#70 Jeanne and Al Fike: A Church Without Walls
Johnny Burke: Welcome to Closer To Venus, I’m Johnny Burke. Today’s guests are Al and Jean Fike. Al as a trance medium, co-founder of the Divine Love Sanctuary Foundation with his wife, Jean and president of the First United Spiritualist Church in Burnaby British Columbia. Today, we will be talking about his book, “Our World In Transition: Messages From Jesus“, his career as a medium, and errors in the Bible. Jean and Al, welcome to the show.
Jeanne and Al Fike: Thank you Johnny. Thanks Johnny.
Johnny Burke: You have a very, very interesting background, how did you two find yourself on this path?
Al Fike: Oh, that’s a long story. We were both mentored by a couple of mediums when we were quite young and, they introduce us, it was, a plot conspiracy to bring us together and we, uh, fell in love. And that was 45 years ago.
Johnny Burke: Okay. Al how did you, find out that, you were a medium and had those gifts?
Al Fike: I found out in my fifties and now 68, that my spirit guides wanted me to become a channel for them to speak so they could speak through me. And I kind of argued with them. I said that I didn’t believe I was that kind of medium, although I certainly had the ability to communicate with my angel friends and, did so on a daily basis. But they said we should give it a try and. Of course, I wanted to be in alignment with what their wishes were, and I said, yes, let’s do it. the wonderful thing about our spirit guides is they never tell you what to do. They may invite, they may advise they may, encourage, but they aren’t insistent on anything. So it was my choice, whether I want to become a medium or not. And I said, well, you know, it was another step on the road. Let’s give it a go. And, and so we did, and, here we are.
Johnny Burke: I’ve always found, people that discover their intuitive gifts, mediumship. And so on, many of them start out seeing spirits I think you mentioned angel friends a couple of minutes ago, when you were younger, did you have any kind of experiences with spirits or ghosts or anything from the unseen world?
Al Fike: Any real experiences with spirits didn’t come until I was, late teens, early twenties. Although I did have a strong interest in things psychic. And I read every Edgar Cayce book and things like that, which stimulated my interest and I think also open up a little bit those abilities, but it took a while
Johnny Burke: I’m sure that Edgar Cayce inspired quite a few people to say the least. I think he had about 14,000 readings and didn’t seem to really be doing it for profit either, which is even more impressive. now Jean, can you tell us about the Divine Love Sanctuary Foundation, what your mission is, and some of your activities?
Jeanne Fike: Well, it was a gift. It was inspired. It was because, someone we met from Australia came here, participated in a retreat that he found life-changing. He had such an awakening and so many experiences with spirit that he was just blown away. as a result, he gave us a very substantial gift to continue our work. , Al was a gardener. I worked in nonprofits, so, we just had a humble budget. This really launched us in ways that we could never imagine. And so that was in 2012. And since then, this friend has also, co-founded two websites and. it’s a labor of love. He publishes the messages that come through Al, and they go out to quite a network around the world.
Locally, we have a small retreat center in our home. And we offer lots of opportunities for people to come and pray. And we also travel a lot. Al is, as you mentioned, the president of a local spiritualist church, so we’re really involved in a broad range of activities at the church and then with COVID, everyone is on zoom. We have tons of workshops and programs and we’re anxious to get back traveling again.
Johnny Burke: Tell us a little bit about the spiritualist church. How it’s different than the typical church that most people go to.
Al Fike: The First United Spiritualist Church in Burnaby has been around for many years. some of our cohorts from the past have been involved in that church. We actually didn’t get involved until neighbor of ours, encouraged us to get. it took a couple of years for us to actually, respond to that invitation. And it landed up that that neighbor had passed away a few weeks before we were to speak at the church. So it became a dedication to her she was, quite a valued member of that church and also a very good friend of ours. So the church itself is church where many different philosophies come together. There are many mediums there and it is a venue where mediums can demonstrate their work and help other people who often come to a service looking for some guidance or some connection with a loved one who’s passed over. So they may give a message or see that loved one and convey something from them to the individual.
