roots in the custom of recording genealogical records of names or perhaps early census taking. Traditional religion suggests that this book—either in literal or symbolic form—contains the names of all those who are worthy of salvation. The book is to be opened in connection with divine judgment (Dan. 7:10, Rev. 20:12). In the New Testament, those redeemed by Christ are contained within the book (Philippians 4); those not found in the book of life will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
As an interesting corollary, in the ancient world a person’s name was symbolic of that individual’s existence. According to Sir James George Frazer, author of The Golden Bough—one of the most extensive volumes on world mythology—there was such a bond between one’s name and one’s existence “that magic may be wrought on a man just as easily as through his name as through his hair, his nails, or any other material part of his person.” In ancient Egypt, to blot a person’s name out of a record was equivalent to destroying the fact that he or she had ever existed.
Closer to our current era, a great deal of contemporary information on the Akashic Records has been made available by both reputable psychics and modern-day mystics—individuals who have somehow perceived beyond the limits of three dimensions. According to H.P. [Helena Petrovna] Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian immigrant, mystic, and founder of the Theosophical Society, the Akashic Records are much more than simply an account of static data which may be gleaned by a sensitive. Instead, the records have an ongoing creative stimulus upon the present:
Akasha is one of the cosmic principles and is a plastic matter, creative in its physical nature, immutable in its higher principles. It is the quintessence of all possible forms of energy, material, psychic, or spiritual; and contains within itself the germs of universal creation, which sprout forth under the impulse of the Divine Spirit.
Alchemy and the Secret Doctrine
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian-born philosopher, educator, and founder of the Anthroposophical Society, possessed the ability to perceive information beyond the material world: a “spiritual world” which was just as real to him as the physical world was to others. Steiner claimed that the ability to perceive this other world could be developed, enabling an individual to see events and information every bit as concrete as the present:
. . . man can penetrate to the eternal origins of the things which vanish with time. A man broadens his power of cognition in this way if he is no longer limited to external evidence where knowledge of the past is concerned. Then he can see in events what is not perceptible to the senses, that part which time cannot destroy. He penetrates from transitory to non-transitory history. It is a fact that this history is written in other characters than is ordinary history. In gnosis and in theosophy it is called the “Akasha Chronicle” . . . To the uninitiated, who cannot yet convince himself of the reality of a separate spiritual world through his own experience, the initiate easily appears to be a visionary, if not something worse. The one who has acquired the ability to perceive in the spiritual world comes to know past events in their eternal character. They do not stand before him like the dead testimony of history, but appear in full life. In a certain sense, what has happened takes place before him.
Cosmic Memory
In terms of contemporary insights, perhaps the most extensive source of information regarding the Akashic Records comes from the clairvoyant work of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), Christian mystic and founder of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. For forty-three years of his adult life, Edgar Cayce possessed the ability to lie down on a couch, close his eyes, fold his hands over his stomach, and put himself into some kind of an altered state in which virtually any type of information was available. The accuracy of Cayce’s psychic work is evidenced by approximately one dozen biographies and literally hundreds of books and tapes which explore various aspects of his information and the thousands of topics he discussed.
When asked about the source of his information, Cayce replied that there were essentially two. The first was the subconscious mind of the individual for whom he was giving the reading and the second was the Akashic Records. In further describing these records, Cayce stated:
Upon time and space is written the thoughts, the deeds, the activities of an entity—as in relationships to its environs, its hereditary influence; as directed—or judgment drawn by or according to what the entity’s ideal is.
Hence, as it has been oft called, the record is God’s book of remembrance; and each entity, each soul—as the activities of a single day of an entity in the material world—either makes same good or bad or indifferent, depending upon the entity’s application of self towards that which is the ideal manner for the use of time, opportunity and the EXPRESSION of that for which each soul enters a material manifestation.
The interpretation then as drawn here is with the desire and hope that, in opening this for the entity, the experience may be one of helpfulness and hopefulness.
1650-1*
Most often, when giving a reading which discussed a person’s soul history and the individual’s sojourn through space and time, Cayce would begin with a statement such as “Yes, we have before us the records of the entity now known or called _________.” In describing the process for accessing these records, Edgar Cayce stated:
I see myself as a tiny dot out of my physical body, which lies inert before me. I find myself oppressed by darkness and there is a feeling of terrific loneliness. Suddenly, I am conscious of a white beam of light. As this tiny dot, I move upward following the light, knowing that I must follow it or be lost.
As I move along this path of light I gradually become conscious of various levels upon which there is movement. Upon the first levels there are vague, horrible shapes, grotesque forms such as one sees in nightmares. Passing on, there begin to appear on either side misshapen forms of human beings with some part of the body magnified. Again there is change and I become conscious of gray-hooded forms moving downward. Gradually, these become lighter in color. Then the direction changes and these forms move upward and the color of the robes grows rapidly lighter. Next, there begin to appear on either side vague outlines of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything is motionless.
As I pass on, there is more light and movement in what appear to be normal cities and towns. With the growth of movement I become conscious of sounds, at first indistinct rumblings, then music, laughter, and singing of birds. There is more and more light, the colors become very beautiful, and there is the sound of wonderful music. The houses are left behind, ahead there is only a blending of sound and color. Quite suddenly I come upon a hall of records. It is a hall without walls, without ceiling, but I am conscious of seeing an old man who hands me a large book, a record of the individual for whom I seek information.
Case 294-19 Report File
Once given the record, Cayce had the ability to select the information which would be most capable of assisting the individual at that time in their life. Frequently, a reading might suggest that only a selection of the available material was being provided, but that the individual was being given that which would be “most helpful and hopeful.” Additional insights were frequently provided in subsequent readings once an individual had attempted to work with and apply the information which had been given previously.
As a means of perhaps alluding to the fact that the Akashic Records were not simply a transcription of the past but included the present, the future, and certain probabilities as well, in reading 304-5, Cayce began the reading with the curious statement:
Yes, we have the body here, and the record as has been made and as may be made with the will as exercised, and the condition irrespective of the will’s influence or effect as has been created. We have conditions that might have been, that are and that may be. Do not get the three mixed [up] or crossed purposes of either. [Author’s emphasis]
When discussing the Book of Life, Cayce stated that it was “the record of God, of thee, thy soul within and the knowledge of same” (281-33). In another reading (2533-8), Cayce was asked to explain the difference between the Book of Life and the Akashic Records:
Q.