Laugh Club In India example essay topic
410 words
Laugh your way to peace? Yes, say the believers. Laugh, they claim, and you may live longer. Laugh and you may boost your immune system. And what if the whole world learned to lighten up? 'It may take 1,000 years, but we hope to see world peace through laughter,' declares Steve Wilson, the country's leading 'joyologist. ' Officially, this means Wilson is a man who dedicates his life to the pursuit of joy. For the Ohio physician, laughter is the triumph in his bag of healing tools. 'Laughter prevents hardening of the attitudes, a vital step toward the goal of peace,' he says. In the United States, more than 500 laughter clubs exist, and in Seattle, 50 more laugh leaders received certification from Wilson last month, bringing the total to about 55.
Locally, participants include students at Blanche t High and inmates at King County's North Rehabilitation Facility in Shoreline. Many laugh-club members find themselves transformed into children again, and why not. The average preschooler laughs up to 400 times a day. The average adult? A sad seven to 15. Observing a laugh club in India, Wilson sensed the potency of a gaggle of beaming adults coming together, making eye contact and laughing as an aerobic workout.
Perhaps the most startling detail of the laugh club is the price. In this world of often-expensive New Age improvements, these chuckles come free. Free of humor, too, which is subjective - and potentially offensive. Laughter clubs are fueled by unbridled chortles in a format as disciplined as a yoga classroom, but far more fun. Laughing became a formal discipline in India, where family physician Dr. Madan Kataria invited five of his patients into a city park to experiment with the healing qualities of laughter. The effect on the patients's pir its and health was striking, and in 1995, Kataria founded laughter as a form of yoga.
Known as the Guru of Giggles, Kataria's influence on the movement is profound. In Seattle, a Harborview Medical Center employee brought laughter back to Washington state last summer after attending a laughing group in India. Nearly every laugh leader carries a copy of Kataria's book 'Laugh For No Reason. ' In Seattle, it's easy to find an enthusiastic group of bel lowers in the Phinney Neighborhood Center each Wednesday after work.
