What Is A Romantic?

I would have no clue. I am not romantic, but I am very sentimental.

I am a romantic, because I Love the true beauty which surrounds me and the Love which is in each and everyone of my family, friends and myself. Because I learned in order to love another you must first love yourself.

Not me

the romantic has far more connotations than intimacy ...

Sorry RJ... This one is way too involved...LOL.. One day I might find my Joy again and get it back, but people can suck the life right out of you... But thank God...He is good to me

Dan, you may be a romantic deep down...

LOL...Dormant!

You are right RJ...far more connotations but love is always the first one thought of.

As to the other meaning, yes. I am. Very. In love no. Not at all

My personal opinion....the ability to take a simple moment and savor it; to speak without words.......to love another with a passion unmatched. To see the beauty in something others may not and to embellish on your feelings without restraint. I am an Aquarius and an Artist so there is no surprise that I am indeed a romantic............which works out because my husband is not.....so we balance eachother out.

I'm trying to not say much until more comments are in.... Beth not to put you on the spot but I'm not sure what you mean....

fanciful
impractical
unrealistic

Your on to me Beth....lol...the romantic is often called a tragic idealist..

I'm a dreamer......most definitely......but there's nothing wrong with having passion even if it has unrealistic expectations.....and luckily I have found someone who puts up with me, as well as fulfills my needs and "Tragic Idealist" tendencies.

Romance gives the feeling you usually honor yet never treasure and the feeling you always miss but hardly feel and if it is strong enough to intice you the thing you always question but still always want.

I am a tragic as well..Sheena do you also feel a search for identity in your make up?

A fairy tale

Janice do you mean romantics don't exist?
Robin do you find romance confusing?

Good Question Robert.....I think I would have to say as I get older not so much but as a passionate lovey dovey type I do *need* the romance....."moments" Romance does make me feel whole and after being with the same man for ten years his acknowledgement is my reward and very much something I savor in the moment. He makes me better, his approval is my identity....thats just a level of respect I have for him.....I am not some broken down house wife who bows to her man.. he very much does the same for me.....but I do believe in love being absolute (again some may say unrealistic) . an example of me "searching".......some may say this is a simple campfire but this is how I see it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s just the two of us. The sun has set; the stars have snuggled in above for the night. Our daughter tucked into her cozy bed. The campfire creates a glow around us as we sip our drinks and flirtatiously converse about memories, our goals, and our future. Sitting across from each other; one on each side of the fire, you take me all in. In this moment you get a glimpse of your best friend, you know…..the one you fell in love with. Enjoying the sounds of my voice hearing me laugh and not worrying about anything, or am not stressed for a change. We are really listening to what each other has to say, enjoying each others company. There’s no worries out here, our “to do lists” and money concerns left at home and all that is present a cherry whisky in my hand, a warm fire and the love, friendship and sheer lust we have for one another as the pheromones almost fog the air.

On more than one occasion throughout the night you pause looking at me with that stare of yours. I can see it in your eyes….there it is, that look you give me. I know what it means, but I pretend I don’t. I am enjoying it too much and refuse to let it to end. With all of the elements around us, the earth beneath us, the water from a near by river flowing in the background, the crisp night air, and the radiant fire burning; what a perfect moment.

and there you have it an over the top Tragic Idealist and I am not afraid to admit it.

Sheena, it sounds like your identity is connected to the other. You don't sound tragic to me but rather idealizing your love... anyway you have a good valentines day poem already..

I do give myself fully...and that can be dangerous.......its something I have battled with my entire life......but it stems from tragic events from my past when regarding men and often I put too much emphasis and expectations on relationships. and yes Robert you make another good point thanks.

someone who paints nudes in a studio al day and has many wives

.....PICASSO!

lol

Sheena, I hope you don't mind but I looked at your work and I couldn't help but notice the people are either masked or half hidden.... Are you aware of this theme and what it might mean?
thats funny ryan

Oh, romantics exist. Romance, on the other hand, is fleeting. Realistically, life gets in the way. It's impossible to sustain that type of passion that romantics dream of...fairy tales, Hollywood movies, romantic novels.. often channeling those feelings into art.

