Godfrey the godly giggler – a case of holy laughter

I remember a book I read back in 1989 called: ‘When the Spirit comes in Power’  by Christian psychiatrist John White. This book was written before the Toronto ‘Blessing’ hit the world in January 1994, although it should be noted that many of the Toronto/Brownsville even Argentinan Revival manifestations have been going around  the Christian fringes for years. They were not birthed with Rodney Howard Browne or Carlos Annacondia or Randy Clark or John Arnott. They are not a new thing.  

John White mentions the holy laughter in his book and describes one man who experienced it called ‘Godfrey’. Whenever I think of holy laughter I remember this incident recalled in this book read eighteen years ago now (and not picked up since). I think this story demonstrates in part what is happening with many people when they laugh or shake, rattle and roll….I do not say this is all that is happening, neither do I say all shaking is wrong.

‘Godfrey the godly giggler’ recieved the holy laughter in 1985 at a John Wimber conference. He laughed for almost 36 hours intermittantly. He then went to every Wimber conference he could and frequently reported to John White: ‘I got the holy laughter again. It was terrific. I got it first then everybody else did. We were laughing like crazy.’  Says author John White in the book:

‘His (Godfrey’s) letters bothered me, for it grew steadily clearer that ‘getting the laughter’ and especially being the first person to get it had become a means of reassuring Godfrey of his personal worth. The Holy Spirit had elected him, as it were, to start the ball rolling. And this made it obvious to him that he was really important.

What was going on? Where did the Holy Spirit really come in? As I mentally reflected on the problem…I began to see that Godfrey’s godly-giggling subroutine was probably being triggered whenever he was in contact with the Spirit’s power and that he was only too happy to give expression to it because of his deep need for reassurance.

Soon after I was present at a conference … (of 1200)… where laughter occured….we were asked to stand together and wait in the Lord together in silence. (meditating Christs’ death).

A moment or two passed and someone began to laugh. The laughter spread. It did not seem … (fitting or condusive) …with the prevailing mood…Later someone told me, ‘Godfrey started it again.’

I would say that the trigger for this laughter etc on people like Godfrey need not be the ‘anointing’ or the Spirit’s power/presense at all (as John White claims), but is more likely other earthly triggers such as shouting ‘fire’, speaking in tongues, prompts from the front such as the suggestion the Spirit is there about to ‘move’, waving of the arms suggesting the flow in the room, words inciting to ‘catch it’, everyone else jerking around, music which is highly manipulative, or other mesmerismic techniques - anything that the person associates with the manifestations really – so it becomes a Pavlov’s dog type reaction happening time and again on a completely subconcious level and many folk are not aware this is what is happening or how they are being manipulated. In some cases, it could be demons causing what is happening too, though the psychological conditioning connection cannot be lost. I know some people who have been trying to rid themselves of Toronto manifestations and have found it very hard - they continue to manifest though they want no part of it and have renounced it and asked God to deliver them – and though deliverance from counterfeit spirits may be needed, perhaps they are not yet free from the manifestations because they have not realised this psychological part and after confession and deliverance they need healing and restoration and unconditioning of the mind/psyche. How does one heal one who has been subliminally brainwashed to this degree without even realising it? It is hard. God alone knows! Just as well we have Him to pray to to restore us!