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The Akasha Chronicle
The greatest prophet of the etheric formative forces is Rudolf Steiner, who speaks about the ethers and the etheric body more comprehensively than any other author. Steiner doesn’t leave the ethers with the ancient interpretations of the tattvas but brings the pertinent wisdom forward into a spiritually scientific perspective that can be applied in modern life to enhance consciousness and utilize the living forces of the etheric. What Steiner says about the etheric is profound and is an essential part of human development and spiritual evolution. The role of the ethers is as an “alphabet of the spirit.” Our task is to take Steiner’s indications concerning this elemental alphabet of the spirit and turn them into a Language of the Spirit.
In Foundations of Esotericism, Rudolf Steiner describes the ethers as follows:
“The first element which is finer than the air is the one which causes it to expand, which always increases its spatial content. What expands the air in this way is warmth; it is a fine etheric substance, the first grade of ether, the warmth ether. Bodies which shine send out a form of matter, a second kind of ether, which is described as light ether. The third kind of ether is the bearer of everything which gives form to the finest matter, the formative ether, which is also called the chemical ether. The finest of all the ethers is that which constitutes life: prana, or life ether. The earth, essentially speaking, developed itself out of these four types of ether. It condensed itself or, in other words, “put on” these ethers. The ether is sensitive to what is called in esoteric language the “Word,” the “Cosmic Word.””
Starting from this rather Theosophic and Eastern definition of the ethers is comprehensive but still mystical and not Western enough for the modern reader. We need to scan the entire works of Steiner to gain his comprehensive view of the nature of the workings of these ethers. In this article, we shall gather and paraphrase the ideas of Steiner concerning the ethers in order to gain a more well-rounded view of the ethers.
In his pedagogical course entitled The Astronomy Course (GA 323), Rudolf Steiner builds up a powerful picture of the foundational importance of the ethers during the prior incarnations of the Earth. The etheric genesis of minerals, plants, animals, and human beings are described in detail, and their correspondences with the elemental forces of the cosmos are drawn out using a grand perspective that is seldom found in his other works.
The human body is the expression of a subtle, supersensible, or etheric body in which the material or physical body is enclosed, like a denser nucleus, as though in a cloud. It forms the basis of the life of the physical body. The human, as an etheric being, stands in an etheric, or elemental world. There is an etheric human being behind the physical human being, and a supersensible, etheric, or elemental world behind the one that is physically perceptible. That world comes to be recognized as the elemental, supersensible, etheric body of the earth – the life body or body of formative forces. Within the earth’s etheric body, an etheric human being feels himself to be a member of a whole. Through spiritual development, we perceive a new world that seems to come out of our own being. We feel as though there is a great organism – a Being – within which we live.
In the book Nature’s Finer Forces, by Rama Prasad, we have the ideas of a Theosophists who attempts to bridge the chasm between ancient Indian spiritual science, the science of breath, and the modern scientific view of the ethers. Prasad’s book was a standard for Theosophists on this topic, though H. P. Blavatsky found the work to be lacking in her opinion. Blavatsky herself corrects the incongruencies she criticizes in Prasad’s work by inventing a new term to describe the “beingness” of the Akasha ether. She calls this solar being Fohat and describes Fohat in The Secret Doctrine in the following words:
“Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important character in esoteric Cosmogony is one thing in the yet unmanifested Universe and another in the phenomenal and Cosmic World. In the latter, he is that occult, electric, vital power, which, under the will of the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving them the first impulse, which becomes in time, law. But in the unmanifested Universe, Fohat is that potential creative power in virtue of whose action the noumenon of all future phenomena divides, to reunite in a mystic supersensible act, and emit the creative ray.
In the manifested Universe, there is ‘that’ which links spirit to matter, subject to object. This something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is called by the occultists “Fohat.” It is the bridge by which the Ideas existing in the Divine Thought are impressed on Cosmic substance as the Laws of Nature. Fohat is thus the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation; or, regarded from the other side, it is the intelligent medium, the guiding power of all manifestation, the Thought Divine transmitted and made manifest through the Angel Hosts, the divine architects of the visible world.
Thus from Spirit, or Cosmic Ideation, comes our consciousness; from Cosmic Substance the several vehicles in which that consciousness is individualized and attains to self – or reflective – consciousness. Fohat, in its various manifestations, is the mysterious link between Mind and Matter, the animating principle electrifying every atom into life.”
These descriptions of Fohat by H. P. Blavatsky are unique is the esoteric tradition. No other author except Alice Bailey addresses the origin and nature of this primal being of Akasha. Alice Bailey’s descriptions of Fohat are almost the same as Blavatsky.
“Fohat is cosmic electricity; primordial light; the ever-present electrical energy; the universal propelling vital force; the ceaseless destructive and formative power; the synthesis of the many forms of electrical phenomena. Akasha, in manifestation, expresses itself as Fohat, or divine Energy, and Fohat on the different planes is known as aether, air, fire, water, electricity, ether, prana, and similar terms. It is the sum-total of that which is active, animated, or vitalized, and of all that concerns itself with the adaptation of the form to the needs of the inner flame of life.”
