The Laughing Heart, June 14, 2026

The Laughing Heart with Errol Strider Fear, Trust, and the Search for a Palpable God A Doorway Into the Current Dilemma In this episode of The Laughing Heart, host Errol Strider opens by describing the show as a doorway into what is essential, absurd, and hopefully enlightening. He frames the episode around what he calls the current dilemma: the breakdown of culture, threats to democracy, divisiveness, global warming, possible nuclear catastrophe, pandemics, authoritarian tendencies, distrust, and fear. Rather than treating these issues only as separate crises, he suggests they may be symptoms of an old worldview breaking down. From “Not Enough” to “Enough Already” Errol says the culture has long been driven by the phrase “not enough.” In his view, this scarcity-based worldview has shaped everything from agriculture and industry to war, domination, and social organization. He proposes that the next epoch may be characterized by a different phrase: “enough already.” This shift, as he describes it, is a turning away from separation, competition, fear, and duality toward a recognition that people are part of one body of shared consciousness. Cooperation Over Competition Drawing on the book No Contest, Errol questions the assumption that competition is necessary for human flourishing. He suggests that evolution and spiritual insight point more strongly toward cooperation as the path of thriving. Yet he acknowledges that when a society is caught in fear, division, and reaction, it becomes difficult to share perspectives rooted in peace, growth, and understanding. He warns that division makes it easier for controlling forces to dominate a culture. Betrayal, Distrust, and the Collapse of Confidence Errol reflects on a workshop he once led with his friend John titled “Reclaiming Trust in a Society of Betrayal.” He connects today’s cultural distrust to deeper experiences of betrayal, referencing psychologist James Hillman’s work on reactions to betrayal such as paranoia, denial, anger, and self-betrayal. He asks how trust can be established when people depend on realities that are fundamentally unstable or untrustworthy. This leads him toward the need for a more holistic and spiritual orientation to life. Spiritual Gravity and the Evolutionary Imperative Quoting a line from The Urantia Book, Errol says a lasting social system without morality grounded in spiritual realities is like a solar system without gravity. He describes gravity as the cohesive force that draws things together, then compares that to what he calls the evolutionary imperative. In his view, evolution involves two balancing movements: the push toward agency, freedom, liberation, and new creation, and the pull toward center, harmony, and coordination. Teilhard, Tangential Energy, and Radial Energy Errol brings in the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, describing two kinds of energy: tangential and radial. He connects tangential energy with movement outward into agency, diversity, and new phenomena, while radial energy calls things back toward center and wholeness. The quality of human life, he says, depends on how people participate in that evolutionary dance between freedom and harmony, individuality and unity, movement and integration. “What About You?” and the Quest Beyond the Known Errol then shares his poem “What About You?” The poem invites listeners into a shared quest beyond the known, asking whether they will walk the mountain of trust, move beyond self-limitation, leave behind the weighty past, hear clashing points of view, abandon the easier way, and follow the infinite path of faith. The poem serves as a direct challenge to the listener: will they participate in a deeper journey of trust, mystery, and transformation? You Gotta Love It Returning to his daily practice, Errol says he has begun responding to moments of disappointment, frustration, grief, and fear with the phrase “you gotta love it.” He presents this not as sentimental denial, but as a spiritual discipline. Since he sees love as the essential dynamic of the universe, he suggests that fear is ultimately illusory. He uses an image from Planet of the Apes, where a projected fire barrier keeps the apes away, as a metaphor for fear: a projected image that appears threatening but may not be ultimately real. Convicted of Fear Errol compares older Christian teachings about being convicted of sin with what he sees as a modern need to be convicted of fear. He argues that people must recognize the extent to which they are driven by fear. Quoting A Course in Miracles, he says the ego will allow people to see themselves in many negative ways, but not as truly afraid, because the ego depends on separation and maintains that separation through fear. The work, then, is not merely to manage fear but to see through it. A Palpable God The episode closes with Errol’s provocative poem “A Palpable God,” set to music by Charles Mazzell. The poem imagines a speaker longing for a God who can be touched, held, recognized, and encountered in ordinary life: at the mall, supermarket, unemployment line, human longing, spiritual hunger, and the messy places where people search for meaning. The poem wrestles with depression, yearning, disbelief, ritual, desire, disappointment, and the hope for a God who fills the emptiness. Errol acknowledges that the piece has drawn resistance, but he still offers it as a curious, challenging, and potentially helpful exploration of the human search for divine presence.