103: The Collective of Souls

The information in this posting comes from me; it is not channeled. For this posting I want to begin to explain an environment that I perceive as a medium. It is an environment that I believe we are all a part of, but it is the unseen worlds of the souls that we do not see with our human eyes when incarnate. (Try as I may on days when I feel someone I love so close to me!)

This is a difficult posting to write, because the task is to describe things that I have experienced through numerous interactions with spirit where I have had time to learn and understand. This is information that has been accumulated over time, and I now attempt to synthesize and consolidate it as best as I can in order to have it make sense to you!

When you read the information on Beyond Perspective, you will see that I sometimes call my interactions with spirits “communications” and other times I may call them “experiences.” From my point of view, these concepts are different. So allow me to describe the difference, as it will be important in order to introduce the topic of the Collective of Souls.

• Communications. When I refer to interactions with spirits as communications, it is not all that different than what you might think just based upon the word itself. When we communicate to each other here in this dimension, it may mean that we use words and talk, we may convey things through pictures, concepts, touch, sound, gestures, etc. Communications with spirit come in many form, and a single communication can often use combinations of these modalities. Sometimes these communications feel as though a packet of information was quickly downloaded to me – suddenly I know a whole bunch of information from the spirit quite quickly. This is something that we cannot do with each other here in this dimension because we have to string words along in sentences – written, verbal or otherwise. And we do not send pictures from our heads to another person, or a video clip from our heads to another person. But spirits ARE able to use this function of communication quite effectively. So they can communicate quite a bit in a very short period of time. Since we do not work this way, it can take some getting used to! Regardless, I call this type of interaction with spirit a “communication.”

• Experiences. When I refer to interactions with spirits as experiences, it is quite a different thing. Experiences are situations where I am given an experience, and it is a very participative thing. I participate in an activity – sometimes passive, sometimes active – but what is different here is that the spirit is interacting with me in an experience and may or may not also be communicating during it. Just like here in our dimension, sometimes in order to learn or understand something, we must experience it for ourselves. In these cases, spirits have taken my consciousness somewhere for this to happen (particularly if the topic is complex, complicated, or does not translate to what I know of the world here in this dimension). It feels as though they know that the only way to accomplish their goal is to get me out of touch with this dimension and take me where I can experience something.   In other cases it feels as though the spirit interacts with me and creates the experience around me. In this case, my experiences tend to focus on topics that may be less complex, where it may not require me to get out of touch with this dimension as much, or where the experience requires my consciousness to be in touch/connected to my body. The old saying “experience is the best teacher” sums up what this type of interaction is all about!

With that all said, let me move forward and introduce something that I have learned through many experiences. I call it the Collective of Souls.

The Collective of Souls

This information comes from my experienced-based interactions with spirit. The Collective of Souls is perhaps most simply described as a network of all of us as souls – regardless of which dimension we currently exist in. In this dimension, much of our world seems to focus on division, separateness, boundaries, etc. But the reality of the Collective of Souls is that this is not true no matter how much this dimension may tell us otherwise. What I have experienced is that we are all networked together. None are separate unto themselves – that would be an embarrassing delusion to have when in presence of the Collective.

As a side note, I do not proclaim to have done anything other than to scratch the surface of the concept of the Collective of Souls. From my experiences with spirits regarding this topic, the Collective may not be fully understood, because just as you learn something there is something new to learn, and that process goes on and on. So I can only describe to you what I have experienced to be true to date.

When I experience the Collective of Souls, I get a very visual experience. Sometimes my consciousness is also shifted there in addition to having strong visual perceptions. I could not draw a picture of what I see, so I have gone through many, many stock photo images to find one that gives you a visual as best as I can find. It is the picture on the top of this posting. It is not fully accurate; it is the best I could find.

Visually, I see the Collective from a distance as lights (best word that I can find) – some larger, some smaller, some brighter, some more faint. I do not see all lights that are bright in one area, and all less bright in a different area. They are disbursed. They span on and on; I do not see finite ends. Very importantly, I see that they are connected by something that is of a similar color to the lights – it looks almost like wispy netting. This is what it looks like to me from a distance, but my experiences do not always keep me at a distance. When I move closer to individual lights some of them feel as though they acknowledge my presence, and I begin to get more visual from them – I begin seeing them as people. Now whether they are in human form or are just projecting human form to me because they know that I will understand that best, I do not know. But as I move around in the environment of the Collective of Souls – the collection of all souls regardless of where they are “located” – and I near one of the lights, this often occurs.

On a side note, no, I do not take any drugs to induce my communications or experiences. Quite the opposite – the healthier I am mind/body/soul, the more I seem to develop (more on that in a different posting).

When my consciousness is participating in an experience with the Collective, I am aware that I am one of them. My dimension-of-residence appears irrelevant, as my understanding is that all souls are perceived/represented there. I get excited when I’m there, because while it is very humbling, it is also exciting because there are so many souls that I want to get to know! When I am there, I am very aware that I want to spend a lot of time there, and that there is so much to learn from each soul and what it may know and/or have learned through their own history and ongoing development.

There are some important concepts that my picture does not convey, but that I have picked up. And I cannot find pictures that will convey this, so I have created some stick figure drawings that I hope will accomplish the task.

Exhibit A. What it is not: The Collective is not all focused on me/you

We are each one of them, but we are not the center of their universe or the center of attention. I am just one of countless many, yet I still feel important to the Collective and very connected to the network they comprise.

Exhibit B. What it is not: We are not formally separated from the Collative

Because of what we can and cannot see with our human (animal) eyes while incarnate, our cultures often lead us to believe it is an Us/Them situation – that we are here in this dimension and that those that have passed on are over “there” somewhere else. We are lead to feel that there is a grand separation that cannot be crossed. And as grievers, we really do feel this hard! And I acknowledge that there are limits when we rely on our human senses. But through my experiences as a medium, I have seen how much this is NOT as true as what we have been lead to believe and have accepted to be our truth.

Exhibit C. What it is not: Not everyone crosses into the light right after they pass

There is not a rush to cross into the light. There is not a “void” between our dimension and the light. In fact there appears to be a space between our dimension and the light where souls can and do exist. And most importantly this is OK! We hear about “the light” a lot – nothing new. But what I have learned is that people do not always go from the incarnate body and pass through the light immediately. This may upset some readers, but let me tell you that my experiences in communicating with spirits tells me that this is not always a bad or unacceptable thing.

Exhibit D. What it is: There is a between space

A shaman mentor of mine calls this the “between space.” (Thank you Elizabeth for the description!) I do not find a lot written about this between space that I have found to be helpful. I do find, however, a lot of fear about it. Some people pass back to spirit and hang around there until a funeral and until their loved ones start to move on, etc. Some people pass back to spirit and may fear the light – which could be a problem situation, and there are times that they may need assistance. My experience has been that each soul has their own timeline and their own growth – and sometimes that includes (for whatever reason) spending some time in the between space. I have not experienced a global rule of good/bad.