Laughter is sunshine of the soul
By I.M. Soni

THERE is an interesting, but apocryphal, story of how patients in a hospital organised themselves into a "Laugh Club." Eventually, the hospital was converted into a "Laughter House" because the patients’ ailments had disappeared.

However, this one is not apocryphal. Norman Cousins, a New York Times literary editor, was suffering from cancer. It is on record that he cured himself with hearty spells of frequent laughter, and massive doses of vitamin C.

Cousins explains that when the effect of the laughter wore off, the nurse switched on the motion picture projector and, frequently, it would lead to another painless sleep spell. Sometimes she would read to him out of a trove of humour books with salutary effect.

In an experiment, "Laughter and Relaxation on Discomfort Thresholds", 20 male and 20 female subjects had first discomfort measured after they had each listened to a laughter cassette. Second, a 20-minute relaxation cassette and third, a 20-minute dull, cassette. Or no cassette at all. Significantly, discomfort thresholds were found to be higher for subjects after the laughter cassette and relaxation cassette experiences.

The ability of laughter to relax muscle tension and to soothe the nervous system helps pain control.

A burst of belly-laughter activatesa release of chemicals like endorphins and enkephalins which are the body’s natural pain suppressants.

Laughter is a "total body experience" in which the muscles, nerves, heart, brain and digestion fully participate. With mirth, the body is exercised. In the afterglow, the body becomes relaxed and soothed. Such is the profound effect of this reaction that laughter is named internal message. This is a good aerobic exercise that ventilates the lungs and leaves muscles, nerves and heart warm and relaxed.

It exercises the upper torso, lungs, heart and certain muscle groups in the shoulders, arms, abdomen, diaphragm and legs. A hundred laughs a day is equal to about 10 minutes of jogging.

Herbert Spencer has also alluded to the massaging effect of laughter, in his work The Physiology of Laughter. He contended that laughter served as a wonderful safety-valve for coping with an overflow of nerve force and for discharging disagreeable muscular motion.

Laughter therapy is increasingly gaining ground in modern society. I have personal experience of visiting one such informal club in Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh (West) Park.

A group of about 20 men sat in a circle and let out lusty peels of laughter. Surely, they could not be dismissed as freaks. They derived benefits from this "exercise" which is also the cheapest "medicine" in the world.

I suggest that senior citizens who gather in knots in Rose Garden and other parks in the city instead of dwelling on domestic discomforts, should let out hearty guffaws.

Byron wrote: "And if I laugh at any thing it’s that I may not weep." Nietzsche said: "Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs: he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."

One does not need the birth of twin sons or a fabulous amount of lottery money to be jovial. If a straw can tickle us, it is an instrument of happiness! Sterne says: "I am persuaded every time a man smiles, but much more when he laughs, it adds something to his fragment of life."

A cheerful disposition increases our power of endurance and adds to our efficiency. A man who "sings" at his work accomplishes more in the same time and does it better than the sad and the sullen.

It is the soul’s tonic and acts warmly, soothing relationships. It increases goodwill and lubricates our life, reducing friction. It also lends sunshine to our life. Continual melancholy is nothing but a disease of the mind. Goldsmith says: "If the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment and distress will almost want a name."

If we allow ourselves to be dominated by depression, we sink further into it. On the contrary, a good chuckle dispels it. Attempts of this direction progressively increase our ability to repeat the performance which becomes a habit. This prevents us from sulking. We are able to puncture our own pomposity and inflated ego. We save ourselves from becoming swollen-heads.

Humour is a kind of objectivity. Our ability to look at our own self from a distance, as it were, reduces the chances of aggravation of bad situations. Looking at things which vex and trouble us through the prism of the self reduces our strength to bear them. We allow things to get the better of us, suffer fits of anger which begin with folly and ends in repentance.

Whereas laughter has many values, it has many faces, too. Immoderate or mocking laughter is not the sunshine of the heart. It indicates a vacant mind. The horse-laugh reflects a coarseness of character. So does the malicious laughter. A thoughtless guffaw is the ‘privilege’ of the mob. It is through this that the mobs express their joy. It degenerates into revelry.

We need laughter not only to save ourselves from the corroding effects of sorrow and gloom but also because we are living in a world of increasing friction and tension.

Evils reduce our efficiency and promote indolence. The creative urge is stiffled. Work is a goldmine of opportunity, creative thought and personal development.

There is a relationship between the "Aha" of creativity and the "Ha-Ha" of laughter. The two are "kissing cousins" says Joel Goodman.