Option 1
Since you are using CodeIgniter and sessions then something like this could work out for you:
set it
$someJSONobject = 'JSON';
$this->session->set_userdata('GLOBAL_JSON', $someJSONobject);
retrieve it
$someJSONobject = $this->session->userdata('GLOBAL_JSON');
echo $someJSONobject->subitem;
Make sure you are storing sessions in a DB if you go with this option because Cookie space is VERY limited
Option 2
Even if you are not using CodeIgniters' session implementation then you can do something quite similar in native PHP:
$someJSONobject = 'JSON';
$_SESSION['GLOBAL_JSON'] = $someJSONobject;