Janice, that is why they call them tragic

yes Robert.......you are pretty clever and on to me. I have been insecure my entire life......there I came clean! LOL.....even have an eating disorder, physically abusive relationship and quite the record to go with it......but I have grown up a lot and am slowly slaying my demons as I have a daughter and need to lead by example.......then again I like to look at my art as just being edgy.........but you caught me. and although I SEEM confident and many are intimidated by me it's quite ironic....and I often think "if they only knew". ...LOL and now that I am plastered all over this thread let the pack of coyotes come in and get in their digs while they can.....lol......Art is my sweet solitude and safe place and the only thing I like about myself.

Today ain't Valentine's Day lol

Romance. What does that mean ?

It is not loyalty or devotion. Passion, faithfulness. Nor trust, dedication nor commitment..

I can tell you I love my family fiercely.

But romance ? that's "fluff" to me. & I am very busy committed to all of the important things above.

Good point Janine.

My wife is also my muse. Most paintings I do are of her. Does that make me a romantic?

Sheena, you are a survivor and have a lot to feel good about yourself.. You look at your stuff and process it and make an artistic statement. Not all faces are half hidden..
Yes Janine romance is not the full topic here, a romantic is..the two are different
No David not necessarily ..it could be you paint what you know

Italy?

Hmmm...If you're talking a " Renaissance soul "...... I guess that would be most of us here.

Thanks Robert and thanks for this thread quite interesting to see different perspectives.

My wife and I are also in the very beginning stages of planning a trip to Paris, the city of romance.

Idealists, the sentimental dreamers, the imaginative and the fanciful when you get to know them. They often live looking through rose colored glasses. They treat love as an art form with thought and actions toward the things they love.

Romantics are to be envied.

When I describe myself in the artistic sense as a romantic then I am referring to the movement during the first part of the 1800. According to wikapedia then: "The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories."

In this meaning then the term is more what you consider art then a particular personality trait in a person.

I've got to say it:
Over the years I've seen many marriages with love, sex, and passion wrecked because somebody "needed" some romance. All to often, this word means "superficial titillating excitement". If you happen to find this with your mate, great, enjoy! But don't demand it, because once you demand it, it's impossible to give. Flowers, candy, dinners out, and satin sheets don't make romance. Feeling are great when they happen, but it takes a stable, strong garden of love, fertilize with the practical manure of loyalty and love to cultivate the occasional bloom of romance. The good news is that the 3rd, 4th, and 5th bloom will happen, if you give it time and some careful gardening.

Romantic...

a gift...for no reason, out of simple appreciation

giving a person what they need, even when they didn't ask for it- a foot rub, an encouraging word, sometimes a gentle push in a good direction

making time do something you may have no interest in...just to be with them and make them happy-like watching a football game when you think FB sucks

telling a person what you find beautiful and attractive about them...and don't stop saying it, it makes it a known fact that you are attracted to them- inside and outside

flirting...oh yes...holding hands, staring longer than expected...quick stolen kisses...*I'll stop there

I think romance is an expression of being treasured. Treating my husband like a king...makes him want to treat me like a queen. That can be lived out everyday...even if it isn't perfect.

Romance is not saying "I have you...you're mine now." or "I guess this is it." It's saying "I'm glad you are with me and I still want you."

It's taking your creativity and applying it to how you love your lover.

As a person...I am a romantic. I like reds and pinks and purples...I wear them often, like jewel colored flowers. I almost always wear perfume...because I like to smell good at all times. I like soft fabrics and flowing dresses. I wear flowers in my hair and jewelry.

There are many misconceptions about those who create. Many personality types can be creative.

Are the romanticist, romantic too?

“When I look on you a moment, then I can speak no more, but my tongue falls silent, and at once a delicate flame courses beneath my skin, and with my eyes I see nothing, and my ears hum, and a wet sweat bathes me, and a trembling seizes me all over."

Sappho

A love poem book bought for me at Christmas by an author born in 625 bc...

My husband the non-romantic: Sees things for what they are
I the Romantic: Sees things for what they can be .... I exaggerate, appreciate and savour the simple things and make them much more complex than they are.

Romantic- one who follows Roman ideals......

What difference does it make?

