Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This can work great but a little bit of effort is still required....., 23 Feb 2007
I bought and read this book almost three years ago. It makes the biggest amount of sense and I actually stopped smoking about two thirds of the way through entirely convinced I was 'cured'. I have to say I still don't smoke ............unless I am drinking (alcohol) - still haven't managed to crack that one. I don't smoke at any other time although I still have a craving if I am either particularly stressed or particularly high (in the natural happy sense). I am able to handle these cravings but not the drinking thing. I do think it may just be a case of getting the book back out and reading it again to reinstate the message and that I must do that SOON. Despite my downfall (I don't drink that much that often!) I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to quit. I have bought it for a few friends and family that genuinely were interested in giving it a go and it has worked for the pretty much all of them. You do have to also want to stop and at the price it is most defintely worth a go. Good luck to everyone purchasing this and I hope my comments help.
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64 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not revolutionary but worked all the same, 27 April 2004
I'm writing this review as most other reviews on here although helpful,left me almost wanting to prove the book didn't work, which wasn't aparticularly helpful frame of mind.
I followed most people's advice to read this in one go and managed to doit within 4 or 5, 2 hour stints. I finished the book, had my finalcigarette and then spent the next 24 hours wishing I could have one badly.Eventually thinking "the book says I shouldn't need willpower" decided itwasn't the right decision for me and promptly lit up.
I'm a trained coach and so could apply my work to this problem andquestion myself as to why I needed willpower, others may not have thatadvantage. It turned out I didn't really have a good reason to give up andwas reading the book because I felt I "should" give up. Some agonisinghours of thought later I found my personal reason to give up, applied thebooks rules to it and haven't smoked since.
My advice is make sure you really really want to give up first, otherwiselike me you'll find yourself fighting against Allen Carr the whole way ashe talks a lot about brainwashing (I felt he was trying to do the same tome). Be prepared to be VERY honest with yourself if you want this to worklong term. I had to admit some pretty scary stuff to myself about why Ismoked, which is one of the first exercises you need to do. Spend sometime over this and be ruthless in your honesty. What I would say is thatafter reading the book I do feel like a non-smoker, rather than anex-smoker (as I have been before) which is a very odd feeling!
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47 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
BRILLIANT? YES. BRILLIANT? NO., 1 Feb 2006
In September of 2004 I read this little book of wonder and instantly stopped smoking. I was, admittedly, only what Mr. Carr calls a 'casual' smoker, but he does stress that these are the hardest ones to convince.
Just under 6 months later I forced myself, and I mean forced, to have a cigarette. It was disgusting. Yet, I forced myself to have another one and before I knew it I was back to being a full-time casual smoker. It rules my life, ruins my health, makes me smell bad for my children and makes me feel like a failure.
So what did I do?
I read the book again. In fact I had previously lost the book and ordered a new one from Amazon. I read it each night with every confidence in its ability to reduce me rapidly to being a non-smoker once again.
I read it and waited for the 'light' to come on that would reveal to me, as it had before, and, as it has to countless others, the truth behind nicotine addiction.
It failed.
I panicked at the end of the book and read it again. Nothing.
Read the book the first time and it works like a magic trick. You are left wondering how on earth it is done but only marvel at the mystery and accept it for what it is: a miracle.
Read the book again and the magic has gone. There is no magic, in fact there never was, just printed words on paper. So how DOES the damn book work the first time?
Brainwashing. Brainwashing in the pure sense of the term or a reversal of a previous brainwashing? Whatever. It doesn't really matter does it?
It remains brilliant, absolutely brilliant brainwashing.
But BEWARE.
You cannot be brainwashed twice on the same subject.
Mr. Carr says that willpower is more than unnecessary, yet in the book he says (on page 201):
"Nevertheless, I want you to make a solemn vow: that when you have completed the ritual of smoking the final cigarette, no matter what happens in your life, you will never smoke another cigarette".
Now, I might be thick or something, but doesn't this sound odd?
In one breath he says that using willpower is completely unecessary, yet on page 201 we have to all make a 'solemn vow'.
In other words, we have to tell ourselves that no matter what stressful situation we find ourselves in, no matter what grief or heartache we may endure I will not, I will NOT, EVER EVER EVER smoke another cigarette. Now does that sound like willpower to you? It does to me.So BEWARE. It IS a good book, but only the first time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
I quit, nicotine free for 10months started again, quit, diagnosed with bowel cancer, started again, had op quit, started again.
Life is a roller coaster, have smoked since age 16, (now aged 50) smoked 10 a day, gave up with every pregnancy (4) but soon went back to the old habit, given up for 6 years at...
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Published on 22 Nov 2006 by Ms. J. Thomas
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by Allen Carr
by Allen Carr
