America is unraveling for one reason most people miss: we stopped treating spiritual awakening as the real foundation of public life. Mark Laymon sits down with Allen aka The Paraclete for a wide-ranging, intense conversation about transcendence, collective consciousness, the hero's journey, and why the future of society depends on what happens inside the individual first.

Allen argues that the signs of transformation are already here—from 9/11 and the pandemic to the rise of social movements, artists, and new forms of collective action. Mark presses him on the biggest questions: What actually unites humanity? Is the answer consciousness, culture, democracy, or the person of Jesus Christ? What follows is a thoughtful, sometimes sharp back-and-forth on spiritual intuition, social change, personal responsibility, and the limits of material solutions. You’ll hear them break down:

• Why Allen believes the world is entering an age of the Holy Spirit
• How Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and the hero's journey shape his view of human evolution
• Why Mark insists the person of Jesus Christ is not a side note, but the center of everything
• What both men think is broken in America’s political, economic, and moral systems
• Why testimony, justice, and hope matter more than talk
• How communion, sacrifice, and spiritual transformation connect to real-world change

Allen shares the personal experiences that shaped his worldview, including a powerful vision during a medical recovery and the conviction that each person must face their shadow, awaken their purpose, and become a better vessel for something greater than themselves. Mark brings a Christian apologetic lens throughout, challenging the conversation to keep coming back to the uniqueness of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb, and the necessity of a living faith that produces fruit.

If you’re interested in Christianity, philosophy, spirituality, social renewal, or the big question of how a nation actually changes, this episode will give you plenty to wrestle with. It’s a conversation about what it means to live with conviction, what kind of unity is possible, and whether America still has time to choose a different path. Perfect for listeners who want a serious, unfiltered discussion about faith, culture, identity, and the future of civilization.

Check out Allen aka The Paraclete's book at https://a.co/d/04UoDcGJ

Check out everything that Mark Laymon has to offer at TheForbiddenExperiment.com

Mark Laymon welcomes Matt Hasty, a 20-year military veteran and former congressional candidate from Louisiana, for a candid, often confrontational exchange about how Christians should disagree, how scripture is interpreted, and why certain ideas have become untouchable in public life. What starts as a conversation about civility quickly becomes a deep dive into theology, politics, and the hidden assumptions shaping modern culture. You’ll hear them wrestle with:

• The role of civil disagreement in a pluralistic society
• How different books of the Bible carry different weight and authority
• Whether the Jews, Israel, and Judaism are being conflated in modern political debate
• Why democracy can drift into mob rule and demagoguery
• Whether women’s suffrage strengthened society or helped unravel the family unit
• Why both men and women, in different ways, shape the moral direction of a nation

Matt shares the turning points that pushed him from military success and political ambition into a deeper search for purpose, including a moment of personal collapse, a call toward God, and the role Ecclesiastes played in reframing his life. Mark shares his own updating convictions, drawing on scripture, marriage, and the limits of language to make sense of truth, authority, and the kingdom of God. This is an episode about more than politics. It’s about what happens when people stop treating truth like a slogan and start fighting over the foundations beneath it. If you’re tired of shallow takes and want a real conversation about faith, power, and the future of the West, this one is going to stay with you.

Mark Laymon is the host of The Mark Laymon Show, home of TheForbiddenExperiment.com - Is your worldview strong enough to hold the weight of your world?

Matt Hasty is a 20-year military veteran and former congressional candidate from Louisiana, bringing a blunt, scripture-heavy perspective shaped by service, politics, and a personal spiritual awakening.

