The Jubilation Procedures

The Jubilation Procedures describes recent scientific research on joy and happiness that makes it possible to construct step-by-step procedures for living a life of joy, with no negative emotions. That is, if you follow these simple instructions, you will experience days of happiness and contentment peppered with frequent occasions of intense joy. You will never again experience depression, anxiety, worry, guilt, or jealousy. Additional benefits include a three-fold increase in productivity and creativity (higher earnings at work); an astounding increase in social attractiveness; parenting skills to raise happy and creative children; and, more abstractly, knowledge of how to live a life of virtue - the only route to joy. After a brief introductory chapter describing the origins of the Jubilation Procedures, we plunge right into the three procedures. Each step is described and explained in detail, with just enough information to perform the steps efficiently (task knowledge). The following chapter describes applications of the procedures to daily life, at work, at home, at school. Next, we turn to techniques for handling negative emotions - in most cases, eliminating them completely. No more depression, no more anxiety! Finally, we review the scientific research and theories, and combine them into a general theory of joy that explains why the Jubilation Procedures work. The theories and research are not required for the performance of the procedures, but it is a fascinating story, with many surprises. And the theoretical knowledge will help t he reader apply the procedures in novel situations. In the last chapter, we establish the Jubilation Forum, a newsletter and an interactive web site, for readers to ask questions, make comments, and report results. A note from the author: "C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled Surprised by Joy, a spiritual autobiography and a philosophical argument for the existence of God and Heaven. I have often though that Lewis's title fits my book as well. I began my studies of joy and happiness (20 years ago) with serious misconceptions and erroneous assumptions, that money could facilitate happiness, for example, or that good health was a prerequisite. I didn't fully understand the difference between pleasure and joy. As a result, I was constantly "surprised by joy," by what philosophers had concluded and by what psychologists had discovered. The most unexpected finding was that joy and happiness are available only to those who live a life of virtue - the only life worth living, according to Socrates. My quest for the Jubilation Procedures thus turned to a search for the behaviors of virtue, that is, how to be virtuous. And the final surprise was that the question of how to live a life of virtue was easier to answer than the original question of how to live a life of joy!" -- James Geiwitz, October 21, 1999.