The Akashic Records figure prominently in the transcribed discourses of Edgar Cayce, "the Sleeping Prophet" and seem to have first been postulated by the Theosophists. They are said to hold the entire contents of historical events as a kind of cosmic Tivo or Internet Archives. In Seeds of Heaven the concept is used as a narrative device to present historic overviews.

Although there is no documented teaching on the Akashic Records prior to nineteenth century Theosophy, Theosophists and other "New Age" sects and teachers claim a broad and deep history for them including Tibetan, Egyptian, Persian, Chaldean, Greek, Chinese, Judaic, Christian, Druid, and Mayan adepts skilled in divining the past or predicting the future from this hypothetical body of knowledge.

While all of this is a bit wide-eyed and speculative, and while Theosophy isn't regarded as providing accurate representations of their beliefs and practices by most Hindus and Buddhists, there is an interesting, if circuitous, path to a possible explanation within physical reality for the Akashic Records.

The planarium is a primitive flatworm, shaped like an arrowhead with two eyespots on its head. Popular for dissection and other experiments in high school biology classes because they are cheap, planaria exhibit amazing regenerative effects. Cut on in two along nearly any axis and you get two planaria. Cut the head in half to midway down the body, and a two-headed planarium will result. Planaria do have a nervous system, though, and they can be conditioned like other animals to respond in particular ways to stimulus, just as Pavlov conditioned dogs

McConnell tested the hypothesis of a cellular memory base by feeding conditioned planaria to unconditioned ones. The conditioning was transferred along with the body of their fellow worms. From there, attempts to isolate the active element in the conditioning by digestion resulted in the indentification of RNA, the messenger molecule of DNA. Planaria who injested RNA from conditioned planaria became conditioned. This discovery resulted in a great many science-fiction stories including the one referenced in the previous citation. The idea that we might be able to learn through a purely chemical means was fascinating. William Gibson, in his series of cyberpunk novels and short stories routinely uses the idea both in passing and as an integral part of the plot.

Subsequent to McConnell a number of experiments along the similar lines were attempted with mixed results. Although some researchers claimed to be able to pass conditioned learning through RNA in species as complex as monkeys, others were unable to duplicate the results or offered different interpretations of what was happening. At present the jury seems to be out, with some authorities supporting McConnell's work and others disputing it.

Now if McConnell was correct in his observation, a great many interesting possibilities arise, including a physical basis for the Akashic Records. Essentially experience could be imprinted on RNA, transcribed to DNA, and we would all be walking around with encoded memories in every cell of our bodies. For that to happen, of course, it would be necessary for the RNA-DNA conversation to work bidirectionally. In other words, we wouldn't just have DNA imprinting information on RNA but RNA would have to be capable of writing to DNA also, reverse transciption, in a word. Interestingly enough, reverse transciption does occur. Among other things it happens in HIV infections. So, if McConnell's results are valid, we have a complete path going from the sensorium to RNA and from RNA to DNA.

Things get even more interesting from here forward. It seems that any given species DNA contains a great many repeated and redundant patterns. It's as if the code to make a fingernail were repeated up to several thousand times when only one instance of it was required. These redundant patterns are called family groupings and there is no known reason for their existence. Yet there they are.

But suppose that it is possible to imprint memories on DNA and suppose these memories were stored within these repetitive patterns. After some critical number of changes, there would be a shift in the code. It might come up randomly at first and very occasionally because there were few instances of the new code. But as the instances increased, the changed code that was active would also increase. At some point it would become the dominant code, and the species would change in some way.

What this would mean would be a heuristic for evolution, a complete feedback loop with built-in intelligence. It counter-balances the problem of mutations being statistically negative to species survival and evolution, providing another mechanism for species evolution. It explains punctuated equilibrium much better and more completely than existent models. And it accounts for the 100th monkey phenomenon.

