In past-life work, visions are often expressed through symbolism–something that is recognizable but which may have been chosen to illustrate a more profound meaning. 

For instance, in doing the research sessions for my book on life-between-lives, I asked my volunteers to describe the Council Chamber–that place where they met with the Council of Elders to review their last life and decide what to work on in the next.

As I wrote in my book, since we bring our Earthly impressions with us into the afterlife, many individuals mistakenly think of the Council of Elders as a prosecutorial board where souls are judged. That is why when asked to describe the Council Chamber, many convey images of a courtroom with a jury box where the Elders serve as prosecutors, sitting behind a long table on a raised dais.

This can be a sobering thought to some. After all, who wants to stand alone in front of who knows how many ascended masters who will review the actions of previous lives in minute detail? While studies report that the Council of Elders are all loving, non-judgmental energies who do not call out a “guilty” or “not guilty” soul, the images of a courtroom, or a conference room, or a raised platform (or even, as one volunteer described it, the image from DaVinci’s Last Supper) can be intimidating.

Also intimidating is the description of what the Elders look like.  Out of my 25 volunteers, nearly everyone reported seeing at least one elderly gray-haired man with a long white beard. It’s no wonder when you consider the very term “Elder” conjures up images of men who look like Moses. Add to this that nearly every participant had an Elder who was dressed in a robe. Again, this may have been because of their earthbound interpretation of a panel in a position of power and judgment.

Dr. Michael Newton, author of Destiny of Souls, and Journey of Souls, and a man respected for his expertise in the area of life-after-lives, said his subjects saw the same thing as mine did. “The symbolism of wearing robes confers dignity, honor and a sense of history in the minds of people who report on them,” he wrote. “People associate robes with the fields of law, academics and theology in human society.”

The same kind of symbolic association happened when I asked the volunteers to describe what the afterlife looked like. Dr. Edith Fiore said her subjects described the afterlife as having “beautiful lakes, beautiful scenes, gleaming cities.”  One of my research participants said she saw things that were reminiscent of things on Earth, including fantastic scenes, waterfalls, and trees.

In Journey of Souls, Dr. Newton addressed the appearance of Earth-like scenes in the afterlife by saying that although it is illogical that souls would recall physical structures in a non-physical world, the explanation could lie in the use of an Earthly environment to “aid in the soul’s transition and adjustment from a physical death.”  He went on to say that if a soul sees an image in the afterlife that is reminiscent of a place they knew on Earth, it is because “a benevolent spiritual force allows for terrestrial mirages to comfort us by their familiarity.”

Several in my study saw their spirit home as an ancient city, perhaps created from their memories of a pleasant past life in ancient Rome. Egypt, Atlantis or Greece. One said her spirit home resembled what Athens would have looked like in its glory days. Another identified the Parthenon temple in Greece.

These descriptions may not be as literal as we think. A temple, a cathedral, a hall of crystals, or a library may not always be an actual temple, cathedral, crystal hall or library. Instead, they are symbols of what those structures meant to us on Earth, i.e. a place of worship; a place of knowledge; a place of scientific advancement, etc. It could be a place we knew, or it could be a something to which we aspire.

Whatever it is, it represents universal harmony and a perfect state of being. That is different for each soul, so in essence, there is no one generic description of the afterlife. It is whatever you deem it to be.