Chapter 4

FIRST STEPS TO FREEDOM

IN THIS CHAPTER

• No More Stopping And Starting • Hard Drugs • Fear Of Success • A Positive Approach

You may be wondering how you can undo a lifetime’s brainwashing just by reading a book. Don’t worry, we normally succeed in around five hours at our live seminars. Like anything that is not built on solid foundations, the brainwashing is as fragile as a house of cards and will collapse in an instant. All you have to do is give it a shake.

NO MORE STOPPING AND STARTING

Changing your mindset is all it takes to remove the desire to smoke. We now have a simple set of tasks.

1. Identify what’s wrong with your current mindset

2. Remove that from your way of thinking

3. Let logic and reason undo the brainwashing

Logic and reasoning are your dynamite. When you apply them to your reasons for smoking, the whole argument collapses and you are left with no lingering desire to smoke. The problem for smokers is that they don’t apply logic and reason because the addiction distorts their sense of reality.

This method shows you how to apply logic and reason. It’s as simple as that. Easyway shows you how to light the fuse to bring the brainwashing crashing down

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Our objective is to help you quit PERMANENTLY. How many times have you vowed you’re going to quit smoking, only to fall into the trap again?

Smokers are notorious for repeatedly stopping and starting. To the non-smoker, this is illogical. If you like smoking, why keep trying to quit? If you don’t like smoking, why keep starting again?

Falling back into the trap is not like falling into a physical trap. If you fell into a pit of stagnant water, you would make sure you didn’t go anywhere near that pit again, wouldn’t you? But the nicotine trap is not a physical trap; it’s a mental trap, based on illusion.

Smokers who stop and start again have not seen through the illusion.

All smokers wish they could quit. That’s why they’re always trying to do so. As well as all the logical reasons for quitting – the health risks, the cost, the smell, etc. – you know it doesn’t make you happy. On the contrary, it makes you feel like a miserable slave.

Yet despite this, smokers who stop and start again never address their desire for cigarettes. They haven’t seen through the myth. Like someone who looks at the black shapes and can’t see the word STOP, they’re still being fooled by the illusion. It’s as illogical as thinking there’s a good reason for falling into a pit of stagnant water, but addiction overrides logic.

Do you want to be a non-smoker? Then you need to understand the one real difference between smokers and non-smokers. It’s not that non-smokers have been spared the brainwashing – they haven’t. Nor is it that they had the willpower to resist getting hooked; you don’t need willpower to be a non-smoker. Nor is it that they are wired differently – it has nothing to do with genetics. The real difference is that non-smokers never have the desire to smoke

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Anyone who retains a desire to smoke will feel deprived if they can’t smoke. They will need willpower to fight the feeling of deprivation and they will be forever vulnerable to falling back into the trap when their willpower runs out.

Remove your desire to smoke and you will become a happy non-smoker…

EASILY, IMMEDIATELY AND PAINLESSLY

You won’t need willpower. People who have never been smokers don’t have the desire to smoke, although they may still be tempted to try. They have been subjected to all the brainwashing and they may believe that there must be some pleasure or crutch in smoking, but they have been able to make a logical choice not to subject themselves to the world’s number one killer because their mind is not controlled by nicotine addiction.

People who become happy non-smokers with Easyway also have no desire to smoke.

They have an advantage over people who have never smoked because they know for sure that there is no pleasure or crutch to be gained from smoking and they have not had to use reason to outweigh temptation.

Easyway removes the temptation to smoke altogether

When you know for a fact that smoking does absolutely nothing for you, any desire disappears.

See through the myth and it becomes easy to avoid falling into the trap again. Once you’re free, you’ll be more likely to start believing in Father Christmas again than to fall back into the trap. All you need to do is follow the instructions.

Losing my mother to cancer as a child was the most difficult thing I’ve had to endure. It has always been an issue to watch my friends heading down that path unable to overcome their addiction to smoking. After extensive research, the best thing I have found is to send them to Allen Carr’s programme because I have seen it work on so many of my closest friends, and to me that’s real magic.

