In this article we will look at what a hypnotist does. I will explain more about how hypnosis can be used to help you stop smoking. If you are looking for a hypnotist to stop smoking I run a very successful two session programme in central London. To hear more about hypnosis stop smoking sessions click here
How does a hypnotist to stop smoking help you?
We will start by looking directly at quitting smoking. Following that I will explain more about what hypnosis is. I will also discuss concerns about whether it is safe and other common questions I receive from my London hypnosis clients who, just like you, sort out a hypnotist to stop smoking.
Let’s talk about using hypnosis to quit smoking.
As a hypnotist to stop smoking, I often explain, how smoking has psychologically become a habit. Smoking is an addiction and I believe with my whole heart that the day you gave up smoking will rate as one of the most significant of your life. Without nicotine in your life, your life will be longer and have enhanced quality too. It is a fact that smokers are now readily accepting the real threat smoking gives of an early death and a very significant reduction in their potential to enjoy good health and all the pleasures that can bring.
Unlike other London therapists, as a hypnotist, I can take on the role of educator with some clients. I remind these hypnosis clients of the dangers smoking cigarettes really presents. Just remember that it is with our bodies that we enjoy the good things of life. It has to be fully understood that by smoking, you have really been mistreating yourself, and not looking after your body well. You have treated it with less than the respect and consideration required.
During your smoking therapy sessions, you will have the opportunity to look realistically at what smoking has meant to you. Through my sessions you will be in a position to accept fully the responsibility that is yours to ensure that you do not deliberately poison yourself anymore. We will begin hypnosis sessions by finding out why you started smoking. This usually, and with only rare exceptions, began with peer group pressure.
Over the years, the powerful advertising of cigarettes has been targeted at the young. The advertising suggestions are levelled at those just out of the gate of adulthood. They can be insidious and really pinpoint people who are most susceptible to their messages.
It’s as people have become hypnotised to smoke. You may have come to believe that cigarettes will be good for you, helping you relax, socialise and feel confidence. Yet if you can be negatively hypnotised, then, as your hypnotist to stop smoking, I can support you to become positively hypnotised to dislike smoking. Using hypnosis a hypnotist will attempt to reprogramme your thoughts so that nicotine doesn’t have the same hold on you.
Fortunately today, advertising cigarettes is banned in the UK and other countries. However, as I see with many of my London clients, those subtle messages that smoking can help you, do still linger. Remember that advertisers and the tobacco industry are only interested in profit and profit alone, without any consideration for the harm that they inflict on you.
Cigarettes have killed more people in the last hundred years than all wars and conflicts. Advertising suggests that it is cool to smoke. That it’s a mark of becoming more adult or more sophisticated. During our formative years, we are in so much of a rush to become adult and we can be so naive. Remember your first cigarette, how foul it tasted, how dizzy you felt, perhaps you were even sick. You certainly did not enjoy it, but in the drive to be seen as one of the crowd more sophisticated and adult, you persisted and you became hooked.
So what happened? Why did your body become a first tolerant of your efforts to poison it and then dependent on you continuing to smoke to the point of addiction, the chemical makeup of the body is balanced and critical. It is the job of the subconscious mind to ensure that all is well and the necessary functions of the body are regulated.
When the first cigarette smoke entered into your lungs, it carried with it a myriad of poisonous and noxious compounds. Some you are familiar with, such as tar and nicotine. Others are substances such as cyanide, arsenic, carbon monoxide and ammonia. Also as a smoker you inhaled the chemical fertilizers and insecticides that were sprayed onto those crops. How do you explain how you have been willing to breathe in such poisons all these years? It can only be that you were negatively hypnotised into seeing smoking as something good. At last, as a hypnotist to stop smoking, I can help you, through quit smoking hypnosis reverse that negative hypnotism.
So, did cyanide grab your attention? Sounds bad right? However just also think about nicotine. Are you aware that nicotine is one of the most poisonous substances known to man? The nicotine extracted from one cigarette, if injected directly into a vein, will kill you in seconds. It is enough to kill a horse.
Whilst smoking, your body reacted to these poisons by trying to expel them and that why smoking may have made you feel nauseous. The dizziness was caused by the fact that you had deprived your brain of oxygen for so long and the coughing as your lungs’ defence system became activated, trying to cough up and expel the foreign matter that was attempting to contaminate them.
