Post-hypnotic suggestion as a stop smoking aid

When you've relaxed and completed your "deep-breathing countdown," be sure to give yourself this suggestion: "At any time I take three deep breaths I can, if I desire, place myself in a state of light hypnosis."

This is a post-hypnotic suggestion. You should give it to yourself every time you practice and induce self-hypnosis, for repetition establishes it as a stimulus for a preconditioned response.

The three deep breaths will stimulate a habit, which you can practice as "instantaneous hypnosis" in the three deep breaths for the concentration break. The breathing stimulates the response, just as the smell of coffee in the morning stimulates your desire for it-or more to the point, just as seeing and hearing about cigarettes now stimulate the habit of smoking. The three deep breaths are your substitute stimulus and the concentration break is your substitute habit.

Now, can you see why from the very start I have insisted that you do not hurry your resolve to break the smoking habit? And why I have asked that you set a target date at least a week or ten days in advance? It is because this preconditioning for "instant hypnosis" in the concentration break must be thoroughly established as a habit that will respond automatically to the three deep breaths.

When you take the three deep breaths for "instantaneous hypnosis" in the concentration break, all the things you have implanted in the subconscious mind will not respond in complete detail. They will have been formed into an "attitude response" to die stimulus.

You might be surprised as to how many of these attitudes you now have, of which you are unaware, that respond to stimuli. And how effective they are in controlling your reactions and emotions. Without elaborating or attaching any particular significance to the words, what is your automatic response to such words as, Democrat . . . Republican . . . Communist . . . left . . . right . . . red . . . pink . . . sex . . . liquor . . . drugs. Depending upon the preconditioning, various persons will have a variety of reactions to the words.

Unless you are aware of the functioning of the subconscious mind, of how habit patterns are formed, and how they respond automatically to certain stimuli-it might be pretty difficult to believe that you could substitute the habit of taking three deep breaths for the cigarette habit and receive the same-or more- satisfaction from it.

But you know now that one physical part of smoking is the "concentration break" it provides. Three deep breaths do this better, and without harmful aftereffects. You know that you may have been influenced and possibly "hypnotized" by the glittering generalities of cigarette advertisements. Now you can effectively combat these by asking: How come? Says who? So what?

You know all these things-but knowing them is not enough, until you have practiced. You didn't score well immediately after knowing the rules of golf, and you didn't drive a car confidently after having been told how it was done. You gain skill and establish a habit through practice.

A week or ten days isn't very long to establish a new attitude and a new habit to replace the habit you've practiced as long as the smoking habit. With the use of self-hypnosis, it can be done quickly because you are going directly to the subconscious where you can rid your mind of the old habit and attitude and implant the new habit and attitude by the most effective and quickest known means.

Set your target date and begin practicing. This means a session of self-hypnosis every night to establish the new attitude. It means talking back to every form of cigarette advertising you see. It means examining yourself and your motives each time you light up a cigarette. Only one thing can defeat you-and that's failure to practice.