Also, there are classes and opportunities to explore mediumship and psychic gifts. it is a community of people who are not going to church for what many other people go to the church for, which is dedicating themselves to the idea of Jesus and God and all of that. they’re going to church to discover their gifts. Of course, God has a role to play in that. And there is prayer and whatnot. We do services on occasion and speak about spiritual things with our services. There’s a lot of healer development circles and opportunities for healing, all those services and programs that have been, inviting mediums from around the world
Johnny Burke: The Spiritualist movement or the original medium explosion, that’s how it all started. I believe that was in upstate New York back in the 18 hundreds. When people talk about spiritualist churches, it reminds me of a term I heard very recently where this man talked about Christianity and thinking that Christianity needs a reboot. Now, do you think the spiritualist church is sympathetic to what really needs to happen with Christianity? Or is it just something completely divergent??
Al Fike: I think it’s both, I think, there, aspects of spiritualism that are divergent and aspects that are in harmony with, Christian or spiritual beliefs. think the spiritualist movement is still finding its way because as I was saying, it’s such a diverse group of people with all kinds of different ideas as to how and what life is and how it’s, to be expressed in the earthly realm. But it does have that one crucial component, which is not really well understood or well looked into by lot of religious organizations. And that is life after death. And what that is.
Johnny Burke: I think, experiences like that- mediumship readings, near-death experiences and basically the gamut of spiritually transformative experiences, seem to show us more about what really happens when we die, instead of relying on a text, which we all know has been edited quite a few times over the past 3000 years. That is what I’ve been told over and over again, from people that have had those kinds of experiences.
So, the books on soul progression mentioned celestial spirits. is that the same thing as a spirit guide and, or a guardian angel? Because I think sometimes those entities get lumped into one category. when they are not necessarily the same thing, right?
Al Fike: Right. Well, the world of spirit is a very, very diverse place. Many different levels and gradients of consciousness exists in the spirit world. So to say that a one spirit guide is a celestial angel and another one is something else is a little vague. The spirit world is a very specific place. Our celestial guides come from what they call a celestial heaven. So it is a very high vibrational place. It isn’t like a lot of the other spirit, realms. I do have angels who are spirit guides, but not everybody has angels who are spirit guides,
Johnny Burke: Some just have spirit guides.
Al Fike: Some just have spirit guides and it could be a whole variety. It depends on the law of attraction. So whatever condition you’re in, whatever the state of your soul is, will draw in the sort of guide or helper that you need.
Johnny Burke: Really?
Al Fike: Yes. So that can go through the whole gambit of what’s out there,
Jeanne Fike: and what you desire. Everyone is responsible for their own soul progression. It’s determined by your desires and your freewill and what you attract.
Johnny Burke: Okay, so based on where we need to be in our soul progression, we will attract the right type of spirit guide that will help us,
Al Fike: I think the way the universe is set up is that those in higher planes will help those in lower planes. And the earth plane is a pretty low plane. It’s not that advanced and there are many other experiences more advanced.
Johnny Burke: you said it, not me.
Al Fike: And so therefore, we all get help one way or another. I think many people would be surprised how influenced everybody is on the earth plane and not necessarily for the better, if their intention is to, strive for something, higher to be basically a good person. They’re going to draw to them because the law of attraction. Spirits that will help them attain that one way or another, and also spirits that kind of orchestrate different experiences for the individual so that they can grow.
Johnny Burke: in order to get there. So if someone inspires to get to higher ground, which is the common man that doesn’t really have the answers, goes to church, which is probably a good place to start. But as we all know, after a while, you basically run into a wall or a ceiling. That person says, “okay, I want to find higher spiritual ground, I don’t know how to get there”, but just the intent, is that enough to attract the spirit guides, the angels or whoever to help them get to that place?
Jeanne Fike: The best way to reach the highest is through prayer. We all start with the minds because this is where we are in this earth plane, but we want to get to our souls, to that core of ourselves, the eternal part of ourselves to reach for the highest. Because our belief is God is soul. There’s messages and guidance coming down to people on earth all the time, but it’s through sincere, deep, prayerful, longing that you could reach for the highest. if you pray for the love of God to enter into your soul, and that essence, that vibration of love to really become part of you, that’s what helps us rise above the earth condition. And most importantly, it attracts the angels. So the spiritual thoughts, words, and deeds, if we’re doing our best to be positive and prayerful, those are the spirits, the angels that we will attract.
Johnny Burke: Okay. So even for those people that don’t typically go to church or even know how to pray, if they ask the universe for help, let’s say someone. wants to ask the universe for help, please keep my family and friends safe. please let me get this job, please let me be a better person.” Is that enough even if they don’t go to church?