It is the job of the subconscious mind to protect the integrity of the body and in doing this it will give you useful reminders, for example, when you are feeling hungry or thirsty, and it will let you know when you need to visit the toilet. Your clever subconscious mind ensures that when you are asleep, your heart and other organs continue to function. You have no need to be at all conscious of your heart beating or that your kidneys and your liver are quietly doing their work. All your body’s essential work is regulated and controlled for your benefit by your subconscious. In an attempt to regulate and your subconscious mind does a wonderful job preserving the delicate chemical balance in the body.
If you are honest, you will admit that when you smoked, the subconscious provided you with plenty of signals. You ignored it telling you that you were poisoning yourself. Well, you were addicted to nicotine and nicotine can be more addictive than cocaine or heroin. I have often seen with London hypnosis clients that when they arrive for hypnotist sessions to stop smoking, it is smoking which is tough to break, whilst other habits can be more straightforward. Of course everyone is different.
Your body coughed, found it hard to breath, yet you persisted and it came to the point where the subconscious became fooled. Due to the addictive nicotine you began to be fooled into thinking that the noxious cigarette chemicals being introduced through the cigarette smoke were necessary for survival, to keep you calm, even happy. Nicotine is a big liar. As soon as you finished a cigarette, your cravings for nicotine began again. Only another cigarette would solve that. Therefore you confused calming down or feeling relived with smoking. When, in truth, it was smoking that inflicted that agitation on you! You indeed had become negatively hypnotised by smoking. You bought into its lie that smoking helped you out in some way. Here we have the beginning of nicotine addiction.
Your desire to smoke is a craving. You felt a craving for addictive nicotine and like a hypnotised slave you were encouraged to light up another cigarette. To preserve the new chemical balance now considered to be correct and ‘normal’, your subconscious could only try its best for you. It therefore wrongly encouraged you to continue a process that caused great harm to every organ of your body.
As a London hypnotist I have seen the terrible health consequences smoking creates. When you introduce cigarette smoke into your body, the body reacts in the same manner as it would if you were confronted with something terrifying, which cigarette poisons are for you, in truth. The body goes into fight or flight mode as it prepares itself to deal with imminent danger. The heart beats faster, respiration increases, as the need for oxygen to the muscles and the brain increases. Adrenaline is produced along with lactic acid to increase the readiness of the muscles to respond.
As a London based hypnotist to stop smoking I can tell you the truth about smoking. Every cigarette that you smoke will rob you of up to six minutes of life expectancy. A 50 year old smoker is as old physically as a 70 year old non smoker. Such are the effects of poisoning your body, day in, day out. You have already reached the conclusion that this is not your way forward. When a client books and attends sessions of hypnosis, through the therapy provided they will provide new and motivating messages to their subconscious. My role as a hypnotist is to ensure that the subconscious will then be continually strengthened and you gain increased motivation, all for your benefit.
I advise people to become their own hypnotist to stop smoking
People often ask me advice on how to be successful at quitting smoking. I always say that what is essential is that you do not allow yourself to become complacent. Therefore ensure that you regularly keep a check on your nicotine cravings and levels of desire for smoking. Remember that it’s time now to re-educate your subconscious. Through repeatedly saying ‘no’ to smoking, you are acting like your own quit smoking hypnotist. Hypnotising yourself to think and feel differently about your old smoking habit. But don’t get complacent, smoking cravings can show up just when you think you are free of them.
Your subconscious in fact needs to relearn to protect you from what it previously thought was right for you. Until this hypnosis re-education is complete, your subconscious will continue to try, misguidedly, to do its old job. It will try every trick in the book to get you to submit and go back to smoking. This is why hypnosis to quit smoking will always addresses your subconscious drives. As your hypnotist I will attempt to and hopefully successfully reprogram the old ways of behaviour.
Just think of how good you will feel when you are a non-smoker. Soon you will experience the things that you have missed. Amongst these will be your clothes and your hair smelling fresh. You will taste food that you eat so much more. You will experiences smells again. Think of the perfume of summer flowers, which will delight you with an intensity. Your energy levels will rise and you’ll be calm and feel so much more in control of your life again. Without smoking, you will also be so much more attractive as a person, since you will notice that the condition of your skin and your hair will improve. Indeed your eyesight becomes clearer as the oxygen levels within your blood become normal, and then as your brain receives its full quota of oxygen, you will think so much more clearly. A smoker on 20 cigarettes a day loses up to 23% of clear thinking ability simply because the brain has been deprived of oxygen.
