Studies have shown that laughter can change our brain wave frequencies to the same frequencies seen in highly experienced Tibetan monks. Another study showed that powerful meditation miraculously reduced the crime rate in Washington DC. Putting these studies together, we can extrapolate that, since laughter has the same effect on brainwave frequency as meditation, and meditation can alter the crime rate of criminals in Washington DC, just imagine what a combination of laughter and meditation can do for the crime rate in our government and in our world. What voting, protesting and sleepless nights worrying can’t accomplish; meditation and laughter can.
A carefully controlled scientific study was carried out in the District of Columbia between June 7 and July 30, 1993 on the effect of coherent meditation on the crime rate. At the time of the study, the population was approximately 600,000. The local police authority ridiculed the prediction. The police chief even went on record to assert that the only event that would reduce crime that much in Washington during the summer months would be 20 inches of snow.
Not discouraged by this cynicism, 800 meditators participated in the first week of the study. By the last two weeks of the two-month trial period, the group had grown to 4,000 in number. At the completion of the study, the Washington crime statistics showed a 23.3% drop in violent crime. The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion.
Considering that the population of D.C. was approximately 600,000 in 1993 and required 4,000 meditators, then for a global population of 7.7 billion in 2018 this would require 51.3 million people coherently meditating.
Waiting for 51.3 million people to coherently meditate may take quite some time. However, since laughter can achieve similar results as meditation, the effects of laughter and meditation together may be additive and achieve an even better outcome. Lord knows that during these challenging times, we need as many factors working for us as possible.
A research study done by Lee Berk, an associate professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in The United States, was conducted on 31 people whose brain wave frequencies were monitored while watching either humorous, spiritual, or distressing video clips. The study found that laughter “works like meditation in the brain” by triggering the same kind of gamma brain waves that are generated during meditation 1.
Another study out of Stanford University found that this gamma frequency is the same frequency as that found in Tibetan monks who had undergone training in meditation for an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years2. These studies show that laughter can be an amazing shortcut to the state reached by Tibetan Monks, without needing to undergo tens of thousands of hours over decades of meditation.
It is time to learn from the “miracles” shown by the study in Washington D.C. to help create miracles in our world. We can’t expect others to do it. The time has come to take back our power to be the changes we want to see in our world. It is toward this goal that I have published The Ho-Ho-Holiest Medicine.
