One of the unexpected benefits of blogging for me has been the opportunity to learn more about other modes of thinking, whether on parenting, spirituality, healing, or other topics. I read a wide variety of blogs for this reason (a friend recently told me my blogroll was a very ‘odd mix’, which I think is a compliment:-) One I have read regularly for some time is Yes To Me, by Akemi Gaines. Akemi is an Akashic record reader, with some unique observations about trends occurring in today’s world. Although I had read about the Akashic records years ago, I had not explored them in depth, or had a reading done, until this year, and it has been fascinating. So I decided to interview Akemi as a way of presenting some of this information to others (and as a sidenote, over time I really want to interview the authors of a lot more blogs I visit, for this same reason.)
Hi Akemi, thanks for doing this today. For people who are not familiar with the idea of the Akashic records at all, how would you describe them?
The Akashic records are a history or collection of all the things every soul has ever been through. That is the briefest explanation I can give you. It is a complete history energetically. But really, I don’t think the Akashic records are just about souls, it’s about everything. It’s a complete record.
So you focus on reading the Akashic records of individuals, but theoretically you could go back and read about the energy patterns of historic events, apart from an individual?
I have not tried this, but yes, I think it is possible to do this.
How did you learn to read the Akashic records? Like many westerners, I first read about this idea of the Akashic records in the books of Edgar Cayce. Did you learn about them in Japan?
No, actually, I learned about them here in America, after I moved here. I had my Akashic records read, and I was so impressed with the information that I decided to learn it by myself. I studied with the individual who had done my reading.
And do you think this is something anyone can do, or do you think there are natural seers?
That is an interesting question. I think it is a little of both. Theoretically, I do think anyone can learn to read the Akashic records. But there are also natural tendencies involved. Not everyone is interested or will want to take it very far. I think of it like cooking. Anyone can learn to cook, but some people aren’t that interested. And others just want to learn to cook a few good meals at home, which is great. And then others have a natural talent and drive to be a professional chef. It is like anything really – anyone can learn it, but there is also personal preference and drive involved in how far you take it.
So what kind of things come up in an Akashic record reading for an individual?
Well, I believe we need to have some criteria for what we want to read before we start. Remember, the Akashic records hold everything, to the point of what did you eat for lunch today. But that’s not of much interest, so we need to have some criteria of what we want to read. In my practice, there are two main things I am interested in. The first is, what kind of soul level gifts and strengths the person has, and the other is whether the person has any energy issues that need to be cleared. So these are the first things I look for. But it is also possible to approach it from more of a curiosity perspective if someone asks for that, like ‘what was my last life’, or ‘was I in Ancient Egypt’, etc. So then I can do that too. Also, this is just the way I approach readings, but I don’t think it’s the only way.
So do you ask someone what is going on in their present life before starting, and work off of that?
Sometimes people offer that. But really, my criteria is does this person have any major energetic issues. And then I can see when or how these energetic issues started, and advise some energy techniques to clear them. And in this area, a reading might cover several relevant past lives, or just one, it all depends. Or sometimes even, a client might not have any energetic carryover of this type, and my reading might not cover any past lives at all. And then I also cover soul-level gifts and strengths, because I think recognizing these and expressing them is a big part of why we are here.
Ok, great, so now let’s back up a bit. Obviously, you use this word ‘soul’ which I have to admit I am not entirely comfortable with because of how it is often defined in organized religion. But I have found that you use it a little differently than it is often used, can you define it a bit for us?
When it’s necessary, I make a distinction between a ‘soul’ and a ‘higher self’. When it’s not, I use them interchangeably, like many people do. Sometimes I think it is necessary to distinguish the difference. I use the term ‘higher self’, but some people also use ‘over-soul’. So in our everyday life we of course have our physical body, and we also have our mind, and our emotions. The soul is beyond that, and has probably had many physical bodies, and minds. That is the classic idea of reincarnation. Our mind is tied to our physical body in one life, and our soul incarnates into this for one lifetime.
In my own practice, my ideas about soul, higher self and reincarnation started to shift when I observed a phenomenon called ascension soul-shift in some clients. This is when someone goes through such a shift that they experience what I call an ‘upgrade’ – like a software upgrade – to their soul. It is like a new soul coming in, but it is of the same soul type, and is related to the original soul of the incarnation – related to the same higher self. This is ascension. I usually describe it as a software upgrade – when you get an update to your software, it is new programming, but it is based on the old one and an upgrade to it. But it is new software.
