Unconditional laughter now on a CD

“Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho”, were the introductory remarks made by Dr Madan Kataria, a Mumbai-based physician, when I spoke to him over the telephone for an interview on Laughter Yoga. And before I could ask him my first question, he interrupted me and said: “Have you started your day with a laugh? And if not, then you can begin with it now.”

Perplexed by his comment, I asked him how I can laugh all by myself. “To laugh you don’t need someone to crack a joke,” said Dr Kataria. “It is just a technique one has to develop to make one’s body and mind to laugh.”

He further said he and his wife Madhuri will launch a 40-minute Laughter Yoga CD next month that will aid an individual with the techniques on practising laughter at home or at workplace without group sessions.

“The CD will provide you a regular laughter session that can have a profound impact on your health and well-being. Laughter is a gentle exercise and it requires minimum efforts to achieve maximum results,” said Dr Kataria.

Laughter Yoga combines unconditional laughter with yogic breathing (pranayama). The ‘How To Laugh Alone’ CD can be acquired through the club’s website laughteryoga.org for $20 (Dh73.40), while in India the CD will be sold through its centres for Rs400 (Dh36.74).

The ‘Giggling Guru’ is a familiar face in India. He started the Laughter Club in 1995 in Mumbai with the help of five people. His 20-minute-a-day laughter therapy has not only helped many find relief from stress and anxiety, but has also helped managers in the corporate world to stay focused during their training drills – resulting in improving their communication skills.

Dr Kataria who has conducted sessions in nearly 55 countries, said: “Modern lifestyle has eaten into the laughter timing. Years ago people would spend 20 minutes a day or more laughing. Now an adult laughs for merely five minutes.”
There are around 7,000-8,000 laughter clubs in India. They are run by volunteers trained as laughter teachers. These clubs are non-political, non-religious and non-profit run under the aegis of Laughter Clubs International in India and Laughter Yoga International in the rest of the world.

“Laughter is contagious and it spreads even when people are laughing over a telephone,” said Dr Kataria who made me end the conversation with “Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho”.

Laughter day

Every first Sunday of May is celebrated as World Laughter Day.

Scientific research

Clinical research on Laughter Yoga methods conducted at the University of Graz in Austria, Bangalore (India) has shown that laughter lowers the level of stress hormones (epinephrine, cortisol, etc) in the blood.

Laughter yoga in prisons

Laughter yoga is being practised in several prisons in India, Europe and the US.

Laughter machine

Japanese professor Yoji Kimura has developed a machine to calculate laughter. The laughter quantity is expressed in terms of “aH” - a unit of measurement. To measure laughter, he attaches sensors on the skin of a tested subject’s stomach. The machine at 3,000 times a second records the electric elements normally produced in the body.