I have worked as a hypnotist to stop smoking in London for ten years. If you would like to stop smoking hypnosis can extremely effectively support you to break the smoking and nicotine habit. I will now explain a few details about how I work as a hypnotist and more about hypnosis. I have used some technical language, but do so to ensure I explain concepts fully.
How does a hypnotist to stop smoking use hypnosis?
What is hypnosis and hypnotism? So you could say that hypnotism and hypnosis is much like electricity. No one knows for sure just what it is but we use it anyway but for sure hypnosis does have considerable power. Basically hypnosis may be regarded as a state of mind conducive to increased subconscious behaviour. As a hypnotist I engage with your subconscious rather than the more normal conversations we have, which is with our conscious mind. Hypnotism or hypnosis is the means of inducing that subconscious and more responsive state of mind.
Possibly hypnosis is best understood as a way of programming the mind. Though hypnosis, a hypnotist encourages you to see the world through the automatic nervous system rather than the sympathetic nervous system of the body.
According to experiments published in the American Journal of Psychology, entering the state of hypnosis consists of gradually limiting the field of attention until a perfectly concentrated and unvarying focus is reached. Attention in the hypnotic state can be viewed as an extremely directed concentration on an area of ever decreasing size. It is true that we are all conscious of many different stimuli at the same time, in varying degrees of intensity. When in a state of hypnotic trance, your focus of attention rests in a very narrow field of attention that only a very small range of stimuli is perceived. This range is determined by the suggestions of the hypnotist.
Some theories about hypnotism as used by a hypnotist to stop smoking
There was a time in the history of hypnotism when the hypnosis practice was shrouded in much mystery. It was believed that the hypnotist was all powerful. That the hypnotist had a dominance over the subject or client. However popular thought swung to the opposite extreme and there was a tendency to oversimplify hypnotic phenomena as being entirely induced by the subject or client, in himself. The role of the hypnotist was relegated to being scarcely more than a ‘recording’ presenting the suggestions. However today, the pendulum of understanding how a hypnotist works has found a middle ground in regarding both the hypnotist and the client. Now hypnosis is viewed as a dynamic relationship co created by hypnotist and client. In other words, the hypnotic situation can be regarded as one of cooperation and trust between hypnotist and client, in which each has a special role to perform. Each contributes to achieving the state of hypnosis.
Hypnosis can be considered a means to producing a trance or trance like state, which can be regarded as a shift in consciousness. Most hypnosis calls into action behaviour prior to the complete shift of consciousness. This shifting from objective consciousness to subjective consciousness can be of such a subtle nature, but it is often difficult to differentiate. Indeed it can be common for clients to tell e they don’t think they were hypnotised. However I know that they have been in trance and not simply in a relaxed state. I know this to be true from observing their breathing rate and even changes in facial muscles.
Who can be hypnotized?
Every human being who is mentally sound can be influenced and guided into hypnosis by a hypnotist. The degree of success can vary with the individual. Some people are capable of responding more easily. On average, approximately one person in five may be classed as a naturally able to immediately go into a hypnotic trance. From my experience, as a London hypnotist to stop smoking, most people are able to achieve enough of a trance for hypnotherapy to be successful.
Does hypnotism (hypnosis) weaken the will?
This question is a hangover from past superstitious times. In the past when disreputable hypnotists used their skills to show off or to manipulate people, a fear of hypnotism started. Perhaps you may have seen a stage hypnotist appear to dominate his subjects or make it appear that they were weak willed puppets? Actually, in truth that affect of domination was more an illusion of the stage situation. As stage hypnosis subjects tend to enter into a dramatization as they feel the performer wants them to react. This doesn’t mean that bad things haven’t happened. Clinical hypnosis is very different. In the safety of the consulting room, everything is about your wellbeing and helping you quit smoking. Not only does hypnosis not weaken the will, but through its clinical use, it is possible even to strengthen and develop traits of character usually associated with willpower. For example, as a hypnotist I frequently help people increase determination of purpose, gain better concentration, feel more confidence and in general lead better lives.
Is a weak willed person easier to hypnotize?