A romantic....a person who is passionate about love. (;

A romantic feels the beauty in all things. If life is too wretched for beauty, a romantic is sad not angry.

A romantic feels the beauty in all things. If life is too wretched for beauty, a romantic is sad not angry.
@ Karen, you have no idea how accurate this is and interesting to me..I've noticed that some of the professed non romantics on this thread have an edge of anger or irritation to the very question.

a list of famous romantics;
Francis Bacon, John Barrymore, Ingmar Bergman, Peter Bogdanovich, Marlon Brando, Jackson Browne, Raymond Burr, Kate Bush, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Prince Charles, Eric Clapton, Kurt Cobain, Judy Collins, James Dean, Johnny Depp, Neil Diamond, Isak Dinesen, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Martha Graham, Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, Julio Iglesias, Jeremy Irons, Michael Jackson, Jewel, Angelina Jolie, Janis Joplin, Harvey Keitel, Charles Laughton, T. E. Lawrence, Vivien Leigh, Rod McKuen, Thomas Merton, Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Morrissey, Edvard Munch, Liam Neeson, Stevie Nicks, Anais Nin, Nick Nolte, Laurence Olivier, Paris, Edith Piaf, Pink Floyd, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, Prince, Anne Rice, Percy Shelley, Simone Signoret, Paul Simon, Meryl Streep, James Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Vincent Van Gogh, Orson Welles, Tennessee Williams, Kate Winslet, Virginia Woolf.

Rumi

Solomon

Most of the great prophets and mystics where romantics, because of their intense longing and searching

RJ, you've listed a lot of actors and performers. Were they personally romantic or where the characters they played romantic? Some confusion there, perhaps?

Dan, their personalties are classified as romantic individualist...

Dan...what is romance to you? Are you a romantic?

Who's personalities? The characters they played or their true everyday selves?

Singer songwriter Dan Fogelberg.

I would guess Dan to be a perfectionist, would you say that fits Dan?
to your other question their everyday personalities

OK I'll give it a go...

A romantic by my own definition is a person striving for Utopia...even if it all takes place within their own mind.

Someone who tries to manipulate thoughts to achieve the endorphin charged end result.

An Optimist, humanist...possibly a pianist :-).....Not looking to save the world....just their part of it

( I may have just self diagnosed)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming

it's almost 4;20 Mo

Seduction first, romance second. Always.

So...not a romantic then? Since it's second....always.

Romantic is often confused with dreamy, nostalgic, atmospheric.... Did anyone look it up yet in Wikipedia ... Lol ...

Romance isn't possible without seduction. In the context of the discussion, seduction is too important to leave out.

@Dan is that kind of like, wine is fine but liquor is quicker?

To me it means being humble enough to admit that I can ALWAYS learn from others. That I can continually be excited about the world around me and that I can adhere to the values that have lead me so far.

Seductions literal translation is to lead astray..

So, at this juncture, no answer to my question.

Also something that attracts or charms :-)

What kind of answer were you looking for?

"What difference does it make?"

What difference does it make to you Tony?

@Philip "Most of the great prophets and mystics where romantics, because of their intense longing and searching"

I don't think that that's true. The mystic strives for anything but romanticism. The mystic rejects labels like that. Rejects "searching". That's why artists will never be mystics or prophets, or any such thing. Artists are too earthly and ego bound. Which is what makes them artists (Philip)

I admit to not having read the whole thread but I have read this from Philip and I "nearly" agree totally. I say nearly because of course I don't know all artist and if poets can be considered artists then there are many mystics that were poets (San Juan de la Cruz, Teresa de Avila, Rumi....)

But, I admit also that I do not know of any enlightened Artist and as Nescio who wrote very little and as a hobby said (in Amsterdam Stories) "I just want to be and for me, to do, is not to be".

On many differant points I agree with Sheena - & it is in the artsit's soul to express the extremes of what they feel through their medium.
I just do not identify with Hallmarks expression of romance - I prefer my flowers living - not dead.
I feel /see the romance in nature, that is also where I draw spirituality from. Same thing, or does that wrap right around to passion.

@Robert.....I have been led astray on a few occasions......I liked where it led.