These perspectives on the Akasha ether are aligned with Hindu philosophy, which is where Prasad’s ideas are taken from for his exposition on the tattvas, or ethers. Prasad’s ideas are a standard Vedic philosophy that have been around for thousands of years. We will summarize the content of Nature’s Finer Forces concerning the tattvas (ethers) that shed light on the Akasha.
The tattvas are the five modifications of the Great Breath. Acting upon Prakriti, this Great Breath throws it into five states, having distinct vibratory motions, and performing different functions. The first outcome of the Evolutionary State is the Akasha tattva. After this come in order the Vayu (air), the Taijas (fire), the Apas (water) and the Prithivi (earth).
Akasha (space, sound, thought) ether (tattva) is said to move by fits and starts, and to move in all directions. Akasha is all-pervading and the original impulse falls back upon itself along the line of its former path. Space is a quality of the Akasha tattva which represents the womb of the Universal Mother or Spirit. Akasha is symbolized by an oval or egg shape and is every color, black or clear and its flashing is luminous. It can be used as a doorway to allow an initiate to look for information within the “Akashic Records.” The Akasha ether contains all forms and could be called the collective memory of the universe. It contains all memories of human experience in the past, but also the future in seed form. If the Akasha predominates in the soul, then happiness ensues while misuse of this ether leads to the sin of pride.
Prana is that state of tattvic matter which surrounds the Sun, and in which moves the Earth and other planets. It is the state next higher than matter in the terrestrial state. The terrestrial sphere is separated from the solar Prana by an Akasha who is the Mother of the terrestrial Vayu (warmth). Although at this point in the heavens, the Prana changes into Akasha, which gives birth to the terrestrial Vayu (warmth), the rays of the Sun that fall on the sphere from without are not stopped in their inward journey. Through these rays the ocean of Prana, which surrounds our sphere, exerts upon it an organizing influence.
Rudolf Steiner’s view of the ethers is both Eastern and Western, taking a strong foundation from the East and adding spiritual scientific studies he did on the ethers to elaborate their functioning in our time. Steiner’s ideas on the ethers, the etheric body of Earth, and the human etheric body are far ranging and almost impossible to summarize. Steiner characterizes these forces and beings and relates them to the manifest world without making charts and diagrams. It takes a fluid mind that is not limited by sense-bound thinking to begin to imagine the ethers as described by Steiner. Often, Steiner refers to four ethers instead of the cosmic grouping of seven ethers. Warmth, light, sound, and life ether are the Earthly four ethers. Akasha is added by Steiner at times, and he describes the Akasha as the original thought substance of the cosmos. The last two ethers are the sound and life ether that come from the sun but do not enter the Earth atmosphere. These two ethers, plus the Akasha ether, are linked to future human development. In general, when Steiner is referring to Cosmic Ether, he is speaking about the Akasha ether.
We will need to summarize Steiner’s ideas on the ethers and then quote some passages about the Akashic Records (Akasha Chronicle) to shed some light on these mysterious beings. According to Steiner, the boundary of the World ether is described as the Akasha, which extends beyond the Zodiac up to the seventh region of spirit-land and is also the bearer of world memory. The World ether is a thought-forming power that is the spiritual substance of the cosmos. There is nothing else in the universe besides consciousness; beings in various states of consciousness are the only reality in the world. The World ether is a manifold activity of many cosmic beings, whose main task is to create the phenomenal forms of the nature kingdoms. The evolution of the world ether and the kingdoms of nature are inseparable. The hierarchical beings secreted four kinds of ether into the cosmic world as a sacrificial substance.
Warmth ether – heat – Old Saturn
Light ether – gas – Old Sun
Chemical ether – fluid – Old Moon
Life ether – solid – Earth
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Akasha ether – Spirit Self
Unfallen sound ether (Tree of Knowledge) – Life Spirit
Unfallen life ether (Tree of Life) – Spirit Human
The phenomenal world of ponderable substance is a medium state extending between the force-activities of the etheric on one side and electricity on the other. The state of substance at any time is the result of this conflict between forces over the mutable world of substance.
The warmth and light ethers act expansively – that is, in a space-affirming way – and the chemical (sound) and life ethers act contractingly – that is, in a space-denying way. The evolution of the world takes its course, therefore, not merely between primal nebula and heat-death, but between space-genesis and space annihilation – between the affirmation and the denial of space (Akasha).
First, the space-affirming appeared in the phylogenesis of our cosmic system, and later the space-denying forces appeared. The genesis of the etheric formative forces is the genesis of space (Akasha). But the cosmic ether, from the Earth toward Saturn, is by no means a constant and uniform quantity. This world ether is subject – not only as regards space, but also as regards time – to a never-ceasing organic change, though this takes place very gradually, over very long stretches of time. We can divide the cosmos into great fields of space (spheres) that are filled with the etheric active forces of the individual planets.
