Why dooes hypnosis work for some and not for others?
Hundreds of thousands of people use hypnosis to successfully become non-smokers for life. Equally, similar amounts of people tried it and it did not work. Why it works for some and not for others, is a question frequently asked. In order to get answers, we need an insight in the process of smoking cessation through hypnosis.

We all have a conscious mind that we use in every day life to communicate, make decisions, take direct action and generally direct our lives. We also have an unconscious or subconscious mind, which we need in order to live and to survive. Our subconscious mind keeps our hearts beating and keeps us breathing. It controls our blood circulation, the working of our organs, our metabolism and millions of other chemical and other processes within our brain, our nervous system and our body. It is like having a reliable big brother who never sleeps and always looks after us 24 hours-a-day whilst we get on with life.

Very well protected
The subconscious mind fights infections and diseases by triggering intricate processes with or without the help of medication. Our immune system is regulated, our cell structure rebuilt and for instance when we start smoking, our subconscious kicks up a lot of resistance against us inhaling toxic burned tobacco fumes. Initially our entire body resists, it makes us feel sick and nauseous and our immune system does what it can to keep that smoke out. Unfortunately cigarette smoke is a delivery vessel for one specific and very addictive substance: Nicotine, which triggers the release of dopamine in our brain, which leads to us experiencing a mild form of euphoria, similar to feeling loved, having a good time and feeling happy.

If the battle between brain and immune system is won by the brain, we become regular smokers and we force ourselves to override our immune system, inhale the toxic smoke and the poisons, in return for a regular fix of nicotine i.e. euphoria.
If the immune system wins, we never touch a cigarette again. Those people are the lucky ones!

To stop, but how?
As smoking has a number of very unpleasant long term side effects and only a 50% chance of survival, we want to give it up again, also because getting that feeling of euphoria from nicotine needs many more cigarettes every day and we mainly smoke to go from “nicotine craving” to “nicotine neutral”, in other words, we basically smoke to feel normal.

For most of us, giving up smoking is not easy. Hypnosis often tends to be a last resort and when hypnosis or hypnotherapy is applied to quit smoking, the smoker still stops smoking using his own will and volition (cold turkey). However, what hypnosis does in the stopping process is to protect the aspiring non-smoker from most, if not all, of the cravings, withdrawal symptoms, mood swings, nausea, headaches and all the other unpleasantness that occurs when the brain is refused its regular nicotine fix and starts its physical blackmail process to get it.

The subconscious mind plays an important part in the hypnotherapy. The hypnotherapist first of all brings the smoker into a state of total relaxation, simply by guiding him/her through a number of physical relaxation stages. Note: Nobody “goes under”, sleeps or becomes unconscious when being hypnotised. During a hypnosis session the brain is as relaxed as the body and we respond when required to help obtaining the desired result. Being under hypnosis is like daydreaming: very soothing, very relaxed and being totally oblivious to everything else around you.

Relax - That’ll do it!
Total relaxation whilst being awake is an unusual state for most of us as we tend to be always mentally or physically focused at something. So under hypnosis, the body acts as if it asleep and the mind feels like it is in the middle of a very pleasant daydream. In that state, it is possible to communicate very well with our subconscious minds as there is no interference. This is nothing unusual, as we all talk to ourselves; we praise ourselves, scold ourselves, make promises to ourselves, make deals with ourselves and for instance ask ourselves which decision to make.
Under total relaxation, the hypnotherapist will ask you to connect and communicate with your own subconscious mind to put a few things right in connection with your immune system, the smoking, the nicotine and the impending abstention which comes with those nasty side effects, which you know all about from previous stop smoking attempts.

Mind over matter
When we function normally, it is possible for most of us to influence some of our physical functions, we can reduce pain through concentration, we use placebos and be fooled into believing that they are real medication and solve a physical problem. As human beings we are capable of overcoming conditions such as nausea, headaches and other small problems purely by concentrating on them. We are quite capable of applying mind over matter to ourselves. Now interestingly enough, those headaches, nausea, irritability etc. are exactly the side effects that occur when we first abstain from nicotine. So hypnosis helps us to deal with the kind of conditions that we are naturally capable of dealing with. Hypnotherapy only helps us to deal with them much better.

The Routine
The hypnotherapist will go through a routine with the subconscious of the smoker making sure that after the hypnotherapy session, the smoker is ready and completely mentally equipped to become and remain a non-smoker. The routine contains suggestions, repetition of those suggestions and other actions to physically deal with the withdrawal symptoms. There will also be a feeling of euphoria around the fact that the smoker at some point during the hypnotherapy session will turn into a non-smoker.

