Suppression
Laughing
Category: Actions
Type
Involuntary and voluntary
Introduction and description
"Your day goes the way the corners of your mouth turn" [Dr Robert Holden]
Laughter is a mechanism everyone has. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but practically everyone can laugh and they do it in much the same way. Lots of sharp intakes of breath – like a panic attack. Hyperventilation caused by a joke or being tickled or relief.

Physically, it is simply repeated sharp breaths [with the addition of sound]. It doesn’t last for long, unless of course we have gone to a Ken Dodd show, [in which case it can last for 6 hours] so as a means of achieving spiritual experience it is theoretically pretty ineffective. But it is an extremely good adjunct to the other techniques, because it serves to relax us and furthermore it has health benefits which thus help to prepare us for deeper experiences. It also causes the release of Endorphins. If you have been to a Ken Dodd show you also end up physically exhausted from laughing so much, so this helps too. [Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson were also good but their shows didn’t last 6 hours]
Laughter physically comes in two stages.

The build-up to laughing is often some form of stress. The stress can be real – a dangerous situation, or it can be ‘manufactured’ by a comic or funny film or TV programme or a clown in a circus. We might be angry, upset or sad or frightened - this is real stress or the comic might have created some verbal inconsistency which sets us puzzling and lightly stresses us because we are confused. A comic film often employs mock situations of real danger. Tom and Jerry is full of violence of an unprecedented kind. We don’t know what is going to happen next, we sit in mock fight or flight mode waiting with baited breath.
Then the punch line comes, the danger passes and Tom gets his come-uppance from Jerry and we laugh with relief. Uppers and downers.
This may sound a barmy theory, but it is not mine. Sigmund Freud, for example, summarised it in his ‘relief theory’ by saying that laughter releases tension. And he is not alone, many more since have come to the same conclusion. Most really good comedians know this law of comedy. The comedian creates a conundrum [threat], but then solves it in an unexpected way. For example one of Les Dawson’s jokes was

“I knew my mother in law was coming” [first part - how/ why? Threat , Anticipation]
“Because the mice were throwing themselves on the traps” [unexpected solution – relief, laughter]
There is of course far more to this than just relief, because there is also within the laughter an appreciation of the cleverness of the solution. There is also a cultural element to this, as ‘the mother-in-law’ within UK comedy at least, took on an awe inspiring role as a figure of mock terror and fun for many years.
We laugh when real danger has passed, we laugh when mock danger has passed. The amount of laughter - how hard and long we laugh - is determined by how much tension has been created.
So ultimately we can see that this works by creating a mock threat and then taking the threat away. It is a Relaxation technique. A form of meditation.
Background

The health benefits of laughing have been acknowledged in the UK. In September 1991, Dr Robert Holden opened the first Government-backed ‘Laughter Clinic’. Part of a wider ‘Stress Buster’ initiative started in 1989, both Stress Buster Clinics and Laughter clinics are part of the UK’s National Health Service.
Rx Laughter, a non-profit organization interested in the use of humour for healing, is active in the USA.
Laughter was also used extensively by Aleister Crowley in his system of Magic. A whole raft of quite ingenious techniques were used within this category. He borrowed from Lewis Carroll the idea of employing funny nonsense verse or riddles. And he used humour extensively, though being Crowley it was a clever kind of humour.
The spiritual link has been recognised within Yoga. Laughter Yoga (Hasyayoga), for example, is a form of yoga employing self-triggered laughter. The "laughter" is physical in nature, but does not necessarily involve humour. The concept was believed to have been developed by Jiten Kohi, but has been made popular as an exercise routine by Indian physician Madan Kataria. In practise, a group of people start laughing about nothing! But because laughter is quite catching, in the end the fake laughter becomes real laughter. In this case there are no Endorphins; instead it has an effect upon the cognitive processes, because you are not laughing at anything, you are teaching the mind to think of nothing, to still the Reasoning mind to forget the Memories. The laughter so generated helps to still the mind, as they say “Laughter Yoga allows adults to achieve sustained hearty laughter without involving cognitive thought. It bypasses the intellectual systems”
Personally I prefer Ken Dodd.
Method

Choose a film or show that creates this alternating pattern of mock threat and then relief. Cartoons work well - Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. The Marx Brothers knew the theory of humour too. There are a number of videos with Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, and other ‘old fashioned’ comedians who worked via this principle. Clowns are excellent too. The clowns in the Cirque du Soleil work on this principle. Slava’s snow show is a wonderful example of the clown principle at it most brilliant.
