Akashic Records and Past Lives - Speculations in an e-mail dialog

In the last few days, I have been putting together a couple of workshops I am teaching on past lives and on the Akashic records. This will be at the Minneapolis Theosophical Society in August. 

• August 11th, at 7PM to 9PM, I will be talking about the Akashic Records in Physics and Meditation.
• August 25th, at 7PM to 9PM, I will be leading a workshop on past life regression

These will be at the MInneapolis Theosophical Society, 
which meets at Spirit United Church, 3204 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414


Synchronistically, I received several e-mails today asking about the same topic.  So below, I am including a paraphrase of several of them, combined into one, along with my reply to "Bob".
 

To: craig@craigrlang.com
Subject: past lives and the Akashic Records

Dear Craig;

I recently visited your website and saw your articles on the Akashic Records, past life regression and related topics. What is the difference between past lives and the Akashic records? Are our past life memories stored in the Akashic records? How can we access the Akashic records to learn about our past lives? Are the Akashic records stored within our subconscious mind? Superconscious mind? etc...



Sincerely,
"Bob"

HI Bob,

Thanks for your note.

You have asked a powerful set of questions.
I am certainly not a great expert on Vedic traditions that go back thousands of years. Yet at the same time, there are a lot of things about these topics that have always intrigued me, so I've dug into them quite a bit. I hope this can help bring some insight to the topic. I will do my best... :-)

Among those who believe in the idea, there are a lot of theories as to what past lives are. Some think past life memories are a literal record of a soul’s experiences in each lifetime. Others suggest that different incarnations have non-local access to consciousness at other times/places, but perhaps not as a literal re-incarnation of a specific soul. For the moment, let's assume that past lives are experiences of an individual soul, manifesting in separate incarnations. As such, each soul may have access to its own experiences in other lifetimes. In the Vedic traditions, at least in part, this memory is perhaps contained within the Akashic records.

There are a lot of potential explanations as to what the Akashic records actually are. My own belief is that they are simply one way to view the trace that each event leaves on the non-local fabric of space-time. From the concept of quantum non-locality, we can reason that every point in space-time is non-locally connected with every other point through quantum entanglement due to past and future interactions. This interaction perhaps extends all the way back through the Big Bang. We can think of this implicit interconnection as a universal record/memory. In the Vedic traditions, this would correspond to the Akashic Records. [I recommend Michael Talbot’s book, The Holographic Universe, for a good treatment on the universal non-local holographic field.]

Another way of looking at it is that Akasha is the fifth element, the other four being Earth (solid), Water (liquid), Air (gas), and Fire (energy). Akasha is the potentiality from which the other elements arise. We can think of this as the fabric of space-time, or the zero-point field. Every event in space-time is formed from a condensation of the zero-point field - or manifestation of the Akasha, depending upon what terminology you want to use. Conversely, like the wake of a boat, every event in space-time leaves its wave(s) of history in the Akashic field. [I highly recommend the book entitled Science and the Akashic Field, by Ervin Laszlo for a great treatment of this topic.]

From the perspective of parapsychology, a way to access the Akashic field would be through the  superconscious, opening up our psychic selves to the non-local field of space-time. One could perhaps do this using hypnosis or meditation. In the Akashic Hall metaphor, we can think of this as accessing a library of information. Edgar Cayce developed this idea/metaphor to a high degree and spoke extensively of the Akashic Records. He used these to help his clients explore their past (and future?) lives.

The question often arises as to what the subconscious, the superconscious, the personal and/or the collective unconscious, actually are. That is definitely an open question. These are probably arbitrary labels that allow us to view an infinite phenomenon with our own limited rational minds. I look on the subconscious as if it were the part of a stage that is not in the spotlight. While the conscious mind could be thought of as that which is in the light, the sub/super conscious is that part that is off stage. 

We could think of the subconscious as that part that is local to a person’s mind/brain, while the superconscious would be that part that transcends it. In my own view, the superconscious is one way to think of that infinite extension of the human psyche, the mind/soul of each person. Perhaps in some way, the individual superconscious and the collective superconscious become one. Some people suggest that the individual is like a manifestation of the universal aggregate consciousness.

