Anti-smoking as Cult-like Belief and Behavior

[Beau]

Interestingly (at least to me), I used to be severely allergic to second-hand smoke (i.e. other people smoking around me) and as a result, I was against smoking (yeah, I know... it's my secret shame ). The fact that my stepmother whom I loved dearly died of lung cancer - a disease doctors were adamant had been caused by her chain-smoking - did not help either. When around smoke, my eyes would get all swollen, I would get a full-blown asthma attack, have a runny nose, sometimes even itching (face, arms, etc.). Then my husband started smoking a few years ago (prompted by all the good things he was reading about it). And I read as much as possible about smoking here on the forum, etc.

Well, what do you know, now I have no reaction whatsoever when he smokes around me! I haven't tested a room full of smokers yet, but it really made me wonder about how much of my reaction to smoking was in fact due to brainwashing and propaganda? Some have suggested that perhaps a better diet enables me to withstand something I used to be allergic to. But it has been my experience that if anything, the body becomes less tolerant of stuff that just is not right for you once your diet is better.

That's an interesting story. So maybe the "allergic reactions" are really psychosomatic or unconscious effects due to the person's disposition towards tobacco? If you believe, falsely, that tobacco is harmful, then you could create the physical symptoms that would reinforce that belief. In your case, once you became aware of the benefits of tobacco, your body no longer created the reactions to reinforce those false beliefs.

There's probably a number of other scenarios where this occurs as well. Reminds me of what Lobaczewski said about believing in lies and how that affects our cognitive abilities. Perhaps it affects us in other ways as well.

 

[mabar]

The worse is that most of the smokers I know are also convinced it is bad to do so. They just keep saying they should stop as soon as possible, this is the way they really harm themselves most effectively.
I try to engage the discussion by telling them, what is the point of smoking if every time you light it up, you convince yourself you are doing yourself harm ?
But the idea that smoking is bad is really anchored so when I say smoking is good, most of the people laugh at it. And I prefer to laugh at it too and let them think I'm just saying BS to make them laugh. I sure know it's a waste of time most of the time.

So, we add another classification: those who are brainwashed to some extent, but physiologically unable to stop smoking because it makes them feel better and functional.

But they still believe in the propaganda and smoke with guilt, I had encounter many of those, had tried to provide them literature but, most of their answers had been, "there are many pages", "its in English" (I would not show them if I they are incapable of reading English), and even being articles in Spanish, people do not like to read, and when I mention the short version, they still had told me, "we are smoking but you wont make me believe that smoking is good", I had told them that I wont convinced them, they had to convinced themselves, but they have to read the facts, and they do not want it to do it, because, I assume, it will be much effort?, propaganda is shorter.

Worst I think, are the parents of the anti-smoke-cult-campaign-infantry, friends that use to smoke cannot do it anymore in front of their children. They have to hide. And smoke with guilt.

 

[loreta]

One of the reason that I like Canarias is because here tobacco is cheap and there is a lot of smokers everywhere. :)

I found a little store where the woman can have organic tobacco. I try to tell people that smoking is good for the health but it is complicated: there is the guilt and the propaganda but specially the guilt. All the programs that the government do to "help" people to stop smoking don't work because there is the guilt somewhere and the people who invented those programs know it. So smokers that are unable to quit (specially if they follow one of these programs) feel more and more guilt. It is to put the smoker in a vicious circle. It is in fact an act of sadism, almost, that these absolutely absurd programs are doing. But we know how sadists are doctors.

I find the anti-smoking people like the Jehova's. Brain-washed. As you said, Laura, zombies.

More and more I see people smoke out of their houses, in their cars, or on the streets, like poor souls that even in their homes they can not smoke in peace. Incredible.

 

[Carl]

Another one to add would be the complete and total lack of distinction between natural tobacco and chemical-sprayed reconstituted sheet tobacco, wrapped in chemical-soaked paper. This is a manifestation of black and white thinking, a clear sign that an emotional program is controlling the intellect. And we all know where this program comes from, the cult!

It's a sick and stupendous move they have pulled, getting people to believe that something which helps you think must be avoided. It's like a reinforcing loop. By removing something that helps you think, you become more susceptible to blind, emotional, thinking...

Maybe our solution to wake people up should be to spread our 'second hand smoke' far and wide.