The four etheric formative forces have also naturally brought about, in their spheres of activity, the states of aggregation and conditions of substance normal to these forces. The inward drawing forces of the chemical and life ethers, tending to concentrate, have worked in toward the center of the Earth, produced the solid and fluid substances, and assembled these toward the middle spheres of the earth organism. The outward striving, centrifugal forces of the light and warmth ethers have produced the gaseous state of the earth’s atmosphere and, in accordance with their tendency to strive outward from the center, have gathered this atmosphere in the outer part of the
Earth organism. The etheric formative forces, in their spheres of activity, not only work in the generation of the corresponding states of chemical inter-relationships and states of aggregation of substance, but also in the formation and union of substance.
Warmth Ether (Fire)
Warmth ether tends towards the spherical form. Warmth ether is the etheric side of warmth: the inner, impulse-creating warmth, or the warmth of enthusiasm that occurs as the intention that underlies actions. Its elemental counterpart is fire, or externally perceivable warmth. Warmth ether and warmth as an element are closely related. Warmth is the most rarefied element and is more like a quality than a substance. It represents the transition between the elements and the ethers, and shares features with both. Warmth as an element can be perceived as the external heat of objects and as body temperature. This warmth is produced when material substances are burned. Warmth as an ether is the inner, impulse-creating warmth that incites activity and that arises when you become enthusiastic about something. It arises within you and has no material features. This is the warmth you need to proceed to action. Because it incites action, warmth ether points towards the future. Warmth ether is characterized by impulse-creation and directionality. It is a very active quality and is represented by fire as the physical element, which can always burn or grow old. This involves time progressing and has the quality of ripening. In humans, this is found in the will. The fire of love is born from the heart.
Warmth appears in time, ripening, and the human will. The warmth of blood, or blood as the physical bearer of the I/Ego, is dimensionless, non-spatial, and intensive movement. Fire begins as a spark, grows to any size, and then shrinks and dies, disappearing from sight. Time progresses like a slow-burning fire. Through an inner glowing or burning, the will of a human is
constantly renewing and rising up. Enthusiasm for life is a steady flame that ignites all around it.
Light Ether (Air)
Light ether is invisible. We have learned to recognize other waves that are invisible, like ultra-violet, infra-red, and electric waves, but these have the same characteristics as light waves differing only in their lengths. Light ether produces triangular forms. It illuminates everything and makes all material things visible. It is also the force that makes plants grow upwards and makes people stand and walk upright. Light ether corresponds to the air element. It makes everything visible by illuminating material things. Light delineates objects and enables you to see their spatial boundaries. You can’t see light itself; you can only perceive its presence through the objects and the air it illuminates. Light radiates from a source. It diminishes with the distance from the source, as it is scattered in space. As the amount of light increases, the illuminated space becomes larger. Light is linear, can be split into two beams by an object placed in its path, and can’t turn corners. It cannot fill a void around a corner, unlike air. Light ether induces growth and elongation (plants grow towards the light, while bones in animals and humans grow and elongate under the influence of vitamin D, the production of which is stimulated by light) and makes space expand. Light draws your gaze outward to objects. This shows you that light ether attracts. As seen from within the object (matter), it is a process of elongation; as seen from the periphery (ether), it is a matter of attraction.
Because there is light, there is also darkness. Light ether works between the poles of light and darkness, with the colors of twilight in between. Between light and darkness, there is an area that, on the one hand, has qualities that are mixtures of the two poles (half-light) and, on the other hand, has qualities of its own (such as colors). Light ether is characterized by delineation and the creation of space, linearity and attraction, and polarization. It leads to the periphery and draws the viewer to feel as though he or she is being sucked into that periphery. This also gives the quality of levity, where there is an elongation or uprightness and overcoming of gravity. Light rays out luminosity, air, growth, and feelings, and it makes things visible and interesting. It stimulates curiosity, admiration, patience, equanimity, and thankfulness. Light is not visible. Imagine a sunrise from darkness to daylight. Slowly, we can distinguish things around us: the objects are seen separated now, space and distances become clear, and space is created through limitation. Light and space belong together. Structure is to see; light divides the inside from the outside and radiates towards the periphery. Light is expanding in space, raying out.
The periphery is the constructive principle of light, and the periphery/horizon is sucking our view or consciousness towards the horizon. Light sucks out the sprouts of plants, and in a living organism, it shows as growth. Light brings interest and feelings to the soul that create our relationship to the world around us. Light ether works through air. Air is not visible. It fills the space between objects and has no boundaries. It connects everything. It has no structure or direction and is like chaos because it has elasticity, causing centripetal tension and pressure towards a center. Light ether helps create thinking. It is in strong contrast to matter.
Sound, Tone, Number, Valence, Chemical Ether (Liquid)
Chemical ether is also called tone, number, or sound ether. Its forces cause the chemical processes, differentiations, dissolutions, and unions of substances. Its forces transmit the tones perceptible to the senses to us. Space is interpenetrated by waves produced by the forces of the chemical ether, which dissolve and unite substances through geometric, morphological, and harmonic resonance. Chemical ether has a tone and sound nature of which sensible sound, or tone heard by the physical ear, is only an outward expression – that is, an expression that has passed through air as a medium. Chemical ether produces half-moon forms and is centripetal.
