In March, 1995, Dr. Madan Kataria was writing an article called ‘Laughter - the best medicine’ for a health magazine. In his research he discovered large amounts of scientific literature on the benefits of laughter on the human mind and body. He was very impressed by American journalist Norman Cousins’ book ‘Anatomy of an Illness’ in which he described how he laughed his way out of an incurable disease of the spine - Ankylosing Spondylitis. He was also impressed by the research work undertaken by Dr. Lee S. Berk from Loma Linda University, California, who showed how mirthful laughter reduced the stress hormone levels in the body and the effects of laughter on the immune system.
He decided there and then to start a laughter club and within three hours put his plan into action in a public park with four people. In the beginning, all the participants stood in a circle with one person invited to come to the centre and crack a joke or tell a humorous anecdote. People enjoyed the fun and felt nice after 10-20 minutes of laughter every morning. This method worked fine for about 15 days, after which the stock of good jokes ran out. It was evident that they could not depend on someone telling jokes 365 days a year and also jokes are subjective and dependent on many factors, so jokes were banned and Dr Kataria promised to come up with a new way of laughing without reason.
The resulting Laughter Yoga developed by Dr. Kataria is a blend of yogic deep breathing, stretching, stimulated laughter exercises and cultivated child-like playfulness.