 

[Keit]

There are programs running right now in my company, for people to attend to, in order to not smoke anymore, by either a propaganda course against smoking or vaccinations into the ears of people... And it works. Many people choose the vaccination. A whole lot of people have now given up smoking! There are even signs that were hung up at places, were people once used to smoke, against smoking, that say "Big Brother is Watching You!", with an accompanied picture of an angry guy pointing the finger at you! (I might take a picture of that, so you can see it for yourself) No kidding!

At the beginning of last year our Academy tried to institute the "no smoking on the grounds of the Academy" rule, but it failed, also because many of the teachers smoke as well. Soon enough, students again were bunching up for a smoke during recesses. They put up signs of "no smoking" everywhere, but who's going to pay attention to it, when it is placed near a bench, a bin, and some nice and pretty trees. Seriously, what can be better than relaxing and smoking in nature! ;)

This year there is a new invention. Beside the "no smoking" signs, there are signs of "smoke-free zone" everywhere. Will see how long it will hold. Hopefully they won't go further than this. But they are going to have a serious fight on their hands, because pictures like the following aren't circulating the web for nothing. Saw it on FB. And the caption says:

"Where are you from?"
“Russia. If you see a doctor smoking, he’s from Russia.”

 

[Alvalsen]

Re: Анти-курения, как Культ как Убеждение и Поведение

paper in cigarettes is really toxic, so some people feel bad smoking over time
how to convince them otherwise?
it is not easy

 

[Niall]

Interestingly (at least to me), I used to be severely allergic to second-hand smoke (i.e. other people smoking around me) and as a result, I was against smoking (yeah, I know... it's my secret shame ). The fact that my stepmother whom I loved dearly died of lung cancer - a disease doctors were adamant had been caused by her chain-smoking - did not help either. When around smoke, my eyes would get all swollen, I would get a full-blown asthma attack, have a runny nose, sometimes even itching (face, arms, etc.). Then my husband started smoking a few years ago (prompted by all the good things he was reading about it). And I read as much as possible about smoking here on the forum, etc.

Well, what do you know, now I have no reaction whatsoever when he smokes around me! I haven't tested a room full of smokers yet, but it really made me wonder about how much of my reaction to smoking was in fact due to brainwashing and propaganda? Some have suggested that perhaps a better diet enables me to withstand something I used to be allergic to. But it has been my experience that if anything, the body becomes less tolerant of stuff that just is not right for you once your diet is better.

That's an interesting story. So maybe the "allergic reactions" are really psychosomatic or unconscious effects due to the person's disposition towards tobacco? If you believe, falsely, that tobacco is harmful, then you could create the physical symptoms that would reinforce that belief. In your case, once you became aware of the benefits of tobacco, your body no longer created the reactions to reinforce those false beliefs.

There's probably a number of other scenarios where this occurs as well. Reminds me of what Lobaczewski said about believing in lies and how that affects our cognitive abilities. Perhaps it affects us in other ways as well.

Or it may be more 'nuts and bolts' than that. Think of most people's heavy addiction to sugar, then think of this...

https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,10573.msg77578.html#msg77578

Superhuman people enjoy tobacco, the reason for this is that the Candida infection causes allergies to tobacco smoke, first and second hand. Doctors speculate that 60-80% of the American population suffer from Candida. I have once suffered from Candida and had loathed the smell of tobacco smoke, it seemed downright nasty, I was convinced smoking is bad. Now that I am free of Candida I love the smell of tobacco smoke, even if it is from nasty chemical ridden cigarettes like Newport and Marlboro, they still smell damn good, though I would never smoke such nasty things. I smoke roughly 2 packs a day of natural tobacco. I understand well that I absorb vitamin B3 from nicotine, all of the "health benefits" of Vitamin B3 are the "Health Consequences" of smoking (supressed appetite, regulated nervous system, faster metabolism, detoxification of the blood cappilaries.) I understand that people with Candida suffer allergies to tobacco smoke because the smoke itself is cleaning them of the Candida, creating a detox reaction. According to Dr. Saleh Naser, nicotine is anti-viral, I understand that vitamin B3 is both anti-viral and anti-fungal.

Also, some evidence here suggests nicotine up-regulates oxytocin (the 'cuddle', prosocial hormone) and that smokers can better tolerate a high-fat diet:
https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,84.msg327269.html#msg327269

More testimony from another forum member:
https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,84.msg463904.html#msg463904

I am going to look for the all the tobacco/candida info on the forum. This does make sense of my reaction to the smoke. I've battled candida for a long time and even at it's worst I had never had thrush. For most of my life I have been a non-smoker and have always had a strong aversion to cigarette smoke. I never harassed smokers though! After having been on a protocol to fight the candida for some time, I was able to be around smoke from RYO cigarettes, pipes, and cigars and then to my surprise, I began to like the smell of the tobacco.