Cold and contraction are ascribed to chemical ether. It is the force that structures the development of phenomena and can be seen in the natural succession of plant communities. It corresponds to the water element.
Tone ether is the type of ether that separates and connects. Music is thus based on a force that separates and, at the same time, recombines what was separated in a harmonious way. Tone ether works through proportions, distances, and measures. It separates and recombines, creating a unified whole. Chemical substances also show certain fixed ratios between the chemical elements themselves, as well as in compounds like salts, acids, and proteins. That’s why this type of ether is also known as chemical ether. This ether plays a role in all processes where things are separated and then recombined in new and harmonious proportions. It is characterized by the concepts of separating, structuring, creating proportions, and harmonizing. The number ether divides, and this creates the numbers (frequencies) and numerical proportions (geometry) of the created world. It brings order and harmony to the growth of all living things through the Harmony of the Spheres and is the basis for all chemical activity between substances, sometimes causing it to be called the valence ether. Chemical ether works through water, which always wants to become a totality: one drop at a time creating mass and integrating like the fusion of two cells during fertilization. Water is the gesture of sympathy; it is thick and heavy; has mass, gravity, and weight; and can be active or passive.
Life or Word Ether (Solid)
Life ether is the most highly evolved ether, and therefore is the most varied and complicated in its qualities. It is that which is rayed out to us, among other things, from the Sun, and then modified in its action by the atmosphere of the Earth. Life ether, together with chemical ether, belongs to the group of suctional forces: those which tend to draw inwards. It is related to that which is called “gravitation” and to the phenomenon of magnetism. Its form-building tendency, when it can exert its effect unhindered in substance, leads to square shapes that are expressed, for instance, in crystallizing salt. It is the force that makes an object and its environment appear as a unified whole. It is the force that unifies an object’s course of life. Life ether corresponds to the earth element and is the life force of organisms. It is the force that creates organic units that are more than the sum of their parts, and in which each component is an integral part of the whole. It is the ether that causes delineation as well as integration. It causes the whole to be visible in each component. It also ensures that each component readjusts to the whole when an organism changes.
Life ether doesn’t reject anything and adjusts everything to the whole. It ensures that a changing organism remains recognizable as an individual. It provides the continuity and individuality in the biography of an organism. It is also the force that allows an organism to endure and remain itself, thus maintaining the organism’s integrity. Hence, this ether can restore an organism’s health by healing wounds and making them disappear completely in due time. Life ether is the force that ensures that an organism is a spatially defined and indivisible unit, that an organism is and remains itself, even after changes or injury, that an organism is an individual, and that all its components are expressions of the whole and derive their proper place and function from the whole. Life ether affects the individual. It is the principle that creates integration and individuality.
Life ether is the great healer. This allows physical processes that have gone “wild” to reintegrate themselves back into the life processes to create the balance of health again. This develops the quality of integrating and uniting. More than the sum of its parts, the Life ether brings a holistic feeling and flexible thinking. Life ether is individualizing, planar, square, or cube-forming. It is integrating, healing, flexible, holistic, coherent, and resilient. It coordinates the inside and outside processes of the organs as the parts work together under one idea or a higher aspect. Each organ sends specific forces and frequencies to all the other organs and is balanced by the life ether. We see the harmony of the threefold human being in the nerves, rhythmic system, and metabolism. Life ether creates the harmony of these three in the mutual interaction of the organs.
Akasha, World, Cosmic, Mother ether (space)
Beyond these moving and undulating forces, beings, and substances is the mysterious Cosmic ether, or the Akasha ether. In ancient texts, this primal entity is clearly a being who is the director of the four basic ethers, like a Mother with four rowdy boys who like to wrestle as they express themselves. This Akasha ether is called Fohat by H. P. Blavatsky and others. It assumes the role of the prime creator and prime mover. Akasha weaves between the other four ethers, creating a space for them to play. After hearing all the different theorists, it might be fair to assume that Akasha is primal space that is beyond the hierarchy and is a donation directly from the Divine Trinity. New theories of the Akasha ether align with the most ancient ones. Akasha is the void of space that all manifestation comes to exist within. It is an ocean of ether, not unlike the mysterious “substance” ether that the ancients referred to with awe.
The future spiritual capacities that the human being will develop are also written into the Akasha ether, the Unfallen Sound ether, and the Unfallen Life ether. These three ethers will become more and more available to human use, and this will lead to the future capacities of Imagination in the Spirit Self, Inspiration in the Life Spirit, and Intuition in the Spirit Human.
The Earthly ego weds the higher ego, and the human being takes the Akasha ether and consciously weds it to the unfallen sound ether. This brings the active world of Imaginations (Akasha ether) into the world of Inspiration (Unfallen Sound ether – the Harmony of the Spheres). Unfallen sound ether is the Water of Life and the redeemed Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When the unfallen life ether is attained, the initiate merges with the Cosmic Ego of Christ and becomes a co-creator through Intuition. Intuition brings us to the Tree of Life and the cosmic Word made manifest.