David Blaine

HARD DRUGS

Despite the fact that cigarettes are responsible for far more deaths than heroin, we regard heroin as a hard drug and nicotine as a social drug. I’m not suggesting you start taking heroin, but even if I did, I doubt you would pay any attention. More likely you would throw this book in the bin and write me off as a madman.

We’re talking about a drug that is very dangerous. People make a fortune from selling it and deliberately try to get their customers hooked so they have a steadily increasing income. It’s highly addictive and if you try it you’re likely to get hooked straightaway, and remain hooked for the rest of your life.

It’s also very expensive: the average addict spends over £120,000 in their lifetime. But whatever the cost, they always make sure to find the money, regardless of what other sacrifices they have to make.

When you take the drug, you become increasingly lethargic and short of breath, and your immune system weakens, leaving you susceptible to all sorts of diseases. Worst of all, it destroys your nervous system by stealth, as well as your courage, your confidence and your ability to concentrate. It makes you despise yourself for being a slave to something you detest, but the more

it drags you down, the more you depend on it. And what does this drug do for you? Absolutely nothing. Not one single thing.

A few more points: it tastes awful, causes bad breath, stained teeth, wheezing, coughing, shame and guilt; and it wipes out seven million people per year worldwide.

That’s right, I’m not talking about heroin; I’m talking about nicotine. If I tried to sell you a drug using the description above, would you buy it? Or would you throw me out, just like you would if I tried to persuade you to take heroin? After all, who in their right mind would pay out a fortune to put themselves through all that misery?

We have no difficulty in seeing heroin addiction as a vile, pitiful, deadly condition, yet we have a distorted view of smoking or vaping. We need to make sure you can see your addiction exactly as you see the heroin addict’s addiction. To do this, you need to disregard the images portrayed in society. It’s easy to associate heroin with addiction, slavery, poverty, misery, squalor and death because you haven’t been bombarded with images of happy, laughing heroin addicts. Smokers, on the other hand, are portrayed as cool, in control, stylish, beautiful people. The implication is that these smokers are happy because they’re smoking.

It’s essential that you see through this illusion. You don’t just need to tell yourself it’s untrue; you know it’s untrue because you know how smoking makes you feel. Disregard the popular image of smokers and look at your own evidence. Look at the smokers you know in real life. How many of them look and behave like film stars?

And remember, the people on screen are fictional. Off screen those actors who really smoke are just as miserable as you are. And the ones who don’t will be reaching for the mouthwash as soon as they get off set

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FEAR OF SUCCESS

We’ll soon begin the process of stripping away the illusions that have kept you in the nicotine trap. Our goal is the removal of all your doubts about your ability to quit. Those doubts are fuelled by the chief ally of addiction:

FEAR

Smokers are held back from trying to quit by numerous fears:

1. Fear of being unable to enjoy meals, drinks or social occasions

2. Fear of being unable to handle stress

3. Fear of being unable to concentrate

4. Fear of having to go through some terrible trauma to get free

5. Fear of having to resist temptation for the rest of their lives

They fear that they won’t have the resilience to cope with these challenges and so any attempt to quit will end in dismal failure. What they’re really afraid of is success.

The fear of failure is a spur. It drives actors to learn their lines, athletes to practise their skills, pilots to check their instruments, etc., etc. There is no logic in not trying to quit because you’re afraid of failure. The calamity you’re afraid of has already happened:

You are a smoker!

By not trying to quit, you guarantee that the unthinkable happens. You remain a smoker. Instead, think about everything you stand to gain. How proud will your family and friends be? More importantly, how proud will you feel?

The fears listed above amount to the fear of success. ‘If I quit, life will be tough.’ Smokers have been fooled into thinking that

cigarettes provide them with a crutch in stressful situations and that there will be no pleasure in life without them. The thought of never having another cigarette is frightening.

Non-smokers manage to enjoy life and cope with stressful situations. In fact, they cope better and enjoy life more. The only reason you might think life will be worse without cigarettes is because your addiction makes you miserable when you don’t smoke.

As long as you continue to feed the Little Monster, this will be the case. Lose the cigarettes, and the fear goes too.

You are only part of the way into Easyway and you may be finding it hard to imagine just how good life will be without smoking. Believe me, you will soon be looking back on this moment thinking, ‘I can’t believe I feel this good.’ Not only will you feel more healthy and energetic, but you will also notice a marked improvement in your confidence, courage and concentration, too.