Many of the sages of our world have written about accessing the Akashic records. They can be used to explore past lives, study metaphysical truths, etc. Many teachers also tell us that there are limits to the use of the Akashic library. For example, you probably couldn’t use it to go find next week’s lottery numbers. You also would be bound in your personal searches to remain within ethical limits - for example, you are able to read only your own records, not someone else’s.

Note that this is only speculation and metaphor, there may be an infinity of other ways to explore the superconscious, the Akashic records, etc. Also, what is actually happening is not provable. It is speculative and metaphysical. Your own beliefs may be considerably different from this, so please accept my rambling simply as the speculation that it is.

Still, I hope you find this helpful.

Let me know if you have more comments, questions, etc…

Thanks again for writing,

 -Craig

Explore with Hypnosis

Growth, Exploration and Healing for Mind, Body, Spirit and Beyond

   Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist,

      Researcher, Writer, Speaker

 763-257-7334   e-mail: craig@craigrlang.com

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Notes from 2014 MUFON Conference - the business of MUFON

This is the first blog entry - a look at the inner workings of the group as I saw it over the last few days.

Friday, at State Directors Meeting - general turn-the-crank business meeting where the business of MUFON gets done. First thing in the morning, the State Direcro's meeting began with has had nitial panel meeting with MUFON board. Focus is about the upcoming plans for MUFON operation. Some interesting things in the works.

An update: the show Hangar 1 is a big hit. Hangar 1 is starting its second season. Been responsible for growth in MUFON so far, as well as a lot of new interest in UFOs in general public. Show 

Shows MUFON investigations and shows both the mystery of UFOs and those cases where UFO sightings turn out to have ordinary explanations (IFOs). 

Beginning to focus on lesser known cases. 

Not sure if/when they will begin to look at abduction cases. Currently lookng at historical cases, and then at some lesser known but classic CE1 and CE2 events from MUFON case files.

Tony Cataldo is the latest addition to the board. A hollywood producer, brings lots of media experience, plus large corporate boardroom experience as well. In short, this guy knows how to grow companies and auidiences. Stated goal, he wants to grow MUFON from current 3500 members to about 50,000 members in the next year or so. And based upon what I've seen so far, I think he just might do it.

MUFON.com is a work in progress - which is good. Especially on the web, nothing is ever done. But the biggest plan is to leverage social media much more extensively. Plans are to expand the demographics form the middle-aged to senior population present to more young adult population. Againl, based upon what I've seen, I think they will do it.

Several high-level contacts between MUFON and various research organizations - such as GEPAN, the French UFO investigative agency, taking shape. In short, sInce the French government can't form a relationship with the US Govt, GEPAN, andseveral other  governmental and quasi-governmental agencies are forming a relationship with MUFON - we are doing the government's job.

Sunday, I went to a planning and focus meeting on future upgrades to the MUFON.com website, and IT strategy for MUFON. We looked at where we need to go to attract a wider range of ages to MUFON.  what can we offer that will provide value to peope of allages. Lots of good stuff in the works, beginning with a whole new website that is fully responsive, coordination between reporting, membership, MUFON store. etc. Look for some impressive things to happen in the next few months.

Also, it looks like several other research initiaves are just beginning to take shape. One is a UFO monitoring system UFOTOG2. It is modeled after the UFOTOG project, created a few years ago, which provided automated monitoring of the sky for UFOs. UFOTOG was a beginning, although it was huge and expensive - mounted as part of a Hummer that was driven to key hotspot areas and left in observer mode for days toweeks on end. The biggest thingwas that there was only one of it, so it was not able to get triangulation of any objects it detected.

UFOTOG2 plans to focus on making small, inexpensive versions of a similar monitoring set. It would have no moving parts, and would contain a multispectral camera, EM monitor, radiation monitor, etc. These would be deployedin threes in areas of high UFO activity, to try and automatically capture UFO activity on film, and with physics data that might be able to help us undestand the reality of the phenomenon(a) better. Look for this to take shape in the next year or two...

Other endeavors include objective research on abduction and contact. This includes further building our network of MUFON therapists and abduction researchers. One key will be to better connect the experiencer with the help he/she needs. Lookfor more on this as well in the near future.

So, all in all, the picture that came out of the State Directors meeting and various working groups, appears to be very positive indeed. It was a forward looking and enthusiastic gathering and told me that the MUFON organization appears to have found its footing.