The power of laughter and the harmony at the level of Manipura chakra

“He [or she] who laughs, lasts!”

Laughter is a specific manifestation of the energies that exist at the level of Manipura chakra and has a lot of nuances that range from the healthy tonic laughter to the sarcastic and sardonic (grimly mocking or cynical) laughter that is usually associated with the so-called black humor.

Laughter is an expressive and emotional act that engages facial movements, frantic respiration, rhythmic sounds, and, finally, pleasurable exaltation. Laughter is a specific form of human communication.

Laughter can be provoked by different situations with the condition that they will lead to affective contrast. It has a cathartic function, releasing the tensions that are provoked by inner or outer contradictions. These contradictions usually accumulate at the level of Manipura chakra because at this level we can decide to follow a certain decision that can sometimes go against the fashionable or more pleasing reaction.

Laughter is an expression of a release of tensions, which has a deeply purifying effect at the level of Manipura chakra. This purifying effect involves the energies that generally mean the ego – the false personality. For this reason, when a person feels self important and has a superiority complex, laughing AT that person will have a very powerful impact, sometimes even comparable to the effect of an earthquake at the level of personality.

In fact, the expression “to laugh with all your heart” is an expression of an important esoteric truth. When laughing, the movements of the abdomen, and also the subtle effects of this activity, unblock the energies at the level of Manipura chakra and sublimate them to the level of Anahata chakra, the spiritual heart. When we laugh very relaxededly and allow ourselves to go into this experience of laughing in full awareness, after a while we will remain silent and centered in the heart, feeling a warm sensation of deep affection that radiates from the middle of the chest, simultaneously with the pleasant sensations that come from the abdominal area that it is now relaxed and feeling good. Healthy laughter is a powerful tool for experiencing the phenomenon of sublimation that takes place between Manipura and Anahata chakras.

In this simple and wonderful video we can see the purifying and energizing effect of laughter, together with its sublimating effect. In the end, the person who began the laughter wears a smile that is calm and deeply affectionate. He looks to all the people around him with deep love, showing the sublimated energy at the affective level following a good laugh.

And let’s not forget what the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:

Joy, temperance and repose,
Slam the door on the doctor’s nose.

There is an old saying, “Your day goes the way the corners of your mouth turn”!

Medical research has measured extensively the movements we make with our face and our entire body when we smile and when we laugh. The research concludes that it is possible for all 600 muscles of the body to move during laughter – thus laughter has been playfully labeled by some as a form of “internal aerobics”.

People who are characterized by inhibitions and stress avoid laughing whole-heartedly. They laugh “discreetly” and attentively, willing to give the impression of perfect control whereas in reality they are hiding an almost perfect “constipation”. For such people, sometimes laughter can be annoying and even a reason for anger and sadness. Such a person feels provoked by laughter. This is the reason why a whole-hearted laugh can create miracles where hours of attempted relaxation failed. 

Laughter can help us “wipe the slate clean” by inspiring new perceptions, new ways of thinking, a change of belief, and the revelation of previously unimagined possibilities. All this is possible due to the processes of sublimation that laughter easily makes possible. Laughter inspires lateral thinking. Laughter is also a good antidote to the over-seriousness that increases during times of stress and anxiety (another aspect – together with formalism – of a disharmonious Svadhisthana chakra). Over-seriousness blows up problems; laughter blows them away! The psychologist and mystic, Alan Watts, once wrote, “The whole art of life is in knowing how to transform anxiety into laughter”. 

At best, laughter helps us to build bridges. Victor Borge, the American entertainer, once wrote, “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people”. Wholehearted laughter teaches us love as a way to reuse the Manipura energies in order to awaken the heart and to go into a fight or fight mode.

As E. E. Cummings said, “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter” which is the same conclusion we have drawn here. Enjoy!