In the early 1990s , Madan Kataria , an Indian doctor who worked in Mumbai , became interested in the growing body of scientific evidence showing that laughter is extremely beneficial to human health. He made a decision that more laughter was needed to improve health and deal with the stress of modern living. In 1995 , while writing an article for a health journal , Dr.Kataria discovered many modern scientific studies describing the benefits of laughter on the human mind and body.In particular , he was impressed by Norman Cousins' book Anatomy of an Illness and the research work by Dr.Lee Berk.Then he began to field ­ test the effect of laughter on himself and others. Starting with just five people , on March 13 , 1995 , at a public park in his neighborhood , Dr.Kataria started the first laughter club.They laughed together in the park to the amusement of bystanders , and the small group quickly grew to more than 50 people within a few days. In the early meetings , they stood in a circle with one person in the center to tell a joke or a funny story.Everybody enjoyed themselves and felt good for the rest of the day.However , after two weeks , their jokes and stories ran out.Some complained that it would be better to discontinue the club than to continue without any jokes.Dr.Kataria asked the club members to give him one day to develop a breakthrough that would solve the problem. That night , Dr.Kataria reviewed his research and finally found the answer.Our body cannot differentiate between pretend and genuine laughter. In fact , both produced the same effect. The next morning , the results were amazing. For some , the make ­ believe laughter quickly turned into real laughter. Soon the group was laughing like never before.The hearty laughter that followed lasted for almost ten minutes.This was the birth of Laughter Yoga.