Preface - During my more than twenty years as a practicing psychiatrist and neurologist, I have used hypnosis almost daily, therapeutically as well as for diagnosis. Aware of its limitations as well as its advantages, I have therefore been on guard against and I have vigorously worked against those who misrepresent hypnosis, or utilize it for entertainment, or becloud it with illusion and false hope.

01. Quit Smoking - Youre thinking about giving up smoking. Well, not giving it up entirely, perhaps, but at least cutting down on the number of cigarettes you smoke each day. You've opened this book, at any rate, because you're somewhat uneasy about the reports linking smoking with several serious and unpleasant diseases. Or because you've heard that smokers tend to die at an earlier age than non-smokers.

02. Quit Smoking - Not very long ago, Americans learned that a part of the cranberry crop then on the market was thought to be contaminated by a carcinogenic agent. The cranberry industry was almost wrecked by this disclosure; housewives not only shunned the shipments that allegedly contained the agent, but also temporarily boycotted all other forms of this fruit juices, jellies and sauces, whether fresh or frozen or canned, and even when they were known to be made from berries just as pure as cranberries should be.

03. Quit Smoking - In making our decision to stop smoking, you and I have probably traveled similar routes. But for the purposes of this book, it's important to go back over some of the territory we covered independently. First we have to understand why we smoke, which is the subject of this chapter. Then why almost every other method of breaking the cigarette habit has within it the elements of failure; and then we'll learn the new approach, and well succeed at last.

04. Quit Smoking - In golf and in bowling the way to overcome a bad habit is to substitute a new and good habit. You discover that you're holding the club or the ball incorrectly; you learn how to grasp it correctly; you practice until the new grip becomes your habitual grip.

05. Quit Smoking - Lets look at it this way. We can put into words the several things we like about smoking; but there are a host of nagging annoyances and suspicions about the cigarette habit that we find it difficult to discuss and most of them add up to the fact that we who smoke too much rarely feel completely up to par.

06. Quit Smoking - The next time you buy a carton of cigarettes and it may very well be the last time you buy a carton of cigarettes! look at the coins in your hand before you turn them over to the cashier.

Some of that money is going to go into advertising. Perhaps as little as three cents. Perhaps, if you're smoking one of the newer brands, as much as forty, fifty, or sixty-five cents. Generally, somewhere between five and fifteen cents.

07. Quit Smoking - If you are now ready to make up your mind to rid yourself, once and forever, of the cigarette habit, here's just one word of warning: Don't start today!

This may seem contrary to advice you've received before. You're always told "to strike while the iron is hot" that the time to undertake something new is while you're enthusiastic. But you can't get rid of tobacco craving with a spur-of-the-moment decision. You didn't form the habit overnight, and you aren't going to get rid of it overnight.

08. Quit Smoking - You're are ready now to receive instruction in the method of placing powerful "visual images" in your subconscious.

The only thing that can hinder your initial effort is fear. Fear creates a state of anxiety in the conscious mind, and keeps it alerted. With the conscious mind on the alert, the threshold of critical evaluation is raised. There can then be no direct contact with the subconscious mind.

09. Quit Smoking - "The impossible we can do today. The miraculous takes a little longer." Signs carrying that message became popular during World War II, and the message is equally appropriate for your private war with the cigarette habit.

With our almost-absurdly simple but highly effective method of self-suggestion, you will be able to change your attitude toward smoking. You will be able to do the impossible; you will be able to quit. The "visual image" technique does part of the job; the new habit you learn in this chapter does the rest. You strengthen both by "talking back."

10. Quit Smoking - Well, there you have it.

The rest is up to you. You now know how to change your attitude toward smoking. And you know how to substitute the habit of relaxation for the habit of smoking. And that's all you need to know.

Appendix - If you're one of the few who "just can't relax," what can you do about it?

The technique usually associated with the induction of hypnosis is actually instruction on how to relax. It serves no other purpose than to get the body relaxed so that the conscious mind will be relaxed.