7. Placement
MY impression of the people who believe we do have a soul is that they imagine all souls are probably mixed into one great congregation of space. Many of my subjects believe this too, before their sessions begin. After awakening, it is no wonder they express surprise with the knowledge that everyone has a designated place in the spirit world. When I began to study life in the spirit world with people under hypnosis, I was unprepared to hear about the existence of organized soul support groups. I had pictured spirits just floating around aimlessly by themselves after leaving Earth.
Group placement is determined by soul level. After physical death, a soul’s journey back home ends with debarkation into the space reserved for their own colony, as long as they are not a very young soul or isolated for other reasons as mentioned in Chapter Four. The souls represented in these cluster groups are intimate old friends who have about the same awareness level.
When people in trance speak of being part of a soul cluster group, they are talking about a small primary unit of entities who have direct and frequent contact, such as we would see in a human family. Peer members have a sensitivity to each other which is far beyond our conception on Earth.
Secondary groups of souls are arranged in the form of a community Support group which is much less intimate with one another. Larger secondary groups of entities are made up of giant sets of primary clusters as lily pads in one pond. Spiritual ponds appear to be endless. Within these ponds, I have never heard of a secondary group estimated at less than a thousand souls. The many primary group clusters which make up one secondary group seem to have sporadic relationships, or no contact at all between clusters. It is rare for me to find souls involved with each other in any meaningful way who are members of two different secondary groups, because the number of souls is so great it is not necessary.
The smaller sub-group primary clusters vary in number, containing anywhere from three to twenty-five souls. I am told the average assemblage is around fifteen, which is called the Inner Circle. Any working contact between members of different cluster groups is governed by the lessons to be learned during an incarnation. This may be due to a past life connection, or the particular identity trait of the souls involved. Soul acquaintanceships between members of different cluster groups usually involve peripheral roles in life on Earth. An example would be a high school classmate who was once a close friend, but who you now see only at class reunions.
Members of the same cluster group are closely united for all eternity. These tightly- knit clusters are often composed of like-minded souls with common objectives which they continually work out with each other. Usually they choose lives together as relatives and close friends during their incarnations on Earth.
It is much more common for me to find a subject’s brother or sister from former lives in the same cluster group rather than souls who have been their parents. Parents can meet us at the gateway to the spirit world after a death on Earth, but we may not see much of their souls in the spirit world. This circumstance exists not for reasons of maturity, since a parent soul could be less developed than their human offspring. Rather, it is more a question of social learning between siblings who are contemporary in one time frame. Although parents are a child’s primary identification figures for both good and bad karmic effects, it is frequently our relations with spouses, brothers, sisters, and selected close friends over a whole lifetime that most influences personal growth. This takes nothing away from the importance of parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who serve us in different ways from another generation.
Figures 1 and 2 (pages 89-90) represent a random spiritual setting of souls. In Figure 1, a soul in primary Group 1, located within the larger secondary Group A, would work closely with all other souls in Group 1. However, some souls in primary Groups 9 and 10 (detailed in Figure 2) could also work together. The younger souls within secondary Groups A, B, and C would probably have little or no contact with each other in the spirit world or on Earth. Close association between souls depends on their assigned proximity to one another in cluster groups, where there is a similarity 0f knowledge and affinity brought about by shared earthly experiences.
The next case offers us an account of what it is like coming back to one’s cluster group after physical death.
Case 16
Dr. N: Once you leave the staging area and have arrived in the spiritual space where you belong, what do you do then?
S: I go to school with my friends.
Dr. N: You mean you are in some kind of spiritual classroom?
S: Yes, where we study.
Dr. N: I want you to take me through this school from the time of your arrival so I can appreciate what is happening to you. Start by telling me what you see from the outside.
S: (with no hesitation) I see a perfectly square Greek temple with large sculptured columns-very beautiful. I recognize it because this is where I return after each cycle (life).
Dr. N: What is a classical Greek temple doing in the spirit world?
S: (shrugs) I don’t know why it appears to me that way, except it seems natural … since my lives in Greece.
Dr. N: All right, let’s continue. Does anyone come to meet you?
S: (subject smiles broadly) My teacher Karla.
Dr. N: And how does she appear to you?
S: (confidently) I see her coming out of the entrance of the temple towards me… as a goddess … tall … wearing long flowing robes … one shoulder is bare … her hair is piled up and fastened with a gold clasp … she reaches out to me.
Dr. N: Look down at yourself. Are you dressed in the same garments?
S: We… all seem to be dressed the same … we shimmer with light… and we can change … Karla knows I like the way she looks.
Dr. N: Where are the others?
S: Karla has taken me inside my temple school. I see a large library. Small gatherings of people are speaking in quiet tones… at tables. It is … sedate … warm … a secure feeling which is so familiar to me.
