Pity the poor smoker who can’t smoke in restaurants, bars, or the office, and now activist politicians around the country, including in New Jersey, have been introducing legislation to ban smoking in cars. California cities, of course, have already passed prohibitions against smoking on their beaches, and private homes are probably next on the agenda. I’ve never been a smoker, but I’ve always regarded these restrictions on a legal and heavily taxed substance the height of political hypocrisy. Why hasn’t New Jersey banned smoking in the Atlantic City casinos if the state is so concerned about our health? Because it needs the money, perhaps?

One of the reasons I empathize with smokers and their persecution is that those who target them are as dogmatic as those who target the religious right. The anti-smoking zealots are on the warpath again, exploiting the death of a brave woman because she was a nonsmoker who died of lung cancer. Within one day of Dana Reeve’s untimely death, news reports linked her obituary with anti-smoking campaigns, never mentioning the fact that there has never been a proven scientific link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. Reeve, dead at 44, should be remembered for her courageous battle with cancer after years of supporting and caring for her husband, Christopher Reeve, not as a poster girl for special interest groups.

On the other hand, firsthand smoking is deadly and if anything can help break the habit, it deserves exploring.

It’s been said that addiction to tobacco is harder to cure than a drug habit, so what is a smoker to do? Patches are available, as are various quit smoking programs, but their success rate is not that impressive. I’ve heard anecdotal claims of individuals who’ve quit cold turkey after undergoing hypnosis, but there are also those who’ve tried this method with no success. Hypnosis has always seemed to have a certain mystical element to it, even a whiff of charlatanism, probably from its portrayal in films and television.

How much of it is real and how much is fake? This inquiring mind went to the real deal to find out. A few years ago, I met John Cerbone, the founding director of the Cerbone Hypnosis Institute (www.hypnotistpro.com) at a fund-raiser for the Alzheimer’s Association, a charity near and dear to my heart. Although Mr. Cerbone performs stage shows at colleges and fund-raising events, he is also a certified instructor in clinical hypnotism. He is well-regarded in this field as a “Trance Master,” meaning he can put people into a trance in a matter of seconds, a nearly unheard of feat. I watched him put his assistant, Rosemarie Mandart, under in less than 15 seconds. He’s also performed in stage shows on college campuses, such as Georgetown University, where a dozen students taken at random were instantly spellbound.

Does hypnotism work? I have no idea. But the very first thing Mr. Cerbone did during our meeting was to clarify some of the myths about hypnotism. “A hypnotic state is actually a natural one. Normal human beings are in a state of hypnosis about 74% of the time. When we daydream, that’s a hypnotic state. When we do things automatically without thinking, that’s a hypnotic state.” As an example, he asked me to say the alphabet, which I rattled off. Then he asked me to say each other letter of the alphabet. To do that, I had to slow down and think about it. “You see,” he said, “in the first state, you’re on autopilot, your subconscious is at work performing a learned task. But in the second case, you have to think about what you’re doing. Hypnosis is merely a method of accessing and working with your subconscious.”

I’ve heard many friends comment that they’re too smart to be hypnotized. Admit it: How many of you think you’re too smart to be hypnotized? “Actually, intelligent and creative people are the easiest to put under. I do not hypnotize subjects with IQs lower than 70 or paranoid schizophrenics. These individuals do not spend the same amount of time in a natural hypnotic state,” Mr. Cerbone said.

So why does hypnotism work with some and not others?

“The individual has to be motivated. No one can be forced to do anything against his or her will. Some people get sessions as gifts, but these rarely work out. People who have secrets they do not want revealed also do not do well under hypnosis,” he explained. In private sessions, Mr. Cerbone first queries his clients about various weak points before their visit. He then customizes a hypnosis script for them, tapes their session, and gives them reinforcement tapes to take home. In most cases, one session is sufficient for a determined client.

If you really want to quit smoking, you can. If you don’t, the state will continue to make your life miserable until you do.