Now, I understand, this idea of a soul-shift is not something many people have heard before, and it makes some people very uncomfortable. But really, when I researched it, I found that knowledge of this has been around for some time. The idea of a soul-shift is nothing new, really. What does seem to be new about ascension soul-shifts is a couple of things. First, that the new soul is always of the same kind as the old.
Hold on, when you say the ‘same kind’ do you mean the same starseed grouping, something else that you write about?
Same starseed and same energetic profile. Again, it is like a software update. When you get the update, it is not just for any software, it is related to the version you had. So this is what an ascension soul-shift is like. It is like a big life shift, and many people experience it this way. They feel very different, they experience a lot of changes in their preferences and life, but they still are the same human person, they still remember everything. But this new soul has no past-lives. This is the second thing that is unique about ascension soul-shifts. It is like starting fresh energetically, but with the knowledge you currently have.
I see. So I think this is the thing that is the most uncomfortable about this idea of ascension soul-shifts, because most ideas of ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ define it as being the most essential, unique part of us. The immutable ‘seed at our core’ type of thing.
Yes, and there is this idea that the purpose of incarnation is to learn and evolve our soul. So this leads to the thinking that an ‘older’ soul is better, because it has learned more things. This is very linear thinking. I don’t know how to answer this. I just am responding to what I am observing. I am seeing these soul-shifts and they are essentially soul upgrades with new souls. It just seems to be something different that is starting to happen.
So do you think this is the start of a trend?
Yes. And for awhile, I did not have a good explanation for what was going on. I just observed it, more than once. I just saw in a client’s records that there was this new soul coming in, related to the old one, but new. And most of the time, the clients could feel this. So when I started to look into, this is when my definition of higher self or oversoul and its relationship to soul started to change. The way I think of it now is, we are each a ‘spark of God’, a spark of divine source. For that source to experience itself, it has to break off. These sparks are our higher self or oversoul, and we are used to thinking of this as our soul. But we can have different souls related to our higher self. This idea does come up in writings about simultaneous incarnations and the like. So it is out there, it is just not that common. So theoretically our higher self or oversoul can relate to more than one soul. And that is why the new soul in these kinds of shift is of the same type – it is related to the same oversoul.
So is it almost like a new incarnation, without going through the death process?
Yes, right. But the new soul incorporates all the previous learnings, and yet doesn’t have the history attached. I think it is a positive shift, a new level of evolution perhaps.
So that gets to my next question – do you think this is related to 2012? Or first of all, what are your thoughts on all the discussion surrounding 2012?
I don’t really know, frankly. But I do think that a lot of things are accelerating. Our evolution is accelerating. And it may be that 2012 will be a time of mass transition, when we reach a tipping point. Now how visible that change will be, what it will look like in the physical world, I’m not really sure.
This has been going on for quite some time. People are just focused on it because of this date that has been put out there. And I do think this phenomenon I have observed of ascension is related to that, and to planetary changes.
Ok, interesting. So let’s circle back to starseeds, as you brought up that idea, but that’s another thing people may not be familiar with. Can you define them?
Well, some of us, at the soul-level, may have started right here on earth. But some of us may have been through other star systems, other types of incarnation. And we call these starseeds. They are like a soul type. And they each have different characteristics. There are many starseed groups. I know about 20, and some have sub-types.
So in this type of thinking is the earth unique in that so many soul types mix here?
Yes, earth is quite unique, although I don’t think this is the only place where different starseeds mix. I’m not sure why it is this way though. Earth is a very interesting place from that perspective.
Well, my last question may tie into that a bit. In your mind, where does religion and spirituality and everything that is going on in that realm fit into this? I mean, you do readings for people with all different religious and spiritual beliefs, right?
Yes, I have had everyone from Christian ministers, to Buddhists, to the non-religious, and of course many with new age beliefs as well. Christian clients used to be quite rare, because of course Christianity does not traditionally believe in reincarnation, but many things are changing and this has become more common.
The way I think about religion is this: When our spirituality on earth was very underdeveloped, these kinds of structures were necessary. The rules and ritual were useful. But we have evolved spiritually. I personally have learned a lot from reading the Bible and other religious writings. But I don’t really think institutional religion is useful or necessary anymore.
Ok, thank you Akemi! You can learn more about Akemi and her readings at her website, Yes To Me. Feel free to leave questions for her or me in the comments as well.