'FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT,' Vishwa Prakash, 50, tells a roomful of somewhat sheepish-looking adults. 'Mingle but don't talk and always make eye contact.' If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd stumbled into Sexual Relationships 101 rather than a session at Hong Kong's first laughter club, but within minutes I am simultaneously clapping and chanting 'Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha' according to Prakash's instructions.
The reason for this particular act of merrymaking is not to make you feel like a trainee Santa Claus - which I do to begin with - but, stemming from a yogic exercise, is designed to move the diaphragm and abdominal muscles and prepare the lungs for subsequent laughter. The aim of the free half-hour class is to willingly simulate titters, chuckles, giggles and guffaws without the aid of jokes, physical contact, clowns or alcohol.
By doing so, a childlike state is imitated - children apparently laugh up to 400 times a day; adults on average a paltry 15 - free from stress and everyday worries.
'Laughter is the glue that unites society but many people have 'forgotten' how to laugh - and that is a tragedy,' says Prakash. 'Children don't need a reason to laugh, they just do. But as we grow up we become more inhibited and require a reason. The trouble is there seem to be less things in the modern world to laugh about and far more that cause us to frown. Even though we now have a higher standard of living than our grandparents' generation, we suffer more stress.'
The old adage about laughter being the best medicine appears to be true too. There are bodily benefits galore to be had by a good old giggle - not least because it has a positive impact on the circulatory, respiratory and nervous varieties. Laughter releases endorphins, the body's feel-good factor, and other chemicals secreted by the brain, such as immunoglobulin A and cytokine, which enhance the body's immune system. As well as removing negative emotions, laughter lowers levels of the stress hormone epinephrene and with it related problems such as insomnia, depression, high blood pressure and tension headaches. Feedback from Prakash's regulars indicates a positive change in their attitude to stressful situations.
'They say they just practise ho-ho, ha-ha-ha a few times and laugh off whatever it is that is bothering them,' Prakash says.
According to research by French neurologist Henri Rubenstein, one minute of laughter can give the body up to 45 minutes of therapeutic relaxation; Dr William Fry, a leading researcher into the psychology of laughter at Stanford University, California, estimates that 20 seconds of intense laughter is comparable to three minutes of hard rowing in terms of heart-rate benefits. It doesn't matter, they say, whether laughter is spontaneous or affected because the body can't differentiate between the two. Nor is it tied to one's sense of humour. Although laughter is the physical response to humour, everyone has the ability to laugh without necessarily finding something funny.
