Chapter 16

BURNING QUESTIONS

IN THIS CHAPTER

• The Truth About Smoking • The Moment Of Revelation • Will The Good Times Still Roll? • Will The Hard Times Hurt More? • Are You Ready? • The Biggest Moment Of Your Life

Unravelling the brainwashing is not hard, but it does require commitment and an open mind. You need to digest what you’ve learned and change your mindset from one of believing that smoking or any other nicotine product provides some sort of pleasure or benefit to one of total understanding that it does nothing for you at all. As you look forward to testing your newfound knowledge, some questions will arise. I’m happy to answer those now.

THE TRUTH ABOUT SMOKING

Congratulations on getting to this point. Most smokers go through their lives oblivious to the understanding that you have gained from these pages. You are in a very powerful position. Not only do you hold the keys to your prison, you now have the knowledge to use them.

You may already feel absolutely clear in your mind that you no longer have any desire to smoke and you’re ready to quit. If so, resist the temptation to skip to the final cigarette. You might miss something vital. If you still harbour some or even a lot of

uncertainty about your ability to quit, don’t worry; that’s perfectly natural. Take the time and care to finish the book, and regardless of whether you can believe it or not at this stage, you’ll be a happy non-smoker in no time at all.

As we prepare for your final moments as a smoker, let’s recap everything you’ve learned.

There is no pleasure in smoking

There is only the illusion of pleasure. Any perceived enjoyment is merely temporary and partial relief from the empty, insecure feeling of nicotine withdrawing from your body. That triggers a thought process in your mind which makes you feel more and more deprived and makes the illusory relief appear even greater.

Smoking to achieve that feeling is like wearing tight shoes just to get the relief of taking them off. It’s like being grateful to the thief for returning £10 of the £100 he secretly stole from you. Would you be grateful in those circumstances once you discovered what he’d done?

You don’t need willpower to quit

You need willpower only when you have a conflict of wills. Remove the desire to smoke and you lose any sense that you’re depriving yourself when you quit. Believe that you’re making a sacrifice and you will always be vulnerable to starting again.

There is no such thing as an addictive personality

If you think you have addictive traits, it’s because you became hooked on an addictive drug, not the other way round. Even if

you’re convinced that you have an addictive personality or genes – the great news is that you’ll still find it easy to get free. This addiction is easy to break when you know how… regardless of genes and personality.

Smoking does not help you concentrate

It actually makes it harder. Nicotine addiction is a constant distraction. The Little Monster starts crying for its next fix as soon as you start withdrawing from the previous cigarette and it becomes impossible to concentrate on anything else until you satisfy the craving.

Smoking does not ease stress

Nicotine addiction is a major cause of stress. The constant desire for a cigarette, no matter how slight, means you are never fully relaxed. Any sense of relaxation you get when smoking is just the partial relief of the discomfort of withdrawing from the previous cigarette and the ending of the mental aggravation it (the Big Monster) causes. It is temporary, and as you stub out the cigarette, the discomfort creeps back in. Quit smoking, get free of the Little Monster, and your overall stress levels will fall considerably.

All smokers lie

Pay no attention to what smokers say, whether it’s about the supposed benefits of smoking or the terrible trauma of quitting. Smokers lie to cover up their sense of shame and helplessness. You know the truth. See through the illusions and fix your mind on the true picture

.

Smoking is not freedom

Anyone who argues that the choice to smoke is down to the rights of the individual fails to understand addiction. You don’t smoke out of choice; you smoke to feed your addiction. Smoking and vaping control the smoker, not the other way around. It’s not freedom; it’s slavery.

Screen stars aren’t real

The powerful influence of famous role models attracts millions of people to smoking. Many role models have expressed deep regret for their part in promoting the world’s biggest killer – often after being diagnosed with cancer themselves. The image of smoking portrayed on screen is dishonest: it is not truthful about the smell, the ugly stains, the bad breath, the nervousness, irritability, stress, ill-health, the coughing and wheezing, and slavery. If it was, nobody would be attracted to smoking in the first place.

