Best Michael Ellick Podcasts (2025)

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Ask Us Anything—Live! 1:28:30

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10d ago1:28:30

1:28:30

Welcome to our very first live AMA episode—unscripted and full of spirit. Listeners showed up with real questions about prayer, mystical experience, cryptids, and the strange space where the psychological meets the spiritual. We talked about what it means to pray when God no longer fits, how to trust the knowledge of the heart, why some people enco…

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Jumping on the Bridge of Faith with Emma Mcilroy 59:07

24d ago59:07

59:07

In this powerful and personal episode, we sit down with Emma Mcilroy—queer feminist, immigrant, entrepreneur, and CEO of Wildfang—for a conversation that dives deep into faith, identity, capitalism, and surviving life's darkest valleys. Emma shares her journey of reconciling her sexuality with her faith, the near-death experience surrounding the bi…

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When You Make the Two One: Gnosis & Healing the Duality 1:04:52

1M ago1:04:52

1:04:52

What if the path to salvation isn’t belief—but integration? Building off our last episode, Jeff and Michael unpack a mysterious saying from the Gospel of Thomas about making “the two one,” and explore how ancient Gnostic wisdom speaks to our divided modern selves. Jeff shares a concluding dream that becomes a portal into the deeper meaning of inner…

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When You Know Yourself: Gnostic Revelations from Nag Hammadi 1:12:00

2M ago1:12:00

1:12:00

What if the spiritual texts we grew up with only told part of the story? In this episode, Jeff and Michael explore the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library—a collection of ancient, long-buried texts that include radically different teachings attributed to Jesus, including the enigmatic Gospel of Thomas. These writings challenge many assumptions of …

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Knowledge Must Bow to Spirit: A Journey with George Inness 47:46

2M ago47:46

47:46

What if a long-dead painter could reach across time to guide your spiritual awakening? In this episode, Jeff shares the astonishing true story of how George Inness—a 19th-century landscape artist and mystic—emerged as a living spirit guide in his life. From a chance encounter at a museum to a series of visionary dreams filled with barns, handprints…

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Waking Up: Dreams, Enlightenment, and the Space Between 1:07:13

3M ago1:07:13

1:07:13

What if waking up isn’t a single breakthrough moment—but a layered, looping journey through insight, fear, wonder, and mystery? In this episode, we explore the complex terrain of spiritual awakening through dreams, false awakenings, mystical encounters, and moments of terrifying clarity. From Michael’s lucid Spirit Train dream to Jeff’s powerful vi…

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Searching for a God We Will Never Find with John Hamilton 1:12:51

3M ago1:12:51

1:12:51

What happens when the walls of traditional religion crumble, and all that’s left is raw, unfiltered awe? In this episode we sit down with John Hamilton—UCC minister, musician, and author of the excellent theological memoir Honest to God. Guided by the book, the three of us dive into the chaos and beauty of spiritual awakening in an era of collapsin…

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The Homa & the Chapel Perilous 1:15:11

4M ago1:15:11

1:15:11

What happens when you call on Jesus in an ancient Vedic fire ritual? Will he show up? How? In this episode, Michael shares his experience with Homa, a Vedic fire ceremony, and what happened when he decided to dedicate it to Jesus. The result was an unfolding series of synchronicities—stretching across years, continents, and eventually even into the…

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Awaken in the Dream with Paul Levy 1:25:08

4M ago1:25:08

1:25:08

What if everything we’ve been taught to believe about reality is wrong? What if we’re not just living in the world, but dreaming it—and the dream is sick? In this episode of the Gospel of Direct Experience, we welcome Paul Levy, a writer, mystic, and self-described “wounded healer,” who has spent decades exposing the insidious mind-virus known as W…

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All Aboard the Spirit Train: Dreams, Discernment, and Anxiety 1:01:32

4M ago1:01:32

1:01:32

What if your anxieties weren’t obstacles but doorways? What if your dreams aren’t nonsense, but portals to deeper wisdom, hidden truths, and paths yet unseen? What if the very fears that keep you up at night are the same forces trying to wake you up? In this episode Michael recounts a dream of cosmic proportions—one that begins in the disorienting …

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Star Wars, Hidden Histories, and the Stories That Shape Us with AJ Musewe 1:04:25

5M ago1:04:25

1:04:25

Why do Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other sci-fi/fantasy stories resonate so deeply with us? What do they reveal about power, identity, and spirituality? In this episode of we sit down with historian and educator AJ Musewe to explore the power of myth, the narratives we inherit, and how reclaiming lost stories shapes our understanding of ourselves …

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Consciousness & the Cross (D.B.Y.D. Pt. 2) 53:19

5M ago53:19

53:19

Is the self an illusion—or something real and necessary? If we must die before we die, what is it that actually dies? In this follow-up to Dying Before You Die, hosts Michael Ellick and Jeff Mansfield wrestle with the paradox of selfhood, consciousness, and crucifixion. Does awakening mean dissolving the ego, or is there something essential about o…

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Dying Before You Die (Part 1) 1:08:02

5M ago1:08:02

1:08:02

Have you ever felt like every path you turn down leads to hell? In this episode, we explore the idea of dying before you die, a concept central to many of the world's religions and mystery traditions. Is it possible to face the terror of our own fragility and emerge transformed? What if the self you cling to is the very thing keeping you from true …

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Rewilding the Soul: Wilderness, Apocalypse, Practice 1:15:57

6M ago1:15:57

1:15:57

What if our deepest spiritual experiences aren't found in churches or meditation halls, but in lonely wilderness and abandoned subway tunnels? In this week's episode, Michael and Jeff explore how their earliest encounters with the divine came through wandering in the woods, which later developed into seeking out the "in-between spaces" of disused u…

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Abducted by Direct Experience 53:03

6M ago53:03

53:03

Is it possible to encounter something beyond the boundaries of our everyday reality? From mysterious UFO phenomena to encounters with supernatural beings, this episode explores the uncanny, the unexplained, and the power of the paranormal to transform us. What do these experiences mean, and what happens when they disrupt our tidy worldviews and saf…

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The Gospel of Direct Experience 1:12:55

6M ago1:12:55

1:12:55

Episode Summary What happens when orthodoxy meets heresy, when mystery collides with gnosis, and when the physical and psychic worlds intertwine? In this inaugural episode of The Gospel of Direct Experience, we explore the transformative power of direct spiritual encounter. Through stories of our own life-altering moments—both mystical and terrifyi…

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Teaser (What Is This Podcast Like?) 11:48

8M ago11:48

11:48

By Michael Ellick & Jeff Mansfield