I will not bore you with all the reasons that smoking cigarettes, or using tobacco in any form, is a self-destructive, suicidal behavior. The simple fact that you are reading this means that you already know this and are either hooked and now know you must to release yourself from the deadly grip, or you have a loved one who needs this information.

Either way, you must know by now that roughly eight times as many Americans die from tobacco related disease each and every year as did in all America's eleven years involvement in Viet Nam combined; twenty times the number of deaths caused by drunken drivers in America each year; and about twenty-five times the number of American deaths by AIDS. (343,000 total deaths by AIDS as of 7/1/96 vs. approx. 8,000,000 deaths by tobacco during the same time period, according to the US Dept. of Health, Center for Disease Control. The deaths by tobacco do not count deaths by tobacco related fires, nor heart, blood, and lung disease deaths exacerbated by tobacco use, but not attributed to it on the death certificates.)

But knowing this has not caused more than a minor movement away from use of the deadly plant by the general public at large. In fact, many tens of thousands of children all over the world are, as this is being written, smoking their first cigarette, the first of perhaps hundreds of thousands to come over their shortened and diminished lifetimes.

This book does not dwell upon the evils of smoking, nor how to stop the general promotion and legal sale of the most lethal drug (far more deadly than heroin or cocaine) in the world. What it focuses upon is the way out, the way to disassociate oneself from the need for, and attraction to, tobacco. In fact, the method for behavior modification found here is not exclusive to tobacco, but can be used for the cessation of virtually any habit or addiction in any form.

The problem is not in the substance, but in the "habit" of using it. For without the habit, the addiction, tobacco has no power of its own. It is as harmless and insignificant as any simple garden variety weed. It is the internal subconscious perception we hold about the drug that makes it so dangerous. What is illustrated herein is a method by which one may change that perception permanently, without "fighting the urge" or going "cold turkey".

Smoking is a habit. Habits are created by repetitious behavior, and are built, assembled if you will, over a period of time. If we were computers, and I strongly believe that we are indeed the most sophisticated computers conceivable, then our habits would be called our "programs". Removing a program from a computer is a simple mechanical process.

Removing a habit from a human being is not nearly as simple, but is still a mechanical process. Each requires a course of steps which, taken one at a time in sequence, with care and commitment, will achieve the desired result. But when I say commitment, I do not mean commitment to resistance to the habit, nor any fanatical ordeal wherein you are required to perform any dynamic or difficult behaviors.

Actually, the process is not nearly as arduous as installing the habit (learning to smoke). When one learns to smoke, one must overcome the body's natural resistance to breathing a toxic substance, with only the ardent desire to overcome the body's own safeguards to keep the process going. However, reversing the habit, although perhaps a bit more complex, moves one toward the body and its needs, not away from it. Therefore ending the habit will feel more natural and is actually easier, and far less painful, than starting it.

So the first place to start is with the simple, direct question: Do you truly want to quit smoking? The next question must be: Are you ready to begin to do it now? If the answers to both these questions is yes, then read on, and just do what the book tells you to do.

It will work.

I know because I used this method to release myself from sixteen years of addiction to tobacco, and no longer have any desire for cigarettes. I tried "willpower" three times before designing this system. Each time lasted from only days to about a week. Each time I discovered that I could not "break" the habit simply by denying it. By just telling myself no, when my body and mind were craving, was ridiculous.

Even when I succeeded in not doing the behavior, it was still occupying a good deal of my conscious thoughts. I found myself short-tempered, biting my nails, and was quasi-hungry all the time. But once I realized that I must work with my body and brain, not against them, I knew I was moving in the right direction.

If you desire to end your enslavement to a product you no longer wish to purchase, use, or allow to diminish the quality of your life, then use this little book as the key to your doorway out. The method does work. It will work for anyone who sincerely wants to use it. All that is needed is your attention.

Although I have stated that you can quit without willpower, you must, of course, be prepared to do the simple behaviors of the process, which do not include resisting smoking. In fact, you are encouraged to smoke each and every time you want to. This system is not designed to get you to stop smoking, but to stop wanting to.

Once you no longer have any desire to smoke, you will never feel the need to "learn" the habit again. Being around others who are smoking will not cause you to crave a cigarette. Also, you won't be able to just pick up a cigarette and return to the old habit. There will be no residual habit left in you. You will be as if you never were a smoker unless, of course, you have already done permanent damage. But even then, permanent scars tend to shrink and fade over time.