Akasha Tattva is the point that all the exoteric philosophies and religions start from. Akasha Tattva is the etheric force, ether. Hence the name given to Jupiter, the “highest” god, or Pater Aether; Indra, once the highest god in India; Uranus, as the etheric or heavenly expanse; Pneuma, or the Biblical Holy Ghost, rarified wind or air. It is the Force of the Third Logos and is the creative force in the manifested universe.
Condition Produced
Warmth ether Expanding Warmth
Light ether Centrifugal Gaseous
Chemical ether Contracting Fluid
Life ether Centripetal Solid
Planet Ether
Saturn Warmth ether
Jupiter Light ether
Mars Chemical ether
Sun Life ether
Mercury Warmth ether
Venus Light ether
Moon Chemical ether
Earth Life ether
Ethers and Substances
Life ether works through carbon (senses)
Sound ether works through oxygen and nitrogen (senses)
Light ether works through sulfur and phosphorus (senses)
Warmth ether works through hydrogen (respiration)
Human Constitution and Ethers
Warmth Light Sound Life
Blood Nerve Muscle Bone
Ego Astral Etheric Physical
Ancient Saturn Ancient Sun Ancient Moon Earth Incarnation
Life ether
Sound ether Sound ether
Light ether Light ether Light ether
Warmth ether Warmth ether Warmth Warmth
Heat Heat Heat Heat
Air Air Air
Liquid Liquid
Solid
The standardly accepted approach to the ethers – four in nature, held together by the one primal ether called Akasa (Akasha-variate spelling). This Akasa is even higher than “ether” and is the source of humanity’s future spiritual body, called Manas, or Spirit Self. This Akasa ether has unparalleled powers to manifest physical, soul, and spiritual aspects of the Divine in the earthly realm. Even life and death arise from the ethers, and somehow the Akasa creates the Soul of the World.
The statement in Nature’s Finer Forces by Rama Prasad that, in the tattvic scale, the highest tattva of all is akasha, followed by four, each of which becomes grosser than its predecessor, if made from the esoteric standpoint, is erroneous. Once akasha, an almost homogeneous and universal principle, is translated simply as “ether,” then akasha is dwarfed and limited to our visible universe. Ether is differentiated substance; akasha, having no attributes save one – sound, of which it is the substratum – is no substance, but rather chaos, or the Great Spatial Void.
Esoterically, akasha alone is Divine Space, which becomes ether only on the lowest and last plane, or our visible universe and Earth. The primal correlation of akasha is its primordial manifestation, the Logos, or Divine Ideation made Word, and that Word made flesh. Sound may be considered an attribute of akasha only on the condition of anthropomorphizing the latter. It is not a characteristic of it, though it is certainly as innate in it as the idea “I am I” is innate in human thought. Akasha contains and includes the seven centers of force. There are seven tattvas, of which akasha is the seventh – or rather, their synthesis. Akasha is universally omnipresent, which places its commencement beyond the four planes of our Earth Chain, the two higher tattvas being as concealed to the average mortal as the sixth and seventh senses are to the materialistic mind. Therefore, while Hindu, Sanskrit, and Puranic philosophy speaks only of five tattvas, spiritual scientists name seven, making them correspond with every septenary in nature. The tattvas stand in the same order as the seven macrocosmic and microcosmic forces.
The Raja-Yogi knows that the tattvas are the modifications of Svara, which is the root of all sound, the substratum of the Pythagorean Music of the Spheres. Svara is beyond spirit, the spirit of the spirit, or the “current of the life wave,” the emanation of the One Life. Svara threw itself into the form of akasha, and thence successively into the forms of vayu (air), agni (fire), apas (water), and prithivi (solid matter).
The Tattvic Flow starts at sunrise and proceeds from akasha, to air, to fire, to water, to earth. It takes 24 minutes for each tattva in the cycle. Thus, it takes a total of two hours for a primary flow of all five tattvas to transit the complete Tattvic Flow cycle. The Earth’s electromagnetic field (Van Allen Belts) and ley lines are vitalized by these incoming etheric currents.
We are surrounded by five ether streams in the world around us. They are called earth, water, fire, air, and thought (akasha) ether streams. These etheric streams are also active in the human body. An ether stream can be found to proceed from the head as follows: earth ether flows to the right foot, water ether to the left hand, fire ether to the right hand, air ether to the left foot, and then thought ether returns to the head. The spirit streams to man from the heights in similar ether streams.
