war in two thousand and three it's you see is widely condemned because of the potential long term health effects such as cancer and birth abnormalities. washington has apologized to moscow for arresting a russian citizen without properly notifying the countries or thora g.'s the pilot was detained in liberia and transferred to the u.s. so for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking. well up next season interview shows spotlight i was going to have talks to the real life version of the movie character patch adams the doctor who heals with humor to find out if laughter really is the best medicine that's next right here on r.t. . hello again welcome to spotlight. today my guests are patch adams and mary.

he became famous using laughter and joy for healing people and has devoted forty years to trying to improve america's health care system she is russian house founder of my real children rehabilitation center for orphans in moscow the two are here today to me the spotlight audience and i'll say yours and my question. when you're down there are things against you all you need is a law that's what occurred to an american dr patch adams who while he was being treated in hospital he founded the tide institute for laughter repeat they want to make it a health care echo community believes a person's health depends of the society believes in and says if the world does not change from bellying money to reading love humans will be extinct. to help change the world patch often comes to moscow to meet his russian friend my really

say look she's the head of the marias children rehabilitation center for disabled all fronts patch and their friends dress up as clowns and go to often just to bring children the love and care they lack today mary ann patchett will tell the story here on spotlight. hello maria hello hello fashed thank you very much for being with us thank you for coming on the show well first of all approach i would like to ask him a maybe a serious question you've been as far as i know i read at ten thousand deaths that as a clown so so can you teach people to overcome the fear of death. to do. i don't know that it's a teaching. i think one can emphasize the fact that while you're alive you're living and that you can be celebrating your living rather than hovering on your

fear of dying. and that i think my experience i've been in war zones and refugee camps and disasters and that people remember they are living in the worst of situations if the engagement is human and it doesn't mean that doesn't include crying and these sorts of things but when one is real with someone profoundly ill they act like they're alive and engaged as they can be we we we talked about quality health care i said well you did mention that you've been trying to prove the quality of care of health care in america why do you think they're there that funding palais joy and cloning is is so so in central essential for quality health care. in the business of care one doesn't want healthy people looks. and the

intelligence of healthcare one wants an emphasis on wellness on being well being well physically through exercise and diet but much more importantly being well mentally which there's never been any science to show any value to being serious or rude or nasty or unkind or apathetic but there are thousands of papers on the value of being joy and loving funny and keeping a joyful spirit whether you're in the worst of situations or simply going through life is. means you'll smoke fewer cigarettes drink less drinking hit be less violent and all of those things then and also stimulate your immune system and just so many benefits to express being alive being alive isn't suffering being alive is engaged in the process of living the reason

you started doing what you do and dressing like like the way you dress is because you you became disgusted in the in the traditional medicine were in a way of life in general in the society you live in general. yes that's true i. i decided eighteen that i wanted to put joy in the public space we are a depressed nation an anxious nation and i was looking how how can i be a person that by my presentation of self people will want to engage with me that instead of feeling alienated that they will feel instantly a connection as i expanded on it in didn't i notice that if i saw a violent act in public a parent and child in a grocery store i could change into my clown character in one hundred percent of the time and stop the fight would you choose clones and then the titles for example said it was better than the well i put in the santa clause it's santa claus is

a theory and santa clause doesn't work nearly as well in july as he does and this isn't what i describe and i've tried in the and there's a there's a broader it's like putting on a batman costume you're stuck in batman but a clown is more universal you know and also all you need with a clown is a nose and and with the santa claus you need a lot more paraphernalia the mary. welcome to chevy so well once again i would i want to to to to ask you when did you hear and when did you windies you going to queen to do it with a will with a method. mr adams with the patch adams and the end know how in what way did he inspire you to to stop doing what you're doing your charity. i hard the batch in ninety and ninety in the wrote him a letter and met the ninety nine tonight and ninety one. in the hospital and cancer

hospital where i came to invite him to my art studio that i had with children the priest and one of them of course. he did. how he inspired me i already was working with the kids but when i don't for that were children at risk but with batch i got the chance to go as a clown he invited me and i when he gave me a wee the clown costume so right after i met him i went. to try myself so you are actually the person who introduced batch to russia to russian nations to russian consist but you know that idea of was coming to russia before but i i only heard of him and invited him to my studio is it hard for you to to take a personal like patch and to make the russians take him seriously because russian

america are different people should take you for a freak i mean when you come here. i'm not trying to. the big. government possible is giving you trouble i mean. you really. are a restaurant where ran square one time for misbehavior you know what did you do we know where the red squares clowns thing. and we didn't obey the requests of the police and so we were able to clown in a russian jail it was very long i think we drove them crazy after a couple of hours and so they released us to. be safe if they've ever cheated on her maria one of the one of the great things that patches do we will. at least according to the film scene they did in the movie that we shot is like trying to

