global sessions

i'm trying to use sessions with my project, but it seems that registered variables in a session aren't global by default. It doesn't even seem like the session is global, because if I reference the sessionid (which only shows up if cookies are disabled) by using <?=SID?>, it shows up within a function, if I reference it from within the function. if anyone can help me make my variables (such as $user, and $active) globally registered with the session, I would be very grateful. maybe its the cookie not being global, that would explain why the sessionid shows up only from within a function (but not in the global scope) so...i guess my question is how can i globalize a session? thanks ben ben@nyip.net