You've certainly raised a good point about laughter and its value. In general, (there are exceptions to this and I suppose every rule or belief), laughter can mean that you are enjoying life and since that is a positive statement, it helps your general attitude. I view the modern use of neuroleptics, (prozac etc.)as temporary help for those who cannot find a way to reduce their stress. A rather interesting phenomena before the discovery of these drugs was the fact that some people who were considered to be mentally ill, would laugh continuously with no apparent reason for their laughter. From the prospective of my understanding of fear, it follows that these people were actually trying to self-medicate themselves out of the stress that no one was able to help them with. Kind of like a baby crying for milk in a forest where no one can hear him or her.

Stephen . . . I agree with you that fear is an important emotion and underlies all organized religion, politics and culture in general. With respect to laughter, it makes you wonder why our gods don't laugh. The only god that laughs is Buddha but the western deities, are stern, threatening and anal. Maybe they had a bad childhood

This Group setting is not unfolding as I envisioned that it would. I sent out numerous personal invitations to individuals asking them to join this Group. Thus far only Dutch777 has done so. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for doing so. Firstly, because I respect his intellect and secondly, because he has fulfilled a specific psychological necessity for me. Namely, people in general are reluctant to be the first to do something. They feel more at ease if they know that others have led the way. I have spent most of my life in the above category, but I am changing rapidly in my senior years. I have also sent open invitations to the Discuss Catholicism and Discuss Atheism boards. Rather than come over here to join this Group, both of those boards have engaged in lively discussions about the subject of stress on their own specific boards. Should I then slink away in despair at the apparent failure of this Group setting? Absolutely not!! My motivation for starting this Group was to engage people in discussions about this most important topic (stress). In my opening statement, I said that all members of the Group, including myself, would offer advice to each other. Let the chips fall where they may. There are thousands of books on this subject written by authors with letters attached to their names. If I cannot prove that I have some ideas that are of deeper value in this field, that have not been explored sufficiently thus far, then, --- let this Group setting whither and die. Here are the two areas that will allow you to explore the ideas about stress that are being discussed on those sites rather than in this Group setting. Discuss Catholicism --- and then choose the new topic site called, --- Less Stress Discuss Atheism --- and then choose the new topic site called, --- Less Stress I say that the human race has a distorted fear of the truth that must be gradually reduced. I say that my fear of the truth is much less than it is for many people. Here is your chance to prove that I am wrong. Do yourself a favor, as well as myself, --- get involved. Choose where you want to start, on this site or elsewhere, but this topic is far too important to avoid. Let’s make it happen.

Hello Dutch: I am all stressed out. Just to prove what I was saying about uncertainty is true, I don't know what the word "arhant" means. I'll find me a dictionary and overcome that uncertainty and viola, there goes the made up stress that I pretended that I have.