Actually it’s really the reverse. The very things that go into making a determined or forceful personality are the very things most needed for the successful induction of hypnosis. Generally speaking, weak-willed persons are those incapable of seriously holding thoughts sufficiently for the successful persuasion of any idea. As such they are poor hypnotic subjects.
Can a person be hypnotized against his or her will?
Entering a hypnosis trance is more an emotional matter than a cold rational decision. You have to want to enter that state and be ready to listen with your heart more than with your head. Therefore you need some expectancy, faith, belief, imagination, hope and even in extreme cases some fear to ensure the production of a hypnotic state of mind. The fearful or scaring approach has been used to produce hypnosis. In some instances, a forceful or dramatic approach triggers a rapid hypnotic response. The turn of the century hypnotist, Sydney flower cites an example of how stage performers can occasionally make use of this principle to produce an instantaneous hypnosis demonstration. He wrote in 1900, “As a timid subject comes on stage the fact is that fear creates a bewilderment in a person so that it is possible to drive home a positive suggestion swiftly and with such force, that it is instantly obeyed, producing hypnosis on the spot. In such an instance, a subject will come upon the stage goaded on by the laughter of his companions who dare him to try it. He’s filled with lively apprehensions. Then, having a test by reason of his experience, the hypnotist can instantly detect such signs of fear in the countenance of the man. He knows he can catch him off guard and drive home a forceful suggestion. He can plunge him immediately into hypnosis. Therefore, the hypnotist steps forward to the edge of the stage and as the subject gets one foot upon the stage, the hypnotist suddenly claps one hand on the back of the subject’s neck, which appears to the audience to be merely an eager method of helping the man up the stairs. Actually it has the effect of still further bewildering the subject and without giving the latter further time, the hypnotist brings the palm of his other hand with some force against the chin of the subject, producing a sudden jarring. This has the effect, for the moment, of deadening sensibility. It creates a slight warring in the ears and the subject feels his senses reeling. At this moment, the hypnotist sharply commands ‘sleep. You are going instantly asleep.’ In many cases this method is successful and the subject’s eyes roll back in his head and he is plunged into a hypnotic trance.“
Sydney flower of course writes for another age and his words are guidance for budding stage hypnotists. Interestingly and occasionally effective as these impulsive methods are, they cannot be overly recommended for contemporary hypnotists. I certainly don’t use them! We live in a free age. People like the way of freedom in choice of action and in all cases all hypnotists will ensure clients are fully aware of what will occur and give full consent to any treatments or interventions.
Is it possible for a hypnotist to make a client perform an immoral act?
On this question, most authorities agree that a person’s moral code under hypnosis remains unchanged. Just because a person is hypnotized does not imply that they have become another individual in any sense whatsoever. What moral scruples the subject has in his normal state of mind, he will exhibit under hypnosis.
Are women more easily hypnotized than men?
Not necessarily. This question does sounds somewhat sexist and may enter us into a debate about what the differences truly are between men and women. Suffice it to say that, from my experience, it is difficult to make blanket assumptions about whether men or women can enter a hypnosis trance more than easily. I would also say that one has to look at people individually. As a London hypnotist to stop smoking I see many men and many women and success is normally about motivation and not a question of sex or gender.
Does intelligence aid hypnosis?
College or university students make excellent hypnosis clients and they are certainly intelligent! However, it is not so much intelligence that is a factor towards hypnotic responsiveness as it is an innate desire to explore unknown realms and the human mind is the greatest mystery of all. If someone is open to changing their habits, we will have greater success. This is why I ask smokers about their motivation and why they wish to quit smoking. If someone is looking to stop smoking hypnosis will work and that won’t be a function of IQ.
As the famous physicist Steinmetz once stated, the next great frontier for man to explore will be the depths of his own mind in relation to hypnosis. It is the creative mind that is most responsive. Therefore often artists, musicians, actors, or persons who visualise well will generally find hypnosis to quit smoking most helpful. However I do find that almost everybody who sees me at my London clinic can successfully quit smoking using hypnosis.
Jason Demant, your hypnotist to stop smoking in London
If you would like to quit smoking, get in touch today to discuss how I can help you. Very soon you will find that you will have no more attachment to your old smoking habit. You will begin a fresh chapter of smelling good, feeling more confident. Get in touch today to find out more.
