If you have read about Edgar Cayce, the world renowned “sleeping prophet”, then you have read about the Akashic Record. Cayce was a Southern Baptist from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. At age 23 he was stricken with an unknown ailment which resulted in a loss of speech. Apparently, while in a sleeping state, he diagnosed the problem and described the treatment. The treatment was administered and his voice was restored. Word spread quickly and Cayce began to give ‘readings’ for neighbors and friends and eventually became world renowned for his ability. During a particular trance Cayce spoke of the subject’s past lives. Upon awakening, he was stunned and frightened because the subject of past lives was not a view accepted by his strict Christianity. He stopped giving readings for a time thinking perhaps the gift was not, as he had assumed, from God. However, the many healings that his readings provided eventually swayed him back into the practice.

It was at this stage that Cayce began to refer to the Akashic Record while in his trances. Akashic is a Sanskrit word which means “sky” or “ethers”. According to his readings, the Akashic Record is a library of all cosmic history and human knowledge or experience. In other words, all thought, feeling or action is recorded and available to certain individuals who have the ability to access them. The record has also been referred to as the “Mind of God” or the “Book of Life”. The Book of Life is described in the Old Testament as a complete record of all human events. Just as the Book of Life is used at death to judge the character of the departed soul, Cayce described the use of the Akashic Record as an account of the actions of the recently departed.

The idea of a review or account which each individual must face upon death appears in the ancient Hindu religion and also in ancient Egypt.

In Egyptian religion, the recently departed soul traveled through the “underworld” for a period of trial and cleansing. The soul then faced the scale of Maat where the heart of the deceased was placed upon the scale and weighed. Only the heart which was lighter than a feather was allowed to pass into paradise.

The belief in the soul remaining in an “underworld” in order to review the past life and to go through cleansing trials is reflected also in the Catholic concept of Purgatory. Souls in this middle state must repent their actions or in-actions and also do penance by assisting the living before being purified and eligible to pass into a heavenly state.

Is what we, the living, experience as apparitions or paranormal anomalies merely glimpses of souls which are still undergoing after death purifying? Are they reliving their life by use of the Akashic Record? It is an interesting concept; a concept which, like all faith, is up to the individual to embrace or reject.