Dr. N: Do all these people appear as adult men and women?
S: Yes, but there are more women in my group.
Dr. N: Why?
S: Because that’s the valence they are most comfortable with right now.
Note: The word valence used by this subject to indicate gender preference is an odd choice, yet it does fit. Valences in chemistry are positive or negative properties which, when combined with other elements, give proportion. Souls in groups may be inclined toward male and female personages or mixed.
Dr. N: Okay, what do you do next?
S: Karla leads me to the nearest table and my friends immediately greet me. Oh, it’s so good to be back.
Dr. N: Why are these particular people here with you in this temple?
S: Because we are all in the same study group. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be with them once more. (subject becomes distracted with this scene and it takes me a minute to get her started again)
Dr. N: Tell me how many people are in this library with you?
S: (pauses while mentally counting) About twenty.
Dr. N: Are all twenty very close friends of yours?
S: We are all close-I’ve known them for ages. But five are my dearest friends.
Dr. N: Are every one of the twenty people at about the same level of learning?
S: Uh… almost. Some are a little further along than the rest.
Dr. N: Where would you place yourself in the group as far as knowledge?
S: Around the middle.
Dr. N: As to learning lessons, where are you in relation to your five closest friends?
S: Oh, we are about the same-we work together a lot.
Dr. N: What do you call them?
S: (chuckles) We have pet names for each other.
Dr. N: Why do you have nicknames?
S: Hmm … to define our essence. We see each other as representing earth things.
Dr. N: What is your pet name?
S: Thistle.
Dr. N: And this represents some personal attribute?
S:(pause)I… am known for sharp … reactions to new situations in my rotations (life cycles).
Dr. N: What is the entity you feel closest to called, and why?
S: (soft laughter) Spray. He goes flat out in his rotations … dispensing his energy so rapidly it splashes in all directions, just like the water he loves so much on Earth.
Dr. N: Your family group sounds very distinctive. Now would you explain to me what you and your friends actually do in this library setting?
S: I go to my table and we all look at the books.
Dr. N: Books? What sort of books?
S: The life books.
Dr. N: Describe them as best you can for me.
S: They are picture books-thick white edges-two or three inches thick-quite large …
Dr. N: Open one of the life books for me and explain what you and your friends at the table see.
S: (pause, while the subject’s hands come together and move apart as though she were opening a book) There is no writing. Everything we see is in live pictures.
Dr. N: Action pictures-different than photographs?
S: Yes, they are multi-dimensional. They move… shift… from a center of … crystal … which changes with reflected light.
Dr. N: So, the pictures are not flat, the moving light waves have depth?
S: That’s right, they are alive.
Dr. N: Tell me how you and your friends use the books?
S: Well, at first it’s always out of focus when the book is opened. Then we think of what we want, the crystal turns from dark to light and … gets into alignment. Then we can see … in miniature… our past lives and the alternatives.
Dr. N: How is time treated in these books?
S: By frames … pages … time is condensed by the life books.
Dr. N: I don’t want to dwell on your past right now, but take a look at the book and just tell me the first thing you see.
S: A lack of self-discipline in my last life because this is what is on my mind. I see myself dying young, in a lover’s quarrel-my ending was useless.
Dr. N: Do you see future lives in the life book?
S: We can look at future possibilities … in small bites only … in the form of lessons … mostly these options come later with the help of others. These books are intended to emphasize our past acts.
Dr. N: Would you give me your impression of the intent behind this library atmosphere with your cluster group?
S: Oh, we all help one another go over our mistakes during this cycle. Our teacher is in and out and so we do a lot of studying together and discuss the value of our choices.
Dr. N: Are there other rooms where people study in this building?
S: No, this is for our group. There are different buildings where various groups study near us.
Note: The reader may refer to Figure 1 (page 89), circle B, as an example of what is meant here. In the graph, clusters 3-7 represent infrequent group interaction, although they are in close proximity to each other in the spirit world.
Dr. N: Are the groups of people who study in these buildings more or less advanced than those in your group?
S: Both.
Dr. N: Are you allowed to visit these other buildings where souls study? S: (long pause) There is one which we go to regularly.
Dr. N: Which one?
S: A place for the newer ones. We help them when their teacher is gone. It’s nice to be needed.
Dr. N: Help them how?
S: (laughs) With their homework.
Dr. N: But don’t the teacher-guides have that responsibility?
S: Well, you see the teachers are … so much further along (in development) … this group appreciates our assistance because we can relate to them easily.
Dr. N: Ah, so you do a little student teaching with this group?
S: Yes, but we don’t do it anywhere else.
Dr. N: Why not? Why couldn’t more advanced groups come to your library to assist you once in a while?
S: They don’t because we are further along than the newer ones. And, we don’t infringe on them either. If I want to connect with someone, I do it outside the study center.
