Is laughter really the best medicine?

"Laugh and your life will be lengthened for this is the great secret of long life."
Og Mandino

It was a pleasant morning in spring 2005, I was having breakfast with some friends, this scene was nothing unusual except that the location was a remote village, a little over an hour from Brasilia by car (the capital of Brazil) in the resident city of healing by the famed John of GOD (more about him in another blogpost).

We had started some random conversations and being silly as each person was offering sharing their experiences. Our conversations were punctuated by smiles that would in end in loud laughter, within twenty minutes, our lungs and diaphragmatic muscles were sufficiently warmed up to work out we were going to give it the next hour.



We were all telling jokes and there was a particular joke by yours truly on which the whole group laughed for an hour. The joy of the laughter like the swine flu had spread to other tables and had people grinning, nodding, laughing though not a single one of them was privy to our joke. I realized, in laughter there is oneness of hearts


I can be funny on occasions but never have elicited laughter of this magnitude. Never in my adult life have I had such a contrast of emotions while simultaneously laughing my head off. In the midst of the laughter, my mind had taken a pause to take in the atmosphere to ask where was I?


I was choked with emotion, a sudden realization came, I became aware that, most of these wonderful people around me were terminally ill patients, some had only days to live while others a few months. I myself had accompanied my dear friend (now deceased) for a last attempt to save him from the cruel clutches of death through the benevolence of this great healer. It became clear that, I was no comic genius, but these were people wanting to live, experience, soak in the beauty of life until the last moment. I had just provided the initial kinetic energy for their joy to pour out.

Even now as I write these lines, I feel the same emotions, grateful to have been part of a very beautiful experience.

I experienced for the first time the healing power of laughter. Is laughter really the best medicine? Two people have been healing masses through laughter and ironically both of them are doctors A. Patch Adams: B. Madan Kataria.

Patch Adams

There was a phenomenal movie made on Patch Adams portrayed brilliantly by Robin Williams which I highly recommend.




Laughter Yoga



Dr. Madan Kataria started laughter yoga with five people and it has become an international organization with hundreds of clubs across the world. The concept is simple, a bunch of people get together and just laugh for an hour or so. It is extremely therapeutic and has known to heal some very deep psychological issues including potentially incurable diseases.




Healing through laughter

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
- King Solomon (Proverbs 17:22)

Perhaps the most insightful recording of the benefits of laughter and humour healing came from Dr. Norman Cousins in his book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient. Dr.Cousins was himself afflicted with extremely painful inflammation of his body. He constantly watched funny videos and read funny books to put him in a positive emotional state.

He later wrote "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep." He recovered from this condition and spent the next 20 years teaching about the merits of laughter and humour in healing.




I recently read an article about a lady who discovered that she had cancer. She would lock herself in a room and keep watching funny videos for hours and she has stated on record that her cancer has disappeared because of that.


According to the author of Humour Your Tumour Dr. Paul McKee “Watching humorous videos that produce mirthful laughter increase the activity of natural killer cells in the blood stream. A key role of the natural killer cell is to seek out and destroy tumour cells in the body.”




It is important to understand at the root of humour is joy. Healing will be greatly enhanced if we can put ourselves in a positive environment which can include an atmosphere of laughter. So let us take time out everyday to laugh and laugh well and until our ears, cheeks and backs hurt. Trust me the pay off is amazing for the pain it takes to laugh for an hour or so. All you have to do is invite your friends over and imitate the sessions from the videos in this blogpost.