Something funny is happening in Lansing, Iowa.

When the Rev. Laura Gentry calls certain people on the phone, they laugh when they hear her voice.
On Holy Hilarity Sunday, celebrated the Sunday after Easter by some churches, congregants at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church recently shook hands and laughed instead of saying “Peace be with you” as they normally do during the Sign of Peace.

And on Wednesday nights, those walking by the Kerndt Brothers Community Center on Main Street might be startled by the happiness manifesting on the other side of the picture windows: a group of adults and a few children walking in circles, clapping hands and spending most of a half-hour laughing.

What the passers-by are seeing is the Lansing Laughter Club, started in January by Gentry, who is pastor at Our Savior’s.

“It’s easy to look at the Laughter Club and think that it’s just about silliness and fun, and it is silly and fun, but there’s a purpose behind it,” Gentry said. “Laughter is a tool for compassion. I have seen it in my own experience — the more I laugh with people the more I love them.”

Laughter clubs began in India in 1995, when Dr. Madan Kataria was working on an article and found research showing the medical benefits of laughter. Kataria went to a park, convinced four people to laugh with him. The group grew into 50 people.

Now, according to www.laughteryoga.org, more than 5,000 laughter clubs exist around the world.

Gentry, 36, heard about the movement through a documentary, “The Human Face,” and attended a leader training session in November 2006 in California. Earlier this month, she took a class with Kataria, and is now certified to train others to start laughter clubs.

While one doesn’t need to be religious to attend the club, Gentry sees laughing as a spiritual discipline, and one that jibes with Christianity.

“To be Christian means to believe that life has triumphed over death,” she said. “We can live a resurrected life today. That’s a life that’s hopeful and can laugh at adversity. It can say, ‘I may have cancer, I may have divorce or a major problem right now, but I know that God has given me the promise that good will triumph over evil.’”

Gentry has led laughter sessions at nursing homes, schools, and even appeared in a clip on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

At a Rotary Club meeting where she was leading laughing, she said two older men stood to the side with serious demeanors on their faces, but others kept coming up to them and laughing.

“They were trying to not smile and the smile came upon their faces and suddenly they started laughing, too,” she said. “It’s so contagious. People laugh in spite of themselves.”

At another Rotary meeting, someone asked if laughter could be put to use in Congress, and Gentry said that it could and that Congress would then pass happier laws.

Part of the premise for laughter clubs is that the body benefits whether laughter is real or fake.

This past Wednesday, a group of 15 women, two men (one with tattoos and a Harley-Davidson cap) and a 3-year-old boy stood in a circle at the community center.

They performed Jell-o laughter: jiggle hands and feet, walk around, laugh.

They did Visa bill laughter: pretend to open a Visa bill that is higher than expected, laugh, show it to others, laugh.

They did phantom-tickle laughter, played laughter catch, said “ho-ho, ha-ha-ha” a lot, and also, “Very good, very good, yeaaaah!”

“It lifts you right up because I tell you, you get to laughing and laughter is so good for the soul,” said Avis Davis, 60, who has attended the club since its inception. “I don’t know of a soul who could honestly say they’d come here and didn’t feel good when they left.”

Gentry, who does laughter meditation for a half-hour each morning, said laughter exercises help reprogram the brain. She has considered using laughter in marriage counseling.

“Our culture is dying for laughter,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not serious and we’re always a laughing idiot. It just means that if we laugh first, it softens the impact. It brings the stress level down.”

If you go

The Lansing Laughter Club meets from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Kerndt Brothers Community Center at the corner of Fourth and Main streets, Lansing, Iowa. www.laughinglutherans.com/LAUGHTER_CLUB.html

Joe Orso can be reached at (608) 791-8429 or jorso@lacrossetribune.com.

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