What if the real reason leaders burn out is not workload, but isolation, brokenness, and a culture that quietly walls people off? Pastor Justin McMahan joins Mark Laymon to unpack his upcoming book Breaking Silos, Stopping Leadership Burnout, and Building Healthy Organizational Culture - a deeply personal look at why church teams fracture, why good people quit, and how healing starts with brutal honesty. Justin shares the formula behind burnout, the concept of a "silo" as isolation born from wounds, and the story of leaving ministry after just two and a half years as a youth pastor in Oregon City. He also explains why that painful season was not the end of his calling, but part of a longer Holy Spirit-led process that included business leadership, fatherhood, a healthier church environment, and confronting the brokenness he carried from childhood. You'll discover:

• Why siloed teams become bitter, defensive, and eventually burnt out
• The burnout formula Justin uses to diagnose unhealthy leadership culture
• How church health and business health can both reveal what good leadership actually looks like
• Why being called by God does not eliminate the need for self-awareness, healing, and maturity
• The tension between striving for significance and resting in sonship

The conversation also goes deeper into identity, grace, humility, and the tension between free will and God's sovereignty. Mark and Justin wrestle with the question every believer eventually faces: if Jesus is truly who He says He is, what difference should that make in real life? Justin's answer is raw, disarming, and hope-filled - his testimony is the evidence. If you've ever felt stuck in a toxic system, wondered whether ministry or leadership can actually be healthy, or needed a reminder that your value is not earned but received, this episode is for you. It's a conversation about burnout, calling, and the freedom that comes from knowing you are a son or daughter of God - and that's everything.

Everyone has a worldview that is founded on unprovable assumptions.

Christians say that secularists are religious and have faith too; but this hasn't really created any worthwhile, bridge-building conversation in my opinion. So what should we do?

I propose that we call Christianity a worldview and call faith an unprovable assumption. Does this diminish Christianity or give it the apologetic edge that is so needed today?

Are your unprovable assumptions about reality that shape your worldview able to hold the weight of your world? Is love real? Should we pursue justice and at what cost? What should we do with the deplorable or illogical or violent among us?

TheForbiddenExperiment.com

Welcome to the Mark Laymon Show; home of TheForbiddenExperiment.com where I ask “Is your worldview strong enough to hold the weight of your world?” On today’s episode I am pleased to present a conversation that I had with Connor Crowe, A geologist, and soon to be educator of the next generation. Here is an individual that will be in a position to make some of the biggest impact and how the next generation views science and learning itself. Is it a stretch to say that much of the future is in his hands? No I do not think so and that is why this conversation is so vitally important. 

Is it possible to be a Christian and a scientist? Which one needs to take the backseat because they can’t both really live together inside the same individual harmoniously, can they? What really went down between Galileo and the Catholic Church?

Are Christian denominations dividing the body of Christ? Do we go into our denominational silos so that we don’t have to interact with the rest of the body of Christ? What does unity within the body of Christ look like and do denominations have any role whatsoever in this unity?

Is artificial intelligence apple filled prophecy of Science Fiction of the last 60 years? Is there anything redeemable from artificial intelligence or are we just surrendering everything that makes us human over to the machine?

This was an awesome three hour conversation where we talk about so much. Sit back enjoy drive full sleep wake up exercise whatever you’re doing. Thanks for joining.

Welcome to the Mark Laymon Show; home of TheForbiddenExperiment.com where I ask “Is your worldview strong enough to hold the weight of your world?” On today’s episode I am pleased to present a conversation that I had with Jerry Gilmer LPC. 

Jerry Gilmer is a licensed professional counselor and between this and his years in Christian ministry, he has been helping individual work through some of the hardest issues that we humans have to deal with for over 40 years! He is a Christian and works in behavioral health. 

What is the overlap between being a Christian and a licensed professional counseling today’s society? Is there any? Are there truths that are available to anyone regardless of their beliefs?

Is it really importance of what we put our faith in?

What is truth? Is it what works for you? 

Is your worldview strong enough to hold the weight of your world?

Why do multiple liberal Democrat friends of mine refuse to be on my podcast? 

Is there any reasonable and logical middle ground or shared vocabulary between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, religious and non-religious? Is there any middle ground between the LEFT and the RIGHT; or is it only an unbridgeable divide?

