S: Yes.
Dr. N: (raising my voice to a commanding tone) One-we are getting started. Two-your soul has now moved out of the area of orientation. Three! Quickly, what is your first impression?
S: Distances are ... unlimited ... endless space ... forever ...
Dr. N: So, are you telling me the spirit world is endless?
S: (long pause) To be honest-from where I am floating-it looks endless. But when I begin to really move it changes.
Dr. N: Changes how?
S: Well ... everything remains ... formless ... but when I am ... gliding faster ... I see I'm moving around inside a gigantic bowlturned upside down. I don't know where the rims of the bowl are, or even if any exist.
Dr. N: Then movement gives you the sense of a spherical spirit world?
S: Yes, but it's only a feeling of ... enclosed uniformity ... when I am moving rapidly.
Dr. N: Why does rapid movement-your speed-give you the feeling of being in a bowl?
S: (long pause) It's strange. Although everything appears to go on straight when my soul is drifting-that changes to ... a feeling of roundness when I am moving fast on a line of contact.
Dr. N: What do you mean by a line of contact?
S: Towards a specific destination.
Dr. N: How does moving with speed on a given line of travel change your observational perceptions of the spirit world to a feeling it is round?
S: Because with speed the lines seem to ... bend. They curve in a more obvious direction for me and give me less freedom of movement.
Note: Other subjects, who are also disposed toward linear descriptions, speak of traveling along directional force lines which have the spatial properties of a grid system. One person called them "vibrational strings."
Dr. N: By less freedom, do you mean less personal control?
S: Yes.
Dr. N: Can you more precisely describe the movement of your soul along these curving contact lines?
S: It's just more purposeful-when my soul is being directed someplace on a line. It's like I'm in a current of white water-only not as thick as water-because the current is lighter than air.
Dr. N: Then, in this spiritual atmosphere, you don't have the sense of density such as in water?
S: No, I don't, but what I am trying to say is I'm being carried along as if I were in a current underwater.
Dr. N: Why do you think this is so?
S: Well, it's as if we are all swimming-being carried along-in a swift current which we can't control ... under somebody's direction ... up and down from each other in space ... with nothing solid around us.
Dr. N: Do you see other souls traveling in a purposeful way above and below you?
S: Yes, it's as if we start in a stream and then all of us returning from death are pulled into a great river together.
Dr. N: When do the numbers of returning souls seem the highest to you?
S: When the rivers converge into ... I can't describe it ...
Dr. N: Please try.
S: (pause) We are gathered into ... a sea ... where all of us swirl around ... in slow motion. Then, I feel as though I'm being pulled away to a small tributary again and it's quieter ... further from the thoughts of so many minds ... going to the ones I know.
Dr. N: Later, in your normal travels as a soul, is it the same as being propelled around in streams and rivers as you have just described?
S: No, not at all. This is different. We are like salmon going up to spawn-returning home. Once we get there we are not pushed about this way. Then we can drift.
Dr. N: Who is doing the pushing while you are being taken home?
S: Higher entities. The ones in charge of our movements to get us home.
Dr. N: Entities such as your guide?
S: Above him, I think.
Dr. N: What else are you feeling at this moment?
S: Peace. There is such peace you never want to leave again.
Dr. N: Anything more?
S: Oh, I have some anticipation, too, while moving slowly with the energy current.
Dr. N: All right, now I want you to continue to move further along with the current of energy closer to the area where you are supposed to go. Look around carefully and tell me what you see.
S: I see ... a variety of lights ... in patches ... separated from each other by ... galleries ...
Dr. N: By galleries, do you mean a series of enclosures?
S: Mmm ... more like a long ... corridor ... bulging out in places ... stretching out away from me into the distance.
Dr. N: And the lights?
S: They are people. The souls of people within the bulging galleries reflecting light outward to me. That's what I'm seeing-patches of lights bobbing around.
Dr. N: Are these clusters of people structurally separated from each other in the bulges along the corridor?
S: No, there are no walls here. Nothing is structural, with angles and corners. It's hard for me to explain, exactly ...
Dr. N: You are doing fine. Now, I want you to tell me what separates the light clusters from each other along this corridor you are describing.
S: The people ... are divided by ... thin, wispy ... filaments ... making the light milky, like the transparency of frosted glass. There is an incandescent glow from their energy as I pass by.
Dr. N: How do you see individual souls within the clusters?
S: (pause) As light dots. I see masses of dots hanging in clumps ... as hanging grapes, all lit up.
Dr. N: Do these clumps represent various groups of soul energy masses with space between them?
S: Yes ... they are separated into small groups ... I am going to my own clump.
Dr. N: What else do you feel about them as you pass by on the way to your cluster?
S: I can feel their thoughts reaching out ... so varied ... but together too ... such harmony ... but ... (stops)
Dr. N: Go on.
S: I don't know the ones I'm passing now ... it doesn't matter.
Dr. N: Okay, let's pass on by these clusters which seem to bulge out along a corridor. Give me an example of what the whole thing looks like to you from a distance.
S: (laughs) A long glow-worm, its sides bulging in and out ... the movement is ... rhythmic.
Dr. N: You mean the corridor itself appears to move?
S: Yes, parts of it ... swaying as a ribbon in the breeze while I am going further away.
Dr. N: Continue floating and tell me what happens to you next.
S: (pause) I'm at the edge of another corridor ... I'm slowing down.
Dr. N: Why?
S: (grows excited) Because ... oh, good! I'm coming in towards the site where my friends are attached.
Dr. N: And how do you feel at this moment?
S: Fantastic! There is a familiar pulling of minds ... reaching out to me ... I'm catching the tail of their kite ... joining them in thought ... I'm home!
Dr. N: Is your particular cluster group of friends isolated from the other groups of souls living in other corridors?
S: No one is really isolated, although some of the younger ones may think so. I've been around a long time, though, and I have a lot of connections (said with modest confidence).
Dr. N: So you felt connections with those other corridors, even with spirits in them you might not know from past experience?
S: I do because of the connections I have had. There is a oneness here.
Dr. N: When you are moving around as a spirit, what is the major difference in your interactions with other souls, compared to being in human form on Earth?
S: Here no one is a stranger. There is a total lack of hostility toward anyone.
Dr. N: You mean every spirit is friendly to every other spirit, regardless of prior associations in many settings?
S: That's right, and it's more than just being friendly.
Dr. N: In what way?
S: We recognize a universal bond between us which makes us all the same. There is no suspicion toward each other.