Toni Cook introduces "Laughter Clubs":

When was the last time you laughed spontaneously, just for the joy of being happy? Laughter has a scientifically-proven beneficial effect on the body, mind and spirit. Research shows that as children we laugh up to 400 times per day, while the average adult laughs a meagre 15 times, thus between childhood and adulthood we lose 385 laughs every day! Stress and tension have become the daily norm instead of happiness and inner peace, while regularly experiencing joy seems unimaginable for the vast majority.

Various therapeutic ideas have emerged during the past thirty years to redress this imbalance. Clown therapy to relieve the stress of hospitalisation is now an accepted and growing aid to treatment, especially with children. Dr Robert Holden, founder of “The Happiness Project”, created and ran the first NHS Laughter Clinic, using positive thinking, meditative techniques and games to stimulate recovery in patients suffering from a range of physical and mental complaints. More recently, Dr Madan Kataria, a Bombay GP, started Laughter Club International which now has over 2,000 clubs worldwide, where people do “Laughter Yoga” together and laugh “for no reason”.

A laughter session is conducted by a trained leader who demonstrates each laugh and oversees group participation. Laughter is “fake” and is done as exercises called “Laughter Yoga”, based on yogic principles of deep breathing and relaxation. Jokes are not necessary. The group laughs together on command, which is why depressed people, who don’t usually find anything funny, can also reap the benefits of joining in.

The benefits of laughing are not exclusively based on the release of “happy chemicals” – endorphins - from the brain, but also on the massage effect on internal organs and the increased intake of oxygen and expulsion of carbon dioxide provoked by really hearty laughter. Research has shown that the release of endorphins is not dependent on how humorous a person finds something but is actually stimulated by the physical movement of the mouth and eyes during laughter. This means that if you “fake it”, i.e. you simulate laughter on your face, your brain will release the chemical regardless of how you feel at the emotional level. This has important implications for people suffering from depression, stress and pain, who usually don’t feel much like laughing spontaneously. Other research has demonstrated that throat mucus antibodies increased after a 20-minute laughter session and that Natural Killer Cells (those that fight cancer, for example) become more potent after laughing.

Positive psychological effects include: an increase in concentration, sociability, cooperation, creativity and self-confidence, plus better ability to cope with stress. For these reasons Laughter Clubs are also run within factories, companies and public utilities in India and other parts of the world. Clubs are free and open to all. In India they meet daily; in the West they tend to be less frequent and may meet weekly or monthly.

As this technique was developed by a medic who practised yoga as well as medicine, the contraindications of laughing have also been considered. Mostly they are based on common sense but include: unstable angina, severe external haemorrhoids, pregnancy and patients recovering from recent abdominal surgery, amongst others. From this it might appear that laughing can help you to stay healthy and more positive but may not help when you are already ill. The current laughter session structure only needed slight adjustments to make it available to the disabled and more chronically sick and I visited Bombay in December 2003 to develop this idea with Dr Kataria.

After training as a Leader in September 2002, I started the Laughter Club in Poggibonsi, Italy in January 2003. That summer I gave a talk in Milton Keynes to nine people with MS, explaining the benefits of laughter and what we do in a session. When we tried some laughs I noticed that after each one they would discreetly prop themselves up against a table or chair while I explained the next. Nobody said anything, but I was aware that, even though they could walk, their mobility and energy levels would never permit them to participate in a full club session, which can be quite energetic. Had they been in wheelchairs the situation would have been more difficult. We did five different laughs together, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, and wanted to experience again. The problem was that they lacked a leader to coordinate and activate their sessions.

This experience started me thinking about how these people, who generally suffer pain and depression as part of their condition, in addition to various other symptoms, could be missing out on a very valid and free method of relieving depression and pain – and that there are many more like them, and suffering from other disabling conditions, who would find it impossible to physically participate in the existing club format.

Thanks to a Lottery Commission Millennium Award grant via the Multiple Schlerosis Society, I studied with Dr Kataria to become a Leader Trainer, operating within ethical guidelines to train leaders who could set up clubs for people with Multiple Schlerosis and other disabilities. Two free workshops were held in the UK in March 2004 and sixteen volunteer leaders were trained, six of whom were living with MS. They have returned to their various communities and started using this modified technique.

Feedback has been very positive. One group of 25 at Reading, of which 18 were in wheelchairs. Two yoga teachers from Bedford who have started incorporating Laughter Yoga into their residential courses with ME sufferers and others. Milton Keynes are finally starting their own club at the MS Therapy Centre – just nine months after that first talk! And what of the trainer? I have been asked to address the AGM of the Devon and Cornwall Region of the MS Society in September, which is apparently causing great excitement! The MS International Federation, which has member MS Societies in 42 countries has offered me space on their website to inform their members about this new possibility and I have been approached by a commercial group about giving after dinner addresses and demonstrations of laughing sessions at conference facilities in the UK. All in all, quite a lot to laugh about!

The initial funding came via the UK MS Society but in the future it is hoped to extend these clubs to people living with cancer or HIV and AIDS, to workers in stressful jobs or situations (including NHS and public sector workers), and any group in society which would like to experience the FREE benefits of laughing together for no reason. Clubs are free, with only a contribution towards the rent of a room, if necessary. It is hoped that some commercial sponsorship might help train leaders and set up some clubs in Eastern Europe, where disabled people do not enjoy the benefits system currently available in the more prosperous nations of the EEC and therefore endure financial hardship as well as their physical difficulties. This technique is truly international, because you can laugh in any language. Enquiries from other countries who would like to have some trained leaders would be very welcome.

Toni Cook is available for conference addresses, after-dinner speaking, information evenings, training events or two-day Laughter Club Leader training workshops (whether for standard club format or clubs for people living with disabling illnesses.) She is a certificated Spiritual Healer/Counsellor, an Australian Bush Flower Remedy therapist, studied “Teaching Happiness” with Dr Robert Holden, is a qualified TESOL English teacher, a trained Laughter Club Leader and Laughter Club Leader trainer. Her workshops have been described as “inspirational”, “fun”, “practical and informative”. Anyone who is interested in knowing more can contact Toni Cook via email at: Toni Cook or by phone/fax on 0039 0577 741206 (Italy). (More details of the Laughter Club International are on their website at Laughter Yoga)

© Toni Cook 2004

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