Nimue - I hadn't heard that particular shaman story. Thanks for sharing!
Various cultures throughout history of either talked about the Records or used them to help guide others. Historical evidence about the Records dates back thousands of years. There are stories about monks in Tibet and Northern India that when they were in the right state of awareness, could see other's lives. In Atlantis, just like in Egypt later on, there were seers that would advise the leaders/Pharoahs on various important matters, which is depicted in murals and written about in cartouches.
In South America, the Mayans excelled at astronomy, astrology, and accessing the Records, and used them as a way to discover that the 2011/2012 timeframe would be the end of using time as a collective unit of measurement, the shift from seperation toward unification, not the end of the world. Montezuma and Quatzlcoatl both had the ability to access the Records. In other indigenous cultures in the Americas, we hear about the use of substances to help us gain a certain state of awareness which helps us access the Records. Ayahuasca has been used for a long time to do things like see where the body is sick - like scanning with x-ray vision, remote viewing to discover where the enemy/prey is, and accessing the Records.
The method of using the Records plus astronomy was also used by Nostradamus, to pinpoint the 'timing' of certain events without actually specifying a time. Like many mystics, Nostradamus would use the Records to 'visit' his future lifetimes. In his case, he would then describe the future in a coded, poetic fashion (using various forms of verbal games in his Quatrains), and use astronomy/astrology and certain conditions (i.e. famine, war, etc) to describe when something would occur. Sometimes he spoke of immutable events, sometimes he spoke of probable/mutable events. This was to complete his earlier work as John, when he wrote Revelation, only this time he broke history up into smaller, more digestible pieces.
The Druidic/Celtic culture was known to excel at the intuitive arts of reading the stars and the Records. Each of the leaders known as Mrydwyns, with Merlin being the most known of these, was able to guide their community with information from the Akasha. The mystic known as St Malachy received his information from the Records when he made his famous papal prophecies, declarations about the future popes to come.
I think you already answered your own question - you need to be in a non-conflicted yet relaxed state of awareness for it to work. If you want to move past just having the experience when you feel strong childish feelings, start creating more meditative experiences in your life. The more you can feel in the flow of life, the more these types of experiences naturally happen. Plus you can look at the suggestions for accessing from earlier in the thread. Joan of Arc was accessing the Records when she was hearing the voice that guided her to lead the French. Everyone accesses the Records, either consciously or unconsciously, and typically through whichever senses are dominant in our regular life. (This is not to say that all people who hear/see things are accessing the Records. Some people really are schizophrenic and need to be on medicine).
Hope that helps!