Originally posted by TheMythLives
1) How long have you smoked?

Since I was seventeen, I had smoked before that, but I started to smoke regularly then...that is *ahem* twenty years.

2) Have you ever tried to stop?

Several times, various methods. Hypnosis, willpower (I have none!), patches, gum, Allen Carr and the last attempt was with the drug Zyban, that was highly unpleasant and I haven't tried again since.

3) And why did you start smoking?

I'd like to say peer group pressure but it was kind of the opposite really. When I went to sixth form college I found it hard to cope with the social dynamic there, too cliquey, smoking was a way of avoiding that oddly enough, I could hide round the corner with all the other social misfits..lol. Plus practically everyone in my family smoked.

(incidently I quacked like a duck today, not sure that that was your influence though, it was in response to the quacking of an actual duck, she addressed me directly and it would have been rude not to respond )

I'm interested in this little online experiment you two are doing and will be watching the results but I wanted to share one of my own.

I got a piece of junk mail last week inviting me and a guest to come to a seminar in which we could learn how to make money at home on the internet. They offered a free dinner (at the end of their spiel) and a free MP3 player. Well, free is in my price range and I have no life so my daughter and I decided to go.

We went in knowing that they would undoubtedly be trying to sell us something expensive. The speaker was very good at his sales technique. He did not have a "warm-up" routine insisting that the information was so important that he should just jump right in (for our benefit, of course). He was pumped, enthusiastic, "sincere", and spoke with a sense of urgency. We sat in the very front row of about 100 people.

There's a "feel" to crowds and I, at least, could sense within the first 10 minutes that no one was buying his spiel. He apparently sensed it too and surprised me by switching gears, rather smoothly, I might add. He tugged at our heartstrings. Most of the audience was female and he told how when he started in this business he too was skeptical and broke (creating empathy and rapport with his audience). He said he had 3 children that he was raising on his own and one of them was a special needs child. He paused for effect. You could feel the crowd become more sympathetic.

He then went on to explain how important it was for him to "do the right thing" (nobody wants to be thought of as doing the WRONG thing, eh?). We waited to hear what the right thing was. The right thing was to "act now!"

I was beginning to appreciate his level of skill and joined in the charade. As his 2 assistants began passing out the sign up commitment to buy, legal contracts he pushed home the point. He pulled a $10.00 bill from his pocket and held it up saying "I'm offering you something valuable. You have the knowledge of what you need to do. Who can tell me what you need to do?" I pushed my chair back, walked up to him and took his $10.00 out of his hand and walked back to my chair.

He congratulated me in front of the room full of procrastinators by saying that I saw an opportunity and promptly acted which was, of course, the "correct" action he wanted everyone to take. He then took another $10.00 bill out and did it again. This time there was no hesitation and, in fact, was nearly a stampede to get the $10.00.

Almost everyone in that room signed a very expensive contract for, get this....a website with 24/7 tech support for whatever product you decide to market on your home-based business. While everyone else was filling out their credit card information, my daughter and I were chuckling to ourselves. The charismatic salesman stood in front of us and flatly ordered us to "hurry up and fill out your information". I calmly looked him in the eye, blinked slowly then smiled and said, "no thank you".

Since I was the one who had "seen the opportunity and had the good sense to act now" by grabbing his $10.00 but was refusing this additional opportunity, he didn't press the point. He sent his minions to do it for him. Three times.

We got out of there with our pocket books intact, a decent dinner and a free MP3 player. And the salesman's $10.00!

The ironic and really funny thing is when I got home to check my email, the very first one that I saw was from Yahoo offering a personalized website with 24/7 tech support for $1.99 for the first year. HAHAHAHAHAHA! I do feel kind of sorry for all those people who could probably ill afford to pay the $5 grand for what Yahoo is offering for $1.99.

It pays to be aware of these NLP techniques. Literally.

Originally posted by TheMythLives
Why have you tried so many? Did you give up, didn't want to commit?

I've tried so many times because I don't want to smoke, I perhaps haven't been able to quit because I haven't been ready to let go of something that has become a 'crutch' even though, essentially I don't feel a need for that crutch anymore.

Originally posted by TheMythLives
What type of social dynamic, cliques are hardly a reason. Was it because they were idiots (rude) to you or others? Do you consider yourself a misfit? As for everyone smoking, just because they do it does not mean you have to..lol.. but you did, so lets see what we can do.

Okay, this has got very personal, very quickly...