Jeanne Fike: Oh, absolutely. I the real church is within our souls, not those buildings that befall the political machinations of the human will. They’re internal, at least for us, the church without walls.
Al Fike: Spirituality is about intention. So if you intend to progress. If you intend to change, to strive for something higher and there’s something in you, which we believe is your soul, it’s kind of motivating you to want to change, then yes, the universe will provide the opportunities to do so. It may not come instantaneously. It may take a while. A lot of that has to do with her own receptivity. how we’re looking at the world and how receptive we are to the opportunities that we believe God puts before every soul, every day to grow .
Jeanne Fike: We actually have an experiment, which is a simple invitation for people to, try this prayer practice of praying for divine love. One of our major activities in divine love sanctuary is the zoom circles. So people come together from all over the world. There’s been a really powerful network and it wasn’t Al and I going out and finding these people, it was the angels bringing them to us. And so we’ve got perhaps a about 200 people that are praying often online and offline.We’ve got a WhatsApp group, people post prayer requests and have conversations about the messages and about their spiritual struggles.
One way to really, I think get my juices flowing spiritually is what you mentioned; to pray for others, so you think of those people in your life that, you really love, or you have felt loved by, and you can bring them into your presence just through your thoughts and your longings. I always find that a simple prayer of asking to be used as a channel really is powerful. my benefit more from being the person doing the praying, you know, then perhaps the recipient.
Al Fike: Often the individual’s experience with prayer comes in a crisis. When you say,” oh God help me.” when there’s nowhere else to go, that crying out of the soul to God. And often there is a response, sometimes, immediately. Something miraculous happens. Often people will have that experience and then kind of go on with their daily life and not think so much about it, but it is to be a demonstration of that power of the soul to reach God.
Jeanne and Al Fike: It’s not done through words, really it’s done through the emotion, the longing, the essence of who we are and making connection with the divine .
Jeanne Fike: And spirit amplifies, magnifies every positive effort. They are looking for every opportunity in the world to try to raise the conditions of this earth plane.
Johnny Burke: So speaking of which, you mentioned a few minutes ago that a very powerful method of prayer is to ask to be used as a channel to let them come through you. We’re, talking about divine things, divine beings, divine love sanctuary foundation, Al you were, privy to messages from Confucius, Augustine, Jesus, Yogananda, and St. Francis of Assisi, just to name a few. What came first ? were there messages from Jesus that came first or did that come later?
Al Fike: That came later, although I had an epiphany, an experience with Jesus when I was quite young. That kind of set me on my course. It was a calling of sorts. Probably my guide, Andrew, Augustine, we certainly had a lot of communication with him over the years. We would sit in circle and prayer, and there would be a medium present. And these celestial angels would come through the medium and speak to us. We would feel the energy change and shift. We would have that experience of them speaking to us personally and feeling the power of it. It’s not just the famous names. Of course there are many other spirits that reside in the celestial heavens that have gone through the process of soul transformation through this gift, this blessing called divine love.
Johnny Burke: The obvious question for those of us that are skeptic would ask: you’ve received messages from Jesus, how do you know it’s really him communicating with you and not some kind of imposter spirit?
Al Fike: If you’re attuned to your own soul. Your soul is a kind of radar; it can signal you about a truth, when you feel it in the depths of your soul, you know it’s right. As one becomes more sensitive to one soul through this prayer process called receiving divine love. Then of course, this radar, these spidey senses get more attuned and the feelings that come with that, the experiences that come with that, resonate, with God’s soul and whatnot.
So the first and foremost thing is you need to know that God exists. You need to know that God is real in, in your consciousness. Once you you’re in that place, knowing God’s divine love, this essence of God, God’s soul, which flows into your soul through prayer, then the awakening begins and the perceptions come to you. so when a spirit like Jesus comes, since Jesus was a man, he’s not God, comes to you, your consciousness fills with light and you feel such incredible peace, and you feel his personality, his love , his humility. And the grace that he brings. It’s more powerful and more wonderful than anything else you’ve experienced in your life.
