AUTHENTICITY OF APPARITIONS AND SOULS IN PURGATORY

Evaluating apparitions, including Marian apparitions, it is necessary to discern which phenomena are authentic and which are inauthentic. When it is a question of direct sensory and extra-sensory apparitions, this is easier to do after investigating the apparitions, because the visionary does not have psychic abilities.

Nonetheless, when it is a question of mixed apparitions, especially of the assessment of their course, it is often very difficult to judge their authenticity. This is because of the transferring of information from a lower level, since such information admittedly encompasses certain imprecise information. In the course of time, some untruths can emerge. This occurs because the conditions for further development were changed under the influence of human will, and the consequence was different from the originally expected effect.

From the available information regarding contact with souls in purgatory, it is apparent that some of these souls can influence sensitive people within the framework of God’s plan. God sometimes enables the souls in purgatory to evoke various visions, suggest thoughts and participate in the mixed apparitions. Moreover, in some instances, the souls in purgatory can, in accordance with God’s interests, initialise pictorial perceptions. The souls in purgatory are not spiritually cleansed. Therefore, they are encumbered with impure thinking. That is why they transfer their views during the mixed apparitions, which causes errors in the transferred information.

Simultaneously, the souls in purgatory have the impression that they act well and in God’s interests. Nevertheless, their mistaken ideas and efforts cause confusion among people, even visionaries. Because their activities are often ineffectual, the souls suffer, but such suffering teaches them and gives them an opportunity to improve themselves, thereby being cleansed.

Supposedly, God’s primary intent is to make the souls in purgatory change their views, which is connected with suffering. The sense of this treatment is that God’s primary aim is not to punish man for breaking His commandments but to enable the right opinion to be established in the sinner after his terrestrial life.

At the beginning of the third millennium, this reality has new significance. In today’s world, faced with a crisis of faith, especially under the influence of mass media, tendencies leading to social, economic and political problems occur which then find an outlet in the behaviour of people who do not believe in God or believe superficially. They feel helpless. That is why they will begin to show interest in such phenomena as various predictions and manifestations and try to look for hope for salvation in them. Moreover, in such a turbulent time, more and more people are becoming sensitive to communication with spiritual beings and to obtaining pieces of knowledge from the information field. This means that the mixed apparitions are going to occur more often.

All this tells us that the souls in purgatory of people who while alive had the ability to influence other people – often inappropriately and hypocritically – are going to be of greater use. That is why it is necessary in the future to be cautious and to distinguish authentic apparitions from inauthentic ones.

Although authentic mixed apparitions may sometimes contain inaccuracies, they are useful because they lead to love, good, truth, humility and conversion in accordance with God’s plan. Inauthentic mixed apparitions may be produced not only by negative spiritual beings, but also by souls in purgatory of a low spiritual level, even though the visionary does not know it. In spite of the fact that there are some calls and exhortations for prayer, conversion and fasting, such apparitions lead to grave harm for people.

Of course, if at least one grave defect or something that is in contradiction to the dogmas and morality of the Church occurs in an apparition, it is possible to close the investigation immediately with a negative conclusion. Apparently, the fault should be interpreted by the visionary as a direct consequence of the apparition. This exceptionable information should not come from the personal viewpoints of the visionary or from impressions of people close to him, who often misrepresent this information.

Nevertheless, a substantial difficulty concerns faithfully given information that is inexact or mistaken, and it is nor clear whether it is relevant or not. In such cases it is necessary to analyse the further information and outcomes and the fruit of the apparition. Very often it is difficult to judge the situation even later. Something similar may occur in theology, for example, when deciding whether a certain contravention of God’s order is a light or heavy offence, and only God can judge it definitively.

Let us imagine that in the course of personal cleansing, a soul in purgatory has the possibility to influence a sensitive visionary and invoke apparitions. Admittedly, while still alive, this man lived in defiance of the standpoint of the Council and the Pope, and he did not agree with the decision of the Church that made it possible to turn the sacrificial table towards the people. Today, in purgatory, this man strives to influence sensitive people in the world to support the idea of turning the sacrificial table back to its previous position. If he was a fanatic in life, he acts quite in the same manner in purgatory, and his heavy-handed messages cause the visionary to provoke conflicts between people and revolts against the Church’s authority. Thereafter this becomes an inauthentic apparition, even though this apparition contains calls for prayer and conversion.

If the souls in purgatory endeavour to self-improve and do it sensitively, meekly and tactfully, we can speak about a positive apparition, because this apparition contains further positive messages while the criticised issue becomes irrelevant.