What Are the Akashic Records? And Why They're More Than a Cosmic Library

Spiritual Guides, direct channeling, conscious energy work, and what actually happens during an Akashic Records reading.

If you've ever Googled "What are the Akashic Records?" you've probably come across some version of the same explanation. They're an energetic library containing information about your soul's journey through past, present, and future lifetimes.

Think cosmic Google for the soul.

It's not a terrible analogy. I've used it myself (like last week). But after years of working within the Akashic Records, I've come to appreciate just how much that description leaves out.

Because what happens in a session isn't always about retrieving information. Sometimes I'm communicating with spiritual Guides. Sometimes I'm channeling directly. And sometimes the experience has very little to do with words at all.

If you're imagining fifty minutes of asking questions while someone looks up your spiritual file, I understand why.

But I'd like to introduce you to a much bigger picture.

[Photo caption: Me, on my couch, on my computer screen, contemplating the nature of consciousness. A casual Tuesday.]

What exactly are the Akashic Records?

The word Akasha comes from Sanskrit and is associated with space or ether. The modern idea of the Akashic Records developed through Western esoteric traditions, particularly Theosophy, and describes a spiritual record of experiences, thoughts, and events.

In contemporary spiritual practice, the Records are often understood to contain information about the soul's journey, including past lives, present experiences, and future possibilities.

That's the explanation you'll find in countless books and articles.

My experience is a little different from what that description might lead you to expect.

I experience the Akashic Records as a field of information and consciousness that I access through energetic attunement. Within that connection, I communicate with spiritual Guides and receive information through different forms of intuitive perception.

Sometimes that information helps someone understand an experience they haven't been able to make sense of. Other times, the conversation takes us somewhere neither of us anticipated.

What interests me is that the Records aren't a static experience. My work within them has continued to evolve, and so has my understanding of what's possible.

Which brings me to something you might not expect about the person doing your reading.

I intellectualize the crap out of everything

I come to this work with a background in cognitive science and social psychology, and I am fascinated by consciousness, perception, and the ways we construct our understanding of reality.

I love asking why.

I want to understand how things work, what influences our experiences, and what assumptions we might be making without realizing it.

In other words, I intellectualize the crap out of everything.

So naturally, I ended up communicating with spiritual Guides.

Go figure.

People sometimes assume that my academic background and spiritual practice must be at odds with each other. I've never experienced them that way.

My education taught me to question assumptions, examine information, and recognize that our interpretations aren't necessarily the same thing as the experiences themselves.

Those habits didn't disappear when I began working with the Akashic Records. If anything, they became more important.

There are times when I receive information from the Guides that makes absolutely no sense to me. I'll question it, ask for clarification, or check that I'm understanding what I'm being shown.

And sometimes the client immediately recognizes something that I couldn't possibly have understood from my own perspective.

I love those moments.

I don't need to understand every piece of information personally to communicate it accurately. In fact, knowing when something isn't mine to interpret is an important part of how I work.

That doesn't mean abandoning critical thinking. It means being curious enough to recognize that my understanding isn't necessarily the limit of someone else's experience.

What happens during an Akashic Records reading?

One of the things I encourage clients to do before a session is prepare questions.

Not because we're going to race through a list, but because the process of asking yourself what you really want to understand can be meaningful in its own right.

I've often found that the energy begins moving before we even meet.

At the beginning of our session, I open the Records through an energetic attunement and invocation.

From there, I connect with your Guides, and we begin exploring whatever you're bringing to the experience.

Information comes through in different ways.

I may see images, symbols, or scenes through clairvoyance. I might hear words or messages through clairaudience. Clairsentience can bring physical sensations or emotions, while claircognizance is more like an immediate knowing that arrives without a logical trail of thought.

Occasionally, information even comes through taste or smell. Yes... yes, it is weird.

And often I experience several of these at once.

It's not as though I sit down, select a clair from a menu, and decide how the information will arrive that day.

That would certainly make things easier to explain.

I share what I'm receiving, and we explore it together. If something needs clarification, I'll ask the Guides.

If I want to make sure you're following what I'm communicating, I'll ask, "Does that make sense?" or "Do you have any questions?"

I'm not asking you to agree with me. I want you engaged in your own experience.

There are also moments when I step aside and allow the Guides to speak directly through me. That's what I mean when I talk about direct channeling. Rather than consciously communicating individual images, sensations, or messages as I receive them, I experience the Guides speaking through me.

It's a different way of working, and one that has become an important part of my practice.

What I love about these sessions is that they aren't a performance where I deliver information and you sit quietly taking notes. We're having a conversation. Your observations, curiosity, and questions all have a place.

