We started smoking because we thought it was cool, or because everyone else around us was doing it. We didn’t really think of the effects that it would have on our health and well being or our wallets at the time, we just liked the high. Now, as we find ourselves addicted to this expensive and dangerous habit, we can hardly imagine a day without a cigarette. How much is smoking really costing you?

You know it’s bad for you, but do you really know how many people die from this habit everyday? In the UK alone at least 330 people a day succumb to smoking related illnesses, totalling a staggering 120,000+ deaths a year! Smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack than their non-smoking counterparts. Rather than relaxing you as you think, smoking actually increases physical stress levels contributing to numerous stress-related illnesses and diseases.  Who needs more stress in this day and age?

It’s obvious that smoking seriously hampers your quality of life. Do you really want to know what it’s like to have cancer and experience chemotherapy? If you had a choice, wouldn’t you want to remain healthy and disease-free? Wouldn’t you want to protect the lives of those around you from the side effects of your smoking? There is a way to prevent further damage. You have the opportunity to bring about permanent and lasting change, thanks to hypnosis.

Imagine what it would be like to:

Have more money, more time, and a longer life!

Finally be strong enough to quit smoking and never go back!

Be a proud non-smoker and have less stress in your life!

Self hypnosis brings about change deep in your unconscious (subconscious) mind. It allows your body to relax and let go of the grip nicotine has on your life, naturally.

There are no adverse side-effects when you use hypnosis / hypnotherapy to help you quit. There are only positive changes. You won’t feel irritated or be short with friends and family. Unlike other methods of quitting smoking you won’t gain weight or exchange one unhealthy habit for another.

When you listen to the stop smoking NOW! self hypnosis CD / hypnosis download, you will immediately feel changes taking place in your mind and body. With the help of hypnosis your addiction to cigarettes can and will be history.

You can quit smoking with the help of hypnosis!

The Magic Feather

In the relatively short history of modern hypnotism, there have been dozens of hypnotic techniques and a wide range of explanations of the phenomenon. The only constant through all of this has been the hypnotic subjects themselves. No matter how you view the art of the hypnotist, it is undeniable that people do enter a special state in which they are abnormally suggestible and uninhibited.

Modern skeptics have a sound and convincing explanation of this unusual state. Hypnotic subjects aren't actually in a trance state, they argue, they only think they are. Social pressure and the influence of the hypnotist are often enough to convince people that they should act a certain way. When they find themselves heeding the suggestions, they think they must be in a hypnotic trance. Proponents of this theory contend that this belief alone may be powerful enough to bring about remarkable changes in a person. If you think someone is compelling you to act a certain way, you will act that way. If you think hypnotic suggestion will ease your pain, your mind will bring about this feeling.

In this view, an effective hypnotist isn't one that can probe the hidden reaches of your mind, but one with strong enough authority and charisma to convince you to go along.

In the general sense, this phenomenon is known as the placebo effect. In numerous studies, people who were given ordinary sugar pills behaved and felt differently only because they thought they should. It's clear that the mind can influence all aspects of the physical body, so it makes sense that a firmly held belief can reduce pain or even help treat a disease.

But in the end, this explanation of hypnosis amounts to pretty much the same thing as the trance theory. When you absolutely convince somebody that you've brought about a change in their subconscious, they register this information as a fact. Like any fact, this information will take root in the subconscious mind. So, even if the hypnotic state is nothing more than a figment of the subject's imagination, hypnotic suggestions can still reform their deeply held beliefs. The end result is the same!

 

I'm Healed!

In the last section, we looked at hypnosis as a means of reversing bad habits. A related application of hypnotism is psychiatric hypnotherapy. In a therapy session, a psychiatrist may hypnotize his or her subject in order to work with deep, entrenched personal problems. The therapy may take the form of breaking negative patterns of behavior, as with mass habit-control programs. This can be particularly effective in addressing phobias, unreasonable fears of particular objects or situations. Another form of psychiatric hypnotherapy involves bringing underlying psychiatric problems up to the conscious level. Accessing fears, memories and repressed emotions can help to clarify difficult issues and bring resolution to persistent problems.

Hypnotists may also tap dormant memories to aid in law enforcement. In this practice, called forensic hypnotism, investigators access a subject's deep, repressed memories of a past crime to help identify a suspect or fill in details of the case. Since hypnotists may lead subjects to form false memories, this technique is still very controversial in the forensics world.

