Hi i went to the spiritualist church and the medium called george came to me with a message ,george said i have got your dad here ,he is very worried about your health ,he said if you dont give up smoking you will be seriously ill with your lungs and your children need you ,george said other things that only me and my dad would know ,so i know it was him ,only a few days ago i saw my dad he was only their for a few seconds but i wonder now if this is why he came to me to warn me about my health ,only i have been dreaming about him a lot just lately as well .love deanna god bless

Thanks dave for being so caring i will take your words of good advice and i will try to give up ,the trouble is i get so much stress and it dosent help love deanna

Thanks bear i will try to give up the fags ,to tell you the truth it is worrying me what dad said because i know its true my dad loves me and he is trying to warn me ,i have got to do it for my children as well as myself and for dad too love deanna god bless bear

For those who are pot smokers, the statistics in the present world are that pot smokers are 1% more likely to have health problems than non-smokers of all types.  Further, pot is habituating, just as making love tends to be, but it is not addictive. Tobacco is addictive, and the cigarette companies have added more chemistry to increase the addictive potential. It is nowhere so benign as marijuana.

Back about 1958 a friend complained that he wanted to stop smoking. So we rolled him a dozen or so wee little teeny matchstick sized joints, and cut them in half. He was instructed to smoke one of these when the tobacco urge hit. After a week or so he returned. He was tobacco free and wanted to stop smoking so much pot because he was tired of feeling stupid.

If used as a sacrament, meaning a means of approaching the divine, pot seems to do litle harm and occasionally some good. (I have a California Medical Marijuana card, and use pot to dry excessive secretions in my lungs that interfere with breathing, as well as stabilization of my gut from IBS. It also brings on spiritual experiences.)

Anyway, tobacco has a very limited shamanic use. (For example, as an ingredient in ayahuasca, where it is intended to induce vomiting.) Outside that, it is harmful.

There are lots of alternatives. When I do a hypnotic smoking session I ask if the person meditates - and amazingly a large number of people have some experience in meditation! Then I suggest a simple meditation that replaces the cigarette. It uses breathing, because the mind follows the breath - hold your breath for ten or fifteen minutes and you'll notice that your mind gets pretty intense on the topic.

First breath, stop outside activity. Second breath, focus inwards. Third breath, focus on feeling grounded - grounding cord down the spine to the center of the cosmos - sense that you are in the proper time and place for you. Send the mind outward and notice the manner in which everything operates as a unity, communicating with its own mechanical logic, and held together with love, logic and wisdom. Keep pointing outward until you feel one with the universe. Maybe you'll encounter the Creator - and a cosmic sense of humor - Sty n that space and become one with it. When you come back to the world you'll have a changed perspective - and that's as good or better than cigarettes can do.

Since this is not sex, there is no temptation afterwards to reach for a cigarette.

However, no matter what path you take, please start now.

Incidentally, if you have ever tried to tell kids what is good for them, you've noticed how it goes in one ear and out the other. Showing your kids how to stop smoking is a lesson that they will never forget. Then later on, when they are confronted with anything from tobacco to hard drugs, they'll remember, "Oh, Mom quit. I can quit too." If you need something to boost your resolve, try remembering that it save the lives of our children when we quit. Isn't that a good enough reason?

dave

Hi i have tried so many times to give up smoking but with no success but i must take my dads warning seriously so i have got to try harder for my own sake and my familys ,just hope this time i can do it,i am going to ask jesus to help me love deanna

Good question Spooky.  I've been thinking of flying to California for one of Dave's smoking cessation sessions but it probably wouldn't be as cost effective flying in from Germany.

Rob

Becoming an ex-smoker is easy.....I've done it several times in my life......

But yes, I am smoking again. It felt great not to smoke for a while this spring and I lasted about 2 months. I tell myself I'm smoking "the best" -- and at $7/pack, that's expensive, even though I don't smoke but 2-3 in the evenings.

Don't guilt yourself, Deanna! It's a coping mechanism, that's all. And it's enjoyable...until you can convince yourself that you really don't want it or need it.  And then you may have to try again.

Like me.

Well, we all have weaknesses, and we all have strengths.  How to apply our strengths to our truest desires?  There is a part of us which is not yet convinced that we really want to quit this activity.

Tobacco was a sacred thing to the native americans. It was used ceremonially. Perhaps the first step in quitting for us would be to use the tobacco more consciously, as a sacred ritual.

Putting ourselves down for a "bad" habit only decreases our feelings of self-worth. Our egos really don't want a piece of that thinking and will argue with us, even after we have removed the nicotene from our systems.

Really, quitting smoking is relatively painless.  It is the thought of wanting it that is difficult.  The thought of wanting it and not doing what we want to do.

Well, my 2 cents for today. When I have it all figured out I'll let you know....

blink

Hi Spooky-
I wish I could do more than just give information and encouragement, but like any addiction, when you start using, you agree to pay the price (it's in the fine print). :-]

I just finished working with a smoker in my clinic, and he advised me that Pfizer has come out with a "stop smoking drug" called "varenictine"  (expensive) which is quite similar to cytisine.  The herbal equivalent is available as "Tabex", which is taken in relatively large quantities for about two weeks, but blocks all the reinforcement properties (dopamine release) of nicotine, so should be useful. It comes from a type of acacia. From looking at the structural formulae, it looks like almost all natural opiates would also block nicotine, but they have a more severe addictive potential. Of course if you happen to have a garden full of poppies it might be an interesting experiment.

With my 3+ Pack-a-day habit I chose to stop "cold turkey" because I had no idea of any other method - this was in the late 1950's - and had I recognized that all the sensatios are actually good health returning instead of feeling as if I was getting sick from withdrawal I wold have been a lot happier. But - you're right on target with the observation that it's just a matter of doing it. That way we don't have to go and unstick you in the spirit world.

Meanwhile, tell youraself that all the new energy and new awareness is all part of good health returning - which is true - and the fact that it returns like Gangbusters is why we don't usually recognize that fact.

dave