Substitutes don’t work

Replacing cigarettes with another source of nicotine is guaranteed to keep you addicted. Using a substitute to gradually cut down on your nicotine intake actually makes quitting harder. As you restrict your intake, so the sense of deprivation increases and the drug seems more precious. The easy way to quit is to unravel the myth that smoking gives you some sort of pleasure or crutch, remove any desire to smoke and stop completely.

Neither smoking nor vaping keep you thi

n

Most heavy smokers are overweight. They are constantly suffering the empty feeling of withdrawal from nicotine, which feels just like hunger. When they’re not smoking, they’re eating. Neither satisfies the craving for the other. When you quit with Easyway, you recognize that the empty, insecure feeling of withdrawal is not painful, it’s the barely perceptible death throes of the Little Monster, and you know that eating won’t make it go away. After a few days the Little Monster dies and you’re free from the feeling for good.

All smokers are the same

There is no reason to envy other smokers over the amount they do or don’t smoke. All smokers are in the same trap, controlled by the drug and constantly fighting the urge to smoke more. If you think you can get away with smoking the occasional cigarette, ask yourself this: ‘Why would I want to?’ If you answer, ‘Because it will give me pleasure or a crutch’, then you haven’t seen through the myth. You need to go back and reread Chapter 9 until it’s clear in your mind that:

Neither smoking nor vaping does anything whatsoever for you

You need to be absolutely clear on this. Before you smoke your final cigarette, you have to make sure the Big Monster that interprets the cries of the Little Monster as ‘I want a cigarette’ is dead. Otherwise, you will be forever drawing on your willpower to fight the temptation to smoke. With Easyway, you remove the temptation altogether. When you stub out your final cigarette, you will have no remaining desire to smoke another ever again

.

How will I know when I’m a happy non-smoker or non-vaper or non-nicotine addict?

This is the most common question smokers ask when they’re attempting to quit.

How will I know when I’ve succeeded? It’s natural to ask this question because most smokers will have tried to quit before, using willpower, and will know the feeling of uncertainty that dogs you with that method.

People make their own assumptions. I’ll know I’m a happy non-smoker when…

‘… I can go out drinking with my friends or enjoy a meal without wanting a cigarette.’

‘… I’ve managed to go a whole day without a cigarette.’

‘… I feel like a non-smoker.’

In each case, the smoker assumes that they will have to get through an initial period of feeling deprived – and they have no idea how long that may last.

With the willpower method, you never know when you’ve succeeded in quitting because you are constantly waiting for something NOT to happen – the moment you dread when you give in and light up another cigarette. All you can do is hope it won’t happen. Sadly, in the vast majority of cases, it happens all too soon.

With Easyway, the uncertainty is removed. You don’t have to wait for anything. You become a happy non-smoker the moment you stub out your final cigarette. Killing the Big Monster means achieving the absolute certainty that you will never desire another

cigarette in your life. This is how a non-smoker feels. They are aware of cigarettes – they may even believe part of the myth – but they have absolutely no desire whatsoever to smoke. The only reason anyone continues to smoke is to relieve the withdrawal pangs created by the previous cigarette.

Once you have this clearly in your mind, it’s easy to unravel the rest of the brainwashing and kill the Big Monster. With Easyway, you kill the Big Monster before smoking your final cigarette. With the willpower method, you kill the Little Monster and hope the Big Monster will leave you alone.

But as long as the Big Monster remains alive and you believe that there is some pleasure or crutch to be derived from smoking, you will never be free.

Let me explain why it doesn’t matter if you have a willpower issue…

The Ointment Analogy

Imagine you have a cold sore on your face. I tell you that I have this fantastic ointment. I say to you, ‘Try this stuff; it’s brilliant. You put the ointment on and the cold sore disappears immediately.’

A week later, the cold sore reappears. You come back to me and say, ‘Can I have some more of that ointment?’ Again, you apply the ointment and, miraculously, the sore disappears. I say to you, ‘Keep the tube, you might need it again.’ The process continues, but every time the sore comes back, it gets bigger and more painful, and the interval gets shorter and shorter.