On a different, but parallel track, Dr. Timothy Leary repeatedly made the claim that LSD unlocked the genetic code to consciousness. Certainly the experience of recapitulating evolution is common among subjects ingesting large doses of that drug. There is likewise a long tradition amongst shamanic peoples who use ethneogenic plants that the plant itself communicates to the person eating it. All accounts of yage intoxication among indigenous peoples include experiences of temporary "incarnation" as an animal native to the locale where the yage was grown.

So perhaps the Akashic Records are nothing more nor less than our own genetic code imprinted with the experiences of billions of years. On the other hand, quantum mechanics explicitly states that individual electrons are simply momentary instantiations of an electron wave that is non-dual. Since our own thought processes are the product of electrical activity, and since electrons qua electrons "exist" outside of time and space, perhaps that explains the Akashic Records as well

The Akashic Record
An Esoteric View

In my last article titled The Akashic Record – An exoteric point of view I discussed how the scientific world of investigators of physical phenomena might demonstrate through tangible experimentation the existence of a memory record within individual cells.

Unfortunately, the scientist and religionist always collide over the issue of the scientific method which the religionist cannot bring to the table of rational discussion of phenomena. The religionist relies on faith and if lucky personal experience of phenomena (in which case he is no longer a religionist but becomes a metaphysician – there is a difference). The scientist relies on the scientific method.

What both fail to realize is that the universe is a duality, a physical universe and a metaphysical universe. Theoretical physics is beginning to touch the boundaries of the metaphysical universe with “string theory” and the discovery of dimensions. Perhaps someday the twain shall meet.

Unfortunately for the scientist, nothing in the physical universe can exist unless created on the Causal plane by a spiritual entity as a postulate. The physical universe is an appendage a crystallization of energy waves, think gall stone. The cauldron in which the universe is created is something vaster than is dreamed of in any mainstream scientific research laboratory on the planet.

Here is what I discovered about the esoteric aspect of the Akashic Record.

On the Chakras Page note Illustration 1. You will see the Winged Victory symbol I use to represent The Third Eye or the Ajna Chakra. This chakra operates through the Pineal gland of the physical body. The Pineal gland is the seat of the Akashic Record in Homo sapiens. The Third Eye is the Central Processing Unit (CPU in computer jargon) for the human specie. It processes all the mathematical calculations that create the universe we see and live in it. Yes, the universe ultimately CAN be reduced to complex equations. It never forgets or loses anything. Who killed JFK is there for him who really wants to know.

There are many ways a being who awakens spiritually can access the record. It is sometimes seen as a library edifice. One can come to it in a Superconscious state and see an entity to whom one puts a question and receives either an answer or is referred to a source by the entity. The original Star Trek had an episode in which the librarian was a man with a long white beard and white robes. This is the most usual representation of The Librarian.

I assure you it is all illusion. In the end, the Akashic Record can be accessed in anyway you chose to enter it and use it.

We all access the Record thousands of times a day. We call it memory. How much you remember depends on the intensity you are capable of bringing to the effort. This of course is the trick. Entering the Akashic Record requires the ability to achieve very specialize states of mind.

This is not all that difficult to understand intellectually. But it can be a beast to accomplish in fact. There are five phases through which your mental intensity evolves. Your ability to sustain more and more powerful (read subtle) states is what makes the difference between Homo sapiens and Homo spiritualis.

Here are the five phases: Attention, Interest, Concentration, Meditation and Contemplation.

It all begins when something gets your Attention. You want to discover more about the thing, so your intensity begins to increase as you get Interested. In order to penetrate the mystery of the object you may now go to the next level of intensity in which you expend energy researching and chasing down information in a single minded focus -- this is Concentration. There are emotional flash points connected with all of this when you arrive at the state of Meditation in which the secrets of the object are beginning to unfold before you, there is a sense of euphoria. This is a sign you are entering the Akashic Record. If you are able to sustain intensity, and you must to do this consciously, you will discover everything you want to know about the object -- ask and you shall receive. If you receive information you are said to have achieved Contemplation, you are in the Akashic Record Library. It can be quite Orgasmic.

There is an historical individual in whom I can feel safe in saying he accessed the Akashic Record at will. His name was Nostradamus.