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a situation, and judge if the situation is funny or not. We acquirethis judgmental skill as our mental abilities develop during mid andlate childhood. In effect, sense of humor is a mental and intellectualphenomenon.Laughter arising out of humor is conditional. It depends upon theperson’s intellectual ability, state of mind and level of happinessand life satisfaction. But, laughter can be achieved unconditionally.Children laugh without any mental or cognitive ability to aid themin comprehending humor. Most of their laughter is an outcomeof playfulness and inherent joyfulness. To develop the ability tolaugh joyfully once again, adults must remove layers of inhibition,programming and mental roadblocks created by self, family, andsociety. Beneath these barriers lies an infinite ability to laugh for noreason.Teaching an inhibited person to develop sense of humor is likeflushing a drain blocked with rocks and rubble. Once the rubble isremoved, water will start flowing. Similarly, mental inhibition andshyness is like rubble that blocks our sense of humor. Laughter Yogafacilitates this cleaning process. As years of programming are cleared,natural joyful laughter inside of us is released and begins to flow.Laughter Yoga techniques are effective even for people who havelost their laughter or have absolutely no sense of humor. People oftensay, “I am depressed”, “I cannot laugh”, or “I don’t feel like laughing”. Wetell them, “It doesn’t matter. Just bring us your willing body and we willmake you laugh.”Once released, natural laughter is hard to stop. Even in a countrylike India where we don’t have a great tradition of humor and comedy,hundreds of thousands of people laugh daily in public parks. Peoplewho never smiled now laugh at small things. They have also startedtelling jokes and acting funny, something they never did before.Playfulness helped to develop their sense of humor and brought morelaughter to their lives.13

In fact, laughter and humor share a cause-and-effect relationship.They are in unison and cannot be separated. One leads to another.Sometimes humor is the cause, which is more mental and cognitive,while the effect is laughter--more of a physical phenomenon. InLaughter Clubs, laughter is the cause and the effect is humor. Irealized that most people do not identify with a sense of humor.They find it easier to laugh physically in a group. This has led to thegrowing popularity of Laughter Clubs. So, even if you don’t havesense of humor, don’t worry. Just join a Laughter Club and you willdevelop a sense of humor.The Concept & Philosophy Of Laughter YogaMotion creates EmotionThe most frequently asked question is, “How do you laugh whenyou’re in no mood to laugh or you don’t have any reason to laugh?”The answer is – the theory of motion creates emotion.There is an inherent link between the body and mind. Whateverhappens to the mind happens to the body. If you observe sadand depressed people, their bodies are also depressed. They walkslowly, talk slowly and their body movements are sluggish andlistless.The opposite is also true; whatever happens to the body happensto the mind. I remember my father said, ‘If you’re sad, don’t sit idle.Keep doing some physical work or go for a walk and jog, you willfeel better’. And he was right; I always felt better by keeping mybody active. This is known as theory of motion creates emotion.This establishes a two-way link between body and mind. If onechanges the quality of thoughts, one can feel a change in bodybehavior. Conversely, if one can bring a change in body behaviorone can experience the change in mental state. Laughter Yoga hasthe ability to synchronize both body and the mind, maintaining amutual harmony.14

Laughter Club members are of every age group - school children, college students,housewives, doctors, engineers and elderly people.Two Way Link Between Body And MindPsychologist William James in 1884 found that the state of mind, whetherpositive or negative, is mirrored in a matching bodily expression-- or‘body behavior’. In his research he found that each emotion in the mindhas a corresponding behavior in the body. He discovered that bodilyenacting any emotional behavior triggers corresponding changes inthe state of mind. The connection works both ways: from mind to bodyand body to mind.Consider these:Sexual thoughts lead to arousal of sex organs in the body, andstimulation of the body’s erogenous zones also induces sexual arousalin the mind.Acting sad and depressed (for example sitting in a moping, depressedposture and replying to questions in a sad and dismal voice) soon leadsto real emotional sadness.15

Actors who portray strong emotions often tell of real-life emotionalrepercussions. Many film and theater actors have reported that whileperforming tragic roles they experience a real sadness.Dr. Dale Anderson, MD (Minnesota USA) tells of an American actresswho played tragic roles for so long that she fell into depression withclassical physical symptoms. After extensive physical testing, herdoctors declared her physically healthy, but psychologists suggestedshe stop playing tragic roles and turn to comedy. As she followed theiradvice her symptoms and depression completely disappeared.The same phenomenon can be observed in athletes participatingin competitive sports. Physically they act in a brave and courageousmanner, shouting and making body gestures to put their mind into apositive winning state. This reduces their fear and anxiety. Soldiers usesimilar tactics when preparing to attack, often shouting at the top oftheir voices to ‘psych themselves up’. This bodily expression of couragecreates matching emotions in the mind.Laughter Yoga –The Childlike ModelDo you know why children laugh 300 to 400 times in a day while grownups laugh only 10 to 15 times?It’s because adults use their cognitive ability to first comprehendhumor and then laugh. This is called the mind-to-body model or-- theHumor model. It relies on the ability to understand what’s funny andamusing. For example, the extent to which a person laughs at a givenjoke depends on the quality of the joke, the narration and also the stateof mind of the listener.But, the model has its limitations - it does not guarantee how mucha person will laugh. It’s conditional: dependent on a sense of humor,the state of mind and the quality of the external stimulus. Being amental experience, it has the disadvantage of diminishing with anyphysical or mental aberration that reduces cognitive and intellectualfunctionality.16