And the most interesting part of the experience is often something neither of us knew to ask.

The session where we didn't say a damn thing

I once spent an entire session in silence, consciously directing energy within the Akashic Records.

Not receiving messages and translating them into words. Not following a series of questions from my client.

I was intentionally working with energy.

And holy crap, was it powerful.

My client and I were both blown away by the experience.

I've thought about that session many times since, partly because it challenged the familiar idea of what an Akashic Records reading is supposed to be.

If the Records are simply a library, what exactly was I doing in there?

I wasn't retrieving information or telling someone about their past lives. I was consciously engaging with energy within the space I access as the Akashic Records.

For me, that experience brought an important distinction into focus: receiving information and working with energy are not the same thing, even when both happen within the Records.

And it raised an interesting question about our expectations.

Have we become so focused on what we can learn from the Akashic Records that we're overlooking what we can experience within them?

I'm not suggesting that a silent session is somehow better than one filled with conversation. Some of the most meaningful sessions I've experienced have involved plenty of talking.

But that particular experience reminded me why I don't want to decide in advance what the work has to look like.

It also made me laugh at myself a little.

Here I am, someone who loves understanding and explaining everything, having one of the most powerful experiences of my practice without saying a damn thing.

Apparently, my brain doesn't always need to run the show.

Why I call my work Akashic & Beyond

My original training with Linda Howe, back in 2015, gave me a foundation for accessing and working with the Akashic Records. Over the years, that foundation has expanded through continued study, personal exploration, and working with clients.

Today, my sessions may also involve energetic clearing, shamanic journeying, or other practices that have become part of how I work. But I don't approach a session with a checklist of modalities to perform.

We're not trying to see how many spiritual tools we can squeeze into fifty minutes.

One session might be a conversation with the Guides. Another might involve direct channeling. Another might be primarily energetic.

What matters to me is the person I'm working with and what's unfolding in the moment.

That's why I call my sessions Akashic & Beyond.

The Records are an important part of my practice, but I don't limit the experience to a traditional reading format. I want there to be room for the unexpected, for questions we didn't know we had, and for experiences that might not translate neatly into words.

I also want clients to feel comfortable being themselves in that space, including bringing their skepticism, humor, and very human questions.

That includes one of my favorite boundaries.

No, we're not going to be energetic Peeping Toms

People frequently come to spiritual sessions with questions about relationships.

Does this person love me? What are they thinking? Why did they leave? Are they coming back?

I get it. Relationships can make even the most self-aware among us want a little access to someone else's internal operating system.

But here's the thing.

I don't open another person's Akashic Records without their permission.

We're not going to be energetic Peeping Toms.

Sorry to disappoint.

We can absolutely explore your experience of a relationship, including what you're feeling, what you're trying to understand, and what might be useful for you to consider.

But curiosity about someone else doesn't automatically grant us access to their private experiences.

Personal sovereignty matters to me, and that includes respecting the sovereignty of people who aren't sitting in the session.

Spirituality isn't an excuse to abandon boundaries. If anything, I think it calls us to be more conscious of them.

And I don't believe spiritual guidance should replace your own judgment.

You get to question what you hear, consider what resonates, and decide what you do with the experience.

I might be the one communicating with the Guides, but it's still your life.

Maybe the question isn't just what the Records know

I understand why people come to the Akashic Records looking for answers.

Questions are often what bring us to explore something in the first place. And there's nothing wrong with wanting clarity about your life, relationships, or experiences.

I love a good question.

But after years of doing this work, some of the moments that have stayed with me most weren't answers to anything someone thought to ask.

They were unexpected connections, information that only made sense to the person receiving it, and experiences that challenged my own understanding of what was possible.

That's what continues to fascinate me.

I came to this work with a mind that wants to understand everything, and I still have that mind. I'm not interested in switching it off or asking anyone else to switch off theirs.

But I've also learned that understanding isn't always the starting point.

Sometimes an experience gives us something to think about for years afterward.

Sometimes we discover that the question we arrived with wasn't nearly as interesting as the conversation that followed.

And sometimes, apparently, you don't have to say a damn thing.

Curious about what a session could look like for you?

My Akashic & Beyond sessions are collaborative, conversational, and shaped by what unfolds when we work together.

You can arrive with a specific question, a repeating pattern, a major life transition, or simply the feeling that there's something more you want to understand.

We start there.

Work with me →

Not sure where to begin? View availability and choose what feels right.

With grace and gratitude,

Your Spiritual BFF, Shannon