Xo and Philip,Do you really think that mystics and prophets have transcended their ego? They may have come face to face with it but they are human, to think that they are beyond it is naive. I mean please give me brake, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck...
Tony, I don't know what you're driving at, can you be clearer? what difference does anything make?
Dan, no wonder you have so much free time...
I get no pleasure out of corruption ..

Romantic = idealistic, somewhat in denial of life's harshness, in a self-imposed delusional state that paints consciousness in beautiful, lively qualities, requiring quite a bit of energy (I believe) to sustain in the face of opposing forces to it.

Romantics, thus, are a breed of psychic athletes, running a fantasy marathon that they absolutely will not forfeit, until they are injured beyond the point of continuing the "race". The "race" is between life and death. Death eventually claims all romantics, and this is the harshest reality that all romantics must face, UNLESS they romanticize death too, in which case they are the ultra-marathoners of the mind.

That's it Robert... it's all just a death rehearsal

Death as the end of suffering is the ultimate romantic idea:) Romantics believe the next reality is even better than this one! Melancholic but not depressed :)

I'm relieved that some people, "get it", thanks karen

The new Romantics forged the music scene in the early 1980s.. in the UK, u know "dont you want me baby... dah dah, dah-dah dah" lol and other gems... that non romantics migh heave at lol....

Dammit Jason! I was just coming in to post about that! LOL

just for you John.. New Romantics ...



and the essential guide



:-)

Robert, the the beginning of your post was spot on for me, I keep coming back to read it again:) I'm not sure about the race analogy. I believe they have an idealistic outlook that they will not forfeit, but racing (even a marathon) indicates striving:). Romantics are too dreamy to strive, in my opinion:)

Yes, Robert, I like the way you said it.

I like this thread, at least us artists should understand one another, when most of the world might not be "on our level". Ha, so in other words, whatever we babbel about here, it is all good.

Karen N.,

My reference to a "race" implies endurance, which I believe all romantics have. It simply means that a romantic never gives into negativity - he/she keeps running with the idea that life is inherently good above evil. Even death is good to the most romantic among us, which I have found to be very religious people.

@RJ...I don't know if you are familiar with Ramana Maharshi...Here's something I have copied from the web http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual-and-devotional-poets/indian-poets-20th-century/ramana-ma/

Life of Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi was one of India’s greatest Spiritual Teachers of the Twentieth Century. Ramana Maharshi was born on December 30, 1879 in a village called Tirucculi about 30 miles south of Madurai in southern India. At an early age he had a profound experience in which he became acutely aware of the mortality of the body. This led on to a profound insight that He was not the Body, but spirit. After this experience he became absorbed in deep meditations, in which he began to experience his real self, which transcended ego.

With a glimpse of this higher consciousness Ramana lost interest in worldly life and travelled to the holy Mountain of Arunachala Here he spent several years meditating alone at the foot of the mountain, but gradually many seekers became attracted to the his divine personality and aura of peace and thus an ashram was built on the slopes of Arunachala, which continues today.

Ramana Maharshi taught seekers to silence the mind and try and discover the source of their thoughts. He taught the goal was to try and reach beyond their ego bound state and answer the question ‘Who am I?’ In the beginning this is a difficult task but eventually the power of the ego will be diminished by the power of the heart.




As I said before, many mystics, prophets and enlightened beings were also poets, that's why I didn't fully agree with Philip since poetry is considered one of the original five fine arts.

Romantic: (OD) 2.-characterized by an idealized view of reality.

Mystics and Prophets often seek to see reality as it is, and the True ones have actually realized it, so can not agree when you say that they are all Romantics, I find the opposite to be truer.

@Robert "Death eventually claims all romantics"...yes, but not only all romantics :-)

Thanks Xo, for one thing I said" most" not all... also the question "who am I" is one the romantics primary questions and a ego question.... The shamans and mystics that I've worked with in America and Indonesia all warned that their ego was there greatest challenge, that they were not only not immune to it but even more vulnerable to it because of their search... So although I respect your learning my experience is other wise.. going beyond is only a glimpse..the ego doesn't surrender that easily if at all.. we can be conscious of it and try to work with it but without we couldn't cross the street

Thanks RJ, you might find this interesting...

.