One is to assume that it really is Jesus. Now, maybe it’s not really Jesus. I can’t give any definitive answers saying this is definitely Jesus, other than my own experience. Through the many experiences I’ve had with celestial angels indicates that this is the highest, most beautiful angel that I have ever encountered and probably ever will encounter.
Johnny Burke: Unless you’ve had that experience, it’s probably very hard to tell and obviously very difficult to describe, as are many of the spiritually transformative experiences. You’ve had a lot of experience with angel, ascended masters. A term that I hear more and more in these circles, Christ consciousness. What exactly is that ? Is that the same thing that you’ve experienced? Or is that something completely different?
Jeanne Fike: I couldn’t, I’m sure people have their own, understanding of what that means, but for me, it just means what Al has described, what it is like to be in the blissful harmonious presence of Jesus. there is no greater happiness or higher vibration. that’s what I would call Christ Consciousness, but for others that may have many other meanings. An intellectual understanding of what the truths he did deliver so many years ago. But as, as you’ve already pointed out, his messages of truth have just been distorted and
Johnny Burke: Distorted. mangled. deleted
Jeanne Fike: Yes.
Johnny Burke: A lot of destructive editing over the past 3000 years. I think most of us are aware of that by now. Speaking of messages, what are some of the most, urgent messages from Jesus or some of the other angels that we need to know about.
Al Fike: Well, their goal with communicating with people on earth is to inspire them, to awaken their soul. In other words, let’s bring it notches higher than where we’re at now. Rather than materialism and the dry scientific approach to truth and reality, people need to take the risk of going within themselves and beyond all the clutter of the mind of our emotional repressions and whatnot and get into something that is higher and deeper and connecting with the divine. In that way, then we don’t become a rudderless ship; we have got the opportunity for guidance and blessings and upliftment and awakening that will help us to make choices in our life that are more in harmony with what life truly is meant to be, bring joy to our hearts rather than this low-level fear and anxiety that so many have in the world and to be free of, of that encumbrance and be clearer as to what our direction is and who we are, who we truly are.
So that’s certainly one of the messages, the other major message that we’ve been getting a lot of late is that the world is undergoing a transition, that we are going into an ascendancy mode that will change everything and that we need to prepare for that. And we can’t prepare physically so much as we need to prepare spiritually for it.
Johnny Burke: I’ve heard that many, many times about the Ascension and reminds me of a discussion I had with someone recently, I said,” this is before my time, but do you remember a musical group called the fifth dimension?” we were talking about Ascension and going from third density or third dimension to the fifth. And so on. Were these people onto something back in the sixties? Or did they just get lucky and say,” Hey, that’s a cool name for a band, cool name for our group.”
Al Fike: Well, they probably dropped a lot of acid and had some insight.
Jeanne Fike: I think they were on to something.
Johnny Burke: Probably so, can we assume that these messages are free of the religious dogma?
Jeanne Fike: Well, I think that it’s a matter of comparison. The number one quality is free will choice. So they never imposed. advice or pushing us to do something it’s always free. Well, even though we’ll be praying for more specific guidance, they want us to get our own guidance.
Johnny Burke: I really liked this phrase, ” a church without walls“. while we have that thought fresh in our minds, what are in your opinion, some of the most glaring examples of errors in the Bible manipulation, distortion,
Jeanne Fike: Well, the Holy Trinity, Jesus is not God. He lived on earth. He had a special mission, and he came in, he incarnated with a pure soul and he had a job to do. it’s not about Jesus being God and he didn’t die on the cross to save us
from our sins, that work is up to each one of us to take responsibility.
And we do have the opportunity to take all our sins and errors, anything that is on loving- words, deeds actions, conditions. We have the opportunity to take those to a higher power to God and to have that love flow into us and heal. So I think those are two very main things and.
Al Fike: Well, I think the greatest error of all in the Bible is that God is vengeful and punishing and that God does not love unconditionally.
Jeanne and Al Fike: Those that’s the greatest error of all.
Johnny Burke: When I think of how some of the churches treat anyone who is not heterosexual differently, and in some cases, almost like a second-class citizen, I think we all have to ask ourselves, would a loving God really do that.? I don’t think so. Do you? I just think that’s a heinous error,
Al Fike: Well, I think the Bible is a projection of human condition written down in words. there’s some truth in it, obviously, but you’ve got to, dig pretty deep to find the truth. Even the truth of divine love is in the Bible, but it’s obscured so much that it’s hard to actually see it clearly. Because of all these projections and words and phrases and statements, et cetera, you can take anything you’d like out of there and make it a truth. It is so subject to interpretation that in my mind, it’s a bit of a useless book.
