By Linnea Brown, Staff writer

JUPITER - Rez Seyedin was once so addicted to nicotine that he would routinely "quit" smoking by tossing his last pack of cigarettes out of his car window - only to return several hours later with a flashlight and a craving.

Now, 20 years later, the Singer Island resident is happily smoke-free, and has founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping others kick the habit without any substance or drug.

On June 6, Mr. Seyedin's organization, the Smoke-Free Society, will host a two-hour seminar about how to quit smoking at Jupiter's Hibel Museum of Art from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. James Tucker, the Spirit Guide columnist for Hometown News, will be the event's guest speaker and discuss the personal empowerment that occurs when smokers break the cycle of addiction.

Once the owner of a graphic arts company in Washington, D.C., Mr. Seyedin, 57, smoked from his teen years into his mid-30s. He developed a 17-day smoking cessation program in the 1980s, when - after numerous attempts to quit - he finally succeeded using a three-step method of "unlearning" his psychological attachment to cigarettes.

"Quitting smoking is incredibly hard to do, and I was desperate to find a way to quit," he said. "Through trial and error, I finally devised a system I could live with."

In the 1980s, quitting was unheard of, Mr. Seyedin added.

"Back then, we were in the height of the smoking era," he said. "If you went to a restaurant and asked for a nonsmoking section, they'd put you outside. I remember when I approached a chain-smoking colleague and told him I'd quit, he looked at me as if I was crazy. People couldn't fathom going without a cigarette."

Mr. Seyedin based his program on first becoming aware of "triggers," or habitual behaviors that are connected to smoking, then using coping skills to free and empower the individual.

"Through research of human behavior, I realized that the conditioning of smoking is really the hardest thing to break," he said.

In 1985, Mr. Seyedin published his self-devised technique as a small handbook to "carry the message," which he handed out free to family and friends.

"There wasn't much of a demand for it, but I wanted to preserve the technique," he said. "I was excited, and I wanted to help (other smokers) that I knew. It became a passion for me to give the book away."

He also sold his company, moved to Florida to spend more time on his artwork and met his wife, Linda, a nonsmoker who joined him in his mission to help smokers quit.

In 2004, the Seyedins started the Smoke Free Society, a nonprofit community organization dedicated to mobilizing, encouraging and empowering people to quit smoking.

"We started this because there was no other nonprofit that focused solely on this cause - and with one out of every four people smoking and the other three urging them to quit, we have 300 million Americans alone that (need) this," Mr. Seyedin said. "I felt very strongly that if we establish a nonprofit, people will come because smoking affects everybody. Whether you smoke or not, you can be adversely affected because not only is your loved one suffering, but secondhand smoke can be just as dangerous."

Since then, the organization has advanced to become an Internet-based "lifeline" dedicated to providing smoking cessation tools and information to people around the world.

"It's been a miracle, and we have people across the country volunteering to help us out," Mr. Seyedin said. "We are financing it through donations, sale of our smoking cessation plans, products and services. It's such an important cause that we know we need to (keep) going."

Their efforts also attracted the attention of Mr. Tucker, a spiritual writer and guide who volunteered his inspirational speaking services for local smoking cessation seminars.

"I like James because he speaks about inner power, and he really empowers people to remember who they are," Mr. Seyedin said. "When you talk to smokers, they are lost. They have surrendered to smoking, and you can see that people have given up when they come in here. Smoking is an addiction, and eventually it wins, because every second of the day, the smoker is getting (bombarded) by triggers."

Quitting requires a lifestyle change and awareness of behavior, Mr. Seyedin added.

"Even if they develop a magic pill for people to take, that's not going to solve their psychological dependency," he said.

"When you smoke, that is your lifestyle. After I quit, I realized that everything I did was about smoking. When I had a cup of coffee, it wasn't about the coffee, it was about the cigarette, and the trigger in my head."

Because there is no "quick fix," he developed the 17-day, three-step system of providing education, tools and support for smokers who want to quit.

The first step involves helping people understand the true nature of their addiction, Mr. Seyedin said.

"You really have to educate smokers to get them to understand why they smoke, why they want to quit and what is involved," he said. "Once they know that, they'll be able to quit correctly."

The second step is giving people appropriate tools to wean themselves from smoking, such as writing down their addictive behaviors and smoking patterns, then following a schedule and only smoking at pre-set intervals.

The third step consists of providing appropriate support and encouragement, Mr. Seyedin said.

"One of the most important things that we've learned is that when smokers are trying to quit, they want support," he said. "They want the support of a professional, and they want to be able to call somebody and talk when they need to get over a craving. We even have a six-week e-mail system where a professional smoking cessation expert sends them a daily e-mail to remind them, support them and encourage them to keep going."

As for future plans, Mr. Seyedin hopes that his work with the organization will simply be a starting point.

"I want to start a fire that will carry on by itself, just like the Red Cross or American Heart Association," he said. "We need that. But in the meantime, if we can get one out of 100 people to really quit smoking, that is a miracle."

The June 6 seminar is open to everyone, and Mr. Seyedin encouraged family or friends of smokers to attend.

"We really want our loved ones to get involved, because too often, nonsmokers have more interest in quitting than the smokers," he said. "They don't want to inhale secondhand smoke. We all have to pitch in to help, and we feel that if we can educate the (smoker's) loved ones, we have a better chance of being successful."

There is a $10 donation for the seminar, and seating is limited. For more information or to sign up, call (561) 844-5856
or go to www.SmokeFreeSociety.org.

For more information on quitting techniques and free download of its "Proven Stop Smoking Technique" (a $40.00 value) the entire month of June, go to its website at www.SmokeFreeSociety.org.

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