@RJ "all warned that their ego was there greatest challenge, that they were not only not immune to it but even more vulnerable to it because of their search." I recognise this and I did say in the past "The biggest obstacle to find truth is the seeker".

Having said that, to call mystics and prophets "Romantics" is something else...Doesn't look like you'll admit to it, but those who do find Truth see beyond "idealized views".

Wonderful writings that require close attention, I think there is a discrepancy between the ego and egotistical. .. I see a total romantic there with grandiosity , there is no way to totally brake from the ego without arresting knowing, thinking and feeling. And he knew things, that is ego.... not egotistical but he too can run the risk like any of us..saying that those who find truth see beyond idealized views is an ego statement in itself.. the very idea that the camera is even there is ego... the idea that you believe to have the truth is ego.. btw I loved the razors edge

“What Is A Romantic?”

We all are! ;) Our ancestors were the slime of the ocean bed….and the story of human’s ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival.

Regardless of ego…if our creation is an existence dominated by our personality, then we can be assured of the “possibilities” of personality survival, advancement, and achievement…we can be confident of personality growth, experience, and adventure.

The universe is personal and progressive, not merely mechanical or even passively perfect!...isn't it romantic? ;))

One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take ourselves less seriously.

Humor is the divine antidote for exaltation of ego.


In Re: to what you and XC were touching on;

For some…Egotism can be look at as conceited, self-analysis…yet without it one wouldn’t search…
Then there’s the “alter ego” by which one evolves up through ghosts, fetishes, and spirits to polytheistic gods, and eventually to the One God concept…the highest ideals and the loftiest aspirations of a praying ego.

(btw…it’s amazing…as I wrote the last paragraph I was reminded of how stagnating my thought process must be…if you know what I mean ;))

Robert did you know you always mispel break....you say brake..:) is that on purpose? Anyway romantic...what does romantic mean to me...I never use it because of the soppy connotations....whenever i see the title...the Romantic poets i think yuk, but i love ( is that romantic)Matthew Arnold's poetry and some of Wordsworths and definitelyThomas Hardy's, but their romanticism always/often has a double edged sword to it. Romance has an elusiveness, its not content, or stands still, it lures and entices, can be cruel, not easily won, but can be magic. i was trying to avoid adding to this discussion because its not an easy one to answer. I think it can be delusional, ideal, but I think always too far off to actually exist because once you have it, and the longer you have it, it takes an interruption before you see it fully again. Whatever it is, it is deep and hard won/if ever completely won, and even if it is only a passing thought, the thought is so wonderful and probably unreachable that it has someone in the room say to you....what are you smiling about? And you can't always answer. I think longing has a lot to do with it too, at least for planting the seed of romance, but sometimes it comes quite out of the blue. Like when you are reading a book and this particular line is so lyrical and unusual and new that you keep reading it over and over, and even hold the book close to your heart because you know that you have found something special. And i know, it sounds stupid, thats the worst of romantic, thats why i never use the word.

I just listened to an American Idol contestant sing Etta James' song, 'At Last'. A very romantic song, i think. she sang so well too that I filled up. are these the responses of a romantic?

And here we are in heaven,And life is but a sooooong....

Thanks,Maria.....now That's romantic......can't stand icky slobbering 'romance' either....I think of the music of the Romance composers here.....oh well........holding hands is romantic,too....

Thanks RJ, from this perspective you may be right...

From Wiki:

What distinguishes Jungian psychology is the idea that there are two centers of the personality.
The ego is the center of consciousness, whereas the Self is the center of the total personality, which includes consciousness, the unconscious, and the ego. The Self is both the whole and the center. While the ego is a self-contained little circle off the center contained within the whole, the Self can be understood as the greater circle.[2]
[edit]Emergence from the Self

Jung considered that from birth every individual has an original sense of wholeness - of the Self - but that with development a separate ego-consciousness crystallizes out of the original feeling of unity.[3] This process of ego-differentiation provides the task of the first half of one's life-course, though Jungians also saw psychic health as depending on a periodic return to the sense of Self, something facilitated by the use of myths, initiation ceremonies, and rites of passage.