to to to get this distance between the patient and the doctor yes well well this is it really so serious and what creates it in that our. yes if. we now. we've tried to do something with our kids the to do and with. children who graduates from there or from the they are now volunteers and clowns at the hospitals and we tried to have a seminar and a couple of russian hospitals with the doctors and nurses. to try to introduce them to bed to fill author affair which became our there was the fear that the doctor or a nurse can have a more colorful and they're more friendly local sometimes act fine year so they cared. just become more

a little more legs. it was interesting what they answered to us they said. that they can not be luke fine again because if they do look fine ear or they blame . the parents would not trust their good doctor if they want take them third or do you have this problem in the states. well it's like a cardboard house. the doctor hides behind professional distance scientific the tacksman to or saying what maria saying so that they don't have to be light hearted loving no i've never never had the problem anywhere that. at this very profound moment when people are suffering. they ache for tenderness they ache for friendliness compassion that is before technological medicine this is mostly what the doctor had to offer to sit at the bedside to be

a presence of comfort. it's scientifically proved that live julia happiness it really helps people. helps people to overcome disease to be healthy but if so if it has scientific proof why don't clinics around the world introduce your technique i think the world is encouraging adults to be pardon me tight assed and. there's this idea that you when you grow up you want to be serious even though there's no scientific proof that being serious is ever good for you i think that as you join the adult world there's a. an invitation to hierarchy to where the doctor at the top of the hierarchy has a position of power humor is a hierarchy killer and there's nothing that lowers the hierarchy quicker than humor and so i think that that this is. to preserve this power

over that is so prevalent in the world that humor is pushed down to the circus and they want it out of i would like to say that i had a one of the first times i was in a russian hospital i was in a poor hospital that had no pain medicine and. in the u.s. hospital they have pain medicine so i never experiment having a patient who needs pain medicine like bone metastases that you're not going to say well let's not put this patient on pain medicine so we can try humor but i remember walking into the room of a six or seven year old boy who had bone metastasis no pain medicine in the hospital the child was screaming screaming bloody murder it's a horrible pain and from the story i was told is that this was something that went on for five months that the child had no respite from the pain and i remember

because it was the first time walking in the room and the child. stopped screaming and for one hour the child was playing the look on the mother's face was breathtaking and so from ever since then in russia i say when i enter a hospital please show me the people who are suffering the most patch adams said american physician in the early saver here in spotlight studio will be back shortly after a break so stay with us then go. welcome

back to spotlight i'm now we're not in just a mind that my guests in the studio today here i pad chatham us and maria yes they save us we're talking about healing people were left with a joint patch you called your clinic give. and it's a jam and when well why did you call your clinton because sounds funny. but there

are lots of reasons like a lot of things you could use some of the enjoyment gives you know you well. means wellness or health in a sauna literally but for joining us should be wellness and we're interested in people being well it also when you tell people since americans don't know languages they think it means sneeze institute so they laugh and interestingly enough i'm a scholar of cartoons and it's it is an english word now as we steal words internationally and it's the most east single used words and cartoons as a punchline so all of those are reasons ok very. do you believe that children really miss patch after he visits your patients and then goes away did do you have a feeling that they feel sorry and left does that make them even even more sad than they were before he came there no red talking about the kids the clown visit sort of through that. door. i believe they really are but i

don't think they feel worthwhile to kill it no i don't believe in that it was the thing i believe that. it's better to do a little than nothing i believe that the good impression that he brings the inspiration the collar it's the with the birth and it doesn't go away doesn't it doesn't become mine become for just the last thirty maybe that may be the question of your life i mean i mean is missing something good better than not knowing who are we calling. a lovely memory missing ok you you can read a good book and it affects you the rest of your life it doesn't mean the book may be good return to the library let me give you a well this is the thing about good books you keep them on your table well i need or you can reassure me or and then you go to the line of your early church you have

when when your grand parent dies you have their memory you have the grieving. part ok so you can be sorry they left the room but a lot of times we try to leave a memory let me tell you a beautiful story a woman i believe she's from siberia she visited her in st petersburg hospital she had one of these orthopedic rings on her head and and she was laying flat on her back and we had a great time and she i gave her my address she promised she would come back and clown and three years later she said i want to learn english and now twice she's come all the way from siberia when we go to st petersburg and clown's with us specifically for children who were in her place as any english speaker you probably don't just speak any of the languages accepting and and they your system is based on well you're being an american is it absolutely universal you mentioned visiting lots of countries including afghanistan so what you do or how you dress what what

you say is it universal forever what do you around the world do you like to think it's univers of human like human if there's one thing that's really clearance that we are i mean charles darwin in one of his books showed that that people all over the world recognize that the look of anger is is in all people the look of joy that the looks on people's faces that you can go to a culture and say what are they feeling and they'll say because they're the expressions are universal what i i don't see humor as a therapy or love as a therapy i see them as a context for a humanist approach to people so if if you have a twinkle in your eye a smile in your face and a willingness to greet i have found in every culture that they welcome you i've never seen any culture that and fact it opens a door they either go into a country i always learn friend thank you and i love you and that they they they see a lot of tourists especially poor countries you go there and you take your pictures

