Is it a matter of free will? How there may be more to our habits than what meets the eye

Ever consider that the actions you take on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly/lifetime basis are dictated by something other than your own free will?

This idea become evident to me following a book I just read, 'Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking,' which I immediately followed by quitting smoking.

This column, however, is not completely about that specific journey so as to not to bore my non-smoker readers. Though I will say this: if you are considering quitting smoking, pick up this book: it works. After smoking over 20 cigarettes a day for nine years with just an eleven-month break over that time, I simultaneously put down the book and my pack of cigarettes; I do not feel deprived whatsoever (actually, quite the opposite) and I KNOW with every grain of my being that I will never smoke again.

Anyway, I am going to use the ideas of this book and its author Allen Carr to examine the bigger picture of the way subliminal external factors can dictate individual human action, without us even being aware of it.

Carr breaks the smoking travesty (and by travesty I mean in Canada alone 45,000 PREVENTABLE DEATHS PER YEAR, more than any other cause, and one out of two smokers will die from smoking) to two factors: nicotine addiction and brainwashing. Carr's premise is that the "want" for a cigarette is because you are a withdrawing for the depleting nicotine levels from the previous cigarette, and, more alarmingly, the illusion of the cigarette causing relief only exists because of a lifetime of subliminal reinforcement along those lines – through "cool" people smoking in movies, the dying soldier getting satisfaction from one last cigarette, as if that will improve his predicament whatsoever, or be helpful in any way.

And shame on Hollywood – almost every movie I have watched since reading this book and becoming aware has had some "cool" person smoking in it.

So we are subconsciously reinforced throughout our lifetimes that cigarettes DO something for us, when in fact they do NOTHING AT ALL.

What may be already evident to the non-smoker, I see fully now, so thank you Mr. Carr.

Now here's what concerns me.

If this is the case with cigarettes, what else in our capitalistic society are we 'brainwashed' into believing is beneficial to our selves, when in actuality some of our actions/habits/whatever serve as the grease on the turning wheel of corporate profit-building?

How many things do we do that are of absolutely no benefit to us as individuals, yet strangely feel they are, and continue doing for merely a false and fleeting sense of satisfaction?

Here is what instantly jumps to mind: watching television, emotional eating, being chained down to mortgages and car payments for years because of our 'perfect purchases', even having that 'perfect wedding' to a member of the opposite sex (though don't get me wrong, I believe LOVE is the most natural thing and important thing in the world, of any sort.) But really, are diamond rings a necessary investment? When did that become a symbol of love and commitment, and who is profiting off this sentiment?

It just becomes more and more evident to me over the years that we are fed a hell of a lot more than we realize, and the only way to really come to terms with reality is to consistently Аск yourself a question:

What is this really doing for ME?