Hugh Sadlier, M.Ed., BCCH Board Certified Consulting Hypnotist
People who want to stop smoking are usually able to do so in a straight-forward way. But because each person is unique, there may be as many “reasons” for the habit as there are people wanting to quit. While in hypnosis, they gather up from their subconscious mind the experiences, messages, connections and influences that contributed to and reinforced their smoking habit. They then disconnect the impact and influence of the reasons in their subconscious mind and replace them with new perceptions and benefits of being a non-smoker. The repetition of those perceptions and benefits, especially while in the hypnotic state, enables them to become the new, non-smoking habit.
The information-gathering part of the process includes asking clients to return in their subconscious mind to the first time they smoked, or to the first time something contributed to their smoking habit. Usually, they go back to being with a friend, or friends, who introduce them to smoking. While the initial experience is often distasteful and uncomfortable, the positive aspect of sharing a cigarette and bonding with a friend is enough to encourage the repetition of the experience.
Bill came to Hypno-Health to quit his twenty-five year smoking habit. He began smoking at age eleven and had tried to quit many times and in many different ways, all of which employed the use of only his conscious mind. While in hypnosis, his response to my asking him to return to the first time something contributed to his smoking habit – blew me away! After several quiet moments, he began speaking in a guttural brogue (I thought it might be Irish, but when I asked, he indicated it was Scottish). I asked him to talk about the year, location and what was going on, using all of his senses and in as much detail as possible.
He was born in 1888 on a small, rural, isolated farm that had been in his family for generations. His father, mother, two older brothers and Bill lived in a stone-walled house with a thick thatched roof. Windows were few and the interior was dim. The family was completely self-sufficient. They grew wheat, hay and vegetables and raised sheep. Other animals included two teams of plow horses, a few pigs, two milk cows, a handful of beef cattle and chickens. The family toiled long and hard at their respective tasks and chores; all – except Bill.
Undersized and sickly as a child, he never seemed able to get healthy. He was always tired, had little appetite and little strength. He developed a deep cough and breathing became difficult. A deep pain settled into his chest and he coughed up phlegm and sometimes blood. Unable to sustain physical activity, he spent most of his time indoors and, eventually, in bed. Shortly after his eleventh birthday, he passed away.
With still no clear understanding of how the past life experience connected with Bill in this life, I asked his Past Life Self to return to the time of his death and examine the decision made after his death. Because the impact of Bill’s Scottish life had overwhelmed him completely, he would carry that with him to a next life and ensure he would, once again, die earlier than normally expected. And suddenly it was clear. Bill said that he started smoking in this life – at age eleven – so he would fulfill the negative karma (patterns we create) from his past life.
It was then time to communicate with Bill’s Higher Self – the all-knowing overseer. It suggested that Bill’s Present Self talk with his Past Self and help it understand “that was then and this is now”. The two selfs suggested the original negative karma be reversed and returned to the past life. They then created a positive karma that projected Bill enjoying a long, healthy life, seemingly as a reward for all his suffering in the previous life.
As Bill returned to this life, he released the current reasons for his smoking habit and imagined integrating a plethora of positive perceptions, representing him as a non-smoker, within all aspects of his mind and body.
An unsolicited testimonial attesting to Bill’s success arrived about a year later. “I never thought I could quit smoking permanently. I had quit many times, once for almost two years, but I always felt disappointed because I couldn’t smoke like others. After two sessions with Hugh Sadlier, I walked away without ever again having an urge to smoke. I have not smoked in the past year and feel free for the first time in twenty-five years.”
