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By Enrico Molinari The Socio-Sanitary Cultural Association «Laugh to Live» has been saying so for 9 years, but the popular saying that «laughing is the best medicine» has been known for many generations. Laughing is the medicine used by the particular science called Psycho Neuro Endocrine Immunology (PNEI), which has already made way into many American hospitals, but which in Europe is still to be recognised by official medicine as a valid therapy. Owing to the work of clown doctor Patch Adams and mainly to the film which made him famous to the public at large, interest is growing everywhere. Making people laugh is not easy and being confronted with the pain of patients in hospital is even more delicate. Based on this finding, Leonardo Spina, actor and producer, and Sonia Fioravanti, a psychotherapist specialised in eriksonian clinical hypnosis, came up with the idea to give life to a school for clown doctors in Italy.
«Making others laugh is a way «The theory is simple - says Sonia -, after a good laugh one certainly feels a little better, the body is more relaxed, the heart beat becomes regular after the sudden acceleration caused by the burst of laughter. The muscles relax after strong contraction, and if you have eaten digestion will be quicker. If you had a blood analysis on the spot, you would find that substances which help the immune system fight against illnesses are present. Among these are endorphines, also known as endogonous opiums, in other words self produced». Susumo Tonegawa, Nobel laureate for Medicine, drawing from the great physicians of antiquity, Hyprocrates and Galen, affirms that «those with a long face, sad and depressed, cannot keep sickness at bay». Let us try to understand why it is well known that many ills are caused by nervousness; these are known as psycho-somatic: ulcerating gastritis in office heads, migraines, cancers which reflect lives filled with sadness, misfortune, depression. Negative emotions influence the nervous system which in turn has a bad effect upon the other bodily organs. At this point we may deduce that just as there is a path for negative emotions, so too there is one for positive emotions. Therefore, there exists an emotional way to health. «And not only this - adds Leonardo - think of the person you have least seen laughing in your life: doesn’t he or she have a rigid, closed, schematic and prefabricated mental structure? In this person rationality and emotion are clearly antagonistic and the one excludes the other as deeply as possible. Such dualism (which religions and philosophies have turned in different ways) has physiological basis. The left hemisphere of the brain is in fact predisposed to cognative logic and linguistic activities; whereas the right side on the other hand is concerned with spacial orientation, imagination, free association and artistic skills. When both sides communicate freely between each other, away from preconceptions we will find that the right hemisphere will bring images and free associations which the other half will elaborate and adapt to a certain language. Here is why the person you thought of never laughs: in him or her collaboration between the two hemispheres is both difficult and unusual. Not that the right side has given up: it is working during dream time, providing material for various neurosis against instead of for the person, as would be natural». Leonardo Spina and Sonia Fioravanti organise courses and experiential seminars in which they also teach the physicalness of laughter, which is all too often lived in a passive and intellectual way. With group exercises and guided meditations, they bring participants to being totally involved in the search for the inner child with its simplicity, ability to wonder, establishing intense contacts, its joy, enthusiasm and madness of falling in love. The «laughing volunteers» can be contacted by calling +39 06 5622725 or accessing www.romacivica.net/ridervivere |
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