TOPICS: Taking yourself too seriously – laughing at your ego – humor turns away dark forces – higher and lower humor – heaven is full of joy – can laugh your way into heaven; cannot cry your way into heaven – humor is liberating – humor has a high vibration – joy and laughter – Jesus did not laugh often – become as joyful as little children – God is the most joyful being of all –
Question: Dear Master Jesus, thank you for your insightful advise. It has really helped me make some important choices about my path. This has resulted in some “dark nights of the soul.” After reading The Christ Is Born in You and reading many questions and answers on this website I was wondering about humor. It seems that spiritual growth is serious, but can the growth incorporate humor too? The image that many Christians (including myself) have of you is a quiet, reserved person. Do you have also a playful side? They say that the best medicine is laughter. Any insight about incorporating laughter as we sometimes struggle to reach higher.
Answer from ascended master Jesus through Kim Michaels:
I can assure you that there is much humor and joy here in heaven, and therefore there should be room for humor on the spiritual path on earth. In fact, let me say that if you cannot laugh at yourself, you are taking yourself too seriously. And if you cannot laugh at a particular topic, including your religion, you are taking that topic too seriously.
Humor is indeed a liberating force that can have a powerful impact on setting people free from the prison of the human ego and the dualistic mind. The human ego is very serious about preserving its image and its sense of being in control. When you identify with the ego, you cannot laugh at yourself. If you think someone is making fun of you, the ego feels threatened, and it attempts to squeeze all joy from your life. Therefore, one of the best ways to neutralize the ego is to use humor.
As Saint Thomas More once said, “The devil, the evil spirit, cannot endure to be mocked.” There is indeed no better way to turn away dark forces than by using humor. The dark forces are consumed by their egos, and therefore they take themselves very seriously—and they want all human beings to do the same. If you refuse to take them seriously, or even use humor to deflate their egos, they will find it difficult to find an inroad into your consciousness.
Obviously, as with everything else on this planet, there is a higher form of humor and a lower form of humor. I am sure everyone interested in spiritual growth can tell the difference, and it is truly a difference in vibration. Some forms of humor are gross or base, and they cause your energies to flow downward. Other forms of humor are light-hearted and cause your energies to move up. I am not encouraging anyone to engage in any lower form of humor, which is basically any form of humor that degrades other human beings. However, I strongly encourage people to use humor as part of the spiritual path because it truly can liberate you from becoming trapped in the illusion created by dark forces, namely that everything is so serious and should be taken so seriously that there is no room for any real joy in life.
Let me say that many Christians have developed the attitude that it is necessary to walk around with a sad face in order to make it to heaven. In reality, this is an illusion. God has no desire to force people to enter heaven. God wants people to enter of their own free-will choosing, and why would you choose to enter heaven if you see it as a place with no joy? God created human beings so they are naturally attracted to that which is light and joyful, and they are repulsed by that which is dark and dreary. God created you that way because heaven is full of light and joy, and God wants you to be attracted to heaven. So if your religion makes you take life too seriously, then you are not headed in the direction of heaven. If not, you might want to lighten up and take your spirituality and your religion less seriously. It is quite possible to laugh your way into heaven but it is not possible to cry your way into heaven.
We of the ascended masters often use humor to diffuse a tense situation. Although heaven is a place with great joy, those of us working with human beings often find ourselves in somewhat tense situations because it is difficult to determine exactly how to help our unascended brothers and sisters move forward on the spiritual path. Truly, there are so many problems and so much darkness in the earth that even an ascended master can become tense when dealing with these situations. We often used humor to lighten a meeting or discussion, because we know that when things get too tense, the tension itself will block the right solution.
Up here, we never make fun of people or each other in a malicious or degrading way. But we will make fun of each other in a good-natured way, and we will make fun of ourselves because we do not take ourselves too seriously. We will often use our past mistakes or shortcomings in a humorous way to prove a point. If you want an example of our form of humor, read The Jesus Koans. It contains some sayings that bring a smile to the face of an ascended being.
Let me say that humor and joy is truly a vibration. It is a vibration of great light, and it can lift your spirit more than anything else. Humor is not necessarily the same as laughter. Laughter is a physiological reaction, and although it can relax your muscles, it does not necessarily lift your spirit. Base humor does not lift your spirit.
It is quite possible to use humor and joy without making people laugh. Joy can be a quiet glow that suddenly makes everyone realize that behind all the serious appearances on earth there is a deeper sense of joy. That joy can be released through the heart center of every human being, but those who are truly joyful can become electrodes of this inner glow. They can lighten up a room simply by walking into it and without cracking any jokes that make people laugh. They can open the door for a flood tide of the energy of joy simply by looking at someone with a blink in the eye or by smiling.
As you grow on the spiritual path, heal your psychological wounds and open your mind and heart to spiritual light, you will naturally become an electrode of joy. You will be able to dispel the gloom of a situation by just being the flame of joy in action.
You say that many Christians have an impression of me as being quiet and reserved. I do not know where that impression came from, because if you read the scriptures, you will see that I was not quiet or reserved when I challenged the scribes and the Pharisees. I was, and I am, a very direct Master, and I can assure you that I was quite outspoken. In fact, many people were offended by my outspokenness and directness. It is, however, correct that I did not often smile or laugh during my embodiment in Galilee. I knew I had a serious mission to fulfill, and from the point of no return at the wedding in Cana, I was so focused on meeting the daily tests and challenges that I had little attention left over for being joyful.
In retrospect, I wish I had been more joyful but at the time my attention was focused on dealing with the heavy energies and the outer challenges I faced. Today, I would have been far less serious but then again it is easy to look back at the past and think you could have done better.
Nevertheless, I see no reason Christians today should take themselves, their religion or the spiritual side of life too seriously. Make an effort to bring joy into your spiritual life, because unless you become as joyful as little children, how can you enter the kingdom of joy? Make an effort to become an electrode of joy and dispel the cloud of gloom that currently hangs over this planet. So many people in today’s world take themselves and their causes so seriously that they believe joyfulness is a sin, a crime or an offense to God. I can assure you that God is never offended by true joy. On the contrary, God is the most joyful being you will ever meet. How can there be anything but joy in the presence of God?
You might ask why I do not use humor on this website. The main reason is that in heaven we have a universal form of humor, but on earth humor is so dependent upon different cultures. On a website that can be accessed by people from every culture, I do not want to offend anyone’s cultural sensitivity. And I do not want to offend the many people who do take their religion too seriously but who might still be helped by the teachings on this website.
Copyright © 2004 by Kim Michaels