 

[Keit]

Re: Анти-курения, как Культ как Убеждение и Поведение

paper in cigarettes is really toxic, so some people feel bad smoking over time
how to convince them otherwise?
it is not easy

Yes, it isn't easy, since it's not only the paper, but most of the commercial cigarettes as well. Here, take a look at this post and several posts after it. The solution appears to be to smoke rolling tobacco or a pipe. I am sure it can be found in Ukraine as well, since we can get it here in Belarus. It appears to be also cheaper overall, than buying individual packs. You may not convince them to start smoking, but from my own experience, many of them have no choice but to admit, that rolling tobacco smells much less offensive and doesn't cause them the same "so called allergic reactions" as the regular cigarettes.

 

[Alvalsen]

many years ago tobacco sniffing
it was just as useful as smoking?

I just think about alternatives

 

[Vulcan59]

I noticed a month ago when talking with someone about my health insurance at work (it's mandatory) and if you put down as a "smoker," you pay more for your insurance than being a non-smoker. So, I just put down "non-smoker".

Not sure what the implications are when you state you are a "non-smoker" on your insurance form. You could be accused of false declaration and your insurance might not pay out. Apparently blood test can reveal whether you are a smoker or not?

 

[seek10]

Last year I have been at the receiving end of this smoking aversion.

- One day my manager called me to let me know that some body in my room complained that I am smelling tobacco. I used to sit in a very small approx. 10 * 5 room with 2 other girls. After some inquiry, it became clear that none of the girls in my room complained and one girl even smokes and it looked their manager who visits once a while complained to her boss, which landed in my bosses years as complaint ( self importance drama's in the form of complaints are nothing new in corporations). since my boss can't officially complain about it to me, he simply mentioned it asking me not to quote him. Since i am consultant ( i.e. use and throw) and consequences are clear, I put some air purifier at my desk knowing that that perfume will be of poisons, stopped smoking before going to office and It became a norm to clean the mouth/nose with water and hand with that poisonous bathroom hand wash before entering the room.

- When I went to state Motor vehicle inspection, one inspecting guy don't want to inspect car saying it is smelling and luckily another guy said 'I smoke, I will do it'.

- My term life insurance got expired and I asked for reinstatement by filling application which asks how many cigarettes I smoke. I put 3 or 4, as I was limiting at that time. I got a letter asking what type of tobacco I smoke. I didn't got any reply from them for 4 or 5 weeks, latest news is they are still evaluating .

It looks one can suggest many things ( gluten, casien, pedophilia, global warming scam etc. ) indirectly to people about the reality with certain acknowledgement except the two - Smoking is Good( even to smokers while they are smoking ) , Wi-fi is bad. These two some how doesn't sink to people's mind.

I smoke organic american spirit RYO which has its pungent smell, that might have added to the situation.

It's a challenge to answer to kids who ask 'why do you smoke ?'. I don't promote it as very good as I fear of my 11 yr old may start secretly experimenting that may lead to other unwanted things and create rift in the family. I simply say if you use right tobacco it may be beneficial and there are some proof that it may be useful. For now, they know they are too small to make decisions and need to wait until 18.

 

[Olesya]

The worse is that most of the smokers I know are also convinced it is bad to do so. They just keep saying they should stop as soon as possible, this is the way they really harm themselves most effectively.
I try to engage the discussion by telling them, what is the point of smoking if every time you light it up, you convince yourself you are doing yourself harm ?
But the idea that smoking is bad is really anchored so when I say smoking is good, most of the people laugh at it. And I prefer to laugh at it too and let them think I'm just saying BS to make them laugh. I sure know it's a waste of time most of the time.

I think those are the perfect times to talk about the various benefits of smoking and to tear down the propaganda against it. They're already smoking, so there's probably something in them (even if it's small) that is resisting the lies and propaganda, and also since they're already smoking they're in a more rational, less emotional driven state, so they might be more open to questioning the official propaganda.

I think it's also a good opportunity to practice respectfully disagreeing with people while seeing if it's possible to open others' minds without abridging their free will and adapting to their level of understanding, as there's definitely some strategy involved when talking about such an emotional issue. I also think it's a good time to network positively with other smokers and push back against the feelings of guilt and ostracism/discrimination. And I think I've made inroads with some people who no longer feel bad about smoking, some who've switched to natural tobacco, and some who are still smoking whereas they were "going to stop" sometime before and might have done so (or not)--certainly not with every smoker I've encountered, but some.

