Each soul generates its own paradise.

Questions and theories about individual heavens as seen in “Dark Side of the Moon."

I need your opinions, guys.

There are two things I’m curious about in “Dark Side of the Moon."

1.  Did Sam and Dean ever reach their own personal heaven/s?

During “Dark Side of the Moon," Dean and Sam spend their time in heaven traveling down what Castiel calls the Axis Mundi, a road that travels through heavens toward the Garden of Eden, and as they go down this road, they both relive certain memories. 

Dean watches fireworks.  Sam meets his dog Bones.  Sam goes to a Thanksgiving dinner.  Dean sees Mary.  Both Sam and Dean appear to have their lives flash before their eyes, and these aren’t just any memories, they’re good memories.  The best ones. 

Now I always assumed that because they were reliving several different memories, neither Sam nor Dean had created their “paradise;" that they were still in a state of having their lives flash before their eyes, and that their souls had not yet picked a particular moment to spend their afterlife in. 

Because looking at the examples of personal heavens seen in Supernatural, it seems to me as though each soul’s actual heaven became focused on one place, or one moment in time.

• Ash’s heaven is the Roadhouse
• Pamela’s heaven is a particular music concert
• The autistic man’s heaven is a park
• Ken Lay’s heaven is his office
• The Kama Sutra guy’s heaven is an orgy

These are all places, or single moments in time, and these individual heavens don’t seem to change - Cas visits his favorite heaven numerous times.

So am I correct in assuming that neither Sam nor Dean picked a single moment to spend eternity in?  That because they continued traveling down the Axis Mundi, they did not stop and stay in any of those memories, thereby failing to chose their heaven?

So am I correct in assuming that they were not in each other’s heavens during this episode (or sharing a heaven), just revisiting memories in order to pick their heavens?

And also,

2.  Did Ash mean to imply that Sam and Dean are soulmates?

I always thought that because Dean and Sam couldn’t interact with each other’s memories (like Sam trying to talk to Mary in Dean’s memory), it was implied that they are not soulmates. 

I gathered from this episode that souls could interact with each other (since Ash finds Pamela and chats with Einstien), just not other souls’ memories.  Assuming, of course, they could break into each others’ heaven.

As far as angels go, we don’t see Castiel interacting with the autistic man, and we don’t see Ken Lay but rather Raphael behind the desk.  I’d imagine souls in heaven are oblivious to the angels and can’t interact with them, like the angels and the souls are on different planes (note that Ash required string theory and computers in order to track the movements of angels) unless the angels want to interact with the souls in heaven (as seen when Zachariah approaches Adam with the deal).

My assumption was that if soulmates were to share a heaven, then that heaven would have to be a memory that both souls experienced, and that memory would have to be of equal importance and meaning to both souls. Both souls would have to pick the same memory in order to share a heaven.

Like, Dean’s memory of watching fireworks with Sam would be a heaven they could share, if they were soulmates, but Dean’s memory of Mary cooking couldn’t be a soulmate heaven because Sam doesn’t share that memory.

I particularly love a point that cadigan brings up here - 

“I also think it’s implied that Sam and Dean don’t see all of each other’s respective heavens, because they leave to avoid Zachariah and then to find Joshua, and therefore there could be a point at which their heavens intersect.”

This raises the idea that Dean and Sam could be soul mates, if they both chose the same memory, and so maybe being soul mates with someone is a choice to make.

And I really love that idea, because of course having a soulmate is a choice - the soul is the center of a being’s free will, and free will is all about making your own choices.

Opinions? Are there any other metas out there about this?  I’m writing a fic and I need to establish some headcanons.