So self realization would not eliminate ego, it would actually acknowledge it and embrace it. But like I said, it is very different from calling mystics and prophets "Romantics". Most cases I know of True Prophets, Mystics and Saints is that they did not find Truth, it is actually more the other way round, Truth found them :-) "Truth reveals itself, and when it does, there is no finder to be found".

Oxo, i recall being fascinated with the ego, alter and super, now it's all a bit woolly and makes me think of, aperature, shutterspeed and ISO. :))))

María LOL, I think I know that feeling :-)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099615/Is-romantic-painting-Oil-depiction-Romeo-Juliet-voted-best-Britain.html

I think this Auden poem is romantic, especially the third stanza.

Funeral Blues



Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good


Title: After a romantic day
Author: Thomas Hardy

The railway bore him through
An earthen cutting out from a city:
There was no scope for view,
Though the frail light shed by a slim young moon
Fell like a friendly tune.

Fell like a liquid ditty,
And the blank lack of any charm
Of landscape did no harm.
The bald steep cutting, rigid, rough,
And moon-lit, was enough
For poetry of place: its weathered face
Formed a convenient sheet whereon
The visions of his mind were drawn.

I think I am going to have to read Thomas Hardy's poetry all over again!

Viv, i think hands are one of the most romantic things, just hands, and what they are capable of, i don't mean like wringing someone's neck with them though, although if its in a jealous rage, because of love, then I'm not sure. i think it's romantic when someone dies and the partner dies very quickly afterwards, definitely something romantic about that, even in its sombreness. I have known couples who have naturally died almost together, the second death being caused by the death of the first. Or death unknown. But we feel that it is because of the first death, or is that just the romantic in some of us, and therefore is it romantic at all.

A short film about romance ;)
(on a artistic/creative level, it's excellent)

And this is too. -FIN-

Valenteye

The Valiant Don Quixote!!!

Maria D.,

There are two Roberts in here now:

(1) moi, Robert K. and

(2) the starter of this thread, Robert J.H.

Is Robert K. misspelling the word you mentioned, or is it Robert J.H.?

I have this very romantic notion, you see, that I can fool people into believing that I am a good speller, and I would hate to be living a lie. (^_^)

-- Robert K.

lawrence that was so cute
Xo, I love that scene, we saw that movie last month... I love it
Robert K who is Miss Pelling?

Romantic means doing something special for someone you care about that makes them happy.

Robert k.....it is Robert J H who can't spell..:)

And then there is "true" romance...

Let's see if stays this time :-)!!!

Maybe he's just saying things the internet doesn't even want to hear...

Is it possible to be a cynical Romantic?

LOL, I wouldn't be surprised if it disappears again :-)

IDK Karen but I know I have high expectations with low hopes...

This may not be very romantic...

Most cynics are really crushed romantics: they've been hurt, they're sensitive, and their cynicism is a shell that's protecting this tiny, dear part in them that's still alive.
Jeff Bridges

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/romantic-lemon-cheesecake-pancakes/

These might help peckish romantics who like to nibble...

Perfect quote:) I will try to see that when dealing with cynics!

Xo, I've been in situations like that... in a way they are very painful

Yes, and often end up in tears...still, it is said that laughter has the power of healing!

That pancake was once an egg. Or 2.
Muttered the chicken
As she laid
An egg
Or 2
As the chef approached
To sing his romantic song
Of the kitchen
Often roasting
Dinner.

Cockle doo dah
Doo

when I was in an Indonesian hospital with my second episode of dengue fever along with typhoid, strep and melioidosis the doctor told me I shouldn't be alive and if all his patients laughed like I did he'd have a 90 percent success rate.. I was hysterical for some reason and I think it was my bodies way of dealing with it..

I recall you mentioning it in another thread...Laughter has become a therapy and there is the famous case of Norman Cousins...But then again, the Buddhists seem to have known for a long time...

from wiki:

Told that he had little chance of surviving, Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."

Cousins received the Albert Schweitzer Prize in 1990. He died of heart failure on November 30, 1990, in Los Angeles, California, having survived years longer than his doctors predicted: 10 years after his first heart attack, 26 years after his collagen illness, and 36 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins

I remember there were several mystic/healers I would visit in Indonesia and several of them had this nervous almost out of place laugh, like a giggling monk it enabled them to go into their working trance..