The word Akasha can be traced back to its Sumerian origin where it was used to refer to aether, both in its elemental and metaphysical sense.

Perhaps the person we need to turn to when speaking about the Akasha or ether is a man whose importance has not been truly appreciated: Nikola Tesla—a genius polymath, inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer.

In an interview dubbed Man’s Greatest Achievement, Nikola Tesla said: “All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the Akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life-giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.”

However, even before Nikola Tesla, philosophers and ancient scholars wondered whether the so-called ether existed.

If we take a look at the ‘Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana,’ we will find further mention of the so-called ether.

If we take a look at ancient Hinduism, Akash is the fifth of the ‘five great elements’:

prthivi (earth)

apa (water)

agni (fire)

vaiu (air)

akashá (ether)

“And they allowed Apollonius to ask questions; and he asked them of what they thought the cosmos was composed”; but they replied; “Of elements.”

“Are there then four?” he asked. “Not four,” said Larchas, “but five.”

“And how can there be a fifth,” said Apollonius, “alongside water and air and earth and fire?”

“There is the ether,” replied the other, “which we must regard as the stuff of which gods are made; for just as all mortal creatures inhale the wire, so do immortal and divine natures inhale the ether.”

“Am I,” said Apollonius, “to regard the universe as a living creature?” “Yes,” answered the other.

Akasha or ākāśa is a term for either space or æther in traditional Indian cosmology. In ancient Sanskrit, it is used to describe the ‘ether’ (æther), which is an impalpable, immaterial, subtle and intangible fluid, which the ancient Hindus believed exists across and ‘inside’ the entire universe and would be the vehicle of sound and life.

We come to understand that ether or Akasha is basically the fundament of all that exists in our material world.

In numerous ancient teachings, Akasha is considered the invisible force behind the creation of all matter.

Furthermore, in Vedantic Hinduism, Akasha is translated to as the basis and essence of all things in the material world; and is considered the first material element created from the astral world.

As noted by CE, it is the source of energy for material manifestation.

The enigma behind the Akashic Records

So what are the Akashic Records?

Alice A. Bailey wrote in her book Light of the Soul on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – Book 3 – Union achieved and its Results (1927):

The akashic record is like an immense photographic film, registering all the desires and earth experiences of our planet. Those who perceive it will see pictured thereon: The life experiences of every human being since time began, the reactions to experience of the entire animal kingdom, the aggregation of the thought-forms of a karmic nature (based on desire) of every human unit throughout time. Herein lies the great deception of the records. Only a trained occultist can distinguish between actual experience and those astral pictures created by imagination and keen desire.

The meaning of Akashic records can be summed up as the ‘data’ that in theory exists in a single place, in a non-physical way, outside of time and space.

In these, records we can discover the absolute knowledge and experience of our soul; almost as if it were part of a supercomputer of cosmic information where our past lives, the present and future possibilities (forming part of the theory of reincarnation), as well as the sense of our existence, reside.

The Akashic records (from Akasha, in Sanskrit: sky, space, ether), can also be summed up as a kind of memory (of everything that has happened since the beginning of time) that has become embedded and registered in the ether.

There, everything that has happened since the beginning of time and all the knowledge of the universe is found safely guarded since time immemorial.

If we take a look at their meaning from a Theosophical and Anthroposophical point of view, we find that the Akashic records are a summary of all human events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future.