Dr. N: Can you wander about anywhere as long as you don’t bother other souls in their study areas?
S: (responds with some evasiveness) I like to stay around the vicinity of my temple, but I can reach out to anyone.
Dr. N: I get the impression that your soul energy is restricted to this spiritual space even though you can mentally reach out further.
S: I don’t feel restricted … we have plenty of room to go about … but I’m not attracted to everyone.
The statement about non-restriction, cited by Case 16, seems contrary to those boundaries of spiritual space seen by the last case. When I initially bring subjects into the spirit world, their visions are spontaneous, particularly as to spiritual order and their place in a community of soul life. While the average subject may talk about having private spaces, as far as living and working, none sees the spirit world as confining. Once their superconscious recall gets rolling, most people are able to tell me about having freedom of movement and going to open spaces where souls of many learning levels gather in a recreational atmosphere.
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 resent sadness by spirits who long to be in a physical state again, but are 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.
Dr. N: I’m curious about Valairs. Does every spiritual group have two teachers assigned to their cluster?
S: Hmm … it varies. Karla trains under Valairs, so we have two. We see little of him. He works with other groups besides us.
Dr. N: So, Karla herself is student teaching as a less advanced guide?
S: (somewhat indignantly) She is advanced enough for me!
Dr. N: Okay, but will you help me straighten out these color schemes? Why is Karla’s energy radiating yellow and Valairs blue?
S: That’s easy. Valairs … precedes all of us in knowledge and he gives off a darker intensity of light.
Dr. N: Does the shade of blue, compared to yellow or plain white, make a difference between souls?
S: I’m trying to tell you. Blue is deeper than yellow and yellow is more intense than white, depending on how far along you are.
Dr. N: Oh, then the luminosity of Valairs radiates less brightly than Karla and she is less brilliant than your energy because you are further down in development?
S: (laughs) Much further down. They both have a heavier, more steady light than me.
Dr. N: And how does Karla’s yellow color vary from your whiteness in terms of where you are going with your own advancement?
S: (with pride) I’m turning into a reddish-white. Eventually, I’ll have light gold. Recently I’ve noticed Karla turning a little darker yellow. I expected it. She is so knowledgeable and good.
Dr. N: Really, and then will she eventually take her energy level to dark blue in intensity?
S: No, to a light blue at first. It’s always gradual, as our energy becomes more dense.
Dr. N: So, these three basic lights of white, yellow, and blue represent the development stages of souls and are visibly obvious to all spirits?
S: That’s right, and the changes are very slow.
Dr. N: Look around again. Do you see all the energy colors equally represented by souls in this area?
S: Oh no! Mostly white, some yellows, and few blues. Dr. N: Thank you for clarifying this for me.
I routinely question everyone about their color hues while they are in trance. Aside from the general whiteness of the spirit world itself, my subjects report seeing a majority of other souls displaying shades of white. Apparently, a neutral white or gray is the starting point of development. Spirit auras then mix the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue from a base of white. A few people see greenish hues mixed with yellow or blue.
To equate what I have heard about soul energy with the physical laws which govern the color spectrum we see in the heavens is just supposition. However, I have found some similarities. The energy of radiated light from cooler stars in the sky is a red- orange, while the hotter stars increase from yellow to blue-white. Temperature acts on light waves that are also visible vibrations of the spectrum with different frequencies. The human eye registers these waves as a band of light to dark colors.
The energy colors of souls probably have little to do with such elements as hydrogen and helium, but perhaps there is an association with a high energy field of electromagnetism. I suspect all soul light is influenced by vibrational motion in tune with a harmonious spiritual oneness of wisdom. Some aspects of quantum physics suggest the universe is made up of vibrational waves which influence masses of physical objects by an interaction of different frequencies. Light, motion, sound, and time are all interrelated in physical space. I was hearing these same relationships applied to spiritual matter from my cases.
Eventually, I concluded both our spiritual and physical consciousness project and receive light energy. I believe individual vibrational wave patterns represent each soul’s aura. As souls, the density, color, and form of light we radiate is proportional to the power of our knowledge and perception as represented by increasing concentrations of light matter as we develop. Individual patterns of energy not only display who we are, but indicate the degree of ability to heal others and regenerate ourselves.
People in hypnosis speak of colors to describe how souls appear, especially from a distance, when they are shapeless. From my cases, I have learned the more advanced souls project masses of faster moving energy particles which are reported to be blue in color, with the highest concentrations being purple. In the visible spectrum on Earth, blue-violet has the shortest wavelength, with energy peaking in the invisible ultraviolet. If color density is a reflection of wisdom, then the lower wavelengths of white through yellow emanating from souls must represent lower concentrations of vibrational energy.