Eventually, the sore is the size of your head and is returning every half hour. You know the ointment will give temporary relief, but you are now terribly worried. What is this awful disease? Will it eventually

spread all over your body? Will the ointment cease to give even temporary relief? You go to your doctor; he can’t cure it. You try other remedies; nothing will help except this terrific ointment.

You would be completely dependent on that ointment. You would never go out without making sure that you had a tube. Now, in addition to worrying about your health, I am charging you £100 for each tube, and you are having difficulty finding the money to pay.

You then read an article in your newspaper and discover that this is not happening only to you: thousands of other people are using this ointment, but it has been proved that far from curing the cold sore, it is the ointment that is causing it to grow. All the ointment does is to move the initial sore to beneath the skin, so that the sore feeds on the ointment. All you have to do to get rid of the cold sore is to stop using the ointment, and the sore will disappear of its own accord.

Would you use that ointment again? Of course you wouldn’t! Would it take willpower not to use it again? No! Would you be miserable? Again no!

If you have any doubts about that at all, try to imagine the position I have described. You are going to die; you have no solution. Now you have found the solution, you are not going to die. You will not be miserable; you will be elated. If you did not believe that the ointment was causing the sore, there might be a few days of apprehension. You would have to wait for the evidence to confirm the truth. But as you saw the cold sore gradually disappearing, you would be overjoyed to realize that you had found the answer to the problem.

This was the so-called magic that happened to me. Let me make it quite clear. In the analogy to smoking, the cold sore is not cancer, or the filth and stigma, or the tens of thousands of dollars we waste, or the lifetime of bad breath and stained teeth, or the lethargy or the slavery or the deprivation. These are all in addition to the cold sore.

The cold sore is this panic feeling of ‘I want a cigarette.’ Non-smokers do not suffer that panic feeling and this is what blocks our minds from all the other horrors. The cigarette does not relieve that panic feeling. The first one starts it, and all the others do is to make sure that you suffer it again, and again, and again. This was the so-called magic that happened to me. I could see that the panic feeling of wanting a cigarette was not a weakness in me, and that it was caused by the previous cigarette – and the one thing that would stop it going away was the next cigarette.

THE MOMENT OF REVELATION

So far, I’ve dedicated much time to helping you rewire your brain, enabling you to change your mindset from one of wanting to smoke to one of moving towards having no desire to smoke whatsoever. Don’t worry if you don’t think you’ve moved towards that mindset yet. All will become clear.

Achieving this change of mindset is a simple process of unravelling the brainwashing step by step, examining the myths that surround smoking and dismantling them one by one. If you think there are still some illusions that you haven’t quite seen through, go back to the relevant chapter and read it again.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your nearest Allen Carr Centre. They’ll be happy to spend a few minutes with you on the phone answering any queries that might have arisen. Check www.allencarr.com for details.

That said, I fully expect the remainder of this book to handle every single question or concern that you might have.

While killing the Big Monster is a simple process, there is nothing unusual or stupid about having to go over certain points more than once. It’s much better that you achieve complete

certainty over each point than rushing to the end. There is also nothing unusual or stupid about believing that quitting smoking is one of the hardest things to do. We are all brainwashed into believing that, smokers and non-smokers alike, and the efforts of other smokers to quit through willpower appear to confirm it. You may even have proven it to yourself with your own previous efforts.

And so you may have reached this point, fully understanding everything you’ve read, yet still feeling apprehensive about your own ability to quit.

Somewhere in your mind you suspect that it can’t be this easy – there must be a major hurdle waiting to trip you up.

The only thing that can stop you now is your own disbelief

Seeing through illusions means believing the evidence of your own eyes. Set aside everything you have ever been told about smoking and look at it logically. If you have understood everything about addiction, about the trap and the myths that keep smokers believing they’re getting some pleasure or crutch from cigarettes, then all you have to do now is allow yourself to believe.

There is no catch

It really is that simple. Once you understand beyond all doubt that the cigarette, far from relieving the empty feeling, causes it, you have already removed the cause of panic at the thought of quitting.