A POSITIVE APPROACH

So far, we have concentrated on preparing your mindset to unravel the brainwashing and strip away the illusions that have kept you trapped. There are two further instructions as you look forward to making your escape.

Third instruction: think positive

If you have been wrestling with the fear of success, there will be concerns in your mind about what you are about to achieve. Smokers who think they are going to be required to make a sacrifice will approach the attempt to quit with a sense of doom and gloom. There is no reason to feel miserable.

You are not giving up anythin

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Instead, you are making wonderful gains. Every smoker dreams of waking up in the morning with the sense of freedom you will feel when you complete this course. Allow yourself to imagine how good life is going to be and get excited about what you are about to achieve. This is a fantastic moment in your life.

Fourth instruction: begin, not with a feeling of doom and gloom, but instead with a feeling of elation and excitement

Remember, if you follow all the instructions, nothing can stop you from escaping. Let go of the fear and get free.

CHECKLIST

I understand that:

• The only reason I smoke is to feed the Little Monster – addiction.

• I am in an ingenious trap that makes me think smoking gives me pleasure and/or a crutch when, in fact, it does the opposite.

• The physical nicotine cravings of the Little Monster are so minute as to be almost imperceptible. I’ve lived with them throughout my smoking life.

• It’s the Big Monster that interprets those cravings as ‘I want a cigarette.’

• Escape will be easy if I follow all the instructions.

• All I have to do is kill the Big Monster. The Little Monster will quickly die once I starve it of nicotine.

• The fear of failure is illogical

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• The fear of success is caused by nicotine addiction and brainwashing. Remove them and the fear goes too.

We’ve established the real reasons you smoke. You are now armed with the knowledge that when you started smoking or using other nicotine products, you were dragged into a trap: nicotine addiction. This trap distorts logic and tricks its victims into believing that relief from their restlessness lies in the very thing that’s causing it: smoking. You should now understand that the really unpleasant and noticeable physical feelings you’ve experienced in the past when you attempted to quit were not caused by nicotine withdrawal but were the physical reaction to a mental process which is in itself triggered by the extremely mild physical withdrawal of nicotine.

The Little Monster (the physical withdrawal) is a virtually imperceptible feeling, so slight that most smokers aren’t even aware of it while they sleep. This very slight physical feeling (the Little Monster) pokes the Big Monster (the brainwashing and the mental process), which creates unpleasant physical feelings.

It works like this:

Our next task is to begin the process of releasing you from the nicotine trap by dismantling the myth that smoking provides some sort of pleasure or crutch. It is this myth that creates the desire to

smoke. Remove that desire and escape from the trap is easy.

The myth is reinforced by a number of other myths that are put out there as facts by tobacco companies and anti-smoking campaigners alike. With your mind corrupted by these myths, it’s no wonder you have been unable to quit smoking up until now.

We are going to tackle seven of these myths:

• That smoking or vaping helps you relax

• That you can’t quit without willpower

• That quitting requires you to make a sacrifice

• That you might have an addictive personality

• That smoking or vaping helps you concentrate

• That smoking or vaping helps with weight control and appetite suppression

• That smoking or vaping reduces depression or is an expression of self-harm

By the time we’ve finished dismantling these myths, you will be feeling much more confident about your ability to quit easily, painlessly and permanently. That’s a very exciting feeling. You can begin to imagine life without cigarettes or any form of nicotine; you’ll be healthier, more energetic, better off, free.

So let’s get started. Remember to follow all the instructions. Keep an open mind, make no assumptions and question everything. The truth will become obvious. And remember to carry on smoking or vaping while you read. I don’t want you to waste any time or brainpower wondering whether you should or shouldn’t do so. Just carry on as you are until you’re ready to smoke your final cigarette or e-cigarette. I’ll guide you through that amazing ritual when the time comes. And please don’t worry

if the prospect makes you nervous or anxious – that’s perfectly understandable. This programme is exactly the length it needs to be… if we could achieve the result in fewer words, we’d do so. So stick with it, regardless of how positive or negative you feel; you have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.