problem getting session vars to stay defined

I am frustrated please help. I have used earlier versions of CF but cf 8 is very new to me. I want to set session variables with in the application.cfc, I thought I had it correct for session management to be initiated, as session variables can be defined. However using them with SSL... well - when a user accesses a page that is under the secure socket layer the variables are undefined. I dont understand what is occuring. This is what I have in my application.cfc file to start session management:

<cfcomponent output="false" hint="Handles application level events.">





<!--- Set up the application. --->
<cfset THIS.Name = "AppCFC" />
<cfset THIS.ApplicationTimeout = CreateTimeSpan( 0, 0, 60, 0 ) />
<cfset THIS.SessionManagement = true />
<cfset THIS.SetClientCookies = false />

<CFSET request.dsn = "wlaw" />
</cfcomponent>

ALL HELP IS APPRECIATED

Thank you in advance!
Mike Dooly