Latest encounter

A terrible road accident occurred last Sunday, June 13, 2010 in my home city, Cebu. A tourist bus loaded with foreigners, doctors, nurses and medical students with their families heading for a weekend outing to a resort west side of the island fell into a 33 feet ravine at the mountainous Transcentral highway. The passengers were long-time residents here.  They're all studying and working at the local hospital and universities. There were 21 fatalities including the driver, the owner of the tourist bus. The rest were injured and are still in being treated at the hospital up to this posting.(Click here for the link of the news coverage).
Late afternoon of the next day, my 21-year old eldest son, shared us his dream during his afternoon nap.The account of his dream:
He and an unidentified friend were in a four-storey building. Each floor had about 3 to 4 rooms all with an occupant in each room.  In his dream, he felt like he and his friend were "The Ghosbusters". The building tenants mentioned a strange recurring incident, a live grenade that falls on the stairway from floor to floor and explodes at the ground floor. My son and friend experienced it on their way to the 4th floor. Since it was just a dream, they didn't experience pain or injury. He remembered offering prayers for each of the occupants of the rooms. While doing this, he sees a computer generated image of a life bar(anyone playing a computer game is familiar with this. A life bar represents the life status of a character. When full, the character is in his top condition. As it vanishes, he weakens. When consumed, he's done.)
Back to my son's, dream:While he and his friend were offering the prayers, the life bar of the person whom they're praying for slowly goes down until it's fully consumed and the person vanishes into a brilliant explosion of colors. They continued doing this, working from floor to floor going down until the basement.
My son recalls the reactions of the occupants were different: the ones on the top floor were easy to deal with meaning they easily understood their state...acceptance to the prayers offered was present. The middle floors showed a bit of resistance. The bottom floor and most specially at the basement were passive.
He remembered two ladies who were in the middle floors who negotiated with them while they were offering the prayers.  Both asked if they be allowed to stay. My son gave a negative reply, explaining  it was their time to go.
While my son was giving his account, my mind reflected the teachings of different levels in Purgatory. I remember answering a question posted at the Facebook Group, Prayers for the Souls in Purgatory:
Posting from one of the group member, Rhea Luna,Quote:

So they ARE in darkness? I had a dream that I went to see my mother in law at her grave. She was feeling lonely and there were formless souls around her. She told me this death was waiting and it always felt like waiting and it felt so lonely and it was dark where I went in my dream. She didn't seem sad. She filled me with her feelings and they were very hard to describe but loneliness was one.

May 28 at 2:03pm , End of Quote.
My respond to the inquiry:

There are different levels in Purgatory. The lowest could be the darkest and most lonely. Each time prayers or masses are offered, the souls are cleansed and lifted, inching to a better level geared towards an ultimate direction: Home, that is, Heaven. All depends how much the souls need to be cleansed..the more sins, the slower the pace of advancement. The souls in Purgatory are unable to help themselves, hence they need our prayers. For those who are in dire need of help, especially those who are forgotten and whom nobody prays for, God's love and mercy allow some souls the privilege to communicate with the living from them to ask for prayers. Communication comes in different forms, ie dreams, visions, messages through Scripture readings, etc. One just needs to be sensitive to respond to their pleas. God bless!

June 13 at 11:30pm
Incidentally, the posting date of my response was on the same day of the accident.  I was not aware of the accident by that time which happened 1030am. It came to my knowledge only after reading the news the following morning.
Discernment tells me that the dream of my son represented the teachings of the different levels in Purgatory. My son vividly recalled that the people occupying the building numbered about 17 to 18, close to the number of fatalities of the accident. Clearly, the people in the dream were asking for prayers. The reason why I feel my son's dream had a direct bearing to the accident was, this was not his first time of having such a similar encounter. In fact, this was his 3rd major encounter in a span of 3 months. I will post the first two of his encounters in the next days.
As my family and I pray for the Souls of those who perished in the said accident, may I request you, my friends, to please offer a prayer too for their Souls.