Hypnosis adds nothing physical to the body, but the subconscious mind of the new non-smoker has created a number of new neural pathways during the hypnotherapy session. Even without hypnosis, we create new neural pathways all the time. If we learn something new, find something out or we change our mind on something, we immediately create a new neural pathway. The brain is used to it, so hypnotherapy adds nothing new, but only takes advantage of what is already there.

For the smoker, those new neural pathways are created to circumvent withdrawal symptoms, cravings, mood swings etc. simply by telling our powerful friend the subconscious mind to ignore them. The messages and suggestions to the subconscious mind also need to be repeated for a number of days after the initial hypnotherapy session, in order to reinforce the messages and turn the ex-smoker into a non-smoker for life who neither needs nor wants another cigarette as long as he/she lives. 

Sorry - No magic
There is nothing unusual, scary, sinister or magic about hypnotherapy. It will always work when you subject yourself completely and do not resist, query or reject the suggestions given by your hypnotherapist. If you go with the hypnotic flow and accept what hypnosis does to you, you will undoubtedly succeed in giving up smoking very easily and smoothly and you will soon forget about smoking altogether. If you, for some reason are not ready to give up, or reject or question the suggestions, you will not create that all powerful defence mechanism consisting of what feels like an impenetrable cocoon around that part of the brain that makes stopping smoking so difficult. Hypnosis either works because you want it to, or doesn’t if you resist it. Unfortunately, it can’t work a little, in the same way that you can’t be a little pregnant.

I personally turned from smoker to non-smoker in a one hour session and I never looked back. After 35 years of heavy smoking and countless failed attempts to stop, I trusted a hypnotherapist to help me create a tremendously powerful mental defence force against the coming withdrawal symptoms, so I could easily go cold turkey and was able to shield my body and mind by managing to black out all withdrawal symptoms. I never needed any further remedial drugs, NRT or any other substances or help, as I was clean and a non-smoker from the moment I opened my eyes after the hypnotherapy session. I received a second session on disk to repeat every night for 10 days and every time I listened to that, I felt better, more empowered and euphoric because I had successfully walked away from my smoking prison without the slightest problem or hindrance. What surprised me most was that there is life after smoking, something I had always resisted, I never expected life to be better without nicotine, but it was and still is. I started living on my own terms again and deal with stress and problems by taking positive action and not by smoking a few more cigarettes so I could squeeze a tiny bit more dopamine out of my brain to make me feel better.

Interestingly enough, the legendary Allen Carr (The Easy Way To Stop Smoking) also stopped smoking via hypnotherapy.   

Do it, not try it!
It is a fact that hypnotherapy works at its bests when you have tried a number of other routes and failed, because you are aware what is coming when you stop and you can therefore use the hypnotherapy to create the best possible psychological defences.
You should make up your mind and go for it. If you think you should “try it”, or “give it a go” hypnotherapy won’t work. The above description shows why it works for those who want it to work and who have no doubts that they can make it work for them. Those, however, who will not subject themselves completely, always tend to blame the hypnotherapy for not working. I can safely say that hypnosis to stop smoking always work for those who are absolutely desperate to stop smoking as hypnotherapy turns that desperation into a targeted and powerful fighting force and defence mechanism that can make you suppress all the nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

Modern smoking cessation hypnotherapy also contains Cognitive Behavioural Therapy where the smoker is shown a path to new ways of thinking and behaving in relation to a new start in life as a non smoker. This is also related to the “habit part” of smoking which requires a significant change of behavioural patterns.
    
NB: it is completely impossible to ask the subconscious mind to do anything negative to the body. Try for instance to deliberately hold your breath and you will find you can’t. There has never been a single case in the history of hypnosis where somebody suffered anything negative physically or mentally as a result of a hypnotherapy session. The CIA rejected the use of hypnosis for interrogation as they could not force anybody to do or say against his or her will. Stage Hypnosis is a clever trick. It is interesting entertainment but it has nothing to do with hypnotherapy and has a lot to answer for in terms of making people believe that a hypnotist can mess with the minds of innocent people, which is a complete fallacy. A hypnotist (hypnotherapist) can only make positive suggestions as nothing else is acceptable.

John Wesdorp Dip CaH PNLP - NoSmokingAgain