All the research and still not clear: I'm using Sonar 8.5 with an Echo Audiofire 12. Sometimes I record in mono and sometimes in stereo, When panning I noticed my volume on the left increased and when I panned right it decreased instead of hearing it as your go from left to right. If this makes sense or has someone else experienced this please share!?

Try with different panning laws. Stereo tracks and mono track behave differently when panning.
Actually you can not really pan a stereo track.
Panning is for mono tracks to position the sound in the soundscape. A stereo track already includes this positioning when, for example, recorded with several mics.

When you record a mono source, like vocals, bass, electric guitar, use a mono track. When you record a stereo source like stereo synthesizer, use a stereo track.

SONAR does not offer true stereo panning. When you pan a stereo track, the pan control acts like the balance knob on your stereo - it's essentially two volume controls operating in reverse of one another. The result is that one side gets louder than the other but the stereo image does not move in the panorama. That method only works for positioning the image with mono tracks.

IMO the stereo balance control is nearly useless. Fortunately, the Channel Tools plugin can be used for stereo panning and is much more useful. With it, you can pan each side of the stereo file independently, meaning you can make the stereo image move across the panorama in a natural-sounding way.

When panning I noticed my volume on the left increased and when I panned right it decreased instead of hearing it as your go from left to right. If this makes sense or has someone else experienced this please share!?

That happens when you record a single input onto a stereo track. Just bounce it to a mono track and it should pan fine.