By Dr. Kenneth Grossman
Not many people like to think of themselves as quitters, but Michael Schneider is proud to be one. Being a quitter, he says, might have saved his life.
Earlier this month Schneider woke up in his Madison, Wisconsin area home to a true milestone: his 20th anniversary as a non-smoker. "I have not had an urge for a cigarette in so long," he says. "My lungs are much healthier. And everything around me smells better."
That is no small feat, considering that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from smoking. In fact, one in every five deaths in this country is smoking related.
With a three-pack-a-day, 18-year habit Schneider, a 54-year-old high school teacher, was well on his way to becoming another dreadful statistic. "I tried many times to quit," he says, "but I always failed."
Schneider's epiphany came on June 4, 1987, when he attended, more out of curiosity than true conviction, a smoking cessation seminar with Dr. Kenneth Grossman, a Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist based in Sacramento CA. "Nothing had worked for me before so I was skeptical," Schneider admits. "I just hoped that it would work long enough to save me back the $38 fee."
He got his wish - and then some. On the way to the hypnosis session, Schneider puffed on what turned out to be his last cigarette. Afterwards, "I did have some cravings, but it was different somehow," he recalls. "I had a strange feeling at the tips of my lips, as though the tar and nicotine were coming out of my body. The next morning I was up and about for 20 minutes before it dawned on me that I hadn't had a cigarette. I don't really know why this technique worked when nothing else did."
In fact, by its sheer results, hypnosis has been proven to be one of the most effective methods for smoking cessation, even though it is still shrouded in doubts.
Grossman, who studied hypnotherapy in the U.S. and Great Britain, insists that many so-called "facts" about hypnosis are really myths that have to be debunked.
"There is no catch to it," Grossman says. "During hypnosis the person is always conscious and aware of everything that is occurring. And the hypnotist doesn't possess any unusual or mysterious powers. We just understand certain aspects of the human mind that most people are not aware of."
A former smoker himself who watched several members of his family die from tobacco-induced illnesses, Grossman developed his own, money-back-guaranteed technique focusing on the physical, psychological and emotional aspects of an addiction. He now gives seminars only internationally but offers the CDs based on those seminars through his website, http://www.kengrossman.com/stop_smoking.php. In the past 25 years he "safely helped hundreds of thousands" of people around the world kick the habit, he says.
With one exception: "A person who has a death wish will not respond to my technique, or any other technique for that matter."
Fortunately for Schneider, life, not death, was on his mind that fateful day 20 years ago. He remembers a "powerful" moment during Grossman's cessation seminar "when we were able to mentally re-experience ourselves as non-smokers."
Schneider was so entranced by his session, he is now thinking of becoming a hypnotherapist himself. "Hypnosis is not magic," he says, "but it makes quitting much easier."
Even coming from a confirmed quitter, this is one message that will not go up in smoke.
For more information or interview requests contact
Dr. Kenneth Grossman, at 1-800-810-5936 or visit http://www.kengrossman.com/stop_smoking.php
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