Figure 3 (page 103) is a chart I have designed for the classification of souls by color coding, as reported by my subjects. The first column lists the soul’s spiritual state, or grade-level of learning. The last column shows our guide status and denotes our ability and readiness to serve in that capacity for others, which will be explained further in the next chapter. Learning begins with our creation as a soul and then accelerates with the first physical life assignment. With each incarnation, we grow in understanding, although we may slip back in certain lives before regaining our footing and advancing again. Nevertheless, from what I can determine, once a spiritual level is attained by the soul, it stays there.
In Figure 3, I show six levels of incarnating souls. Although I generally place my subjects into the broad categories of beginner, intermediate, and advanced souls, there are subtle differences in between, at Levels II and IV. For example, to determine whether a soul is starting to move out of the beginner stage at Level I into Level II, I must not only know how much white energy remains, but analyze the subject’s responses to questions which demonstrate learning. A genealogy of past life successes, future expectations, group associations, and conversations between my subjects and their guides, all form a profile of growth.
Some of my subjects object to my characterizing the spirit world as a place governed by societal structure and organizational management symbolized by Figure 3. On the other hand, I continually listen to these same subjects describe a planned and ordered process of self-development influenced by peers and teachers. If the spirit world does resemble one great schoolhouse with a multitude of classrooms under the direction of teacher souls who monitor our progress-then it has structure. Figure 3 represents a basic working placement model for my own use. I know it has imperfections. I hope follow-up research by regression therapists in future years may build upon my conceptualizations with their own replications to measure soul maturity.
This chapter may give the reader the impression that souls are as segregated by light level in the spirit world as people are by class in communities on Earth. Societal conditions on Earth cannot be compared with the spirit world. The differences in light frequency measuring knowledge in souls all comes from the same energy source. Souls are fully integrated by thought. If all levels of performance in the spirit world were on one grade level, souls would have a poor system of training. The old one-room schoolhouse concept of education on Earth limited students of different ages. In spiritual peer groups, souls work at their own developmental level with others like them. Mature teacher-guides prepare succeeding generations of souls to take their places.
And so there are practical reasons why conditions exist in the spirit world for a system designed to measure learning and development. The system fosters enlightenment and ultimately the perfection of souls. It is important to understand that while we may suffer the consequences of bad choices in our educational tasks, we are always protected, supported, and directed within the system by master souls. I see this as the spiritual management of souls.
The whole idea of a hierarchy of souls has been part of both Eastern and Western cultures for many centuries. Plato spoke of the transformation of souls from childhood to adulthood passing through many stages of moral reason. The Greeks felt humankind moves from amoral, immature, and violent beings over many lives to people who are finally socialized with pity, patience, forgiveness, honesty, and love. In the second century AD, the new Christian theology was greatly influence by Polotinus, whose Neoplatonist cosmology involved souls having a hierarchy of degrees of being. The highest being was a transcendent One, or God-creator, out of which the soul-self was born which would occupy humans. Eventually, these lower- souls would return to complete reunion with the universal over-soul.
My classification of soul development is intended to be neither socially nor intellectually elitist. Souls in a high state of advancement are often found in humble circumstances on Earth. By the same token, people in the strata of influence in human society are by no means in a blissful state of soul maturity. Often, just the reverse is true.
In terms of placement by soul development, I cannot overemphasize the importance of our spiritual groups. Chapter Nine, on beginner souls (Levels I and II), will more closely examine how a soul group functions. Before going further, however, I want to summarize what I have learned about the principles of soul group assignments.
- Regardless of the relative time of creation after their novice status is completed, all beginner souls are assigned to a new group of souls at their level of
- Once a new soul support group is formed, no new members are added in the
- There appears to be a systematic selection procedure for homogeneous groupings of souls. Similarities of ego, cognitive awareness, expression, and desire are all
- Irrespective of size, cluster groups do not directly intermix with each other’s energy, but souls can communicate with one another across primary and secondary group
- Primary clusters in Levels I and II may split into smaller subgroups for study, but are not separated from the integrated whole within a single cluster of souls.
- Rates of learning vary among peer group members. Certain souls will advance faster than others in a cluster group, although these students may not be equally competent and effective in all areas of their curricula. Around the intermediate level of learning, souls demonstrating special talents (healing, teaching, creating, etc.) are permitted to participate in specialty groups for more advanced work while still remaining with their cluster
- At the point where a soul’s needs, motives and performance abilities are judged to be fully at Level III in all areas of self-development, they are then loosely formed into an “independent studies” work group. Usually, their old guides continue to monitor them through one master teacher. Thus, a new pod of entities graduating into full Level III could be brought together from many clusters within one or more secondary
- When they approach Level IV, souls are given more independence outside group activities. Although group size diminishes as souls advance, the intimate contact between original peer group members is never lost.
- Spirit guides have a wide variety of teaching methods and instructional personifications depending upon group
