In these communal areas, floating souls socially engage in many activities. Some are quite playful, as when I hear of older souls "teasing" the younger ones about what lies ahead for them. One subject put it this way, "We play tricks on each other like a bunch of kids. During hide-and-seek, some of the younger ones get lost and then we help them find themselves." I am also told "guests" can appear in soul groups at times to entertain and tell stories, similar to the troubadours of the Middle Ages. Another subject mentioned that her group loved to see an odd-looking character known as "Humor" show up and make them all laugh with his antics.
Frequently, people in hypnosis find it hard to clearly explain the strange meanings behind their intermingling as souls. One diversion I hear rather often is of souls forming a circle to more fully unify and project their thought energy. Always, a connection with a higher power is reported here. Some people have told me, "Thought rhythms are so harmonized they bring forth a form of singing." Gracefully subtle dancing can also take place when souls whirl around each other in a mixture of energy, blending and separating in exotic patterns of light and color. Physical things such as shrines, boats, animals, trees, or ocean beaches can be conjured up at the center of these dances as well. These images have special meaning to soul groups as planetary symbols which reinforce positive memories from former lives together. This sort of material replication apparently does not represent sadness by spirits who long to be in a physical state again, but rather a joyful communion with historical events that helped shape their individual identities. For me, these mythic expressions by souls are ceremonial in nature and yet they go far beyond basic ritual.
Although certain places in the spirit world are described as having the same function by subjects in superconscious, their images in each of these regions can vary. Thus, a study area described as a Greek temple in this case is represented as a modern school building by another person. Other statements may seem more contradictory. For instance, many subjects mentally traveling from one location to another in the spirit world will tell me the space around them is like a sphere, as we saw in the last chapter, but then they will add that the spirit world is not enclosed because it is "limitless."
I think what we have to keep in mind is that people tend to structure their frame of reference during a trance state with what their conscious mind sees and has experienced on Earth. Quite a few people who come out of trance tell me there is so much about the spirit world they were unable to describe in earthly terms. Each person translates abstract spiritual conditions of their experience into symbols of interpretation which make sense to them. Sometimes a subject will even express disbelief at their own visions when I first take them into a spiritual place. This is because the critical area of their conscious mind has not stopped dropping message units. People in trance soon adapt to what their unconscious mind is recording.
When I began to gather information about souls in groups, I based my assessments of where these souls belonged on the level of their knowledge. Using only this criterion of identification, it was difficult for me to swiftly place a client. Case 16 came to me early in my studies of life in the spirit world. It was a significant one, because during the session I was to learn about the recognition of souls by color.
Before this case, I listened to my subjects describing the colors they were seeing in the spirit world without appreciating the importance of this information in relation to souls themselves. My clients reported about shades of soul energy mass, but I didn't piece these observations together. I was not asking the right questions.
I was familiar with Kirlian photography and the studies in parapsychology at U.C.L.A., where research has indicated each living person projects their own colored aura. In human form, apparently we have an ionized energy field flowing out and around our physical bodies connected by a network of vital power points called chakras. Since spiritual energy has been described to me as a moving, living force, the amount of electromagnetic energy required to hold a soul on our physical plane could be another factor in producing different earthly colors.
It has also been said that a human aura reflects thoughts and emotions combined with the physical health of an individual. I wondered if these personal meridians projected by humans had a direct connection to what I was being told about the light emitted by souls in the spirit world.
With Case 16, I realized that radiated soul light visualized by spirits is not all white. In the minds of my subjects, every soul generates a specific color aura. I credit this case with helping me decipher the meaning of these manifestations of energy.
Dr. N: All right, let's float outside your temple of study. What do you see around you, or off in the distance?
S: People-large gatherings of people.
Dr. N: How many would you say?
S: Hmm ... in the distance ... I can't count ... hundreds and hundreds ... there are so many.
Dr. N: And do you identify with all these souls-are you associated with them?
S: Not really-I can't even see all of them-it's sort of ... fuzzy out there ... but my gang is near me.
Dr. N: If I could call your gang of about twenty souls your primary cluster group, are you associated with the larger secondary body of souls around you now?
S: We ... are all ... associated-but not directly. I don't know those others ...
Dr. N: Do you see the physical features of all these other souls in the same way as you did your own group in the temple?
S: No, that isn't necessary. It is more ... natural out here in the open. I see them all as spirits.
Dr. N: Look out in the distance from where you are now. How do you see all these spirits? What are they like?
S: Different lights-buzzing around as fireflies.
Dr. N: Can you tell if the souls who work with each other, such as teachers and students, stick together all the time?
S: People in my gang do, but the teachers kind of stick to themselves when they are not assisting in our lessons.
Dr. N: Do you see any teacher-guides from where we are now?
S: (pause) Some ... yes ... there are much fewer of them than us, of course. I can see Karla with two of her friends.
Dr. N: And you know they are guides, even without seeing any physical features? You can look out there at all the bright white lights and just mentally tell they are guides?
S: Sure, we can do that. But they are not all white.
Dr. N: You mean souls are not all absolutely white?
S: That's partially true-the intensity aspect of our energy can make us less brilliant.
Dr. N: So Karla and her two friends display different shades of white?
S: No, they aren't white at all.
Dr. N: I don't follow you.
S: She and her two friends are teachers.
Dr. N: What is the difference? Are you saying these guides radiate energy which is not white?
S: That's right.
Dr. N: Well, what color are they?
S: Yellow, of course.
Dr. N: Oh ... so all guides radiate yellow energy?
S: No, they don't.
Dr. N: What?
S: Karla's teacher is Valairs. He is blue. We see him sometimes here. Nice guy. Very smart.
Dr. N: Blue? How did we get to blue?
S: Valairs shows a light blue.
Dr. N: I'm confused. You didn't say anything about another teacher called Valairs being part of your group.
S: You didn't ask me. Anyway, he is not in my group. Neither is Karla. They have their own groups.
Dr. N: And these guides have auras which are yellow and blue?
S: Yes.
Dr. N: How many other energy colors do you see floating around here?
S: None.
Dr. N: Why not red and green energy lights?
S: Some are reddish, but no green lights.
Dr. N: Why not?
S: I don't know, but sometimes when I look around, this place is lit up like a Christmas tree.