Just to fill in, sixth form in the UK is school 16-18 years. The numbers were much greater than at my previous school, and they were very much divided into 'sets' and I found it hard to fit in, but I managed initially. About half way through my first year one of my teachers developed an excessive interest in me. Not only did he pursue me very aggressively, but he sought out my friends and boyfriends to the extent that it felt as though I had no respite. He would walk up to me in a group and say he needed to see me to discuss an essay or something, all at the same time as telling me that I mustn't tell anyone as he would lose his job. He couldn't help himself, etc etc.

Smoker's corner was somewhere to hide, it gave me a little freedom, I knew that it was somewhere that he wouldn't follow me, he'd stand out too much. It was a situation that I found very hard to cope with and smoking gave me an out without actually having to confront the issue, not that I felt capable, then, of doing that. In retrospect it seems like nothing, but then I found it very hard to deal with, I was very shy and I was struggling with anorexia. It was the third time in two years that I had had to deal with unwanted attention from a much older man, one was a teacher at my previous school, but then I had a support network to fall back on. I felt very isolated in this case. But then I think that was the intention. Smoking therefore was a way of avoiding my problems.

Originally posted by TheMythLives
1) I want you to get a piece of paper and pen

2) Write down what you feel when you GET a cigarette and write what you feel when you are THINKING about getting a cigarette.

Lets see what we can do.

Okay...do you want me to share these scribblings? Or should I await further instructions...?

This is really neat you guys, wish you'd hurry up though! I wanna see the outcome, it's like reading a real life book!

It makes me happy I made this thread to begin with!

I notice myself doing this sort of thing when I'm drinking. Ill ask them for something that most would not give, for example their last cigarette.

For one I would never ask if someone has 5 or less left. And if I asked and didn't know how many they had left and they only had 5 or less I would say I understand, dont worry about its cool, ect.. but when I'm drinking and bored ill make a game out of trying to get people to give me their last cig or buy something off of them really cheap ect... I pretty much click into another person, openly friendly, sarcastic, charming, pushy but not too much, and always smile, look right into their eyes...

It works, a lot. It's just funny to me so I only do it for fun. I've never taken the object or favors I've asked for. Once they give me what I've asked for I'll say "I'm just messing with you" and laugh. Even then many still give it to me. Which I'll refuse.

I have no sales experience, I don't work with many different people on a daily basis, I'm horrible with women unless I blatantly lie to them, I've read no books or anything about NLP or manipulation. I just have it naturally as a gift but only use it sparingly. Maybe I'll need it one day to wake up the rest of the sheople

It really is SHOCKING how people are so easily manipulated.

nobody thinks that there may have been "plants" put into this audience to prove his point? c,mon...there are so many ways to make this video....how much editing was done? who were these people? in what context was this particular meeting arranged? was there money or a reward for some type of behavior? too many questions unanswered to formulate any reasonable type of conclusion.

Originally posted by TheMythLives
1) I want you to get a piece of paper and pen

2) Write down what you feel when you GET a cigarette and write what you feel when you are THINKING about getting a cigarette.

As I haven't been able to get onto ATS for a few days I took a little time over this with interesting results.

When I have a new pack for example, and I'm in a position to smoke whenever, I don't even think about having a cigarette, it is just there and I smoke it. No thought, anticipation or anything involved. Often I don't even notice that I have had one. That changes when the pack begins to run out and I then am aware of every cigarette and how long that number will last me. And, I think about smoking more the less cigarettes I have.

At work, when I can only have one short cigarette break over five hours, I find I have to remind myself to take it (go figure). If say it gets to eleven, I basically feel obliged to have a cigarette. Don't 'need' it, but take it anyway.

Other situations, at my parents I almost chain smoke. And in an emotional confrontation type situation, also chain smoke. It is only in the latter situation and when I have run out of cigarettes and then get some, that I have any sort of feeling about the act of smoking, then it is relief, most of the time, little to no satisfaction, growing sense of 'why am I doing this?'.

Alright. Well, lets try this. I have identified the source of your habit and the underlying source of why you smoke. I know when you will take one and when you WANT to take one. I understand that it can be used as crutch in your life. But before I can do anything, I need some more "personal" info.

Write this down on the same piece of paper as you wrote down the first. This is important! Make sure you write it on the same piece of paper and if you don't have the same piece of paper rewrite what you told me before and then write this question:

1) What is my best childhood memory
2) Who DID I love the most
3) Who DO I love the most
4) Do I really want to quit
5) What is my Life's goal
6) What is the thing that I want to do right now, as of this very moment

After you write that down, please return and shar your scribblings and I will attempt to help ya in the Final Post, well maybe the Final post...

On the video in the OP:

That woman is probably a confederate. AKA an inside man (or woman, in this case) that is "in on the trick." From there, it's monkey see, monkey do.

My 2 cents, anyways.