In the religion of Theosophy and the spiritual movement of Anthroposophy, the Akashic records are believed to be a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future, regarding not just humans, but all entities and life forms. They are believed by Theosophy to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane.
Akasha ( आकाश) is the Sanskrit word for "aether", "sky", or "atmosphere".
History
Theosophical Society
The
Sanskrit term
akasha was introduced to the language of theosophy through
Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), who characterized it as a sort of life force; she also referred to "indestructible tablets of the astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and action, but she did not use the term "akashic".
The notion of an akashic
record was further disseminated by Alfred Percy Sinnett in his book
Esoteric Buddhism (1883) when he cites Henry Steel Olcott's
A Buddhist Catechism (1881).
Olcott wrote that "Buddha taught two things are eternal, viz, 'Akasa' and 'Nirvana': everything has come out of Akasa in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and, passes away. No thing ever comes out of nothing."
By C. W. Leadbeater's Clairvoyance (1899) the association of the term with the idea was complete, and he identified the akashic records by name as something a clairvoyant could read.
Alice A. Bailey wrote in her book The Light of the Soul on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – Book 3 – Union Achieved and Its Results (1927):
Rudolf Steiner
The
Austrian people theosophist, and later founder of
Anthroposophy,
Rudolf Steiner used the Akashic records concept mainly in a series of articles in his journal
Lucifer-Gnosis from 1904 to 1908, where he wrote about
Atlantis and Lemuria, topics related to their purported history and civilization.
[ Aus der Akasha-Chronik. Partial edition of the work in English:
]
First complete English edition:
Besides this, he used the term in the title of lectures on a
Fifth Gospel held in 1913 and 1914, shortly after the foundation of the Anthroposophical Society and Steiner's exclusion from the Theosophical Society Adyar.
Other
Edgar Cayce claimed to be able to access the Akashic records.
Musician Prince used references to akashic records as a storytelling device throughout his album
The Rainbow Children, particularly in reference to the history of slavery in the United States. The character
Obadiah Archer from the
Valiant Comics universe series
Archer & Armstrong is able to access the Akashic plane to mimic all known human and superhuman abilities since the 2012 reboot.
[ Archer & Armstrong (2012 Valiant series)]
See also
-
Book of Life
-
Collective unconscious
-
Egregore
-
Esoteric cosmology
-
Ervin László
