🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Dec12.125615.5196@eng.umd.edu> georgec@eng.umd.edu (George B. Clark) writes:
>A man named M. Michaluk, now deceased, used to hold free smoking-
>cessation clinics each Wednesday night at his Institute of Applied
>Natural Sciences (IANS). His success made him a local celebrity, and
>he appeared on all the local radio and TV talk shows. To schedule
>an appointment, you had to book two months in advance, since he was
>so popular.

Did he train a successor, George?  Is there anyone else who now
continues his methods?

It is also neat that Mr. Michaluk was so committed to helping people
stop smoking that he was willing to do that for no compensation.
*That's* really altruistic.

>I know three smokers, including myself, who quit cold turkey
>without withdrawal after attending one of these sessions. I had
>been smoking maybe two packs per day.

That's great...and dramatic!

[Some deleted]

>In a dimly lit room, the session began by our staring at a rotating
>spiral projected on to a big wall. Then Dr. Michaluk asked us to
>imagine ourselves in a variety of business and social situations,
>where smokers often smoke. Someone would offer us a cigarette, and we
>imagined ourselves saying, "No thank you. I don't smoke."

Can you give us any more details on the procedures he used?  Do
you have any further information about the specific *ways* he got
the group to visualize the appropriate images?  Were there other
post-hypnotic suggestions he made that might've been powerful
interventions, too?

[some personally convincing statement deleted]

>The amazing thing is that I went from two packs per day to being a
>non-smoker. There was no withdrawal at all. This happened in 1976,
>and I haven't smoked a single cigarette since.

That's GREAT!  Congratulations.

>I recommend group hypnosis over individual sessions because in a
>group you can remain anonymous, which is helpful if you are timid
>about others observing you while suggestions are in progress.

If the individual's needs and wants are unique from the other members
of the group, how would group hypnosis work?  And, I'm wondering,
did Mr. Michaluk observe you (along with 29 others), or did he
only have a specific pattern of induction he used, irrespective
of the group?  In other words, I wonder if he could've done the
same thing with a drapery hanging between him and the group of
subjects?
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