Most modern ‘humour’ on TV or films sadly does not work this way. In fact it isn’t even funny.
We will not get the effect from Friends, but we may well do from a clown in the circus, firstly because they are very absorbing and secondly because they involve ‘slapstick’ - simulated violence. We are empathising, and by empathising our bodies act in concert to save us from the pain we think they might be about to receive – even if we know it is not ‘real’.
The key is to choose humour that has this alternating pattern of threat and threat removal.
How it works
Physically
Physically what we are doing is invoking our two nervous systems. As the tension builds the Sympathetic nervous system kicks in. This is the flight or fight response system. Our heart rate will increase, our pupils dilate, we will get a dry mouth, adrenaline will start to pump, our stomach and bladder will be inhibited. We will be all alert, ready for the outcome and ready to act.
Then the punch line comes and the tension is released and the Parasympathetic nervous system kicks in. We relax, the heart rate goes down, the pupils constrict, the bronchi in the lungs are constricted, we salivate more and because the muscles controlling our bladder and intestines relax, we may suddenly want to wee or poo. As the saying goes

“Laugh? I thought my socks would never dry”
Uppers and downers
Thus the entire process works by the alternation of overload [Emotion = artificial fear ] with removal of this emotion [Emotion = absolute relief and peace]
It is the downers that are key because by relaxing, totally relaxing and collapsing with relief, we have opened the door to spiritual experience. We are teaching ourselves deep relaxation – the precursor to most benign forms of non-drug based spiritual techniques.
As Alan Watts once wrote, "The whole art of life is in knowing how to transform anxiety into laughter".
Logically
Logically, initially there is very high Emotion with a suppression of both Learning and Memory because we are absorbed in the existence of this mock Threat. The more unlikely the mock threat, as in a cartoon or clown show, the better as this means we do not try to learn from the event, we simply watch totally absorbed.
When the threat is removed, there is then a moment of total suppression of all our functions - Emotions, Learning and Memory and as a consequence Reasoning, and the Will is relieved of all responsibility to do anything. And the Composer can step in and we have our spiritual experience.
For more information see How spiritual experience works.
Advantages
- Laughter, is not only harmless it has health benefits.
- Can be free
- Legal
- Humour inspires humanity. Or if we want to put a more down to earth slant on this, Alan Alda put it another way: "when people are laughing, they're generally not killing one another!".
- If these sorts of techniques were used often, there would be no need for people to use drugs for example, because they would be better prepared to go the no drug, breathing, befuddling and meditation route
- It does work. I suspect Ken Dodd has been permanently spiritually inspired for all his life, as were Les Dawson and Tommy Cooper
Disadvantages
The real disadvantage to most people I suppose is that it only acts as one piece in the jigsaw of pieces of suppression. But to me this may be one of its real advantages, it encourages you to use the combinations.
References and further reading
Laughter the Best Medicine: The Healing Power of Happiness, Humour and Laughter - Dr Robert Holden
Laugh For No Reason Kataria, Madan (2002),
Fish story - Thieman L, James D.
Observations
There is a mix of observations here. Some observations describe the health benefits of laughter and a large number are based on inspiration gained from laughing.
The poems are thus inspired by laughter.
