PREFACE

During my more than twenty years as a practicing psychiatrist and neurologist, I have used hypnosis almost daily, therapeutically as well as for diagnosis. Aware of its limitations as well as its advantages, I have therefore been on guard against—and I have vigorously worked against—those who misrepresent hypnosis, or utilize it for entertainment, or becloud it with illusion and false hope.

I was pleased, then, when Channel Press asked my opinion of this book before they determined to publish it. My recommendation to them, as you see, was to issue it. Indeed, I was so impressed by Mr. Heise's approach, understanding, and excellent and ethical presentation that I offered to add a few introductory words written from the point of view of a physician specializing in psychiatry.

As you read into the book, you will realize that the author is teaching you to use some of the techniques of hypnosis and self-hypnosis to change deep-rooted habit patterns. He will tell you that this method is painless. He will tell you that it is safe. Some readers will wonder whether this is true, and may hesitate to apply the author's suggestions.

            PREFACE

And so I would like to add this word of reassurance. There is no danger in self-hypnosis. The techniques you will learn in the pages that follow are safe and they are sound. I will return to this matter, because I want to discuss certain unethical uses of hypnosis; but so far as the material you will read in this book is concerned, be at ease. The method is standard and orthodox; it offers an excellent way for you to achieve your goal.

Physicians are often asked whether it is harmful to smoke three cigarettes a day, or five, or fourteen, or a pack; people seem to seek a standard measurement. If they exceed it, that would be bad; if they smoked fewer than the standard, that would be all right. But no such figure can be set. For several of my patients, one cigarette a week would be too many cigarettes.

A better way to respond to questions about cigarette smoking, then, is to speak not of quantities but of habit patterns. You are smoking to excess if you do any one (or more) of the following:

1.         Reach for a cigarette the first thing in the morn

ing, or the last thing at night.

2.         Light a cigarette without realizing it, find yourself

smoking, and wonder why you lit it and when.

3.         Claim that you are unable to enjoy certain situa

tions without a cigarette—your morning coffee, food,

reading the paper, playing cards, and so on.

4.         Feel it necessary to explain the number you smoke

with such phrases as "They help me relax" and "I only

take a puff or two, forget it, and then light another."

5.         Become severely upset when you find yourself in