According to the most recent review of hypnosis studies, the short answer to the above question is, probably not:

"There is insufficient evidence to determine whether hypnotherapy is more effective for smoking cessation than other forms of behavioural support or unassisted quitting. If a benefit is present, current evidence suggests the benefit is small at most." [1]

What about productiveness? Does hypnosis generate lots of successful quitters? In October 2020, my mentor Joel Spitzer created a short video entitled, Does hypnosis really generate some of the best success rates for quitting smoking? Again, the answer is no.

A 2015 U.S. Gallup Poll asked successful ex-smokers how they quit. Only 1 percent credited hypnosis.

On January 23, 2020 the U.S. Surgeon General issued a 700 page report entitled, "Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General." Question, how many times does the report mention either hypnosis or hypnotherapy? None.

This page shares the most recent "independent" analysis of the effectiveness of hypnosis in helping smokers quit smoking. If you locate any "independent" resource that you'd like to see added to this page, please send a quick e-mail and I'll gladly review it.

Keep in mind that your favorite hypnotist telling you that she cures 90% of all smokers by using a single hypnotic session is not independent proof. In fact, if the most recent Cochrane Review is accurate, such representations are probably consumer fraud and someone belongs in jail.

Cessation fraud is deadly business. The average smoker only musters the determination for one serious cessation attempt about every three years. Smoking kills half of all long-term smokers, each an average of 13 to 14 years early. For each annual death, twenty other smokers are living with smoking related diseases. They're having lungs removed, brain tumors extracted, trying to recover from a smoking related stroke or heart attack, or fighting though emphysema riddled lungs in an attempt to draw that next breath.

It is common practice on the Internet for hypnotists to offer "testimonials" from satisfied customers. Please keep in mind that those quitting on their own without any assistance from any source whatsoever have an 11-12% chance of quitting for six months. Yes, at least 11.5% of all quitters who are hypnotized should still be free at six months. In fact, 11.5% of those who quit while standing on their head, while eating Billy Bob's Magic Lima Bean Butter, while taking 1,000 different herbs, or while having needles stuck in their ear, should still be quit at 6 months.

A smokescreen of sorts develops when hypnotism hides program ineffectiveness behind proven quitting techniques such as one-on-one or group counseling, a quality cessation education program, skills development exercises, other behavioral training, group peer support, or behind additional sessions or repeated telephone contact that acts as a form of ongoing conscious support.

Adding an effective cessation technique to hypnotism allows the hypnotist to market their program by awarding 100% of the program's success to hypnosis. Yes, having your own pep-rally or cheerleader has been proven to increase cessation rates far above the standard 11.5 percent. Care must be taken not to give hypnosis credit for conscious cheerleading that pumps up the team before the next challenge.

Still, having twice attended the traveling hypnotist's single-session quit smoking seminar myself, I had two very different experiences. During the first session I tried to relax but found myself peeking and analyzing the entire situation. The hypnotist knew it. He tapped me on the shoulder and politely pointed toward the door.

The second time I was ready. I'm 99% sure he succeeded as an hour blew by in what seemed like seconds. And, to my astonishment, I experienced an entire day where I never once felt a desire to smoke. But then - an idiot - I took a puff and was immediately back to smoking.

But why did I smoke? I still don't know. My current thinking is that nicotine addiction has so many layers -- physical, psychological, emotional, and conscious -- that a single-session is a band-aid at best. It's going to come off.

While I fully support the power of ongoing positive thinking, including talking to your subconscious via self-suggestions, I can't help but think that I was robbed of two priceless periods of cessation confidence.

While the 2019 Cochrane Review finding is discouraging, absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. Someday, somewhere, someway, some hypnotist may develop a procedure that does in fact help smokers quit. But I'm confident that if it ever happens, that the hypnotist will actually invite credible independent researchers to review all their records, to study their work and publish the results.

2019 Cochrane Review: Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation

1. Barnes J, McRobbie H, Dong CY, Walker N, Hartmann-Boyce J. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Jun 14;6(6):CD001008. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001008.pub3. PMID: 31198991; PMCID: PMC6568235.

The 2019 Cochrance Review examined 14 studies involving a total of 1,926 participants that compared hypnotherapy with 22 different control interventions.

The study found that, "studies were diverse and a single meta-analysis was not possible. We judged only one study to be at low risk of bias overall; we judged 10 studies to be at high risk of bias and three at unclear risk. Studies did not provide reliable evidence of a greater benefit from hypnotherapy compared with other interventions or no treatment for smoking cessation."

"Most individual studies did not find statistically significant differences in quit rates after six months or longer, and studies that did detect differences typically had methodological limitations. Pooling small groups of relatively comparable studies did not provide reliable evidence for a specific effect of hypnotherapy relative to controls. There was low certainty evidence, limited by imprecision and risk of bias, that showed no statistically significant difference between hypnotherapy and attention-matched behavioural treatments (RR 1.21, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.61; I2 = 36%; 6 studies, 957 participants)."

"Results were similarly imprecise, and also limited by risk of bias, when comparing hypnotherapy to intensive behavioural interventions (not matched for contact time) (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.47 to 1.82; I2 = 0%; 2 studies, 211 participants; very low certainty evidence)."

"Results from one small study (40 participants) detected a statistically significant benefit of hypnotherapy compared to no intervention (RR 19.00, 95% CI 1.18 to 305.88), but this evidence was judged to be of very low certainty due to high risk of bias and imprecision. No significant differences were detected in comparisons of hypnotherapy with brief behavioural interventions (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.69; I² = 0%; 2 studies, 269 participants), rapid/focused smoking (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.43 to 2.33; I2 = 65%; 2 studies, 54 participants), and pharmacotherapies (RR 1.68, 95% CI 0.88 to 3.20; I2 = 5%; 2 studies, 197 participants)."

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