Chapter Seven: The Consumption of Purifying Laughter

Laughter as a Therapeutic and Preventive Method

Laughter is not only an effective therapeutic method but also a preventive and deterrent mechanism against psychosomatic disorders. It constitutes a fundamental need of the body to maintain health. Scientific studies confirm that laughter can reduce stress, strengthen the immune system, and aid in preventing psychosomatic ailments. By triggering the release of endorphins and reducing stress hormones such as cortisol, laughter contributes significantly to both mental and physical well-being. Furthermore, it enhances immunity and fosters social connections.

The Impact of Laughter on Inner Joy

Laughter, though outwardly manifested in the face, poetically engages every single cell in the body, bringing joy and vitality. It serves as an external reflection of an inner pleasurable experience, a visible sign of internal delight. By stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and releasing joy-inducing hormones like dopamine and endorphins, laughter fosters a sense of well-being in both body and mind. Activities that promote joy, by activating the brain’s reward system, enhance mental health, increase longevity, and cultivate a state of inner contentment.

Success, pleasure, intimacy, joy, and vitality are foundational principles of life. The absence of fulfillment in life renders an individual irritable, aggressive, nervous, impatient, and lethargic.

The Role of Joy in Beauty and Child-Rearing

Among the critical considerations in child-rearing is the emphasis on a child’s beauty and physical harmony. Facial beauty may reflect inner purity. Parents who cultivate an environment replete with joy, vitality, and fulfillment in the home are more likely to raise children who embody beauty. The mental health of parents, characterized by joy and reduced stress, positively influences fetal development, as maternal stress and elevated cortisol levels can impede it. Conversely, parents lacking joy, vitality, love, and fulfillment in their household are less likely to raise children with such qualities. Love and fulfillment form the bedrock of effective parenting. When fulfillment is robust, the resulting child exhibits strength, capability, and remarkable resilience. A child whose parents are nourished by love, joy, and fulfillment develops physical harmony and beauty during the fetal stage. Similarly, a child’s robustness and stature are influenced by the frequency and quality of breastfeeding during infancy; the more frequent and nourishing the feeds, the more vigorous and stately the child will become in adulthood.

Laughter as a Cleanser of Excess Energy

Laughter serves as a purifier, a cleansing mechanism for the excess and stored energy within the body. Repressed reactions and emotions, which have not found expression, are released through laughter. Consequently, each bout of laughter brings about inner calm and mental focus. By liberating energy, laughter renders individuals more joyful and vibrant, fostering mental tranquility that facilitates learning and education. Periodic laughter, occurring every two to three hours throughout the day, enhances oxygen flow to the brain and triggers the release of energizing hormones, promoting a greater sense of calm.

Laughter aids in reducing psychological tension and releasing emotional energy, accompanied by the secretion of endorphins and a reduction in cortisol levels.

Laughter as a Mature Mechanism

Laughter is a hallmark of emotional maturity. An infant living a natural life laughs hundreds of times daily, with the first laughter occurring during the fetal stage. This frequency of laughter characterizes a human being in tune with their natural state. However, as individuals are swayed by misguided education, indoctrination, or erroneous habits, they drift further from their innate nature, resulting in fewer instances of laughter. An individual who does not laugh is considered unwell, disconnected from their natural essence.

Genuine, heartfelt laughter serves as a tonic for the nervous system, akin to physical exercise, with therapeutic properties that bolster the immune system. Such laughter enhances immunity by increasing natural killer cells and provides psychological benefits. One minute of sincere laughter yields health benefits equivalent to 45 minutes of physical exercise, promoting relaxation and reducing psychological stress for up to 45 minutes thereafter. The body’s response to frequent laughter mirrors the effects of regular exercise. Remarkably, even forced or artificial laughter retains most of the benefits of genuine laughter.

Laughter’s Role in Stress Hormone Reduction

Laughter is regarded as a natural substitute for certain chemical medications used to manage stress, tension, nervous impulses, and mental unrest. It reduces stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, enabling individuals to exert greater self-control, thereby reducing irritability and anger.

For patients, moments that elicit smiles or laughter are profoundly uplifting, particularly during times of weakness or distress. Inducing laughter in a patient triggers the release of endorphins, a natural painkiller that mitigates discomfort. This makes laughter particularly beneficial for those with chronic conditions such as arthritis or migraines. Laughter enhances the body’s resilience against ailments like asthma, bronchitis, tension headaches, migraines, and pains associated with arthritis, lower back issues, or spinal conditions. Additionally, patients who maintain regular social connections and receive affectionate embraces recover more swiftly than those who are isolated.

Laughter increases dopamine secretion, a neurotransmitter that enhances life enjoyment and fosters feelings of satisfaction and contentment. Laughter, joy, humor, and a sense of wit bring about pleasure, vitality, and nervous system relaxation, while improving digestion. These qualities help individuals overcome stressful situations and anxieties, drawing them closer to an unconditional, eternal love that heals and eradicates stress and anxiety. Such love purifies the mind of criminal thoughts, fear, anger, jealousy, and selfishness, fostering a joyful spirit through the practice of respect, sacrifice, and forgiveness.

