The liquor industry has seen the need for self-regulation, and promotes the idea of moderation (which it certainly finds preferable to prohibition). The cigarette industry in its consumer advertising makes believe that the facts aren't there. With agile sleight-of-hand, the tobacco merchants keep your attention diverted from the dangers of smoking; instead you pay attention to their new ideas in packaging (soft package, hard package, tops that slip, flip, zip, slide or slope) and to their new brands, new sizes, and new flavors. Mr. Heise will make you realize the incredible effectiveness of tobacco promotion; and perhaps his revelations will bring the United States closer to the time when we (as other nations have now done) will restrict or ban certain forms of cigarette advertising. As a psychiatrist and as a parent, I am against advertising that has tended to lower the age at which youngsters begin to smoke, and that has turned what ought to be an occasional act of the conscious mind into a habit.

It is difficult to predict how quickly you, the particular reader, will be able to learn to employ these techniques effectively. For some it may be a matter of no more than a few minutes an evening for a very few evenings; others may not succeed for a week, ten days or two weeks. Some readers will undoubtedly read up to the point at which the author asks them to follow out a number of directions that will gently relax their bodies and minds, and will then say it's "too much bother." This would be regrettable, since continued excessive smoking could ultimately cause far greater "bother."

Do not be fearful or hesitant about following the author's directions and recommendations. They can only help you, not harm you. No one in hypnosis will

respond to any suggestion that is contrary to his mores or to those of the community. There is no danger of "remaining hypnotized forever." Hypnosis is dangerous only when it is used for entertainment or by an unethical, unqualified person, who seeks to effect a dramatic "cure" without looking for and eliminating the cause. An unqualified person who attempts to prevent an alcoholic from drinking or a narcotics addict from using drugs, for example, without eliminating the cause, could wreak tragic harm. On the other hand, the competent and ethical use of hypnosis by a trained physician or any qualified hypno-therapist working under medical supervision, is a tool of increasingly great importance, a tool useful in diagnosis and treatment, anywhere in medicine, whether in the psychiatrist's consulting room or in the operating and delivery rooms.

By showing you beneficial ways to use some of these techniques, the author of this book is going to do more for you than enable you to stop smoking. He is going to help you learn how to relax. The relaxation he will help you achieve isn't a fleeting, fragmentary respite from pressures; it is a revivifying process. You spring back from it feeling "renewed"; from it you must gain greater health and happiness.

And so this is a book that offers much. It can help save many, many lives. It can add years to your Me. It is, therefore, an important book.

CHAPTER ONE

You're thinking about giving up smoking. Well, not giving it up entirely, perhaps, but at least cutting down on the number of cigarettes you smoke each day. You've opened this book, at any rate, because you're somewhat uneasy about the reports linking smoking with several serious and unpleasant diseases. Or because you've heard that smokers tend to die at an earlier age than non-smokers.

Or maybe it's because you awaken in the morning sounding as if you had swallowed a fistful of gravel. Or because that persistent cough your dog recognizes when you're a block away is not exactly your idea of an endearing trademark. Or perhaps your mate complains that you snore—yes, you—and that it's all because of too much you-know-what. And maybe it's because you're just plain tired of being told that all your ills come from excessive smoking. Besides, suppose they do!

One thing, however, is almost certain. Before you opened this book, you thought about—and probably even tried—breaking the cigarette habit. Perhaps you did get through a few tobacco-free days, weeks, months or years—and yet here you are again. You still burn up a pack or two or three a day. You've found the truth behind the old joke—anyone can stop smoking; the trick is not to start again.