The other model is-- the Childlike model or body-to-mind model.If you observe children, you will find that they laugh the most whileplaying. Their laughter comes straight from the body and does not makeuse of any intellectual capacity of the brain. This clearly shows that thesource of their laughter is within the body. We, too, can use it whenevernecessary by moving the body at our own will. The significant feature ofthis model is that the person must actively participate in laughter andhumorous activities. Being passive will not reap the same benefits.Laughter Yoga and laughing without any reason helps to cultivatethis childlike playfulness. Once you learn to play, laughter is a naturaloutcome. When you learn to induce laughter in the body, the mind justfalls in step. The physical model of laughter is easy to practice for mostpeople--they are relieved not to feel the pressure to identify with themental part of humor.Difference Between Happiness And JoyLaughter Yoga makes a clear distinction between happiness andjoyfulness. Happiness is a conditional response. It is dependent on thefulfillment of certain desires of the mind and is related to happeningsin the past and the future and hardly ever deals with the present. Doyou remember how long you stayed happy after getting that diploma,car, job, or new house that you had worked so long for? The sad fact isthat even if the conditions are fulfilled, happiness is often fleeting asit is quickly displaced by new conditions—the idea of forever-movinggoalposts.In contrast, joyfulness is unconditional commitment to be happyfor the moment and to have fun despite life’s problems. Joyfulnessis easily triggered by joyful activities like laughing, dancing, singingand playing. It is purely a physical phenomenon while happiness is aconcept of the mind.When you’re joyful, you experience physiological and biochemicalchanges. The generation of good feelings and a sense of well-being17

change your outlook towards life. Laughter Yoga is all about learningto be joyful and you can navigate happiness in a much better way.Fake It Until You Make ItThere is an old saying, “If you are not happy, act like a happy personand you will become one.” There is great wisdom and science behind“acting out happiness”. Medical research shows that even if you pretendto laugh or act happy, your body produces happy chemicals. Accordingto the principles of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), there is hardlyany difference, between thinking about doing something, and actuallydoing it.Therefore, whatever may be the source of laughter; it leads to thesame physiological changes occurring in the body. Many actors, allover the world, have experienced the effect of faking emotions. Theyoften felt sick after enacting a sad and depressing role, which clearlyindicates that if acting sad can make one sick; acting happy can makeone healthy.Difference Between Being Funny And Having FunWhen we look at Laughter Clubs objectively and see people laughingfor no reason, it seems goofy and embarrassing. Most people feelinhibited and are shy of laughing without any reason. They wouldrather laugh naturally instead of forcing it.Subjectively, if you ask a Laughter Club member, they will tell youthat they are totally into it and there is nothing funny about it. It is allabout having fun. The difference between being funny and havingfun is that when one is being funny, he is performing and acting inorder to make others laugh. On the other hand, in Laughter Clubs,the people are not making others laugh; they are making themselveslaugh.There are very few people who have the ability to perform and befunny. In contrast, what we do in a laughter session is that we play likechildren and cultivate our childlike playfulness, which is easily done18

Leading gynecologists of Mumbai participating in a laughter session.in a group. It is all about having fun. In fact, laughter is not about thephysical act of laughing; it is all about bringing out the inner child whichallows you to play as a grownup. Once you learn to be playful, laughterbecomes a natural outcome of play. You don’t have to ‘do laughter’.Laughter Can Be Programmed Into Your BodyDid you know that we can actually learn to laugh?Our body and mind can be trained to laugh at will. It’s like learning toride a bicycle. It’s muscle memory; once you learn it, you never forget.Repetition is the mother of any skill. By repeating any bodily behaviorover a period of time, the mind begins to generate a predictable response.The body learns to produce a knee-jerk reaction without involving therational brain or the process of thinking. This is called ‘conditioning’.As a classic example of conditioning, famous Russian scientist Pavlovperformed an experiment with dogs. Every time he gave them food, hewould ring the bell. After several days of repeating the same process, he19

