BELLY

Of all the emotional factors that can contribute to a good state of health, laughter is for certain the most potent. First of all, it is good exercise. For crying we use less than 20 muscles, but for laughing we use more than 60.
Laughing produces a mechanical stimulus in the area of the temples, and has a galvanizing effect on the functions of the brain and of certain glands. It mobilizes the diaphragm, invigorates the intestines and oxygenates the lungs. It stimulates an increase in the rate of synthesis of the enkephalins, which are the go-betweens of the central nervous system. It activates the secretion of endorphins and other substances that besides giving a feeling of well being, also enliven cellular functions and perk up the immune system (the body's defense against infections, viruses and other external aggressions).

The positive function of laughter on metabolism was also proved by observing that newborns who laugh more are bigger and healthier.
It was found that laughter has a positive effect even on tumours and leukemia. I read that it was an American journalist, Norman Cousins, who made the discovery. He was diagnosed with a terrible disease, ankylosing spondylarthritis. He decided to cure himself by devoting himself to laughter and going to see stand-up comedians, slapstick, clown acts, and comedy shows, reading joke books, watching hilarious films and looking for the funny side in everything.
After six months, he discovered he was cured.

He was the inventor of comic therapy.
For years now, comic videocassettes and clowns have been used as therapy for the terminally ill in some American and French hospitals. Sometimes laughter does not work, but at least the people die happier. Play, emotional contact, and laughter have also been widely used with hospitalized children with encouraging results.
It was in fact noticed that the oppressive atmosphere of hospitals is not conducive to children's recovery.
Cheerful people are sent to play with abandoned infants and to make them laugh. Puppeteers, actors and game leaders have entered hospital wards. Recently, even in Italy, in the pediatric ward of the hospital in Padua, the presence of puppies is being tested: animals have an incredible capacity to induce play and laughter.

The positive results of this "four-paws" therapy, however, is nothing new. For example, the great effectiveness of hippotherapy in the cure of handicaps and mental disorders has been verified by decades of medical practice.
But laughter is important above all because it stimulates a particular state of consciousness that is in itself extremely positive. I cannot burst out laughing if my mood is not inclined to do so.

When we look at a comedian and we know that he is going to make us laugh, we enter an emotional state of happy and playful expectation. If we do not enter this state, laughing is impossible. And each bout of laughter induces us more and more to assume this open-minded and light-hearted attitude. In a crescendo of carefree delight we search, in the best moments, the famous fou rire, or crazy laughter.

During this uncontrollable laughter that feeds on itself, we transcend reality and magically come to see the world as a very complex and hilarious cosmic joke.

Everything becomes reason for jest and rip-roaring laughter. We laugh to the point of tears, until we feel stomach pains, cramps, and finally, exhausted, we stop laughing (ah, how wonderful it is to laugh!).
These fits of laughter are not just physically beneficial. They also relax our mind, lighten our thoughts and make our fears seem groundless. In short, they rid the brain of negative thoughts by cleaning and reordering it.
Laughing is a cultural and philosophical experience. It makes you change your mind about the world.
And when we are able to laugh about something that frightens or pains us, we further the healing process of the psychological wounds that life deals us.

Laughing heals the soul.

By seeing things from the perspective of a laughter, we discover the errors of our mind. When we are taken over by a wave of seriousness, we feel important, conceited and self-assured. We do the most dumb-ass things and end up in trouble. If we sift our plans, ambitions and ideas each time through the sieve of laughter, we will then have an exceptional tool for evaluation. Castaneda says there are three cases in which I should be afraid:

• When I am sure of myself.
• When I am sure that others are wrong.
• When I am doing something in which there is nothing to laugh about.

If I laugh, my way of seeing the world changes: the powerful are not so very powerful and the aggressive often hurt only themselves. And death, although inevitable, is not as bad as it seems. After all, what does death matter? The important thing is to live, laugh and make others laugh.

In the immensity of billions and billions of years, here we are, for a moment, on the stage of events. We have a few minutes to live out our show. So what are you going to do? Sit in the corner brooding because sooner or later it's going to end? Are you joking? Making a loud racket is much, much better!
But it's still not over. Laughter is a means for obtaining positive results.

Laughing switches off the rational mind, it overcomes it, sweeping away its emotional ties and freeing the energy that habitually consumes itself in thinking. When you laugh, this energy is used by the body to regenerate itself. In those moments devoid of rational self-control, we have a more open perception of our being part of the world. For this reason, many masters consider laughing a sacred act of empathy with creation.

The primary flaw in the sectarian and bureaucratic mentality of certain religious leaders is in their seriousness and their lack of a sense of humour, and therefore of the spiritual uplifting that hilarity involves. They fear uproarious laughter because it weakens the power that sustains them, which is characterized by fear and superstition. Humour for them is a mysterious capacity, an unknown and treacherous territory. That is why they don't want anybody to laugh in their temples. They fear that they are being laughed at. On the contrary, the true masters laughed first of all at themselves. They have always seen laughter as a sacred gesture.
The first miracle of Jesus was to transform water into wine so that people could dance and laugh! If he wanted us sad he would have handed out a good shot of bromide to everyone.