Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [2]
Three months after attending, I wrote to Allen to thank him for helping me escape and to offer my help in spreading the word. In September 2001, I was privileged to be chosen to represent Allen Carr’s Easyway in North America.
From late in 2001, Allen became a close friend and mentor to me. He was an amazing man—generous, intelligent and funny but also down-to-earth, passionate and approachable.
He was fascinated by the US (he traveled to Las Vegas every year for over twenty years to indulge his passion for poker) and a great student of the American culture and psyche. He always felt that the Easyway method—with its positive, empowering approach to quitting—would especially resonate with Americans. And he was right—Americans took to the Easyway method like a duck to water.
Over the years, Allen and I spent endless hours discussing Easyway in the US and how to further improve its effectiveness by adapting and refining it for the American market. In particular, we discussed the differences between American and European smokers and their responses to the method. This brand new US edition of Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking benefits by incorporating not only the core of Allen’s unique Easyway method that has worked wonderfully for so many smokers over the past twenty-five years, but also ten years of learning, experience and feedback we have had since starting to work with smokers in North America in 2001.
We thank the thousands of Americans who have successfully used Allen Carr’s Easyway for their invaluable feedback in putting this US edition together, and for their continued support in spreading the Easyway message.
On a personal level I would like to dedicate this new US edition of Easyway to the two men who have had the biggest influence on my life. My mentor, the incomparable Allen Carr, and my hero and best friend: my late father Jack O’Hara. The world is a poorer place now you’re gone, but it’s inestimably richer for your having lived.
Damian O’Hara
Allen Carr’s Easyway North America
PREFACE
Just suppose there were a magic method of stopping smoking which enables any smoker, including you, to quit:
IMMEDIATELY
PERMANENTLY
WITHOUT NEEDING WILLPOWER
WITHOUT SUFFERING WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS
WITHOUT PUTTING ON WEIGHT
WITHOUT SHOCK TACTICS, PILLS, PATCHES OR OTHER GIMMICKS
Let’s further suppose that:
THERE IS NO INITIAL PERIOD OF FEELING DEPRIVED OR MISERABLE
YOU IMMEDIATELY ENJOY SOCIAL OCCASIONS MORE
YOU FEEL MORE CONFIDENT AND BETTER EQUIPPED TO HANDLE STRESS
YOU ARE BETTER ABLE TO CONCENTRATE
YOU DON’T HAVE TO SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE HAVING TO RESIST THE OCCASIONAL TEMPTATION TO LIGHT A CIGARETTE
And
YOU NOT ONLY FIND IT EASY TO QUIT, BUT CAN ACTUALLY ENJOY THE PROCESS FROM THE MOMENT YOU EXTINGUISH THE LAST CIGARETTE
If there were such a magical method, would you use it?
Chances are you would. But of course you don’t believe in magic. Neither do I. Nevertheless the method I describe above does exist. I call it EASYWAY. In fact it isn’t magic, it just seems that way. It certainly seemed that way to me when I first discovered it and I know that many of the millions of ex-smokers who have successfully quit with the help of EASYWAY also view it in that light.
No doubt you find my claims difficult to believe. Don’t worry; I would regard you as somewhat naive if you just accepted them without proof. On the other hand do not make the mistake of dismissing them out of hand because they sound far-fetched. In all probability you are only reading this book because of the recommendation of an ex-smoker who attended an Allen Carr’s EASYWAY seminar, read this book or stopped using another Allen Carr product. It