The Cosmic Giggle: Laughter and Psychedelics
Some psychedelic experiences feel sacred and profound while others leave us howling with laughter. Laughter is a common experience on psychedelics, from psilocybin mushrooms to cannabis. Why is this? Why are these mind altering substances capable of tickling us in this way? And is there a link between the profound metaphysical insights that psychedelics can occasion and their giggle-inducing recreational use?
Why do we laugh?
Take a moment to think about what laughter is. Our cheek muscles tighten, we bare our teeth and we make strange rasping sounds as our diaphragm bounces up and down. Laughter can seem very animalistic, a feature of our primate nature. Many theories of laughter argue that it is largely a social phenomenon, signalling safety to others. Consider slapstick comedy. If your friend falls over and bangs their head, there’s a moment of tension as everyone waits to see if they need to leap into action to help. If it becomes clear that your friend isn’t physically injured you or they may suddenly burst into laughter. It seems that laughter may have evolved for situations like this, it signals to others that a potential danger has been avoided and allows us to release the tension associated with the danger. When we laugh we physically move into a state of relaxation.
Why cannabis makes us laugh
Cannabis is famous for its ability to induce hysterics. Brain imaging studies have shown that THC increases blood flow to the right frontal cortex and left temporal lobe, two areas of the brain associated with laughter [1]. Since our brains control our ability to laugh and THC acts on the brain, it may be that cannabis directly changes our threshold for laughter by acting directly on the relevant neural circuits. Since laughter is a complex social phenomenon, however, that’s likely only part of the story. Cannabis promotes a sense of wellbeing and a reduction in stress, both of which put us into a psychological state where we’re more likely to laugh. Laughter may also help with the transition to the more relaxed state that comes with this reduction in stress. We didn’t evolve to transition from periods of stress to periods of relaxation by simply relaxing our muscles, we naturally tremble after a traumatic incident to release the stress and we also laugh to shake off our stress-induced muscle tension. When we’re in a state where this reflex is ready to go, as it is when high, we can find any excuse to begin the fits of laughter.
Why psychedelics make us laugh
The classical serotonergic psychedelics, like LSD and psilocybin, are also capable of making us laugh. These substances have been found to be incredibly powerful when it comes to healing trauma, and this involves the release of stress. As a result, psychedelic laughter can be powerfully therapeutic. Sometimes, after hours of heavy psychotherapeutic work on a psychedelic, we can be left in a situation where we find everything hilarious. It could be that our evolved reflexes are taking over in such situations to help us shake off the tension associated with our past traumas in order to help us feel grounded and at peace. On a neurobiological level, the classical psychedelics work on the serotonin system, the same system that anti-depressants work on. While serotonin activity doesn’t simply equal happiness, it does appear to play a role in the generation of our sense of wellbeing. By neurochemically shifting us into a positive psychological state, psychedelics may simply allow us to tap into behaviours associated with positive mood, like laughter.
Existence & the absurd
Psychedelic substances are capable of stripping back the concepts that we typically use to navigate the world until we are confronted with naked existence. In mystical experiences of this kind, people typically feel as if it is impossible to put our existential situation into words, reality is too vast and mysterious for any description to do it justice. When we see that there's no simple purpose or meaning to the universe, no narrative that would be intelligible to a human mind, we’re left with a picture of existence as absurd. If we feel fundamentally afraid and separate from the rest of the world, this can be a daunting prospect and can lead us into nihilism. If we feel safe and connected to everything else, however, this absurdity can be liberating. The great religious scholar Alan Watts described life as like play or a piece of music, there’s no purpose to it, all we have to do is enjoy the ride. One theory of laughter holds that we laugh when something incongruous occurs, when we try to construct models of the world but our expectations are violated. In a mystical experience, we are confronted with the inability of our minds to make sense of existence, and often the only reaction we are left with is to laugh.
DMT and the cosmic joke
The breakthrough DMT experience is typically characterised by an atmosphere of intense hilarity. By the end of such an experience, people often report that they feel as if they were let in on a cosmic joke. We can be left with the feeling that existence is utterly ridiculous and absurd in the most amazing way possible. The entities people feel they encounter on DMT are often described as jesters or elves, as they too seem to be infused with a manic sense of humour. The contents of DMT experiences are often so utterly mind-boggling and unexpected, our sense of the incongruous is again activated, giving rise to laughter. Ethnobotanist and DMT-enthusiast Terrence Mckenna reported that, in his DMT trips, the entities he experienced communicating with produced geometric objects that functioned as visual puns. We do not currently know why DMT experiences have this character. It could be that the brain is shifted into a state of hallucinatory overdrive and, when coupled with the mood-elevating effects of psychedelics, these hallucinations take on a frantically happy character. This might be what is happening but, for now, we can’t say for sure.
Psychedelic comedy
“How about a positive LSD story? Wouldn't that be news-worthy, just the once?...'Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves' . . . 'Here's Tom with the weather.” - Bill Hicks
If one of the spiritual truths that psychedelics can unveil is that existence is a joyous cosmic joke, then comedians might be the high-priests of psychedelic spirituality. In recent years a small group of psychedelic comedians has emerged and they are making psychedelics increasingly mainstream. Duncan Trussell’s Netflix series The Midnight Gospel presented its audience with a DMT-like world of aliens while Shane Mauss has performed shows and made films all centered around psychedelics. Eric Andre has made shows called “Bad Trip” and “Legalize everything” in which he is very open about his passion for psychedelics and Sarah Rose Siskind hosts a monthly psychedelic comedy show in New York City called Drug Test. Even Comedy Central has produced a show that consists solely of stories of tripping, called Tales From the Trip. With its ability to disarm people and make them question their assumptions, comedy may play a surprisingly large role in psychedelics gaining mainstream acceptance.
The lesson of laughter
We think of laughter as being inherently associated with the trivial. Psychedelics can take us to a place, however, where laughing in the face of existence can feel like the most profound act possible. Psychedelic laughter may help heal trauma by allowing us to let go of the tension we hold in our bodies and can help us feel more connected to the world around us. When we heal our past traumas and find ourselves grounded in the present, facing the mystery of existence, what else is there to do but laugh?