Laughing at the Devil

Saturday, June 16. 2007

Posted by Doug Motel in Personal Growth
Comments (4)

One of my favorite movie scenes is from The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Michele Pfeiffer and Cher. Jack Nicholson, in a perfect bit of typecasting, plays the Devil. The actresses play women who try to best him with their own experimentation in the black arts.

For me, Jack Nicholson's character represents the ego in its purest form: fear turned inside out projecting itself into everything it sees.

My favorite scene, one that I often show in my workshop is one where the Witches discover that laughter can stop the effects of fear right in its tracks.

It's the scene toward the end where the devil has been attacked by the Witches through a voodoo doll. He comes looking for them in an intense rage. His fury blows them forcefully down a long corridor and Susan Sarandon's character falls from balcony. As she tumbles through the air to certain death, her friends Michele Pfeiffer and Cher call down to her instructing her to "laugh".

At first Jane can only fake it, unsure of how laughing can help break her fall. But as she sees that indeed laughing is slowing the law of gravity and landing her gently on her feet, she breaks out in joyous laughter.

That scene is art doing what it does best: allowing the higher Self to send us messages in metaphor. The voice of fear, criticism and lovelessness within all of us, seem so real, seem so powerful but it's just a charade. It is a clever trick masking the fact that we possess an antidote that can make fear retreat into hiding.

When we make the choice to laugh at the ego, we can recognize fearful thoughts for what they are: simply the firing of neurons in the brain. Fearful thinking is just an electric storm in the frontal lobe nothing less and nothing more. When we can laugh that we once endowed this gurgling organ with such great majesty, we can transform its hold and even experience a connectedness to all of life that is almost dizzying in its beauty.

I think that laughter is the best kept secret weapon for dealing with all of life's difficult challenges. Try it. If it doesn't occur to you why a particular thought is funny then "fake it till you make it".

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I agree with you that laughing helps to make things better, but I never knew that it could help so much. Thanks

#1 Ukeme on 2007-06-25 00:15

I've always thought that laughter can help us through hard times. The information you provided helps reinforce that.

#2 Joe on 2007-07-06 10:48

I liked how laughing made Jane fall more slowly - it made me think of how laughter is the best medicine.

#3 Peter Profesta (Link) on 2007-07-15 08:53

Well Laughter does help...and to a great extent. And the detail information in this article reinforces the fact. Keep laughing...

#4 Pintu on 2007-07-29 08:13

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About the author

Doug Motel

Creates Stories, Workshops, Media and Events for Personal Growth

Doug Motel is an award-winning storyteller, writer, speaker, and coach.

His events are a hybrid of performance, humor and tools for positive change.

Doug's message of radical acceptance has inspired large groups and individuals since 1985. In a world playing a game of hot potato with fear, Doug's live and online works help us change the game of life to one of joy and play.

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