Hi Laughter Lovers,

             Walking through King’s Cross, Sydney yesterday I took a short cut through a back alley. There I was confronted by a shady looking character who whispered to me: “Hey, dude, wanna get high? I got some really good stuff. You’re gonna love my punchlines. C’mon, I got all the funny you need, my man – jokes, riddles, cartoons, one liners. Wrap your laughing gear around some of my amusing anecdotes and hilarious witticisms, my friend, and you will be on a humour high that will have your nucleus accumbens jumpin’ for joy!”

This guy was obviously acquainted with the research of Dr. Allan Reiss, director of the Stanford Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory. Reiss and his colleagues were the first to discover that the part of the brain that responds to the enjoyment of humour is the same reward centre that responds to the pleasure of drugs such as methamphetamines and cocaine. No wonder people love to laugh. And no wonder people love people who make them laugh!

Reiss conducted an experiment in which he monitored brain activity in a group of volunteers while they viewed a series of cartoons. The funnier a volunteer found a certain cartoon the more activation there was in the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens often referred to as NAcc. The NAcc not only lights up with pleasure under the influence of powerful drugs it also delivers the rewarding feelings we experience when we receive money or see a face we find very attractive. That's the Laughter Advantage!

The great news is that anyone can develop the skills that enable us to use laughter to trigger the reward centres in our own brains and in the brains of the people we interact with. I say this without any hesitation because over the last three decades I’ve taught these skills to thousands of people through my talks and workshops and I’ve seen the happy and often quite amazing transformations that take place when people fully grasp the power of laughter.

So I recommend you make laughter your drug of choice. It’s inexpensive, freely available, completely legal, and only has positive side effects. You might say – laughter is it’s own reward!

Laughingly yours, Anthony

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