Yet Another Marlboro Man!

He walks in my office door, looking spooked, shaking a little, pale around his mouth. He is thin, frail actually, sporting the 60’s “Marlboro Man” look and dress. With sallow skin, breaking a light sweat across his brow and wearing the smell of a dirty ashtray around his body like an aura reminiscent of Pig Pen’s dirt from Schultz’s Charlie Brown character, he resonates with “smoker” written all over him.

Courteous but cautious, his first words come out as a whisper. “Are ya’ gonna’ make me cluck like a chicken?” he asks, his voice trembling. He appears truly fearful as a nervous raspy laugh escapes. At almost 70, the sound of emphysema is not unlike hundreds I have heard before having worked as a Respiratory Therapist, listening and charting before and after breathing treatments. It is audible in his breath, his voice, in the laugh and certainly in the rattling, loose phlegm cough he fights himself to subdue.

I take note of his plaid cotton, pearl snapped cowboy shirt … the tight Levi’s, stack-heel boots and yellowish browned fingers. His now gray hair is carefully styled to the exact specifications of the “Marlboro Man”. He sports the vague indention in his hair from years of wearing a cowboy hat.

The sharp image of a three year old looking up at a black and white TV flashes into my mind’s eye. That three year old, wearing his little cowboy boots, little cowboy hat, holster and toy gun, is seeing and subconsciously recording the pervasive image of the Marlboro Man as he portrays the sexy, sophisticated cowboy that all little boys should grow up emulating. The handsome actor then rides off into the sunset on a fine horse, and of course … with a burning cigarette hanging from his lips. Tendrils of smoke are burning his eyes yet the hat brim carefully hides the actor’s watering, burning, red eyes. Little could the impressionable three year-old or his parents for that matter, have known what a powerful impact those pervasive images would have on the lifestyle choices the grown man would make. Smoking cigarettes would come to compromise his health and shorten his life, but sadly, he would consciously come to know the Marlboro cigarettes only as his friend. Because the images and accompanying programming were so powerful, he is now rendered alone, afraid and forced to make the decision to give up what he now feels is part of who he is.

It is a sad realization that the marketing of cigarettes in America has imprinted an entire society. Our culture was indoctrinated with the idea that smoking was adult and glamorous and was socially embraced. The actors, David Millar, Jr. (the original Marlboro Man, died 1987), Wayne McLaren (died 1992) and David McLean (pictured above, died 1995) all portrayed the idolized “Marlboro Man” for Phillip Morris, and were made to smoke up to five packs in the filming of just one commercial spot, rendering these cowboys destined for an early demise from the smoking-related cancers that metastasized throughout their bodies. To know this now is to know also, that as a society we have finally come full circle. We now fully realize the health implications of smoking. We are finally waking up.

He continues as I shake myself out of the flash image of the three year old he once was. “Bark like a dog? Jump up and down?” he goes on to ask. I gently tell him he watches too much TV as I work to soothe him and allay his fears. The very sound of my voice as I continue to reassure him is making him feel a little easier as he sits down and begins the paperwork necessary before his hypnosis session.

Once he understands that I cannot MAKE him hypnotized and that he … only he … can allow himself to drift into hypnosis, does he for the first time, feel in control. His pre-session tutorial has him waking up to the facts as we cover mind and body responses to quitting. He is impressed with my knowledge and expertise on the subject as well as that I have overcome my own challenges with smoking cigarettes.

His session goes off without a hitch. Softly executed, he realizes as he opens his eyes, that it was nothing like he feared. No weird stuff … no crazy induction techniques like he had seen on TV, no pendulums or snapping fingers. What a relief! He smiles as he leaves with his reinforcement CD in hand, stating he knows he will do well with the cessation program. He feels better already!

As the door closes behind him, I smile to myself as I acknowledge one more convert. Since his session he has referred several others, or they refer themselves as they hear his story of success and I am happy each and every time I hear how well he is doing. The emphysema is much improved, he is breathing better and he is in better health than he has been in his entire adult life. Having smoked since he was an early teen, being a non-smoker is a new adventure in his life, and he is currently enjoying a relationship with a woman who is appreciating the “new” man in her life. She tells her friends that he now smells good, has natural energy and has finally relinquished the mindset that he is the Marlboro Man.

One person at a time, I say to myself. Wishing I could tell the whole world at once just what a self-empowering tool hypnosis is, I write, I speak, and I share. Web development has become a sideline over the years as I have been working to get this message out. I strive to provide the best information possible to each and every person looking to understand the many benefits of hypnosis as reflected on my now extensive website.

For all the Marlboro men … and women out there, still fighting the internal battle, please know there is another option for quitting besides nicotine replacement or antidepressants. Putting chemicals into the body that you are working to remove is simply self-defeating. Statistics show that nicotine replacement systems and anti-depressants help only a small percentage of smokers to quit, however pharmaceutical companies have the money to spend billions on prolific advertising, convincing the public that taking a pill is the answer. For many, taking that pill brings on a whole new set of problems.

Hypnosis is a self-empowering tool for creating positive change … from the deepest, subconscious level. No one wants to have to make conscious effort all day every day as
they work to overcome challenges. Hypnosis is the perfect tool.

No one, absolutely NO ONE can make another hypnotized. Some poorly trained practitioners tell people they can “hypnotize anyone”. If you talk to one who says that or portrays that attitude, look further until you find one who is not feeding their ego. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis and when a client comes to see me for assistance with a goal of any kind … I tell them truthfully, “This is guided self-hypnosis. My job is to teach you truthfully what hypnosis is and what it is not, to guide you into hypnosis and then to teach you how to use the one-on-one session and the reinforcement CD of your session to get the best effect and results.”

If you want to read more about it, give my website a visit. www.LittleRockHypnosis.com. There is more information there than you might need, so click on what you want to know and you can always email me if you find the need for more specifics. I am available with an email, a fax or phone call and am pleased to answer any questions you might have. I look forward to meeting you and working with you … when you decide you are ready to create positive lifestyle changes … easily, and without conscious effort.

DJ Lynch, BCCH, CI
NGH Board Certified Consulting Hypnotist
NGH Certified Instructor
Owner, Little Rock Hypnosis, The Practice
Owner, Arkansas Hypnosis, Career Seminars
Licensed by AR State Board of Private Career Education
(501) 907-1414
(866) 977-1414
www.ARhypnosis.com
djlynch@ARhypnosis.com