stopped giving food and only rang the bell. He found that the ringingthe bell, even in the absence of food, produced saliva in the mouthand gastric juice in the stomach. The body of the dogs had developedan association between the ringing of the bell - a physical sensoryexperience, and the food.Similarly, the human brain can also be conditioned. With repetitiveexercises, the body starts reacting out of reflex before the consciousbrain can rationalize and think. Throughout our lives, we are conditionedin both positive and negative ways.Over time, members of Laughter Clubs become conditioned to bejoyful through the bodily experience of doing Laughter Yoga. Clappingin rhythm, chanting “ho ho ha ha” in unison, and positive affirmationslike “very good, very good, yeah!” are a few examples of expressions ofjoy practiced repeatedly in Laughter Clubs.With Laughter Yoga, the brain develops new neuronal connectionsthat produce happy chemistry in the body. These reactions can betriggered simply by laughter exercises, and doing certain actions of thebody, which lead the mind to experience the emotion of joy - no matterwhat.Willingness And Commitment To LaughThe most important factor in Laughter Clubs is the willingness ofthe participants to laugh. The members laugh voluntarily, with fullcommitment. This makes it easy for the group to laugh because whenthe mind is willing; anything is possible.In contrast, when the mind is not willing to laugh, nobody can makeyou laugh. But why reserve our laughter only for times when somethingfunny or amusing happens? So often we leave laughter to a chance,rather than committing to joy. All you need to do is to give yourselfpermission to laugh - and nobody can stop you. We have to make aneffort if we want to add more laughter to our lives. This commitment20

is the reason Laughter Club members laugh and remain joyful throughlife in spite of the ups and downs.Inner Spirit Of LaughterLaughter Yoga goes beyond just laughing. It not only fosters a feelingof physical well being, it enhances the spirit and touches the emotionalcore. It cultivates positive thinking and promotes understanding. Manyof the laughter exercises focus on forgiveness, generosity, compassion,and helpfulness. Laughter Yoga gives participants the opportunity toactively enhance the lives of others.Laughter Yoga has the power to change the selfish state of mind toan altruistic state of mind. It has been proven that people who laughare likely to be more generous and have more empathy than those whodon’t laugh. This inner spirit of laughter becomes apparent as peopledevelop a state of internal peace: the worries and intense goals thathave driven their lives become less important. These people becomeaware that true happiness comes from giving unconditional love,caring for others, and sharing with each other. Laughter Yoga inspiresmembers to make the world a better place not only for themselves, butfor every one.World Peace Through LaughterOur ultimate objective is to spread good health, joy, and achieve worldpeace through laughter. Though some may consider this goal idealistic,an understanding of the science and philosophy behind Laughter Yogashows how it can be achieved.The practice of Laughter Yoga causes the body to release into thebloodstream high concentrations of hormones and neuro peptides-related to feelings of happiness, warmth, unconditional love, bonding,tolerance, forgiveness, generosity, and compassion-a ‘Joy Cocktail.’When this ‘Joy Cocktail’ of hormones is released through laughter, itinhibits the production of other hormones that correspond with hatred,fear, violence, jealousy, aggression and the emotions associated with21

war and oppression.The group dynamics of Laughter Yoga increases this happy cocktailthrough the multiplier effect: people leaving Laughter Yoga sessions goforth and interact with many people who are in turn affected to varyingdegrees by this powerful emotional state of joy. They in turn ‘infect’other people they come into contact with. It is like a chain reaction; itkeeps the cheer flowing.I believe that there is war in the outer world because we are at warwithin ourselves. Therefore, if we can bring peace within ourselves,there will be peace outside.Laughter is universal. It has no language or cultural barriers.Laughter Yoga Clubs are sprouting everywhere, and more and morepeople are laughing together everywhere. We are developing into aworldwide community that believes in unconditional love, laughter,and fellowship.Our “World Peace Through Laughter” mission is to set up clubs allover the world and we hope to connect all the clubs bringing the worldtogether to make one big universal laughing family.This is how we can achieve World Peace:“WHEN YOU LAUGH; YOU CHANGE AND WHEN YOU CHANGE THEWHOLE WORLD CHANGES”22

CHAPTER – 2How DidThe Idea OriginateBorn in a small village on Indo- Pakistan border, I was the youngestof eight children. Hailing from a farming background, myparents never attended school. Being simple village folk, theywere engrossed in the daily grind of a farm life. None of my brothersand sisters was interested in studying, but I was the odd one. It wasmy mother’s dream that someday I would become a doctor. Medicalfacility was a rarity in the village and it was difficult to find a doctor.One had to travel almost 15 miles to seek any kind of medical help.In pursuance of her wish, I went to a boarding school and workedhard to get my medical degree. After graduation, I went to Mumbaiand joined one of the best hospitals in town to do my post-

of 30 years ago no longer stirs even the faintest smile. If we consider laughter an expression of happiness, it seems that a lot of people are not happy with their lives. Most people rely on three things to laugh: level of happiness and life satisfaction, sense of humor, and reason. But, these factors are unreliable