It is commonly known that laughter is excellent medicine.
What are some of the spiritual, mental and physiological benefits of laughter?

Answers:
You mentioned 'humorous stories'. Well I have some delightful moments that have been stored in my heart for many years.
These situations occurred about 25 years ago when I was practicing as a rural physician. When we first arrived in the area the clinic was in the same building as our home. The distance between home and the office was a closed door, and possibly a key-hole.
One Labor Day week-end I said to my two small children, "Now what day is it today?" (I was trying to fulfill my duty as educator of my kids). They both thought for a while, and then one cheerfully said, "I know, I know, it's Maternity Day."
Now this was in the days when the fetal stethoscopes were short trumpet-like pieces of metal. I came out of the clinic to find both kids on the stairs. My son was lying on his back on the stairs and my daughter was carefully listening to his fetal heart through a long wooden block.
A few years went by and changes took place. The children were now in school and the clinic was now located in a separate building quite close to the school. I often had visits from them on their way home.
My blood pressure machine had been acting up and leaking some of its mercury. I had collected this carefully in a little box and kept it in a drawer in my desk. My son was fascinated by this and would often ask to see it. One day he arrived and said "Mummy, can I have a look at your Jupiter?"
I have been wanting to share these dear stories for 25 years. I think the time has come to share them with you.
- Anne Parsons, Newfoundland, Canada
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Here is a humorous story which also reflects how deep racism runs in our society.
An Embarrassing Lesson
On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, the woman related, she won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she would stash the quarters in her room. I'll be right back and we'll go to eat," she told her husband and she carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator. As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black. One of them was big... Very big... An intimidating figure.
The woman froze. Her first thought was: These two are going to rob me. Her next thought was: Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen, even if one of them is awfully black. But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her.
She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered, ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but knew they surely did; her hesitation about joining them on the elevator was all too obvious. Her face burned. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator. Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed. A second passed, and then another second, and then another. The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. My God, she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed!
Her heart plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore. Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor." Instinct told her: Do what they tell you. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator carpet. A shower of coins rained down on her. Take my money and spare me, she prayed. More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button." The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. She lifted her head and looked up at the two men.
They reached down to help her up. Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my man here to hit the floor," one of the men, the average sized one, told her, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am. "He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing.
She thought: My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself. She was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words failed her. How do you apologize to two perfectly respectable gentlemen for behaving as though they were robbing you? She didn't know. The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket. When the elevator arrived at her floor they insisted on walking her to her room.
She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door they bid her good evening. As she slipped into her room she could hear them laughing while they walked back to the elevator. The woman brushed herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband. The next morning flowers were delivered to her room ~ a dozen roses. Attached to each rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. A card said: "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."
It was signed, Eddie Murphy and Bodyguard.
- submitted by Nona Simons, Nevada, U.S.A.
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Laugh!
Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as "terminally ill." He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was one in 500. He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause his disease. He wondered, "If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?"
He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find - Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny. His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep.
He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years. (His journey is detailed in his book, 'Anatomy of an Illness'.) He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughter for his recovery.
Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often. Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we're not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way.
Since Cousins' ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions. So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don't like laughter, then take your medicine - laugh anyway. Use whatever makes you laugh - movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, friends.
Give yourself permission to laugh - long and loud and out loud - whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you're strange, but sooner or later they'll join in even if they don't know what you're laughing about. Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure. . . laughter.
- by Peter McWilliams from Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul
Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty
Aubery & Nancy Mitchell, R.N.
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A giggle a day keeps the doctor away!
It's no joke that laughter is the best medicine ... for having a good giggle can apparently do wonders for your health. Not only does it make you feel better, it relieves stress, provides an internal massage and can even put romance into your life, says stress consultant and pyschologist Robert Holden, founder of the first ever National Health Service Laughter Clinic in Birmingham, U.K.
Research has shown that laughter can result in improved immunity to illness and that people who regularly use laughter, humour and play as coping strategies for everyday events have a significantly higher count of a particular immunity antibody.
The act of laughing ventilates the lungs and leaves muscles, nerves and heart warm and relaxed, according to Dr. Willliam Fry Jr, an American who has spent more than 30 years researching its therapeutic properties. He reckons that 100-200 laughs a day is equivalent to about 10 minutes of rowing or jogging.
Victor Borge once said laughter is the shortest distance between two people. It helps develop friendships and is brilliant for romance. Research shows that a sense of humour attracts us to partners and may give away our whole philosophy on life. You can tell a lot about a person by what they find funny. Laughter also has spiritual benefits, he notes.
[the above is extracted from a newspaper article by Hannah Stephenson (UK)]
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The following quote tells us how to act:
"Even as the clouds let us shed down tears, and as the lightning flashes let us laugh at our coursings through east and west. By day, by night, let us think but of spreading the sweet savours of God. Let us not keep on forever with our fancies and illusions, with our analysing and interpreting and circulating of complex dubieties. Let us put aside all thoughts of self; let us close our eyes to all on earth, let us neither make known our sufferings nor complain of our wrongs. Rather let us become oblivious of our own selves, and drinking down the wine of heavenly grace, let us cry out our joy, and lose ourselves in the beauty of the All-Glorious."
[Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, p.236]

The following is Abdu'l-Baha's reflections on a fellow believer:

The Prison was a garden of roses to him ( Mirza Ja'far i Yazdi), and his narrow cell a wide and fragrant place. At the time when we were in the barracks he fell dangerously ill and was confined to his bed. He suffered many complications, until finally the doctor gave him up and would visit him no more. Then the sick man breathed his last. Mirza Aqa Jan ran to Baha'u'llah, with word of the death. Not only had the patient ceased to breathe, but his body was already going limp. His family were gathered about him, mourning him, shedding bitter tears. The Blessed Beauty said, "Go; chant the prayer of Ya Shafi - O Thou, the Healer and Mirza Ja'far will come alive. Very rapidly, he will be as well as ever." I reached his bedside. His body was cold and all the signs of death were present. Slowly, he began to stir; soon he could move his limbs, and before an hour had passed he lifted his head, sat up, and proceeded to laugh and tell jokes.
He lived for a long time after that, occupied as ever with serving the friends. This giving service was a point of pride with him: to all he was a servant. He was always modest and humble, calling God to mind, and to the highest degree full of hope and faith. Finally, while in the Most Great Prison, he abandoned this earthly life and winged his way to the life beyond. (Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful, pp. 157-58)
- submitted by Thelma Batchelor, Leatherhead, U.K