for to communicate with them, and that goes against Church teaching. I always assumed that watching the show was different than actually believing that stuff, but I now believe that even watching that stuff is bad for the soul, and is a definite occasion of sin.