Another controversial form of hypnotism is medical hypnotherapy. Doctors and spiritual leaders all over the world claim that hypnotic suggestion can ease pain and even cure illness in some patients. The underlying idea behind this is that the mind and body are inextricably intertwined. When you suggest to the subconscious that the body does not feel pain, or that the body is free of disease, the subconscious may actually bring about the change.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to support this idea. Using only hypnotic suggestion as an anesthetic, thousands of women have made it through childbirth with minimal pain and discomfort. Countless cancer patients swear by hypnosis, claiming that it helps to manage the pain of chemotherapy, and some former patients credit their recovery to hypnotherapy.

The success of hypnotherapy is undeniable, but many doctors argue that the hypnotic trance is not actually responsible for the positive results. In the next section, we'll see how many skeptics explain hypnotic phenomena.

For Fun and Profit

In the hypnotism shows of Las Vegas, as well as the traveling hypnotism demonstrations on the college circuit, hypnotism is used primarily for entertainment purposes. It's an amazing experience watching somebody turn ordinary people, perhaps your friends or family, into outrageous performers. The power of suggestion and imagination, and the lowering of inhibition, does make for a fantastic show.

But these demonstrations only scratch the surface of what hypnotism can do -- all the suggestions are intentionally frivolous, to ensure that nobody gets hurt. The hypnotist uses his or her access to the unconscious mind only to play with the subject. More involved hypnotism uses this access to affect long-term changes in the subject.

The most widespread example of this hypnotic behavioral modification is habit-control hypnotic treatment. In this application, a hypnotist focuses on one particular habit that is embedded in your unconscious (smoking or overeating, for example). With the "control panel" to your mind open, the hypnotist may be able to reprogram your subconscious to reverse the behavior. Some hypnotists do this by connecting a negative response with the bad habit. For example, the hypnotist might suggest to your subconscious that smoking will cause nausea. If this association is programmed effectively, you will feel sick every time you think about smoking a cigarette. Alternatively, the hypnotist may build up your willpower, suggesting to your subconscious that you don't need cigarettes, and you don't want them.

Habit-control hypnotism is commonly practiced on a mass scale, in day-long seminars held in hotel suites, or through audio tapes or CDs. Since the treatment is not specifically tailored to each subject, and the treatment is rapid, these programs are often ineffective. Even if the treatment does yield positive results in the short term, there's a good chance that the subject will relapse eventually.

Directed, one-on-one hypnotism sessions tend to yield better results. In the next section, we'll explore this therapeutic form of hypnotism

You're Getting Sleepy

Hypnotists' methods vary, but they all depend on a few basic prerequisites:

• The subject must want to be hypnotized.
• The subject must believe he or she can be hypnotized.
• The subject must eventually feel comfortable and relaxed.

If these criteria are met, the hypnotist can guide the subject into a hypnotic trance using a variety of methods. The most common hypnotic techniques are:

Fixed-gaze induction or eye fixation - This is the method you often see in movies, when the hypnotist waves a pocket watch in front of the subject.

The basic idea is to get the subject to focus on an object so intently that he or she tunes out any other stimuli. As the subject focuses, the hypnotist talks to him or her in a low tone, lulling the subject into relaxation. This method was very popular in the early days of hypnotism, but it isn't used much today because it doesn't work on a large proportion of the population.

Rapid - The idea of this method is to overload the mind with sudden, firm commands.

If the commands are forceful, and the hypnotist is convincing enough, the subject will surrender his or her conscious control over the situation. This method works well for a stage hypnotist because the novel circumstance of being up in front of an audience puts subjects on edge, making them more susceptible to the hypnotist's commands.

Progressive relaxation and imagery - This is the hypnosis method most commonly employed by psychiatrists.

By speaking to the subject in a slow, soothing voice, the hypnotist gradually brings on complete relaxation and focus, easing the subject into full hypnosis. Typically, self-hypnosis training, as well as relaxation and meditation audio tapes, use the progressive relaxation method.

Loss of balance - This method creates a loss of equilibrium using slow, rhythmic rocking.

Parents have been putting babies to sleep with this method for thousands of years.

Before hypnotists bring a subject into a full trance, they generally test his or her willingness and capacity to be hypnotized. The typical testing method is to make several simple suggestions, such as "Relax your arms completely," and work up to suggestions that ask the subject to suspend disbelief or distort normal thoughts, such as "Pretend you are weightless."

Depending on the person's mental state and personality, the entire hypnotism process can take anywhere from a few minutes to more than a half hour. Hypnotists and hypnotism proponents see the peculiar mental state as a powerful tool with a wide range of applications. In the next section, we'll look at some of the more common uses of hypnotism.