What was Blaise Pascal‘s night of FIRE? Why did he give up almost everything after this night and what did he then commit the rest of his life to?

What would YOU do if you met GOD? What words could you possibly use to describe it? Pascal’s main word was FIRE!

In this episode, we confront a hard Sowell truth: there are no perfect solutions — only trade-offs. Using the UK grooming gangs scandals as a sobering case study, we examine the inverted priorities that allowed organized child sexual exploitation to persist for years while criticism of institutional failures was often met with speech scrutiny.

We explore foundational questions: Is racism worse than rape? Are humans blank slates to be molded by government, or flawed beings who need restraint? When does state coercion cross into thought-policing, and why does it so often fail to create lasting virtue?

Drawing on insights from Thomas Sowell, Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson, Raj Chetty, & Robert Sampson, we look at the limits of top-down “molding” and the power of community, culture, and intrinsic motivation. We discuss multiculturalism, cultural confidence, the “fumes” of Judeo-Christian heritage, and why protecting core values (rule of law, individual dignity, free speech, and protection of the vulnerable) matters more than granting every ideology equal space.

This isn’t about left or right — it’s about honest trade-offs, clear hierarchies of harm, and whether the West still has the cultural substructure to prevent repeating the same failures. Sometimes the most compassionate thing is telling the truth.

Pre-order my book The Forbidden Treatise https://a.co/d/0fffgeiN

This fast paced episode talks about the Israel/Iran conflict, Epstein files, Calvinism vs Arminianism & end time prophecies & how all of these can be viewed through the lens of scripture.

Questions for engagement?

Was Israel involved in the assassination of Charlie Kirk because he didn't support a war with Iran?

Is the ancient stream of anti-semitism alive and well and using this conflict from WITHIN the conservative coalition?

What are some down-to-earth, practical issues in the Middle East right now and what should America consider on a geopolitical level?

When do conspiracy theories go too far?

Is any of this prophesied in the Bible?

What is time and does this help reconcile Calvinism & Arminianism?

Are we living in a simulation?

What are your questions and are you willing to continue this very conversation on social media or by being a guest yourself on the podcast?

Are you courageous enough to join TheForbiddenExperiment.com

BIG EPISODE! Name Change, Intro to the Forbidden Experiment & my core goal (Evangelism through sharing Testimony).

In ascending order of importance:

I changed the name of the podcast because this one seems more simple. Complexity without purpose is chaos. Complexity with purpose is....well...YOU tell me!

The Forbidden Experiment (an example of a Holofractal Equilibrium) asks the question "What happens when INDIVIDUALS ask FORBIDDEN questions?" The FORBIDDEN human question is "Can your worldview hold the weight of your world?" and the FORBIDDEN AI question(s) are separately asked to any AILLM chat bot "If humans are biological machines, then how can a worldview claim to have no axioms?" then ask the same chat bot any questions needed for clarification. One such example would be "what does this mean for secularism's claim to authority and neutrality in education, government & the public space?" This FORBIDDEN social experiment never ends (it has no terminal state). It is recursive and self-similar at every level. You cannot be reduced it by zooming in and you cannot find the border by zooming out. It is self referencing and scale invariant. It is a shared, social Holofractal Equilibrium!

Now for the most important part: the word of our testimonies (Rev 12:11)! The name change was to take focus off of a "clever" name so more focus can be on testimonies and substance. The social experiment is ONLY to bring up the opportunity to share Jesus with others. Yes, it may have some "other" effects, but if those effects do not aid in shining the light and glory of Jesus Christ, then they are not considered eternal fruit (IMHO). But that is interesting, isn't it: the core question of if everything is inherently reducible or if at least some things are not computationally reducible? THAT is where my testimony begins: when I wrestled with the concept of "infinity" at the age of 5. Enjoy and please ask questions, challenge, pushback, ENGAGE & gain the courage in the power of the Holy Spirit to share the word of your testimony with others in YOUR life!