This illustrative sketch was created to explain the way cell groups work within us. 
Relationships between alters is depicted by interlocking and scattered circles. To understand this illustration, you need to think in terms of math cell groups. Cell groups can be very large or very small, and contain one solitary personality or , in our case, up to 34 personalities in one cell group. Some cell groups are interlocked to illustrate that there are some personalities who belong in more than one cell group.
The next illustration explains the way an alter personality is created. The entire circle represents one person. Every person has a physical body that is represented here by the outer circle. This includes physical features that are visible and internal organs and structure. The middle circle represents a person’s soul. This includes his/her intellect, his/her emotions, and his/her will. The inner circle represents a person’s spirit. The person’s spirit is who they really are – the part of a person that is eternal. A person’s spirit is their drive to survive, the part of a person that is uniquely him/her self. A person’s body, emotions, will, and intellect may change in the course of time; but the soul matures but remains the same. The following illustration shows how an alter personality has all the aspects of a whole personality on every level, yet it is taken from the whole, like a slice of pie. An alter personality has his/her own identity that encompasses his/her own physical features, his/her own emotions/intellect/ and will, and his/her own spirit – independent from extracted from the birth personality.
The next illustration is a map of what I experience when I am “in”. At the point of exchange (where personalities come in or go out) is a small room similar to a church vestibule, which we call the communication room. Directly in front in the middle of this room is a large, wood door. If you go inside that door you are in the part of my internal world named the dwelling on the primary floor. What you see from the vantage point of the door is a long corridor with doors on both sides that ends in a “T”. Different rooms in the Dwelling serve different purposes, including a nursery, a gymnasium, personality’s personal spaces, traumatic memory storage, and more. Back to the communication room, there are doors that lead out to the Shelter on the left, the space where Redeemed resides on the right, stairs that lead down to the Lower Level below the Dwelling, and opposite the large wood door is a room/space that is unnamed so far as I know with a unique design for specific reasons. If you go down the main corridor in the Dwelling and then follow the cross corridor to the right, you can go up stairs to the upper level of the Dwelling or enter the Abode, which is like a locked unit of a psych ward. Alters who would be aggressive/dangerous to self or others if they had access to the communication room reside here. They have access to seeing and hearing all that is happening in the outside world but have no access to coming out unless they are brought out by a therapist or psychiatrist for therapy purposes. The Homestead is also accessed through the second level of the Dwelling.