You are on the brink of achieving something remarkable. It could be the most life-changing thing you’ve ever done. You now know that everything you’ve ever been led to believe about the perceived benefits of smoking, or the difficulty involved in quitting,

was a lie. The moment when all this knowledge falls into place and all doubt is removed is the moment when the Big Monster dies. We call it ‘the moment of revelation’. For some people it is a huge thrill, like a blinding flash of light, a sudden realization of the truth and the opening of a prison door. For others, it is little more than the completion of a circle, a logical conclusion that enables them to calmly stub out their final cigarette and get on with life as a happy non-smoker. For some, it doesn’t happen until a few days or even weeks after they’ve quit. It suddenly dawns on them, maybe after an event or incident that might have caused them to smoke in the past: ‘WOW! I’m free! I didn’t even think about smoking!’ In either case, don’t wait for it to happen while you’re reading this book or afterwards; one thing I can assure you of is that you will have that moment. Enjoy it.

WILL THE GOOD TIMES STILL ROLL?

As a smoker, you believed that cigarettes provided you with a pleasure and a crutch. No doubt you had your ‘special’ cigarettes, such as the first one you smoked after a meal. These are the cigarettes smokers fear they’ll miss the most and they formulate the notion that the good times will cease to roll if they’re not able to cap them with a cigarette.

The notion of ‘special’ cigarettes is a smoker’s fantasy. One smoker who came to see us explained that the one thing holding him back was the thought that he would never be able to sit outside a café in Paris, watching the crowds go by, sipping a glass of wine and smoking a Gauloises cigarette. On further investigation it transpired that the man had never even been to Paris, let alone been in that situation. It was all a fantasy, probably something he’d seen in a film. Yet he couldn’t bear the thought of never doing it. He was hankering after a myth

.

If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in Paris on a sunny day, take a seat outside a café, order a drink, watch the crowds go by and see how it feels. You’ll find it has all the charm and appeal anyone could imagine and is all the better for not having to choke yourself to death at the same time.

Those so-called special cigarettes seem special only because they come after a prolonged period of abstinence – sleep, eating, a game of sport and so on. Think back over your smoking years and try to remember a single cigarette that made you think, ‘I’m so glad to be a smoker.’ I’m sure you’ll remember many that stirred the opposite feeling, cigarettes that made you cough and struggle for breath, and made you feel utterly miserable or embarrassed.

You will no doubt remember occasions too when you felt utterly miserable because you weren’t allowed to smoke, and how relieved you were when you finally got to light up, but that’s different. If you’re honest, you’ll find that the only occasions when you’re truly aware of your smoking are when you want a cigarette but can’t have one, or when you’re smoking one but wish you weren’t. If you continue believing that you can’t enjoy certain situations without smoking, then you won’t.

Part of the process of changing your mindset is recognizing that smoking does not enhance good times; it taints them. You need to turn your belief around so this is clear. Analyze the situations described above to understand why the cigarette, e-cig, JUUL or other nicotine device appears to enhance them but actually does the opposite.

As a happy non-nicotine addict, you’ll enjoy the good times more. You’ll feel more relaxed without nicotine withdrawal, you won’t have the anxiety of making sure you’re stocked up with nicotine, you won’t have to worry about spoiling the enjoyment of other people by blowing foul smoke, vape or stale breath in their

face… plus, you’ll have the immense satisfaction of knowing that you are free from the awful slavery of the nicotine addict.

‘I quit with Allen Carr’s Easyway’

Robert Pattinson, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Joss Stone, Patricia Arquette, Mark Knopfler, Gerard Butler, David Cameron, Bruce Oldfield, Stewart Copeland (The Police), Roland Mouret, Ruby Wax, Sean Bean, Stefano Gabbana

WILL THE HARD TIMES HURT MORE?

Let’s be honest about this, no one goes through life without some hardship and pain. It is perfectly normal. Our aim is not to protect you from ever suffering again; that would be unrealistic. But by becoming a non-smoker, a non-nicotine addict, you will be more resilient when fate turns against you.