To question the official propaganda in regards to smoking and it's benefits, a person would have to really look for answers/information (read and think about tobacco and it's benefits, history of it's use in ancient cultures and how the anti-smoking campaigns in societies throughout history came about) and maybe willing to make a different choice, if they are smoking, with natural tobacco, at least as an experiment. How many people really do that? Or question their need to smoke? Not many in my experience. I know two women who smoke (light cigarettes). One is convinced that smoking is bad for her health, smokes trying to hide it from her daughter who was scared at school or kindergarden when someone talked to her that her mother might die because of smoking. This woman chose not to talk to her daughter about this issue directly, and promised she would quite smoking. I tried to talk to her once about benefits of smoking. It fell on death ear, so to speak, and she wouldn't read about it. And this dynamic between daughter and her mother continues to this day. The daughter gets almost hysterical when she catches her mother smoking., although she doesn't seem to mind when I smoke in her presence. The mother feels guilty every time her daughter gets upset about it. I don't really know when she started to belief that smoking is bad for her. She talked that there was some kind of pressure to quite smoking was applied from her friend when her daughter was a newborn (3 month old) and had gastrointestinal problems for which she was hospitalized with a lot of tests done without resolving the issue. The other woman has been smoking for a long time since she was a young adult, and hides her smoking from her husband, who doesn't smoke and really against it, after she was really sick (diagnosed and treated for cancer) and stayed at the hospital for a long time. Maybe, it was after this traumatic experience when he became so adamant about her smoking. And both women are so-called 'light' smokers (smoking light cigarettes :)), they can go for days without smoking, and pick up smoking when they stressed about something. So, the anti-smoking propaganda applied through close relatives or 'friends' makes smokers to feel guilty, ashamed or anxious. Some prefer to go into hiding as not to upset people close to them, not address the issue with information, because they didn't look for it themselves in the first place or prefer not to make waves, so to speak? And it looks like that the fear of death that most people have about their own death or their loved ones is a button that is pushed in anti-smoking propaganda, never mind the quality of life.

I was wondering about this push for e-cigarettes. Very popular in Los Angeles. Really bizarre, osit. It's like putting a battery, electronic device into a mouth to smoke? And it seems that for people who choose to do that, it's very difficult to switch from smoking cigarettes to that at the beginning, then with all 'flavors' that come along with it, it's like smoking candies?

 

[dant]

I have found that one cannot easily change a person's anti-smoking
belief/stance if that person is very close to a loved one who died and
the doctor's prognosis is they acquired cancer connected to smoking.
For them, the doctor's prognosis set the emotional hook in concrete?

 

[Gloria54]

My dad smoked for more than forty years. He developed emphysema and was told it was due to his smoking. I was with him when he was told this. I told the doctor that he had worked with many solvents over the years with no mask. He had many careers. Recapping tires, refinishing furniture, working around mechanics doing brake work and lastly he took a mail route in an open jeep with a lot of idling. I told the doctor that in my opinion this had contributed to his condition. I was promptly shot down.
He quit smoking and was doing ok when they found a tumor that was 3x5 mm in his lung.it was determined that he was five years from symptoms . They recommended radiation. I begged him not to do it, but the doctors were adamant . The treatments made him so sick that he could not eat. He wasted away to nothing and never recovered. The doctor looked at us and said..smoking killed your father. I said no you killed my father with radiation.
On a side note, after dad quit smoking, he went from a kind non judgemental man to a raving Rush is right fun die that I could hardly bear to be around.

 

[whitecoast]

Amazing list put together Laura!

A note to people who claim they are "allergic" to smoking: this is possible, but if you are allergic to tobacco, you will also be allergic to any other members of the nightshade family such as tomatoes, potatoes and many peppers. If you are eating any of those things while claiming to be allergic to tobacco, you are 1) lying to yourself; 2) the allergy problems may be due to other elements and not the tobacco.

Kind of ironic I had a dream last night about how poisonous tomatoes were for me, then waking up to read this. Not that I really eat those due to their sugar content.... For those allergic in spite of dealing with other elements contributing to intolerance, maybe e-cigs or patches could work b/c those are just nicotine, without all the other compounds some constitutions may find inflammatory. Who knows?