Active Humour Can Prevent Heart Attack

Laughter, along with an active sense of humour, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.
An intense sense of humour is needed to be able to laugh at your own life situations. If you take life too seriously you won't be able to laugh whole heartedly.

Osho is the first spiritual master who has incorporated laughter and  jokes as a means to meditation.
He says, "I use so many jokes because I know religious truths are very boring. So first I take you towards boredom, I go into delicate matters, when I see now it is too much and you will not be able to tolerate any more, then I tell you a joke. The pendulum swings back. You are happy again. Again I can bore you! You are fresh, you are ready. Boredom and laughter are the most important qualities of human consciousness."

Many laughter clubs have sprouted around the world and the doctors advise it as a therapy, too. But this kind of laughter is devoid of two important points that makes laughter a meditation. First, laughter without tears cannot cleanse emotions as it does not dig deeper into the giggle points which are also the source of tears. If tears do not follow laughter, it remains superficial. If you laugh totally, it is bound to triggers tears which are cleansing and purifying. And second, silence has to follow laughter which connects one to the deeper layer of the self.

Laughing 'at' somebody is sick, laughing for a reason is intellectual, and laughing for no reason reason is spiritual.
If so much philosophy of laughter has bored you , here is some relief --
Solomon Einstein owns a nail-manufacturing company called "Einstein's Nails." Business is very good so he decides to take a winter vacation in Miami. He leaves his son, Matzo, to run the business while he is away.

One sunny morning, Solly is reading the Miami Tribune at breakfast when he comes across a full-page color advertisement with a picture of Jesus nailed to the cross. Under it is written, "They Used Einstein's Nails!"

Solly jumps on the telephone immediately and calls Matzo.

"You idiot!" screams Solomon. "Don't ever say such a thing again!"

Matzo assures Solly that he understands and not to worry, he will do better the next time.

Two days later, Solly is lounging on the balcony of his deluxe hotel room, reading the newspaper. He turns the page, screams and swallows his cigar. There in full color, Jesus is lying in a crumpled heap below the cross, and underneath is written, "They Should Have Used Einstein's Nails!"

http://www.osho.com/