Related observations
Healing observations
- Bach, Dr Edward - The benefits of sunshine 011145
- Cancer and the healing effect of laughter 000581
- Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy - Mysticism keeps men sane 015036
- Cousins, Norman - Pain and healing laughter 000579
- Dental problems and the healing effect of humour 000580
- Heart disease and the healing effect of laughter 000583
- Jack Carroll - It's a Funny Old Week 023238
- Joyful music and endothelial dysfunction 006280
- Laughter therapy and breast cancer 006277
- Laughter therapy and dermatitis 006281
- Laughter therapy and erectile dysfunction 006283
- Laughter therapy and gastric cancer 006276
- Laughter therapy and heart attack care 006284
- Laughter therapy and infertility 006279
- Laughter therapy and insomnia 006278
- Laughter therapy stress and the immune system 006285
- Music therapy - In the Mansuri hospital Cairo and Edirne hospital 022280
- Pain relief from laughter 000584
- Sex and cancer 006428
- Sex fights colds and flu 006427
- Stress busting 'mirthful laughter' 000582
- TEDtalk - Maysoon Zayid: I got 99 problems ... palsy is just one, Dec 2013 023225
- TEDtalks - Francesca Martinez 023237
- Therapeutic value of laughter in medicine 006275
- Therapeutics Education Collaboration - Choosing Wisely 012488
- To Heaven and Back Methadone & Ibogaine by Jasen 017440
Hallucination
Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss
- A duck's revenge 005444
- Acrobat 005445
- Adam and Eve 005446
- Adam and Eve 007545
- Agatha Christie - Misc. Quotes 012348
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 09 - 2 The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon 000865
- Aloof 005447
- Anacreon - And Now With All Thy Pencil's Truth 012511
- Anacreon - As Late I sought the Spangled Bowers 012512
- Anacreon - Beauty 012513
- Anacreon - Count Me, on the Summer Trees 012514
- Anacreon - Dancing 012521
- Anacreon - Give me the heart of epic song 012515
- Anacreon - Love's Mark 012522
- Anacreon - Old Age 012509
- Anacreon - One day the Muses 012517
- Anacreon - Tell me gentle youth, I pray 012523
- Anacreon - The Old Lover 012518
- Anacreon - The Vintage 012519
- Anacreon - Youth and Age 012520
- Anyone for tennis 005448
- Auden, W H - On the Circuit - Since Merit but a dunghill is 000393
- Back seam stockings 005449
- Backwards glance 005450
- Beat me, beat me, tie me up 006453
- Blithe spirit - Beery brews 004742
- Blithe spirit - By the lake 004688
- Blondes 005452
- Bread 005468
- Carlson, Chester – They remarked that Carlson's modesty was even more impressive than his invention 025279
- Carroll, Lewis - The Hunting of the Snark 005994
- Carrying the Mirror 005676
- Cat Chaplin 005681
- Cat goldfish 005679
- Cautionary tale 005476
- Chesterton, G K - Elegy in a Country Churchyard 013326
- Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy - On change 006371
- Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy - Reason is itself a matter of faith 015033
- Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy - Satan fell by the force of gravity 003721
- Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy - Science and belief systems 015032
- Chesterton, G K - The Man who was Thursday 003724
- Chesterton, G K - The wild worship of lawlessness and the materialist worship of law 003716
- Cocteau, Jean - Diary of an Unknown - Quotes 015434
- Corset relief and the BBC 005465
- Crackers 004583
- Crowley, Aleister - from Yoga for Yahoos 006439
- Crowley, Aleister - from Yoga for Yahoos - Yama and Niyama 000301
- Day at the beach 005474
- Della Moore 007539
- Democritus - Fr 117 Diogenes Laertius IX 72 013317
- Democritus - Galenus Diels fr 125 013316
- Disapproval 004705
- Do you want to know a secret? 005471
- Dr David Hicks 004754
- Dr Seuss - Gerald McBoing-Boing 028256
- Dr Seuss - Green Eggs and Ham 028258
- Dr Seuss - Horton Hatches the Egg 01 028270
- Dr Seuss - Horton Hatches the Egg 02 028271
- Dr Seuss - If I ran the Circus 028262
- Dr Seuss - One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish 028260
- Dr Seuss - The Cat in the Hat 01 028267
- Dr Seuss - The Cat in the Hat 02 028268
- Dr Seuss - The Hat as mask 028252
- Duchamp, Marcel - Door as a substitute for two doors 016108
- Dumb blonde 005470
- Eddington, Sir Arthur - The Expanding universe - Ten thousand million million million stars 002952
- Endorphins part 1 004581
- Energy saving suggestion 005454
- Eno, Brian - Portsmouth Sinfonia - William Tell overture 021943
- Eno, Brian - The Dick Flash interview 021937