Eventually your full breathing capacity and your natural ability to fully taste food will return. You will not have an unnatural craving for food, nor any other substitute. You will find that you sleep better, and awake much easier, needing far less time in bed to achieve the rest you need. Your teeth will be cleaner, and your breath and body will smell much better, needing less deodorant.

Once you have stopped ingesting small, steady doses of the sixteen(!) toxic (literally poisonous, deadly,) chemicals found in the smoke of cigarettes up to several hundred times a day, (each puff being a dose), you will find the general quality of your life greatly improved!

And for me, the sense of pride and accomplishment was tremendous. My self-respect grew immeasurably once I was certain I had defeated the "evil weed" once and for all time. I did it, and you can too. Just take the simple steps found here, and your result will be the same as mine. I don't smoke, and I have no desire to. I simply feel sorry for those who don't want to use tobacco, but still feel compelled to anyway.
 

How Much?

The first step toward dismantling your habit, for that's exactly what we're going to do, is to get a good look at it. Always, when someone asks me for help to stop smoking, the first thing I do is ask them how much they smoke. The answer almost invariably is, "Oh, a pack to a pack and a half a day." This is a typical encapsulated description of a habit.

A pack is a unit of one. (A habit is a series of integrated, interdependent behaviors, performed in sequence, thought of as a unit of one, such as "driving" or "golfing". Both these habitual behaviors require dozens of individual behaviors.) So this person is telling me that they smoke about one to one and a half units a day, knowing that I will understand that they are talking about twenty to thirty cigarettes a day.

But what they don't consciously get is that I am understanding that they are smoking about ten hits per cigarette, and so therefore to my mind, they are telling me that they are smoking two to three hundred times a day. Each and every time you place a cigarette between your lips and draw smoke into your lungs, that is an individual act of smoking.

This first step in the process is a simple one, and will tell you immediately if you are lying to yourself about whether or not you are truly ready to stop smoking now. If you are willing to just look at your habit, then you are likely ready to first alter, then discard it. But you must know precisely what it is you are directing your subconscious to do. The details are important.

Step One is to count your cigarettes. The way this first step is performed is this. Get a short pencil, no longer than one of your cigarettes. Also get a business card with a clean back. Any piece of paper will do, but it should be at least as stiff as a regular business card, and slightly smaller than the size of the pack.

Then, when you first open your next pack and remove that first cigarette, place a mark on the back of the card, next to a letter representing the day of the week. Then slide the card between the plastic and the pack, and put the pencil into the spot where the cigarette was. Then, each time you have another cigarette, take the card out, pencil a mark on it, and just put it back.

At the end of a full seven day week, you will know exactly what your habit has been, and is likely to be in the future, if you don't do something about it now!

However, simply putting this much attention on the habit can tend to make it shrink all by itself. Historically, I've noticed that many of those "pack a day" smokers start their week smoking fifteen to twenty-five a day. But by the end of the week, that seems in many cases to drop off to six to ten.

They report that they're still smoking all they want, but they started dropping off the few extras that they'd rather pass on than count. Amazing. I don't say this will definitely happen to you, and if it doesn't, that has no bearing upon how long the process will be.

First, it will take as long as it takes, period! There is no timetable upon this work. A time-table puts pressure on you, and this is not a pressure-type process.

Second, it will not be difficult. The only seriously hard part of quitting smoking is resisting the urge to have a cigarette. You will never be required to do this. You will be able to smoke each and every time you are certain you want to. In fact, you are encouraged to smoke each cigarette you want. It is counter-productive to the method to resist the habit. This shall be a gentle, organic process of letting go. Not a violent overthrow.

So begin Week One by counting your habit, and finding out just how many cigarettes you are smoking. It is said that the wise man knows well his enemy. This is an enemy we are going to kill with kindness. But that first step is to know him.

Don't bother to read on now, until you can answer this question precisely: Exactly how many cigarettes did you smoke in the last seven days? And do not just remember when you bought the last carton and subtract what you have left. That would be an estimate. You need an exact figure.

Also, the counting does more for your brain than just giving you the number. This first step must not be short-cutted! You must, for this process to work well, count each one separately as they are smoked and record them. Then move on to Chapter Two.

Cigarette smoking remains
by far the largest single preventable cause of premature death in the world!