The akashic records (akasha is a Sanskrit word meaning "sky", "space" or "aether") is a term used in theosophy (and Anthroposophy) to describe a compendium of mystical knowledge encoded in a non-physical plane of existence. These records are described as containing all knowledge of human experience and the history of the cosmos. They are metaphorically described as a library; other analogues commonly found in discourse on the subject include a "universal computer" and the "Mind of God". People who describe the records assert that they are constantly updated and that they can be accessed through astral projection. The concept originated in the theosophical movements of the 19th century. It is frequently used in New Age discourse.
Specific accounts
In his books Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls, Evidence of Life between Lives, Michael Newton, a hypnotherapist who has worked with subjects in deep states, has many accounts of the akashic record, or "Book of Life". Souls prior to being incarnated go to a 'library' and view the pages associated with the life they are considering. The pages are not necessarily sequential. Although there may be definitive way points along the course of our lives, our free will can change paths, events and outcomes. As the soul prepares for a life with the intent of learning a particular lesson or satisfying a karmic debt, the soul will also choose a family and a body that will help them with the lessons for this incarnation. For many, some of those images survive "birth amnesia" and become our intuition serving them during their lives.
C.W. Leadbeater, who claimed to be clairvoyant, conducted research into the akashic record. He said he inspected this at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar (Tamil Nadu), India during the summer of 1910 and recorded the results in his book Man: How, Whence, and Whither? The book records the history of Atlantis and other civilizations and the future society of Earth in the 27th century.
Edgar Cayce stated that each person is held to account after life and "confronted" with their personal akashic record of what they have or have not done in life in a karmic sense. The idea is comparable to the Biblical Book of Life, which is consulted to see whether or not the dead should be admitted to heaven.
Ervin Laszlo in his books Science and the Akashic Field and Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos brings the latest new science of the akashic field and its function as the source of all manifestation and interconnectedness, flowing out and in via the vacuum field or zero-point energy, which he equates with akasha—cosmic mind, universal consciousness, and the field that unifies all things.
Jane Roberts in the Seth books describes a different version of a similar idea. Seth asserts that the fundamental stuff of the universe is ideas and consciousness, and that an idea once conceived exists forever. Seth argued that all ideas and knowledge are in principle accessible by "direct cognition". Direct cognition shares semantic congruency with intuition and allows for the possibility of direct knowing without time elapsing and without knowledge needing to be transferred e.g. in speech or text. This is similar to what Robert Monroe refers to as rotes in his out-of-body book trilogy.
Robert L. DeMelo in his theoretical physics ebook The General Principles of Reality A takes another approach. He uses implicit logic to deduce the potential existence of an infinite knowing universal consciousness of which we are all a part. Essentially each contributes to its own existence. His logical deduction compares the common properties between space and time and applies them to consciousness. He concludes his ebook by referring to this infinite consciousness as God.
According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, the "Memory of Nature" (akashic records) may be read in three different inner worlds. In the reflecting ether of the etheric region, there are pictures of all that has happened in the world. These may be of events at least several hundred years back, or much more in some cases, and they appear almost as pictures on a screen, with the difference that the scene shifts backward. The Memory of Nature may be read, in a higher world, in the highest subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought of the World of Thought. Lastly, it may be read in the World of Life Spirit, covering events from the earliest dawn of our present manifestation. This is possible only for spiritual adepts or spiritual entities; it is through grace that access to the records is granted.
The Urantia Book asserts the validity and reality of these "living records" in several accounts. In Paper 25 is found the statement: "The recording angels of the inhabited planets are the source of all individual records. Throughout the universes other recorders function regarding both formal records and living records. From Urantia to Paradise, both recordings are encountered: in a local universe, more of the written records and less of the living; on Paradise, more of the living and less of the formal; on Uversa, both are equally available."
And in Paper 25:
"The Memory of Mercy is a living trial balance, a current statement of your account with the supernatural forces of the realms. These are the living records of mercy ministration which are read into the testimony of the courts of Uversa when each individual's right to unending life comes up for adjudication, when "thrones are cast up and the Ancients of Days are seated. The broadcasts of Uversa issue and come forth from before them; thousands upon thousands minister to them, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before them. The judgment is set, and the books are opened." And the books which are opened on such a momentous occasion are the living records of the tertiary seconaphim of the superuniverses. The formal records are on file to corroborate the testimony of the Memories of Mercy if they are required."
In The Law of One, Book I, a book purported to contain conversations with a channeled "social memory complex" known to humans as "Ra," when the questioner asks where Edgar Cayce received his information, the answer received is, "We have explained before that the intelligent infinity is brought into intelligent energy from eighth density or octave. The one sound vibratory complex called Edgar used this gateway to view the present, which is not the continuum you experience but the potential social memory complex of this planetary sphere. The term your peoples have used for this is the "Akashic Record" or the "Hall of Records."[2]
"Future Life Reading" - Helen Stewart Wambach (1925-1985), who lived in Concord, California, claimed to be able to read the akashic record. She said she could hypnotize people and enable them to experience their possible future lives in various alternate universes.
In Thiaoouba Prophecy, Michel Desmarquet tells of being abducted in 1987 from Australia by supreme alien beings. During a visit of nine days with them, he is guided through the akashic record. He uses the synonym of psychosphere. He says the akashic record is like a "vibratory cocoon, which turns at a speed seven times that of light. This cocoon acts as a blotter, as it were, absorbing (and remembering) absolutely every event occurring on the planet. The contents of this cocoon are inaccessible to us on Earth - we have no way of ‘reading the land.’"
Evidence
So far, the only presented evidence of akashic records has been the claims of those who purport to gather information from them. These claims cannot be empirically tested, and thus is not deemed a serious matter of scientific inquiry. Neither the Christian nor Vedic/Hindu traditions generally recognize their scriptures and beliefs as being rooted in the akashic record, though specific groups or individuals may subscribe to such a belief. However in Islamic belief, under the concept of Qadar, there is a notation of so called "the Book of Decree", or "Al-Lawh Al-Mahfud" which is also defined as a preserved tablet that holds the records of all the events that ever happened and also that are going to happen. (See: Predestination in Islam) Section 1 Jup Part 2 of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh Holy Book) references an Akaashic ether, "the earth, its support, and the Akaashic ethers." Many translations have "Akaashic" capitalized.
In popular culture
According to Hindu tradition, the Vedas are apaurueya "not of human agency", are supposed to have been directly revealed to the rishis, and thus are called śruti ("what is heard").
See also
• The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ
• Esoteric cosmology
• Mindstream
• Store consciousness
• Terma (Buddhism)
• Seth Lloyd
