On Laughter, Tickles And Externalization

The palest ink is clearer than the fondest thought.

Imagine this, you are zip lining in Poipu, Kauai from one mountain to the other. The guys in charge tell you how fun it will be to zip line upside down. You, as a dumb dare devil you are of course listen. Half way through the line to the other mountain you hear a Click and your heart just stops. I have a video of this exact moment, you can hear my euphoria going upside down, followed by a simple, but full of emotion uh oh. I didn’t scream or freak out, instead the laughter increased to the point of guffaws.

Philosopher John Morreall theorized that laughter begun as a sign of relief at the passing of danger. (Totally make sense in my experience). Laughter stops the flight or fight response and indicates trust in one’s companion (I chose to trust the zip line equipment to hold me, I guess). Which also explains why tickle attacks are the most benign form of human conflict; as long as laughter is the response, the tickle attack remains harmless (although some people might punch you in the face if you attempt to tickle them).

I can’t remember the context of my high self at this specific time, but my epiphany came after remembering that we cannot tickle ourselves. Scientifically, is not possible because our body is so smart, our cerebellum is aware of the upcoming movement. And based on the information from above, your body probably knows you are not going to hurt yourself by lightly applying pressure to your armpit to induce tickles. At this point your brain ignores the movement and the action becomes subconscious.

Go ahead, tickle your armpit. Do you feel in danger? Did you get a chuckle? If you do, chances are you are probably schizophrenic. Yes, patients deemed schizophrenic can tickle themselves. Their self-monitoring mechanism is wacko (pun not intended, I swear awakening feels a lot like being schizophrenic at times), thus losing the needed awareness. Wait a minute, is this the same self-monitoring that allow us to be part of society?

The ability or skill of self-monitoring is how you can consistently choose the appropriate behaviors to display at the appropriate times in order to win approval and avoid disapproval. [1]

Back to my epiphany… since laughter increases trust, and one cannot tickle oneself, then only schizophrenics trust themselves lol!

In all seriousness, at first I thought of laughter as a response to humor, but thanks to the desire to externalize my thoughts, I realize laughter is an instinctive behavior that allow us to bond. My epiphany states that tickles cannot be self-inflicted because we will lose the need to interact with other humans (Laughter is key, it sometimes translates to happiness). If we were able to tickle ourselves, we might reduce the importance of interacting with others.

I can positively say that laughter allow us to create stronger bonds with others. Not the laughter that comes from ridicule, but “organic” laughter. Have I not decided to express my thoughts, I will still be thinking that laughter was a pure response to humor. But now that I think about it:

The people I have trusted the most throughout this life have one thing in common, they provide a safe environment where I can shed a layer of self monitoring and we can simply talk and laugh for ages.

Laugh, bond and don’t forget to give a voice to your thoughts. Externalizing changes your angles and this is why this blog is so important for my quest. I can only hope that by conveying my feelings in Steemit, I will be able to dissect them; and by using a cognitive recognition, I will be able to reprogram my thoughts and find my mission.

Oh, and for crying out loud, stop torturing kids!!!

[1] https://steemit.com/life/@dana-edwards/self-monitoring-dramaturgy-microsociology-and-morality#@fonsetucker/re-dana-edwards-self-monitoring-dramaturgy-microsociology-and-morality-20180321t160833156z