"The mind of man is like a wall which divides man from God. The deeksha is an electrical energy that makes a hole in this wall, which we call the mind. Once this happens, then God and man can come to relate to each other"

Kalki Bhagavan' (b. March 7, 1949) ) is a respected Indian religious figure, and the founder of the new religious movement known variously as Oneness University, Kalki Dharma, Bhagavad Dharma, and the Golden Age Foundation.
He was born Vijay Kumar in Arcot district, Tamil Nadu, and at various times has also used names such as Mukteshwar, Sri Kalki Bhagavan, and Sri Bhagavan.

Bhagavan and Amma are two divine beings, or Avatars, residing at Golden City, near Chennai, in India. Their sole mission is to bring all of humanity into the Golden Age. Their vision is to fully enlighten 64,000 people in the world. These people in a highly enlightened state of communion will transform the rest of the humanity by 2012. The gift of enlightenment is offered to humanity by Bhagavaan and Amma, and is available to all genuine seekers.

This state of enlightenment is offered to seekers through a process known as Deeksha. Deeksha is a transfer of divine energy that is so powerful it has the ability to break through the concepts and conditioning of our mind.

Bhagavan says, "The mind of man is like a wall which divides man from God. The deeksha is an electrical energy that makes a hole in this wall, which we call the mind. Once this happens, then God and man can come to relate to each other."

The act of receiving deeksha involves a special process where a qualified deeksha giver places their hands upon your head and, in a state of divine union, becomes a channel for cosmic energies directed by Bhagavan and Amma.

When a deeksha is received a neurobiological process takes place in the brain. Bhagavan refers to this process as 'divine surgery' where certain parts of the brain become activated and other parts are deactivated, enabling us to experience cosmic realities and oneness.

Reference: Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deeksha

aughter Yoga & Laughter Clubs:
Somewhat similar to traditional yoga, laughter yoga is a exercise which incorporates breathing, yoga, stretching techniques along with laughter.
The structured format includes several laughter exercises for a period of 30 to 45 minutes facilitated by a trained individual. Practiced it can be used as supplemental or preventative therapy.
Laughter yoga can be performed in a group or a club. Therapeutic laughter clubs are extension of Laughter Yoga, but in a formalized club format.
The need for humorous materials is not necessarily required. Laughter yoga is similar to yogic asana and the practice of Buddhist forced laughter.
Some participants may find it awkward as laughter is not necessarily spontaneous in the structured format. A growth of laughter-related movements such as Laughter Yoga, Laughing Clubs and
World Laughter Day have emerged in recent years as a testament to the growing popularity of laughter as therapy. In China, for example, the popularity of Laughing Clubs has even led to a detailed lexicon of laughing styles, such as "The Lion Bellow" or "The Quarreling Laugh".

https://www.crystalinks.com/laughter.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In The News ...


Study: Laughter Really Is Contagious Live Science -
December 14, 2006

If you see two people laughing at a joke you didn�t hear, chances are you will smile anyway even if you don�t realize it. According to a new study, laughter truly is contagious: the brain responds to the sound of laughter and preps the muscles in the face to join in the mirth. "It seems that it�s absolutely true that �laugh and the whole world laughs with you," said Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at the University College London. "We�ve known for some time that when we are talking to someone, we often mirror their behavior, copying the words they use and mimicking their gestures. Now we�ve shown that the same appears to apply to laughter, too at least at the level of the brain."

The positive approach

Scott and her fellow researchers played a series of sounds to volunteers and measured the responses in their brain with an fMRI scanner. Some sounds, like laughter or a triumphant shout, were positive, while others, like screaming or retching, were negative. All of the sounds triggered responses in the premotor cortical region of the brain, which prepares the muscles in the face to move in a way that corresponds to the sound. The response was much higher for positive sounds, suggesting they are more contagious than negative sounds which could explain our involuntary smiles when we see people laughing. The team also tested the movement of facial muscles when the sounds were played and found that people tended to smile when they heard laughter, but didn�t make a gagging face when they heard retching sounds, Scott told LiveScience. She attributes this response to the desire to avoid negative emotions and sounds.

