Allen Carr

[Neil]

Does anyone know the story of Allen Carr? He was a guy who chained smoked about a 100 Cigs a day for about 30 years or so. He had tried everything to stop and was pretty much at the stage where death was looming close. As a last gasp attempt he went for one session of hypnotherapy, he then came out and told his wife he was cured of smoking and in fact never smoked again! This may not be so remarkable in itself but he then went onto write a best selling book on how to stop smoking called easyway and also now has clinics all over the world. He didn't know what happened during that session and didn't know why he just suddenly stopped when he came out. But he then spent the next years trying to put togther what actual happened and that resulted in his book and his treatment program.

My question is what did happen here? What this method that he had always in his mind and some how the hypnotherapy brought it out? Or was it the hypnosis to plant those ideas and then it took him years to remember what the guy said to him? If you type in Allen Carr on any search engine you'll get he full history.

[Merlin]

I wasn't there.
I can't say what happened.
I could guess.

[Mentalius]

The strangest thing about it though...he says he stopped smoking not because of the hypnosis-session, but in spite of it! Then he goes on to tell, that he uses hypnosis himself, but beware! don´t just believe in any hypnotist out there - is his message.

Perhaps it´s because of the translation (didn´t read the original), he is one big contradiction. His concept: nicotine is a poisen, let it leave the body (app. 5 days) and let go of the brainwashing of society (it´s hard to stop smoking, smoking is a cozy way to relax etc.) and you´re cured for life!

All concious mind-stuff. His mission in life is to cure smokers!

His clinics do have a rather huge succes, can´t (IMHO) because of the concept, I guess it´s the reputation that works in a suggestive way.

[Neil]

Thanks for the input Mentalius. I feel I owe my life to his method to stop smoking and also my father. It is really effective; I only read the book and never went to the clinic. What his book does do is to get the rational side of the brain working and make you reinterpret the cravings of nicotine. So that you basically unable to carry on smoking as you know it’s a stupid thing to do. He basically challenges your concepts of smoking and talks about brainwashing. Such as what do we always see in war films when a man is about to be shot or is dying, pass him a smoke! What he calls brainwashing in my view is the subconscious program and his book reprograms it. But he does very much contradict himself on the issue of hypnosis. As it was that which saved him, I just wonder if it’s just coincidental that his method he discovered was after hypnosis or it was hypnosis that gave him the method? Of course only the hypnotist who was there would know and he has always kept his name secret.
But how does a hypnotist cure a person of smoking? What is the method used? Also why do CD’s and tapes normally fail? After all if they did work we wouldn’t have any smokers?