Within minutes, it had become infectious and perfect strangers were chuckling, giggling and cackling - seemingly uncontrollably.
About a dozen people celebrated Global Belly Laugh Day at the Abbeyfield retirement facility open day yesterday, by taking part in Laughter Yoga with Heather Hay.
The Dunedin Laughter Club member is in her 70s and has been doing laughter yoga for several years.
''When I tried laughter yoga for the first time, it was an incredible experience.
''It felt wonderful and I was amazed what a relaxing sleep I had afterwards.
''I've been hooked ever since.''
Ms Hay said it was an easy and fun way to get ''laughter juices'' flowing, which had many benefits for people's happiness and health.
It was also a great way to connect with others, she said.
''Laughter yoga has been shown to have many physical, mental and emotional health benefits from its simple, playful exercises, she said. ''These benefits include reducing blood pressure, stress, depression, pain and supporting the body's immune system and capacity to produce natural painkillers.''
The practice was developed by Dr Madan Kataria, of Mumbai, India, after he discovered in 1995 that laughter was healthy, even if it was faked.
What was useful was laughing in a group, making eye contact, and physically moving the body while laughing.
He developed a broad structure for laughter sessions, comprising a number of short laughter exercises, interspersed with deep breathing to clear the lungs (the yoga aspect), followed by a winding-down process so that people were grounded when they completed the session.
Ms Hay warned laughter was contagious, but said parking tickets were a good antidote.
