Have you Lost Your Laugh?

Well if so, you probably need to find it again because it could be a matter of life or death.  That is right.  Laughter science is telling us that you can lose 8 years of your life if you take it too seriously.  In the documentary "Laughology" by Albert Nerenberg he searches how to get his laugh back after some sad and traumatic events that had caused him to be too serious.  In this documentary he studies what is known about laughter through science and goes on a personal journey to get his laugh back. He meets a lot of interesting people on the way. 

We'll start out with some basic facts about laughter...

• Laughter is not learned from parents, it is simply a part of human nature
• Laughter is experienced in every culture
• Laughter bonds people together
• Laughter is one of the most contagious things in the world, and has the greatest impact on the brain
• Laughter is a social experience, people laugh 30 times more with other people than they do by themselves
• The laughter machine was invented in 1950 to play laugh tracks for sitcom shows because they knew that the laughter was contagious and it made viewers laugh more
• Laughter prevents heart disease, it is a form of fitness that boosts the immune system
• Laughter and humor are not synonymous
• Laughter has been around a lot longer than humor
• Laughter comes more frequently from joyfulness and playfulness than it comes from jokes
• Laughter isn't always a choice but sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to laugh

Albert starts his journey by seeing a laugh doctor.  His name was Dr. (yes he really did go to medical school) Madan Kataria.  He left his medical practice when he discovered that laughter was much more healing than traditional medicine.  He has popularized being to serious as a medical disorder. He believes that 80-90% of adults have this disorder.  He too lost his laugh when he went to medical school and wanted to make lots of money and found that his life wasn't easy.  He believes that people lose their laugh through mental and emotional stress. 

What they have found from a scientific perspective is that if you respond negatively to stress you can harden your arteries and head on the road to heart disease. Laughter on the other hand has the opposite effect on your arteries. 

Laughter has had many enemies in the past.  Plato hated it.  He feared the power of it and thought that it could overthrow the power and authority of the state.  In the eighteenth century in England there was a war against laughter.  It was believed that laughter lead to moral degradation.  It was rumored and believed that laughter could kill your children and damaged your teeth.  This is likely where the evil villain laugh was developed.  Come on give me your best villain laugh.  ;)  Children from a very young age are taught to stop laughing and be serious, as if laughter is the enemy.  Seriousness tries to make sure that laughter never comes back. 

Albert met with a group of professional laughers who were hired to create laugh tracks for sitcoms like "The Nanny" after there were security issues with live studio audiences.  These people discovered that they were more relaxed, more empathetic, and happier people.  Since the work has dried up with the popularity of reality TV, they haven't been very happy and some of them have had to go on anti depressants. 

He also met with some Inuit people on Lauffin Island who live in extremely cold and dark climate 6 months out of the year.  These people have developed laughing games, which they credit with helping their people survive. 

They looked into the life of Norman Cousins who was very involved in politics and had a very stressful job.  His body was in so much pain that the only way he could get any sleep was to watch episodes of Candid Camera and laugh until his body was relaxed enough to sleep.  He kept at this practice for 3 months and he completely healed himself of all of his ailments. 

Just as with happiness, laughter has two forms.  There is conditional laughter and unconditional laughter.  Conditional laughter may come from a good joke that we think is funny but unconditional laughter may start out as artificial but it can become real later.  This all makes me think of my sister Cate who laughs at everything.  Even the very stupidest of my jokes can have her on the floor laughing.  Even when her husband yells at her to stop laughing at jokes that aren't funny.  Then she seems to laugh even harder.  Sometimes I just think life would be funnier on whatever medication she is taking.  She loves life and she loves to have fun, and I love having her as my sister. 

They looked into laughter epidemics in Africa where the children would have laughing fits for days.  It started with one child until all the children were having laughing fits. This happened in Tanzania and Uganda.  They took the issue so seriously that they took their blood to check for a virus and they found nothing. The only thing that they could figure was that the laughter they were experiencing was a way to cope with the stress from the new school administrators who were very strict with them. 

There is a religious movement called Holey Laughter who believes that God has a sense of humor and he laughs through us.  The Pastor Rodney Howard Brown started in NY in 1989 and doesn't believe that religious groups should preach guilt and fear.  He encourages laughter in his congregations, a bit of a comedian you might say.  Not exactly my choice of worship but I certainly will not stop them.

In the summary of the film Albert finds his laugh again and he realizes that all it takes is for him to allow himself to laugh.  Too often we stop ourselves from laughing because we have been trained our whole lives to be serious.  He encourages us to use any  excuse we can to laugh because our bodies want and are trained to laugh.  He summarizes and says, your laugh can never be lost because it is something you are born with.  Laughter isn't ugly it's beautiful.  It isn't evil it is fun.  It won't kill you but it might save your laugh.  We are all built to get along, have fun and enjoy each other's company.

I hope you can find some good excuses to laugh because...