The cross-sections of the five etheric streams and their connections with color, taste, and body regions are as follows:
Earth ether, square with only the corners distinct, yellow, sweet, bones and muscles
Water ether, crescent moon, white, tart, digestion
Fire ether, equilateral triangle, red, hot, blood
Air ether, circle, green, sour, nerves
Thought (akasha) ether, two intersecting spiral
Akasha in Modern Science
The fifth ether, Akasha (also known as Akasa), now “reigns supreme” over the other ethers. Therefore, Steiner indicates, the Akasha ether is the ether we should be focusing on at this time in evolution. The new Akashic Field Theory of Ervin Laszlo has opened the door for an understanding of this ether in our time. In his book, Science and the Akashic Field, An Integral Theory of Everything, he demonstrates an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information. It is also called the Zero-Point Field that underlies space itself. This type of scientific work is moving in the right direction to reveal the ethers in a scientific manner.
Ervin Laszlo (1932) is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theories, and integral theories, and an advocate of quantum consciousness. In his book, Science and the Akashic
Field – An Integral Theory of Everything, Ervin Laszlo reveals the nature and workings of the primal ether of akasha, or what he calls the A-field Theory. He defines akasha as a Sanskrit word meaning “ether”: all-pervasive space. Originally signifying “radiation” or “brilliance,” akasha in Indian philosophy was considered the first and most fundamental of the five elements: akasha, fire, air, water, and earth. Akasha embraces the properties of all five elements; it is the womb from which everything we perceive with our senses has emerged and into which everything will ultimately re-descend. The Akashic Record is the enduring memory of all that happens, and has ever happened, in space and time. Laszlo highlights the Akashic Field Theory’s central idea: the revolutionary discovery that at the roots of reality, there is an interconnecting, information-conserving, and information conveying cosmic field. The A-field works on the principles of quantum vacuums or zero-point energy fields that fill all of cosmic space, where nothing disappears without a trace, and where all things that exist are, and remain, intrinsically and intimately interconnected. The effects of the Akashic Field are not limited to the physical world; the A-field informs all things – the entire web of life. It also informs our consciousness. Evidence of the A-field is arising in the fields of quantum physics, cosmology, biological sciences, and consciousness research.
Rudolf Steiner on the Akasha Chronicle
“For the ether body is at the same time the ‘body of love’ where life forces are continually arising out of love.” The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, GA 130
“Conscious working into the ether body is, therefore, chelahood; conscious
working in the physical body represents mastery.” An Esoteric Cosmology, GA 94
Occult Science and Occult Development, Rudolf Steiner, May 1, 1913, GA 152
“One of the finest, most highly attenuated substances within the reach of human faculties is called Akasha. The manifestations of beings and of phenomena in the Akasha are the most delicate and ethereal of any that are accessible to man. What a man acquires in the way of occult knowledge lives not only in his soul but is inscribed into the Akasha-substance of the world. When we make a thought of occult science come alive in our souls, it is at once inscribed into the Akasha-substance and this is of significance for the general evolution of the world. For no being in the whole world other than man is able to make in the Akasha-substance the inscriptions that can be called by the name of Occult Science. It is important to bear in mind one characteristic feature of the Akasha-substance, namely that in the spiritual world between death and a new birth, man lives in this substance, just as here on the earth he lives in the atmosphere. If a seer, using the means at his disposal, were to come into contact with human souls living between death and rebirth he would be able to observe the following. In the present cycle of evolution – formerly it was different – a man who here on the earth is never able to kindle to life within him thoughts and ideas belonging to Spiritual Science, cannot be seen, even when he is actually present, by a soul living between death and a new birth. But when a man living on the Earth causes a thought or an idea from the domain of Spiritual Science to quicken within him so that it can be inscribed into the Akasha-substance, he becomes visible to the souls who are living between death and rebirth.
Thus, human knowledge is of two kinds: the one pertains only to experience acquired by means of the senses, which needs the organ of the intellect in order to transform it into knowledge; the other kind is Spiritual Science. The knowledge that belongs only to the sense-world forms the one stream; the other consists of what men inscribe through Spiritual Science into the Akasha Chronicle. For Spiritual Science develops ideas and concepts which are then inscribed forever in the Akasha Chronicle. All science, all knowledge pertaining to experiences acquired through the senses, to technical things, to the commercial and industrial life of mankind, when inscribed in the Akasha-substance has this effect: the Akasha-substance discards it, thrusts it away, and the medley of ideas and concepts is obliterated. If these facts are perceived with the eyes of a seer, a conflict may be observed in the Akasha-substance between the impressions made by the occult knowledge acquired by man – impressions which are eternal – and those made by thoughts based upon the senses, which are only transitory.”
