A Short History of Smoking

Smoking is dangerous to your health.

That alone  is a most popular pop culture cum warning cum advertisement precaution in the last century. And probably will span another century with how things are going. Cigarette smoking – in whatever form and face, whether its a high-end rolled, chilled, premium tobacco blend to the measly street cigarette sticks – is a life threat which has a list of adverse health effects spanning the length of an entire college thesis. While popular solutions to smoking, such as complete abandon and gradual cessation exists, those with a more severe case of addiction has to resort to other alternative treatments such as rehabilitation and indulging in some forms of healing yogas and/or a hypnosis product.

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Where and when did smoking came to be?

A brief history

Smoking is suspected to have started way way back 5000 BC, and is believed to be a part of shamanistic rituals. These rituals requires an altered state to experience a “transcendental reaction” and smoking substances which induces these kind of reactions are the gateway to achieve the process.

Incense burning by ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians, Chinese, Romans and new-world America may have been the forefront of smoking. While the first presence of smoking was strictly used only for ritualistic activities, the practice may have gone down to becoming a social tool in expression and indulging – a part of social awakening alongside the prevalence of gladiators in Rome, orgies by the Greek and sexual proclivities by the Persians.

Another face of that history was the usage of incense and fumigation as part of healing procedures done mostly on patients who need operations. The presence of incense-healing sticks dates back at least 2000 years ago, and Aztec women are believed to be offered with smoking pipes and flowers before partaking on a feast.

Today, smoking is purely a social and pleasure tool – immortalised in media through various depictions in magazines, movies and the news. While its health card may certainly not be the cleanest, it's viability card is plenty enough to spawn many multi-national brands competing for market domination.

As a respite, modern regulations on tobacco smoking have been internationally mandated, and cigarette product boxes are mandated to show pictures of health consequences alongside the regular packaging. This, with the ever-increasing alternative solutions to quit the practice, for example, hypnosis for weight loss and smoking, paints a brighter picture of how smoking will be on the next century.