Nicotine addicts believe it provides a crutch – something they can lean on to help them through life’s hardships. A typical scenario is a car breakdown. It’s late at night, pouring with rain, you’re on the most dangerous part of the road, your phone has no signal and all the other drivers on the road are hurrying past at high speed rather than stopping to see if they can help. Some of them are even beeping at you as if you’ve chosen to park your car there for the fun of it.

It’s a miserable, forlorn situation and a smoker would reach for a cigarette, thinking it will give them some respite from the stress and misery. The challenge arises the next time you’re in this situation, after having become a non-smoker. Miserable and

angry, you think to yourself, ‘At times like this I would have had a cigarette.’ It’s a crucial moment and you must be prepared for it.

Look back at the last time you faced such a crisis and you lit up. Did smoking solve your problem? Did you have a sudden change of mood and stand there in the rain happily thinking, ‘Never mind the car or the fact that I’m wet and miserable, I have this wonderful cigarette!’ Or were you still utterly miserable? If you think at that time you were consoled by the cigarette, that’s the thief giving you £10 of the £100 he stole. A non-smoker in that situation can focus on the situation and doesn’t have to worry about running out of cigarettes or whether they can smoke or not.

When people who have quit with the willpower method find themselves in these situations, they start to long for a cigarette. They don’t realize that smoking, far from helping the situation, actually makes it worse by adding extra layers of stress to an already stressful situation.

As part of your change of mindset, make sure you accept that there will be ups and downs in life, just as there are for other non-smokers, and that if you think a cigarette will help at such times, you will be wishing for an illusion, grasping for something that does not exist and creating a void. Be absolutely clear – removing nicotine from your life does not leave a void.

NICOTINE DOESN’T FILL A VOID; IT CREATES ONE

Ex-smokers who don’t understand this suffer the misery of turning good days into bad days and making bad days worse. With Easyway, you turn your mindset around so you can do the opposite. You won’t miss cigarettes and you will enjoy life more. You will be better equipped to deal with the natural stresses and anxieties that life throws up. And no matter how bad life gets,

you will always be able to pick yourself up with the thought…

Yippee! I’m free!

ARE YOU READY?

It’s not just crisis situations that can trigger the thought of smoking. Happy occasions like Christmas, weddings and holidays are also likely to stir memories of your smoking days. It’s nothing to worry about. All you have to do is be prepared for them.

Ex-smokers who quit with the willpower method are easily caught off guard. The temptation to smoke in social situations like weddings can be overwhelming if you still believe that you will be missing out if you don’t have a cigarette. Take some time to think about the occasions and moments in life that might be a trigger for you and then prepare your response in advance.

In any situation when your thoughts might turn to smoking, instead of thinking, ‘I used to have a cigarette in this situation’, think, ‘Isn’t it wonderful! I no longer have to smoke. I’m free!’ That way you will turn any association between the occasion and smoking to your advantage, reinforcing the truth that smoking does absolutely nothing for you and that you have no need or desire to smoke.

Much of this book has been devoted to replacing illusions with truths. All you need to do now is convince yourself that you don’t just understand those truths but that you accept them wholeheartedly. Remember, once you see through an illusion you cannot be fooled by it again.

There is nothing waiting to trip you up. Allow yourself to feel an incredible sense of excitement. You are on the brink of a fantastic achievement. Like a prisoner who knows that release

awaits them, think about all the wonderful benefits that freedom will bring: better health, more money, greater self-esteem, less stress, better concentration, no fear, no guilt, no slavery. Or put another way…

Total happiness

Recap everything that you’ve learned so far. Go over all the myths and make sure you are completely clear, seeing things as they really are, not through the distorted lens of addiction and brainwashing. If you have any lingering doubts, go back to the relevant chapter and reread it. You’re approaching a huge moment in your life – the moment you smoke your final cigarette and become a happy non-smoker for life; the moment you free yourself from nicotine. Congratulate yourself on reaching this point. Millions of nicotine addicts would love to be in the position you’re in now, holding the key to your own prison cell. Ask yourself a couple of final questions:

Do I want to use the key? Or do I want to remain a slave for the rest of my life?

