All that belongs to the realm of reality that exists outside of ourselves and is approached through our organic senses is subject to time. Time destroys what it creates, making history dependent only on what endures the passage of time and is passed on to the next generations. However, when we restrict ourselves to only external testimonies, it is impossible to be certain that what is delivered to us represents the essential.

Everything that is born in time has its roots in the eternal; however, sensory perception cannot reach it, although the paths leading to it are open to man. Man can develop powers that lie latent within him, thus coming to know the eternal. When he possesses advanced capability for knowledge, he can penetrate the eternal sources of all that is decayed over time.

If now a person enhances his cognitive ability, he will cease to depend on external evidence to understand the past. He will become capable of contemplating events that are inaccessible to simple organic senses, that is, perceiving that part which time cannot destroy. Then he passes from ephemeral history to eternal history.

In Knowledge and Theosophy, this is called the "Chronicle of Akasha."

Rudolf Steiner