- Eric Clapton and Peter Kay play 'Sunshine Of Your Love' at Manchester 14/05/2013 023258
- Eureka 004711
- Fighting the crocodiles 004358
- Fish 005443
- Frank's view of death 004975
- French maid 004562
- Freudian theories 005779
- Frost, Robert - Some of you will be glad I did what I did 015313
- Fruit and vegetables 005682
- Gary Dealney 005196
- Gas mask 005475
- Give 100 per cent at work 005473
- Good doggy 006739
- Green, Lennart - Close up card magic TED 014233
- Gurdjieff - Miscellaneous quote 1 012926
- Halloween 002990
- Hands on 004725
- Hardy, Thomas - The ruined maid 006052
- Hell explained by a chemistry student 007290
- Hesiod - Works and Days - Pissing into the wind 015260
- Hesiod - Works and Days - Sound Advice 015261
- Hesiod - Works and Days - Words of Great Wisdom 015255
- Holmes, Oliver Wendell - A familiar letter 014261
- Holmes, Oliver Wendell - Cacoethes Scribendi 014260
- Holmes, Oliver Wendell - On Ether 002125
- Homo ecce 004680
- Horror Movie 005451
- Hot dogs 005469
- How sweet the heavens are 004590
- I don't get bored with you 004700
- If I was your wedded wife 004738
- In the nick of time 004756
- Korean mystic shamanism – Methods – Laughing 027161
- Life's problems 004749
- Like Marilyn Monroe 004915
- Literally figuratively 005453
- Logan, Andrew - The British Guide to Showing Off 017789
- Madrid 005478
- Man on a bike 005680
- Man Ray - Quote 03 016599
- Man Ray - Self Portrait 01 016602
- Man Ray - Self Portrait 04 016608
- Manet come and get me 004569
- Masochism 006452
- Michelangelo - 1516 Tomb of Pope Julius II - Moses 024423
- Milligan, Spike - The Goon show 005114
- Moitessier, Bernard – The Long Way - Good Hope 016947
- Momo Wandel Soumah - Felenko Yefe 017186
- Monroe, Robert - Nature as teacher 006069
- Mrs Admission's evolutionary psychology theories 005780
- Ms. Nathalie Annenkof – Two cases of OBE 027938
- Nash, Ogden - A Word to husbands 015310
- Nash, Ogden - Common Cold 015307
- Nash, Ogden - On celery 012448
- Nash, Ogden - The Adventures of Isabel 015304
- Nash, Ogden - The Firefly 022791
- Nash, Ogden - The Germ 015305
- Nash, Ogden - The Mermaid 002605
- Nash, Ogden - The Parent 015306
- Nash, Ogden - The Tale of Custard the Dragon 015308
- No Santa this year 005463
- Old Irish Folk song 005467
- Osho - Absolutely Free to Be Funny 029339
- Oxytocin sickness 004582
- Peacock story 005678
- Peel me a grape 004563
- Pisa push 005677
- Remember my poems are dangerous 004727
- Rubens - The Destiny of Marie de Medici 002649
- Sand 005733
- Save the Whale 005675
- Schulz, Charles - On fate 017112
- Seaside 004719
- Seaside 2 004755
- Sellers, Peter - The Wrong Box 026016
- Sex and cancer 006428
- Sex fights colds and flu 006427
- She said 005462
- Shoes 005782
- Sisters of mercy 004595
- Smoking smokers 005457
- Spelling lesson 004730
- Teapot song 005674
- TEDtalk - Maysoon Zayid: I got 99 problems ... palsy is just one, Dec 2013 023225
- TEDtalks - Isabel Allende - Tales of Passion 017574
- Tennis flasher 005456
- Terrifying shadow 005472
- The Car 005459
- The golfer 005458
- The Hedgehog 005673
- The Kama sutra – 04 Social Gatherings 018692
- The Lady from Spain 006740
- The Making of Peter Kay's Children in Need Single 2009 023257
- The Masochist 004574
- The Reinforced condom 005464
- The Sadist 006456
- The Smoker's lament 005455
- Three graces 004598
- Thurber, James - Further fables for our Time 007278
- Tirrukural, the - Book 2 from Courtesy 022860
- To Heaven and Back Methadone & Ibogaine by Jasen 017440
- Tommy Cooper - insomnia 012454
- Vespers 005460
- Von Stuck, Franz - 1887 Amor imperator 019621
- Watson, James Dewey - On sun and sex 006228
- Wheeler, Professor John – On thinking out of the box and using your students to do it 025641
- Wild wood 004729
- Woody Allen on cheating 014228
- Woody Allen on God 007242
- You are old my sweet lover 005466
- Youtube? 005479
Out of time
- Crowley, Aleister - Yoga for Yahoos 016552
- Ms. Nathalie Annenkof – Two cases of OBE 027938
- To Heaven and Back Methadone & Ibogaine by Jasen 017440
Enlightenment
- Anacreon - Eros 004684
- Bruno, Giordano – A general account of bonding - On lightning, thunderbolts and pubic hair 016083
- Moitessier, Bernard – The Long Way - Good Hope 016947
- Schulz, Charles - Sometimes I lie awake at night 017104
In time
- Green, Lennart - Close up card magic TED 014233
- Korean mystic shamanism – Methods – Laughing 027161
- Nash, Ogden - The Adventures of Isabel 015304
- Shaku, Soyen - from 101 Zen stones - the disciple's story 016345
- To Heaven and Back Methadone & Ibogaine by Jasen 017440