by Thomas Scheff
There was a long article in the New Yorker in late August on what is being called laughter yoga, a type of yoga that is wonderfully simple. A teacher begins the class by pretending to laugh, and encourages the students to join with their own pretended laughter. Even though the initial laughs are artificial, soon the teacher and most of the students are actually laughing, not pretending. After the class, the students report that it was highly enjoyable, and vow to continue.
Thomas Scheff
Apparently there are now thousands of classes in India, where it originated, and in Asia and Europe as well. I happen to know that there are many classes in Denmark, for example. Closer to home, classes have been going on for some time in San Luis Obispo, and will probably start in Santa Barbara and Ojai soon. [there are many laughter yoga happenings in Santa Barbara: http://www.facebook.com/LaughterYoga.SantaBarbara.Ojai as well as http://hopedance.org/home/laughter-happiness/1615 ]
Yet in this country, there seems to be less interest than in the rest of the world. Perhaps laughter yoga is seen as shallow, a mere fad. The Indian originator offers no explanation of why it works, nor does the New Yorker. If we understood the process, however, it might turn out to be surprisingly deep.
See the rest of the story at: http://www.independent.com/news/2010/nov/04/revival-feeling-redux/
