Laughing Matters

[Guest guest]

Laughing matters

 

Searching for happiness and good health, people gather and force

themselves to

giggle, yuk, and guffaw

 

By Elizabeth Barchas, Globe Correspondent, 7/21/2001

 

NEW YORK - Dana Flynn stretches her arms toward the sky. Her fiery

auburn hair

tumbles down her back in wild curls. Her feet are bare. She's smiling.

 

''We are the happiest people in the world!'' she screams. The crowd

surrounding her laughs in

affirmation.

 

''We are the healthiest people in the world.'' Chortles, chuckles,

hearty hoots.

 

''We are so far out there that we're on a rooftop in New York City

laughing!'' Shrieks, giggles.

 

''We are the Laughing Lotus Laughter Club!''

 

Flynn, 39, shouts the mantra to a dozen others on a rooftop eight

stories above Barrow Street

in the heart of Greenwich Village. The group has gathered to guffaw for

20 minutes. Jokes are

notably absent. Humor has no place here.

 

What draws them together is pure, unadulterated, interactive laughter, a

weekly ritual for the

Laughing Lotus Laughter Club, one of about 20 official laughter clubs in

North America and

part of a phenomenon that originated in India in 1995.

 

Every Tuesday night, Flynn, a yoga instructor, leads the others in

laughter exercises she

creates, drawing on the breathing techniques and poses of yoga. There's

the ''subway laugh,''

which has club members form a tight circle and jostle against each

other, laughing all the

while. Or the ''lion laugh,'' in which members pounce at each other,

giggling, wagging their

tongues, and scratching the air with imaginary claws.

 

''There's something that happens in those moments when you laugh with

someone elsewhere

you feel completely, absolutely in love,'' Flynn explains. ''You look at

somebody when you're

doing it, so right away it's a soulful connection. It's an intimate

link.''

 

A few minutes into each session, the forced laughter that began the

exercises usually turns

into genuine, spontaneous screeching.

 

''When you have days like we do, it's good to let go and be silly,''

says Meredith Bergman of

Manhattan, a 34-year-old film agent. ''It's brave to let yourself look

stupid. That's the fun in it.''

 

''Seven days without laughter makes one weak.'' - Mort Walker

 

Here's something to take seriously: Laughter is good for your health.

Recent medical research,

filled with discourse on ''neuroendocrines,'' has a simple message. To

ease tension, improve

 

respiration, and strengthen the immune system, enjoy a good laugh. Punch

lines don't matter;

it's the physiological effects of laughter that make a difference.

 

Gayle Davidson, of Colrain, Mass., is a believer. In 1992, she sustained

serious injuries in a car

accident. Along with a regimen of physical therapy, Davidson watched a

funny movie every

day, determined to hoot and holler her way to health. ''My doctor says

I'm a walking miracle,''

she says, ''and I know it's because of laughter.''

 

These days Davidson chuckles with the Laughin' Laugh-In Club in

Greenfield, Mass., the

Commonwealth's first laughter club, now on summer hiatus. ''If a group

is laughing together,

everyone is smiling and feeling chummy, and it's warm and nurturing,''

Davidson says. ''I think

that's why laughter clubs work. There aren't many places where people

can go and get silly

without being judged.''

 

Violet Walker, of Greenfield and a professional clown, founded the club

in 1999 after the

illness of a good friend.

 

Like Norman Cousins, who popularized laughter as medicine in his 1979

book ''Anatomy of an

Illness,'' Walker's friend suffered from a debilitating form of spinal

arthritis. Walker prescribed

weekly laughter - ranging from the Santa Claus ''ho, ho, ho'' variety to

the ''vowel movement''

exercise that stretches vowel sounds into chuckles.

 

She invited others to participate, and the club has drawn as many as

three dozen people to its

weekly meetings.

 

''We felt more connected - we had built community,'' Walker says. ''You

always feel connected

to people you laugh or cry with. You feel as if maybe you could talk to

them on the street the

next time you see them.''

 

''The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is

laughter.'' - Mark Twain

 

The laughter club movement began in Bombay, when Dr. Madan Kataria

invited a cluster of

people to join him for an impromptu laugh while walking through the park

one morning.

Forced laughter, the physician decided, gave people a sense of

well-being, and he started

traveling across India pitching his idea.

 

Steve Wilson of Columbus, Ohio, co-founder of the World Laughter Tour, a

clearinghouse for

laughter clubs in America, has grand visions for the movement.

 

''It's a path to world peace. If we can get less anger and more

laughter, less judgment and more

emotional balance into people, there will be less war,'' he says. ''I

want to see the United

Nations have laughter contests.''

 

Wilson does his part by training Certified Laughter Leaders in a weekend

course he offers

about six times a year. The seminars cover everything from basic

techniques of inducing

laughter to helping people get past their fear of looking silly. So far,

Wilson has trained about

125 Laughter Leaders, including Carol O'Flaherty, of Braintree, who uses

laughter as a public

speaker and as a nurse and who hopes to start a laughing club in Quincy.

''Laughter to me is

as essential as breathing and nutrition. Everyone needs it in their

lives,'' she says. ''Laughter

clubs are about coming together and sharing good health and harmony and

the positivism

that exists in humanity. I say I'm changing the world one smile at a

time.''

 

''Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.'' - Victor Borge

 

On the rooftop in Manhattan, Flynn leads her group in the ''sewing

laugh.'' She measures her

laughter as she leans back inch by inch - ''ey, ey, ey'' - and then

falls forward suddenly with an

''ah, ha, ha, ha.''

 

Her movement is fluid, wispy. Her limbs cut the air dramatically. Her

laugh is deep, almost throaty.

 

The group follows suit, members bumping into each other, practically

falling to the floor in

convulsions of laughter.

 

Behind them, the sun sets in swirls of yellow and orange, and the World

Trade Center juts

into the background.

 

''Laugh like you're on top of a roof in New York City,'' shrieks Flynn,

''and you're laughing for

no reason at all.''

 

This story ran on page F1 of the Boston Globe on 7/21/2001.

© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.