The ability to make others laugh, particularly during times of suffering, serves as a lifeline, preventing individuals from drowning in adverse circumstances. Beyond spreading communal joy, this skill facilitates emotional connection, enhances personal charisma, and empowers individuals to inspire others. A smiling face amplifies attractiveness.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

The communal and contagious nature of laughter, where one person’s laughter sparks another’s, has been substantiated by scientific research: “Individuals surrounded by a greater number of joyful people are more likely to be happy in the future compared to those surrounded by unhappy individuals.” Psychological studies affirm that people in happier environments are more likely to experience joy. Experiments with water crystals further illustrate this phenomenon, revealing that crystals exposed to laughter become more beautiful, while those exposed to sadness or negative emotions become less so.

Humans experience grief and crying from the fetal stage. A newborn cries due to the pressures and hardships of life in the womb. More intelligent infants may even cry within the womb, though mothers perceive only their movements, not their tears. After birth, infants soon realize they have entered a more comfortable environment and begin to smile with minimal prompting. Some fetuses exhibit joy, smiles, and contentment in the womb, particularly when the mother’s serenity peaks, allowing their expressions of joy to be perceived.

In severe cases, psychosomatic disorders may manifest as laughter indicative of despair. Similarly, inappropriate humor or frivolity in serious situations signals underlying psychological issues.

Joy and Its Necessity

The body requires daily recreation and joy-inducing activities to sustain hope and vitality. Without moderate engagement in playful or lighthearted activities, individuals risk developing forms of madness, obsession, delusion, or emotional repression. Balanced joy, cheerfulness, smiles, and laughter promote health. For instance, tending to a potted plant or greenery at home, even the simple act of watering it, can engender joy.

Deriving pleasure from observing a pond, greenery, trees, birds, the night sky, stars, or a beautiful face; nurturing plants; engaging in calligraphy, painting, or poetry; spending five to ten minutes with family; or consuming certain herbal infusions like saffron can effortlessly and inexpensively foster bodily joy. Wholesome poetry serves as a companion in solitude, calming the restless spirit, infusing love and renewed vitality, and invigorating the individual.

Joy is a daily requisite for human health. It can be cultivated through moderate engagement in frivolous activities, games, entertainment, or music, as well as by satisfying natural appetites. Joyful activities have a cleansing effect, liberating the body from stagnation. The absence of recreation renders individuals superstitious, delusional, or distressed. Excessive grief, prolonged mourning, or the failure to balance sorrow with joy—coupled with overwork, poverty, or economic deprivation—engenders sorrow in individuals and societies, eroding collective vitality and fostering despair and dissatisfaction.

Grief and joy are akin to salt in food: moderation is key. Insufficient joy leads to rigidity of will, while excessive joy results in its instability. Work should enhance life, not diminish it, nor lead to exhaustion, despair, or fragility. Conversely, excessive indulgence in frivolous activities or unchecked joy can lead to addiction or irreverence, resulting in delusions or fantasies. Such excessive joy, akin to oversalting food, undermines vitality, weakening resilience and rendering individuals fragile, like a flower that wilts without water, rather than a resilient desert cactus. Similarly, neglecting joy leads to irritability, aggression, and rigidity, while balanced joy fosters serenity and longevity.

Joy does not equate to unrestrained guffawing, which may indicate emotional instability or even pathology. In contrast, gentle smiles and heartfelt laughter are invariably beneficial. Those unable to embrace moderate music, play, or lightheartedness as remedies for the soul may cleanse their body but remain convinced of their impurity, fostering obsession. Individuals who lack playfulness or joy, even if devout, risk trivializing faith and relationships. Bodies deprived of joy and recreation lose thermal equilibrium, becoming overheated and prone to self-destruction. Recreational activities, by reducing stress and enhancing mood, help prevent psychological disorders like obsession.

However, joy can be a source of pain for the impoverished, just as poverty withers joy. Poverty undermines pride, hope, and joy, particularly when coupled with debt, leading to premature aging, distress, and shortened lifespans. Poverty fosters discord and aggression, rendering individuals more vulnerable to psychological disorders, with heightened stress, depression, and anxiety jeopardizing mental health.

Crying as Emotional Release

Mindful crying opens the wellspring of the heart and emotions, purifying the soul. Crying should be permitted as a means of emotional release and stress reduction, alleviating psychological pressure, soothing negative emotions, and enhancing emotional health. By releasing stress hormones, crying facilitates emotional relief.

Longevity and Its Conditions

Humans possess the capacity for a long life within their earthly framework, provided they enjoy bodily freedom, live in natural and balanced conditions, and maintain a suitable diet. They must understand and nurture their psyche, avoiding harsh or oppressive circumstances. Adverse conditions and inappropriate diets shorten natural lifespans, leading to premature, involuntary, or unfulfilled deaths that prevent the realization of an individual’s divine potential, innate abilities, and unique purpose.

Longevity and the flourishing of talents, culminating in a natural death, are attainable through proper paternal nutrition, ensuring a robust embryo, and maternal nutrition during pregnancy, fostering strong bone structure. Individuals must guard against osteoporosis, discontent, and dissatisfaction while drawing sustenance from their inner purity and divine love, harnessing radiant energy. Parental nutrition and maternal health during pregnancy significantly influence fetal development and skeletal health. Joy and stress reduction are also linked to longevity.

Yet, there are those who, through grand embezzlements, plunder the rights of nations or misappropriate public resources, condemning millions to hardship, stress, and premature death. These individuals become murderers without weapons. One must neither become such a perpetrator nor allow the loss of personal freedoms to become their victim. Osteoporosis is a significant factor in premature aging and shortened lifespans, with additional factors detailed elsewhere in this book.