You know the answer, the one all smokers would give if they possessed the knowledge you now have. Prepare yourself for

Freedom

CHECKLIST

I understand that:

• All smokers lie to themselves and to others.

• Smoking is not freedom; it’s slavery

.

• I don’t control smoking; it controls me.

• There is no pleasure in smoking.

• Smoking is just the process smokers go through to get their drug.

• Smoking is not a habit; it’s drug addiction.

• The tendency will always be to smoke more.

• Smoking does not make you thin.

• The next cigarette could be the one that kills me.

• Smoking does not ease stress.

• Cigarettes don’t fill a void; they create one.

THE BIGGEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE

You are approaching the biggest moment of your life. I do not exaggerate! Perhaps you feel you’ve had more important days: the day you were born perhaps; the day you fell in love; got married; had your children. These are all momentous, happy days that change your life, but the approaching moment will save your life.

Let me remind you of my fourth instruction: ‘Begin, not with a feeling of doom and gloom, but instead with a feeling of elation and excitement.’ Bear in mind, I’m not saying: ‘Kid yourself into thinking that everything is going to be okay and the chances of everything being okay will be greatly improved (even though it’s going to be tough as hell).’

I’m saying everything is going to be okay. More than OKAY in fact. All you need to do is avoid bracing yourself in anticipation of having problems. If you expect problems, every slight bump in the road feels like a catastrophe and causes panic. You’re going to find it ridiculously easy to quit smoking – so just assume that’s the way it’s going to be and look forward to freedom. You have nothing to lose from that approach and everything to gain.

If I were asking you to step off a tall building and trust that I can make you fly, I’d fully understand your very sensible reluctance to

trust me. You’d be staking your life in your trust for me. But I’m not asking you to do anything dangerous or foolhardy or reckless, and the risks of trusting me are minimal. You’re a smoker or an addict of nicotine in another form.

What’s the very worst thing that could happen as a result of you assuming that everything is going to be fine after you quit? Nothing! You’ll either find it easy to quit smoking or you won’t. If you quit and it’s easy – great. If you fail and carry on smoking, vaping, JUULing, chewing or snusing, you’ll be no worse off than you are now.

Nothing bad is going to happen after you quit. Quite the contrary.

Shortly you will smoke your final cigarette, or e-cigarette, or take your final dose of nicotine, and you will do so with the absolute certainty you will never want more. Just think what that means – you will never again suffer the slavery and degradation of being a nicotine addict.

Everybody has different things that they look forward to most about being free from smoking. Some look forward to feeling healthier, free from the wheezing and coughing, the headaches and nervous fidgets, more energetic and vibrant. Some look forward to having more money to spend on genuine pleasures.

Some can’t wait to tell their family and friends, bringing an end to all the guilt and regaining their self-respect. Some just want to be free from being controlled by a drug.

Being free from nicotine addiction gives you so many truly exciting, wonderful and joyous bonuses, but the most important one of all is this:

FREEDOM FROM THE SLAVER

Y

All smokers know the arguments for not smoking and can’t understand why they find it so hard to quit. They don’t understand the nature of the trap they’re in and the fact that they’re addicted to nicotine. And so they feel enslaved by some unknown force that compels them to keep smoking against their better judgment.

You do understand the trap and you know that the only reason you have continued to smoke is because of nicotine addiction. Now you have the key to unlock your chains and be free. Remember, you’re doing this for yourself. It is you who is being freed from slavery and all you need to think about is your own journey. Everything else will fall into place.

Shortly I will lead you to the thrilling moment when you smoke your final cigarette, take your final shot of nicotine or, if you quit smoking before reading this book, confirm that you have already smoked your final cigarette. Then you’ll walk free from the nicotine trap for good. Allow yourself to feel very excited. Remind yourself of everything you stand to gain and of everything you now know about the smoking myths and illusions and the brainwashing that creates them.

Focus on the Little Monster and the Big Monster and prepare to unleash your sweet and happy vengeance upon them for all the misery they’ve caused you.

Are you ready? Let’s go!