Older than language?

The contagiousness of positive emotions could be an important social factor, according to Scott. Some scientists think human ancestors may have laughed in groups before they could speak and that laughter may have been a precursor to language. "We usually encounter positive emotions, such as laughter or cheering, in group situations, whether watching a comedy program with family or a football game with friends," Scott said. "This response in the brain, automatically priming us to smile or laugh, provides a way or mirroring the behavior of others, something which helps us interact socially. It could play an important role in building strong bonds between individuals in a group." Scott and her team will be studying these emotional responses in the brain in people with autism, who have general failures of social and emotional processing to better understand the disease and why those with it don�t mirror others emotions.

Don't Laugh: Just Think About It Live Science - April 1, 2006

If you're down in the dumps, you might just think about watching a funny movie. A new study suggests that the mere expectation of laughter makes us feel good. Researchers split people into two groups. One group was told they'd be watching a funny movie, the other was not. Blood drawn from experimental subjects just before they watched the video had 27 percent more beta-endorphins and 87 percent more human growth hormone, compared to blood from the control group, which didn't anticipate the watching of a humorous video, explained Lee Berk of Loma Linda University. Berk said that combined with prior research into how laughter improves mood, the results would appear to carry important, positive implications for wellness, disease-prevention and most certainly stress-reduction."The study was small, however, involving just 16 people. Levels of these known feel-good substances remained elevated during the video, which brought about what the researchers call "mirthful laughter," and for 12 to 24 hours afterward.

Laughing helps arteries and boosts blood flow - New Scientist - March 10, 2005

Laughing appears to be almost as beneficial as a workout in boosting the health of blood vessels, a new study suggests. "Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week and 15 minutes of hearty laughter each day should be part of a healthy lifestyle," says Michael Miller of the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, US, whose team has shown that laughter relaxes arteries and boosts blood flow. He showed clips from the comedy movie King Pin to 20 volunteers. Before and afterwards, he made ultrasound measurements of blood flow and dilation in the brachial artery in the arm. The scans showed that in all but one of the volunteers, the volunteers' arteries relaxed and blood flowed more freely than usual for 30 to 45 minutes after the film. The opposite happened when the same people watched harrowing scenes from the war movie Saving Private Ryan. In 14 of the 20 volunteers, the artery wall constricted, reducing blood flow. Overall, blood flow decreased by 35% after the stressful clips and increased by 22% during laughter. The results suggest that laughter could help keep the lining of the arteries - the endothelium - healthy and thus reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endotheliums.

Jokes activates same brain region as cocaine - Nature - December 4, 2003

Humor tickles drug center that gives hedonistic high.

There's truth in the maxim 'laughter is a drug'.
A comic cartoon fired up the same brain center as a shot of cocaine, researchers are reporting.
A team at Stanford University in California asked lab mates,
spouses and friends to select the wittiest newspaper cartoons from a portfolio.
They showed the winning array to 16 volunteers while peering inside their heads by functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The cartoons activated the same reward circuits in the brain that are tickled by cocaine, money or a pretty face, the neuroscientists found.

One brain region in particular, the nucleus accumbens, lit up seconds after a rib-tickler but remained listless after a lackluster cartoon. The nucleus accumbens is awash with the feel good chemical dopamine. The region's buzz may explain the euphoria that follows a good joke, the team suggests. "Intuitively, it makes sense," agrees Bill Kelley, who studies humor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Earlier investigations found that humor triggers brain regions that work out a joke's language and meaning, or those that smiling and laughter. Kelley, for example, has studied people's brains while they watched episodes of television comedies Seinfeld and The Simpsons. "It's surprising it's not consistent," he says.
A powerful MRI machine and a particularly detailed analysis may explain why the new study picked up activity in the reward areas as well, suggests lead researcher Allan Reiss who hopes that the finding could help to diagnose the early stages of depression or show whether antidepressants are taking effect during which people's appreciation of humor is altered.