Jeanne Fike: There is love in there. There are truths in there and many Christians, it’s what they have, what they’ve been brought up with. I never like us to cast aspersions on any efforts that are made to love one another, those truths are all in there. That’s my perspective.
Al Fike: I think Jeanne is trying to cover up the tracks here, but anyway,
Johnny Burke: one last question about the errors in the Bible; what about any mention of reincarnation being expunged from that text completely?
Jeanne Fike: Oh Johnny, what a question! I believe the goal of reincarnation is to progress enough so that you don’t need to come back. We believe that on the divine love path that you progress spiritually and soulfully through all the spiritual spheres that are around the world. So you progress according to the vibration of your soul and that it’s not necessary to come back.
Johnny Burke: Well, who would, want to come back to this world, if they had the choice,? Seriously, do I want to come back and see people with anti -Biden stickers on the cars, and it’s not a terrible world, but I’m sure there are other spheres, as you say, that are probably a lot more fun or a lot more of a gentler kindler world.
Jeanne Fike: harmonious, loving, full of light. Yeah, no cars needed.
Al Fike: The flaw of reincarnation is the belief that the only possibility of spiritual growth happens on the earth plane- we have to have a physical body and a physical. There are many, many experiences in the spirit world that will bring to you many opportunities for growth that you don’t need to come back in order to grow. It is a progressive system where you continue to climb that stairway of light and understanding and spiritual progression through these different experiences through these different dimensions of existence. it’s eternal,
Johnny Burke: Great explanation on spiritual progression and it’s a little bit different from what I’ve heard. Many times, but do you think that might be due to the fact that that soul, when they get into that space in between incarnations, they make a choice to come back here? I’ve been told that earth is kind of a harsh place. A soul might have done that so many times, let’s say you two are on, my council of elder board and I say, “well, Al and Jeanne . I’ve been to earth 557 times. I really don’t want to go back for another. Because I’ve already taken that course- I don’t think I really need that, do I?” That make sense or is that completely out in left field?
Jeanne Fike: Oh, I love your examples. I would really encourage you to read the messages we’ve been receiving from Yogananda. He came to the west and one of his, main teachings was about reincarnation. Well, now we’ve been receiving for several years his messages about his journey through the different realms of spirit. So he’s changed his views considerably the teachings that he gave while on earth.
Johnny Burke: You’re talking about Yogananda, who is now in spirit. You were talking about channeled messages. One of the reasons why this show exists is to get guidance on, what do I need to learn?
Jeanne Fike: Well, learning is wonderful, but, we never get into arguments about beliefs, because these ideas about reincarnation or any dogma are beliefs of the mind . And they’re open to debate. we all have opinions and experiences, and we project and, make our own assumptions. but in the end it’s soul progression and, becoming more loving and brighter
Johnny Burke:
I think that’s where a lot of us want to get to. Can we assume that exposure to the world of mediumship ,the spirit world and beyond the veil can that give us a more realistic picture of what really happens when we die and soul progression and the whole point of actually being here ?
Al Fike: Well without their guidance and their instruction and their experiences shared with humanity. Then we are kind of flying blind, aren’t we? If you’re willing to trust in what is coming through, and don’t forget that every medium will color the picture depending on what’s in their brain is what they can use to communicate. So you’re going to get different perspectives for sure. But when you read a variety of perspectives, you kind of come to that middle ground. I would think unless you want to be willfully blind, it would be impossible to say, well, there is a life after death because it’s happened for so many people- people have had NDEs and people like myself have communicated with spirit unless it’s just a gigantic fabrication of our collective synapses it’s, a big, big world out there that many of us don’t know about.
Johnny Burke: I could not agree more. Al and Jeanne, thanks so much for joining us. Amazing information. how can our listeners find out more about you and also the divine love sanctuary foundation
Jeanne Fike: Thank you, Johnny. This has just been wonderful for us too. We’ve enjoyed every minute we have two websites. Soul truth.ca and divinelovesanctuary.com. We’ve got WhatsApp groups for prayer requests, and you can also see Al going into the trance and channeling the messages.