Akashic Records
In parts of esotericism, especially in modern or Anglo-Indian theosophy and in anthroposophy, the Akashic records refers to the idea of a supernatural "book of life", which contains an all-embracing world-memory in immaterial form. There are also older notions of such a "world-memory", but the term "akashic records" is modern in this form -theosophical origin.
The term stands for heaven, space or ether; In the Hindu philosophy and in Ayurveda, Akasha (ether), besides Prithivi (earth), Vata (air), Agni (fire) and Ap (water) is one of the five elements (Vaisheshika ). In Buddhism, ākāsa is a term for the limited space or unlimited space.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), then head of the German section of the Theosophical Society Adyar, used the term mainly in the essay series From the Akasha Chronicle published between 1904 and 1908. The associated idea of being able to perceive past events in a supernatural manner also remained essential to his thinking, for example, as a "backward-looking, bright-eyed look." He considered the reporting of some factual details as a complementary form of what emerged from the "Akasha Chronicle Research." His primary concern was not "external actual history," but the "transcendental" itself. Thus he wanted to write a kind of history of the soul in the Akasha Chronicle, and he claimed to have looked at the inner truth ("spirit-knowledge") of Christianity. He understood the inspiration of the Bible "that she must have written someone who can also look into the Akasha chronicle.
According to Steiner, the "reading" in the Akasha Chronicle presupposes an ascent into the sphere of "intuition" - at Steiner the highest of three levels of the supernatural realization. It includes recollections of earlier incarnations and means a shift into a "consciousness that goes beyond that of a single person." In connection with earlier forms of collective memory, a biographical memory could be extended to a human memory. This would be "an opportunity to understand the development impulse underlying humanity's history" and to take responsibility for future global development.
According to the Anthroposophical view, Steiner's reports are generally understandable descriptions of a supernatural reality, accessible only after meditative training. In his writings How to Obtain Knowledge of Higher Worlds (1904) or The Secret Science in Outline (1910), Steiner claimed to be able to make this path of knowledge accessible to everyone in principle.
In English, there are many books on the market that offer information from the Akasha chronicle or provide instructions to read in this chronicle. In contrast to the main traditional conceptual use, such as Steiner, the "reading" in the Akasha chronicle is also related to the future in today's esotericists, such as the foundation of fortunes or as a backdrop of Indian palmblatt libraries where the life stories of all their future visitors are preserved.
In the opinion of the religious scientist's insight into and out of the Akashic Records statements of faith in the religious sense, their faith character will however denied by being issued as objective facts. Thus were subject esoteric as Rudolf Steiner "one of the fundamental epistemological error of modern occultism: between perception (here: the soul experiences) does not, at least not sufficiently, and interpretation (as spiritual world) to distinguish."