A woman in her 50s wanted hypnosis to stop smoking. We had several sessions with no result, so we decided to stop. She returned to see me as her GP several months later and said “It worked” to which I replied “What worked?”. She was convinced that the hypnosis sessions were the cause off her giving up cigarettes, and my uncertainty seemed only to add to her conviction. She reported that she knew the change was permanent because her daughter had a climbing accident and was trapped on a ledge all night and no-one knew the extent of her injuries. When she was rescued the next morning the woman realised that she hadn’t even thought of smoking.