{{Short description|Religious behaviour}} '''Holy laughter''' is a term used within charismatic Christianity that describes a religious behaviour in which individuals spontaneously laugh during church meetings. It has occurred in many revivals throughout church history, but it became normative in the early 1990s in Neo-charismatic churches and the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit. Many people claimed to experience this phenomenon at a large revival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada known as the Toronto Blessing.
==History== Practices similar to holy laughter were observed in the 1800s in Holiness Christian meetings on the American West.<ref name=ajps>{{cite journal|last=Yung|first=Hwa|title=Endued with Power: The Pentecostal-Charismatic Renewal and the Asian Church in the Twenty-First Century|journal=Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies|year=2003|volume=6|issue=1|pages=63–82|url=http://apts.edu/aeimages/File/AJPS_PDF/03-1-HwaYung.pdf|access-date=2011-11-24|archive-date=2012-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503005252/http://apts.edu/aeimages/File/AJPS_PDF/03-1-HwaYung.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> John Wesley encountered uncontrollable laughter in his Methodist meetings, and viewed it as an act of God.<ref name=por108>Porter 1996, p. 108</ref> It also occurred in Signs and Wonders meetings run by John Wimber in the 1980s.<ref name=por106>Porter 1996, p. 106</ref> The practice came to prominence in meetings led by the South African evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne in 1993 at the Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland, Florida and was often accompanied by the "Slain in the Spirit" phenomena.<ref name=d208/> The laughter ranges from very quiet to loud convulsive hysterics, which are said to be accompanied by temporary dissociation.<ref name=por102>Porter 1996, p. 102</ref> It was also observed in meetings held at Oral Roberts University.<ref name=p155>Poloma 2003, p. 155</ref> The phenomena was then popularized by ''Charisma'' and the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and became controversial within charismatic Christianity.<ref name=d208>Diamond 2000, p. 208</ref>
Though primarily found in Protestant churches, it was observed in some parts of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, as well.<ref name=c33>Cimino 2001, p. 33</ref> The practice spread to the Association of Vineyard Churches, most notably to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in 1994. Religious revival meetings at the church became very popular, drawing 75,000 visitors that year.<ref name=d209/> Many attendees at the meetings spent time laughing loudly while lying on the floor.<ref name=d208/>
==Analysis== Leaders who have promoted holy laughter said the laughter was a result of joy that was supernaturally being given to people in the meetings.<ref name=p4>Poloma 2003, p. 4</ref> They said the joy was often accompanied by miraculous healing and the cessation of depression.<ref name=p5>Poloma 2003, p. 5</ref> Margaret Poloma of the University of Akron has described the events of the services as a ritual facilitation of catharsis.<ref name=p108>Poloma 2003, p. 108</ref> Philip Richter of STETS has drawn a parallel between holy laughter and laughter yoga.<ref name=por119>Porter 1996, p. 119</ref>
==Reception== Many of the activities at these meetings, particularly the laughter, were controversial within evangelical Christianity. Though some religious leaders such as Pat Robertson embraced the movement, groups including the Christian Research Institute<ref name=d209/> and the Southern Baptist Convention condemned what was occurring.<ref name=encyc>Queen, Prothero & Shattuck 2009, p. 245</ref> Critics charge that the practice is the result of psychological manipulation,<ref name=d209>Diamond 2000, p. 209</ref> or demonic possession.<ref name=d210>Diamond 2000, p. 210</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyVXHWDV3mI|title=Exposing kundalini spirits and the New Apostolic Reformation in the church|work=Torch of Christ Ministries|last=Blair|first=Phillip Andrew|access-date=August 28, 2019|date=April 4, 2019}}</ref>
==See also== * Gelotology * Slain in the Spirit * Theories of humor
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{citation|last=Cimino|first=Richard P.|title=Trusting the spirit: renewal and reform in American religion|year=2001|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-7879-5160-3}} *{{citation|last=Diamond|first=Sara|title=Not by Politics Alone: The Enduring Influence of the Christian Right|year=2000|publisher=Guilford Press|isbn=978-1-57230-494-9}} *{{citation|last=Poloma|first=Margaret M.|title=Main street mystics: the Toronto blessing and reviving Pentecostalism|year=2003|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=978-0-7591-0354-2}} *{{citation|last=Richter|first=Philip|editor=Stanley E. Porter|title=The nature of religious language: a colloquium|year=1996|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-85075-580-7}} *{{citation|last1=Queen|first1=Edward L.|last2=Prothero|first2=Stephen R.|last3=Shattuck|first3=Gardiner H.|title=Encyclopedia of American religious history|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-6660-5}}
Category:Charismatic and Pentecostal worship Category:Laughter