and and maybe you buy something. but you go home and you didn't really touch or embrace one person from that society where for us we're not going and buying stuff we're going to embrace the people and the people see that so they trust us more you would be amazed that even in poor countries if if they see us in gauge in the people the person can put their camera down and even if someone steals it they can go and get it from the person that stole it because it's it's a way of saying welcome to our culture well let's get back to maria actually every day volunteers at the marias children's center in moscow open a gate to a brighter reality for our friends spotlights yelena dimmy of the has witnessed the working miracles. it's hard to make this children smile as in their everyday life they just don't have many reasons for joy they leave

a note from the ages and many of them have serious health problems tamara tries to make their world brighter with the help of art a trained physicist she accidentally learnt about this rehab center nine years ago and has been given sue remix lessons out with scenes. of this i'm happy when they succeed in doing something and they're proud of the achievements every time they're coming here to create a little masterpiece lucrative over he wanted to make it clear helicopter so he's printing it now and then will fire it and i have no doubts that it will have another masterpiece here. artwork made by the orphans is regularly exhibited for children it's a chance to feel themselves true artists who are dogs who come and see their work it's a chance to consider volunteering eventually it's hard to tell who gets more pleasure from the art lessons students other teachers it. is.

not all volunteers at the center excelling crafts some just come here to talk to children for many of these kids it's their only chance in their family when you're in a place like this you immediately forget all your troubles and worries there are just too many bright colors all around children who come here like to draw rainbows flowers and castles in the clouds it's their escape to their dreamland and they welcome anyone who wants to join. our maria. we didn't see a single person. resembling patch in your in your center all the other clowning doctors are there doctors that at least tried to do something of the kind in here in this country. yes we had one doctor with a bunch of them an hour. it's the professor from

a lot of clinic records that have john and he. looks. a little time you need me ok. and i. hated person. is great with the kids he is the third children surgeon and the he. he he looks like he met. only last year last november but he looks very colorful smiley that seminary you mention it's called living a life of joys don't write a patch are you sure that you can teach well the people that are suffering people that even maybe are dying to to to to feel joy. well ok well think about it you have one week to live ok that's it no one's going to cure you you're going to live for one week during that week you want to spend the time going. oh god i'm dying is that your fantasy week bank

ok rob a bank ok that's my idea of fun but see the thing is we could it would be our style at our hospital or something or tell me more funny than writing about well i'm telling you if that was your first hospital style as if you had a week and that's what you wanted to do we would go rob a bank i mean we wouldn't use real guns and that sort of thing but would put the mask on him with weird work with the banks so so you can't rob a bank that arab idea and it wouldn't make children be able to give the money. and . how do you know in a way if you needed that i mean our star would have been ok particular if you were a poor family i would have taken a hundred dollars gotten even one dollar bills we would have gone to the bank giving it to the bank to give to you when you held it up maria the children in your rehab center yeah they're not there for good you just take them for

a while to make them feel better and then they go back to their orphanage is that right is it hard for them after they spend a wonderful time with you then to go to the to the usual routine in the usual orphanage which are not very fun places i know i i've been there as a journalist for. a couple of times of course the difficulty just the same question of us before about. the bow and the blood and not of the mind. for the kids like this that we've just seen of them or there is for them the to do is the only place they visit they live in then to do they are not able to see their world rather than the one time a week when they visit so yes i believe it's sad. yeah i just sit here and there is also had summer camps for the kids and trips down the volga river that it's that she's she's taken them she took some kids to beslan right. so that's

the thing is when you're trying to help somebody at first i remember when maria had to leave two rooms and took in twelve kids ok but now many years later you try that things you say i've read your interviews you like saying that that if people will not move from value money and power to value love humans will be extinct right yes right jesus christ preached the same and he was crucified so those don't mean we're all doomed. well. let me give you some background my library is thirty thousand books there's no john question it's either great literature or the state of the world where we are and so i've read a couple of thousand books on the environment i've studied history there's not one government on the planet i respect that clearly the value system if you watch t.v.

is money and power over not power but power over this is what we're teaching young people they watch t.v. they they want money and power over they don't want humanism there's no humanism education on t.v. and so in studying those things we. any the environmental environmentalists know that we are a very fragile species the reason i have no pessimism is i don't think it's too late with there will be a point if we don't change where we as a very fragile biological species will not survive in and this century will be that century that we've decided thank you thank you very much for being with us in just a reminder that my guests here in the studio today were patch adams an american physicians who treats patients with bias that have emotions and i have to and money save a founder of maria's children which is a rehabilitation center for orphans in moscow and that's it for now from all of us

will be back until then stay in russia today and take care thank you.

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