At the Gates of Spiritual Science, Lecture II, The Three Worlds, August 23, 1906, GA 95
“After these four regions we come to the boundary of the spiritual world. Just as the sky at night looks like a hollow globe encircled by stars, so it is with this boundary of Devachan. But it is a highly significant boundary; it forms what we call the Akasha Chronicle. Whatever a person has done and accomplished is recorded in that imperishable book of history even if there is no mention of it in our history books. We can experience there everything that has ever been done on Earth by conscious beings. Suppose the seer wants to know something about Caesar: he will take some little incident from history as a starting-point on which to concentrate. This he does “in the spirit”; and then around him appear pictures of all that Caesar did and of all that happened round him – how he led his legions, fought his battles, won his victories. All this happens in a remarkable way: the seer does not see an abstract script; everything passes before him in silhouettes and pictures, and what he sees is not what actually happened in space; it is something quite different. When Caesar gained one of his victories, he was of course thinking; and all that happened around entered into his thoughts; every movement of an army exists in thought. The Akasha Chronicle therefore shows his intentions, all that he thought and imagined as he was leading his legions; and their thoughts, too, are shown. It is a true picture of what happened, and whatever conscious beings have experienced is depicted there. Hence the Initiate can read off the whole past history of humanity – but he must first learn how to do it. These Akasha pictures speak a confusing language, because the Akasha is alive. The Akasha image of Caesar must not be compared with Caesar’s individuality, which may already have been reincarnated again. This sort of confusion may very easily arise if we have gained access to the Akasha pictures by external means. Hence, they often play a part in spiritualistic seances. The spiritualist imagines he is seeing a man who has died, when it is really only his Akasha picture. Thus, a picture of Goethe may appear as he was in 1796, and if we are not properly informed we may confuse this picture with Goethe’s individuality. It is all the more bewildering because the image is alive and answers questions, and the answers are not only those given in the past, but quite new ones. They are not repetitions of anything that Goethe actually said but answers he might well have given. It is even possible that this Akasha image of Goethe might write a poem in Goethe’s own style. The Akasha pictures are real, living pictures.”
Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, Lecture IV, The Descent to a New Birth, Rudolf Steiner, Munich, 1907, GA 99
“Important above all in Devachan, in this “world of Reason”, is the Akasha Chronicle as we are accustomed to call it. The Akasha Chronicle is not actually brought into being in Devachan but in an even higher region; when, however, the seer has risen to the world of Devachan, he can begin to perceive what is known as the Akasha Chronicle.
What is the Akasha Chronicle? We can form the truest conception of it by realizing that what comes to pass on our Earth makes a lasting impression upon certain delicate essences, an impression which can be discovered by a seer who has attained Initiation. It is not an ordinary but a living Chronicle. Suppose a human being lived in the first century after Christ; what he thought, felt and willed in those days, what passed into deeds – this is not obliterated but preserved in this delicate essence. The seer can behold it – not as if it were recorded in a history book, but as it actually happened. How a man moved, what he did, a journey he took – it can all be seen in these spiritual pictures; the impulses of will, the feelings, the thoughts, can also be seen. But we must not imagine that these pictures are images of the physical personalities. That is not the case. To take a simple example; when a man moves his hand, his will pervades the moving hand and it is this force of will that can be seen in the Akasha Chronicle. What is spiritually active in us and has flowed into the Physical, is there seen in the Spiritual. Suppose, for example, we look for Caesar. We can follow all his undertakings but let us be quite clear that it is rather his thoughts that we see in the Akasha Chronicle; when he set out to do something we see the whole sequence of decisions of the will to the point where the deed was actually performed. To observe a specific event in the Akasha Chronicle is not easy. We must help ourselves by linking on to external knowledge. If the seer is trying to observe some action of Caesar and takes an historical date as a point of focus, the result will come more easily. Historical dates are, it is true, often unreliable, but they are sometimes of assistance. When the seer directs his gaze to Caesar, he actually sees the person of Caesar in action, phantom-like, as though he were standing before him, speaking with him. But when a man is looking into the past, various things may happen to him if, in spite of possessing some degree of seership, he has not entirely found his bearings in the higher worlds.
The Akasha Chronicle is to be found in Devachan, but it extends downwards into the astral world, with the result that in this lower world the pictures of the Akasha Chronicle may often be a mirage; they are often disconnected and unreliable and it is important to remember this when we set about investigating the past. Let me indicate the danger of these possible mistakes by an example. If through the indications of the Akasha Chronicle we are led back to the epoch in the Earth’s evolution when Atlantis was still in existence, before the great Flood, we can follow the happenings and conditions of life in old Atlantis. These were repeated later on, but in a different form. In north Germany, in central Europe, eastwards of Atlantis, long before the Christian era and long before Christianity made its way thither from the south, happenings took place which were a repetition of conditions in Atlantis. Only afterwards, through the influences coming from the south, did the peoples begin to lead a life that was really their own. Here is an example of how easy it is to be exposed to error. If someone is observing the astral pictures of the Akasha Chronicle, not the Devachanic pictures, he may be confused in regard to these repetitions of Atlantean conditions. This was actually the case in the indications about Atlantis given by Scott-Elliot; they tally with the astral pictures but not with the Devachanic pictures of the true Akasha Chronicle. The truth of this matter had sometime to be made known. The moment we know where the source of the errors lies, it is easy to assess the indications correctly.
Another source of error may arise when reliance is placed upon indications given by mediums. When mediums are possessed of the necessary faculties, they can see the Akasha Chronicle, although in most cases only its astral reflections. Now there is something singular about the Akasha Chronicle. If we discover some person there, he behaves like a living being. If we find Goethe, for example, he may not only answer in the words which he actually spoke in his life but he gives answer in the Goethean sense; it may even happen that he utters in his own style and trend, verses he never actually wrote. The Akasha picture is so alive that it is like a force working on in the mind of the human being. Hence the picture may be confused with the individuality himself. Mediums believe that they are in contact with the dead man whose life is continuing in the spirit, whereas in reality it is only his astral Akasha picture. The spirit of Caesar may already have reincarnated on earth and it is his Akasha picture that gives the answers in seances. It is not the individuality of Caesar but only the enduring impression which the picture of Caesar has left behind in the Akasha Chronicle. This is the basis of errors in very many spiritualist seances. We must distinguish between what remains of the human being in his Akasha picture and what continues to evolve as the true individuality. These are matters of extreme importance.”
Origin and Goal of the Human Being, Lecture XVIII, Future of the Human Being, Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, March 30, 1905, GA 107
“Question: From where do we know anything of the Atlanteans and Lemurians?
Answer: From the Akasha Chronicle. These are traces which any action leaves behind and which one can read a long time afterwards. This Akasha Chronicle is absolutely a reality for those who can read it. However, it is difficult to read, and, besides, one is easily exposed to mistakes. To give an approximate idea of it the following may be said. If I speak here, the word fills the airspace. The oscillations correspond to the words. One who could not hear my words but would be able to study the oscillations of the air, would be able to construct my words from the oscillations. In the air these oscillations remain only a short time. In the astral substance, however, they survive longer. If the human being lives as if in a dreaming condition in such a way as the human being lives in the external reality, he can also see the psychic in the outer reality, he can also pursue the earth origin up to the astral origin of the earth. If the human being has attained the continuity of consciousness, and if he has this continuing consciousness during the night in the dream, he can see the concatenation of worlds, their origin and decay.”
Foundations of Esotericism, Lecture XX, Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, October 18, 1905, GA 93a
“Innumerable errors can assail anyone who enters astral space. Besides everything else, there is on the astral plane an imprint of the Akasha-Chronicle. If someone has the faculty of reading, on the astral plane, the Akasha Chronicle, which is there reflected in its single parts, he will be able to see his earlier incarnations. The Akasha Chronicle does not consist of printed letters, but one reads there what has actually taken place. Even after one thousand five hundred years, an Akasha picture gives the impression of the earlier personality. Thus, on the astral plane there are also to be found all the Akasha pictures from earlier times. So, one can easily fall into the error of believing that one is speaking to Dante, whereas today Dante might actually be reincarnated as a living personality. It is also possible for the Akasha picture to give sensible answers, even to go beyond itself. It can therefore come about that we get verses from Dante’s Akasha picture which do not proceed from the progressed individuality but must be looked upon as a continuation of verses coming from the previous personality of Dante. The Akasha picture is something living, by no means a rigid automaton. In order to be able to find one’s way on the astral plane a severe and systematic schooling is necessary, because there is always the possibility of deception. And it is especially important to refrain from forming judgements as long as possible.”
Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, The Law of Destiny, Rudolf Steiner, May 22, 1907, GA 99
The beings who permeate the astral body and make it unfree are known as “Demons.” Your astral body is always interpenetrated by demons and the beings you yourselves generate through your true or false thoughts are of such a nature that they gradually grow into demons. There are good demons, generated by good thoughts; but bad thoughts, above all those that are untruthful, generate demoniacal forms of the most terrible and frightful kind and these interpenetrate the astral body – if I may so express it. The etheric body is also permeated by beings from which man must free himself; these beings are called “Spectres”, “ghosts.” And finally, permeating the physical body there are beings known as “Phantoms.” Besides these three classes there are yet other beings, the “Spirits,” who drive the Ego hither and thither – the Ego itself also being a Spirit. In actual fact, the human being generates such creatures who then determine his inner and outer destiny when he descends to incarnation. These beings work in your life in such a way that you can feel the “demons” created by your astral body, the “ghosts” or “spectres” created by your etheric body and the “phantoms” created by your physical body. All these beings are related to you and approach you when the time comes for reincarnation.
You will remember that religious documents express these truths. When the Bible speaks of the driving-out of demons, this is not an abstraction but is to be taken literally. Christ Jesus healed those who were possessed of demons; He drove the demons out of the astral body. This is an actual process and, the passage is to be taken literally. The wise man Socrates also speaks of his “Daimon” which worked in his astral body. This was a good demon; such beings are not always evil.
There are, however, terrible and corrupt demonic beings. All demons that are born of lying work in such a way as to throw man back in his development; and because owing to the lies of eminent figures in world-history demons who grow into very powerful beings are all the time being created, we hear of the “Spirits of Hindrance”, “Spirits of obstruction.” In this sense Faust says to Mephistopheles: “Thou art the Father of all hindrances!”
The individual human being, membered as he is within mankind as a whole, has an effect upon the whole world according to whether he speaks the truth or lies; for beings created by truth or by lies produce quite different effects. Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus, there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.
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