The 48-Hour Alcohol Reset - 2 Free Chapters Audio Version

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The 48-Hour Reset Promise

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Why is it so hard to stop drinking alcohol and reset your relationship with it? This is a question I've been asking myself for the past 17 years. In my quest to find the answer, I've invested over$100,000, spent over 10,000 hours experimenting, and in the process almost drank myself to death. Thank God I found the answer before it was too late. Was it worth it? I hope so. My life has certainly changed forever. But you're probably more interested in whether my discovery will help you. And you're probably wondering something else. Is this going to be a long, drawn-out process, or can it really be a 48-hour alcohol reset? Think of it like this. If you're trying to solve a complex puzzle and you're missing the final piece, you could stare at it for 10 years and never finish. But the moment somebody hands you the final piece, the puzzle is completed instantly. That's what the 48-hour alcohol reset is. It's the final piece in the puzzle. Because what I've found hasn't just worked for me. It's worked for tens of thousands of people from every walk of life. Many of whom went from decades of struggling to feeling no desire to drink in less than 48 hours. Some were light drinkers, having a glass of wine or two after work. Some were heavy drinkers, often drinking daily for years. Others were binge drinkers, having huge blowouts every weekend. Whatever stage they were at, the results have been the same. You can also watch their full video case study interviews to hear about the reset in their own words inside of the vault. You can access the vault at soberclear.com forward slash the vault or scan the QR code on the screen right now for fast and easy access. So how did they do it? How did they go from struggling to feeling no desire to drink? Well, my discovery led me to develop the SoberClear system. It's a new, easy-to-use system designed to help people like you get control of their drinking quickly. Until the release of this book, the information was only available through my live coaching program, and working with me there is a substantial investment. However, everything you need is in these pages. I have spent thousands of hours coaching clients and have now distilled everything into a format that you can work through on your own. If you want additional support, accountability, and faster implementation, then you can scan the QR code on the screen now to apply for coaching. Now, through developing the Soberclear system, I've watched people from all walks of life break free from the power alcohol had over them. I've helped people take control of their health, rebuild fractured relationships with loved ones, and ultimately live happier lives. I'm not asking you to take all of this at face value because this is backed by science. The Soberclear system has been validated by an academic psychologist who was previously affiliated with the University of Oxford. In our life coaching program, where we work through this exact system, the pilot cohort achieved a 96% client-rated success rate, and participants have achieved long-term results over three years of sobriety in as little as 48 hours of immersion. Now I can't promise that this will work for you, but what if it does? Like the great Alan Carr said, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So where did all this come from? Well, before I could help a single person, I began this journey as the one who needed help. For almost 10 years I drank. Sometimes I'd drink every single day for months. Sometimes I'd binge drink and destroy my entire life. And every so often I'd manage to stop life. And my drinking was a giant roller coaster. I knew that alcohol was the one thing that was slowing me down and holding me back from reaching my potential. I had always wanted to change, but desire and following through didn't seem to pair very well. So I tried everything. I listened to the people around me. Drink less. Just set limits, one person told me. You need more willpower, just force yourself not to drink, said another. Go to AA. Maybe you're an alcoholic, said another person. Naturally, I tried it all. I tried stopping with willpower alone. I tried Alcoholics Anonymous, saying, My name's Leon and I'm an alcoholic. I tried setting rules about when and how much I could drink. Sometimes these methods worked for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, but I'd always end up drinking again. Often even more than before I'd tried to quit. So I started looking elsewhere. When I was 20, I quit smoking cigarettes with Alan Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. It worked brilliantly. So when I needed to quit drinking, it made perfect sense to read his Stop Drinking book. It was helpful. The logic made sense, and yet I kept drinking. Next, I read the best-selling books. I went to Amazon and devoured everything I could find. There were some good books with solid frameworks that helped me understand the problem. But understanding the problem and solving it are two different things. The dots weren't connecting. Intellectually, I got it, but the desire to drink remained. And then in 2018, something finally shifted. I went from obsessing about alcohol for nearly a decade to being in complete control. There were no cravings, and for the first time in my life, I felt free. I wasn't using willpower. I wasn't resisting temptation. I just stopped wanting it. It was a rush. Like I had placed the final piece in a jigsaw puzzle that I'd been staring at for a decade. As soon as that final piece clicked into place, I never looked back. I couldn't keep this new mindset to myself forever. When I reached the one year mark, I posted a video on YouTube, and to my surprise, people loved the message. I decided to put my worldview and mindset into a series of videos. If I could help just a single person to quit drinking, I knew it would all be worthwhile. I still remember the first person, Alan, who finished watching the videos. Nothing was getting through to him. The videos, however, did. He watched them over two days, and I'll never forget receiving a Facebook message from him. What the Leon? I have no idea how you did it, but I have no desire to drink. I showed my wife the message. We couldn't believe it. He said he was so amazed that he would be more than happy to record a video of what happened. In his video, he poured out some expensive bottles of liquor and said he was done. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I used to be a personal trainer, so I was used to helping people make massive transformations. But this hit differently. It felt deeper, it felt much closer to my heart. This may sound like woo-woo, but it lit a spark inside of me. I almost felt like something else was guiding me. God, the universe, whatever you want to call it. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this had the potential to change millions of people's lives. The moment I received Alan's videos, I made a big life decision. I quit my freelance writing career and went all in on this new line of work. I created my coaching company, Soberclear, started publishing content online and have now generated over 100 million views. My pain became my purpose. And I don't take it for granted that you're spending your time reading this book. But this book isn't about me. I didn't write it for me. I wrote it for you. I live my life by a straightforward philosophy. As Zig Ziggler said, you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. Now, I can't guarantee that this will happen to you. I'm not a magician and every person starts their journey from a different position. But most people I've introduced the soberclear system to have found success and they found it fast. So the odds are in your favour. But here's what you need to understand before we go any further. This is not another quick drinking book, nor is it about using willpower and resisting the urge. And it's certainly not about calling yourself an alcoholic or going to meetings for the rest of your life. This is different. The Soberclair system is built on a mental model known as first principles thinking. We're going to use first principles thinking to dismantle every belief that you have about alcohol. We're going to expose the conditioning, the manipulation, and the illusions that make you think that you need alcohol in the first place. And remember, the goal of this book isn't to become sober, it's to become sober clear. It's about entering a completely different state of mind. Being sober clear means that you have the choice. If you want to continue drinking after you finish the book, that's up to you, though I suspect that you won't. But you'll be able to make a logical, informed decision rather than just going along with the status quo. So before we begin, I want you to make a simple commitment to yourself. Read this book from cover to cover, in order, without skipping any parts. To get the full effect of the reset, I do recommend completing it within the next 48 hours. The hardest part with a book like this is simply starting to read it. So immerse yourself and ride the momentum that you've already picked up. It's not easy to read. The content will bring up emotions, resistance, discomfort. Part of you will want to put it down. Your conditioning built over decades will fight back. But if you can rise above those feelings and keep reading, everything will change. Can you make that commitment? If yes, turn the page. We're about to flip that off switch together. Read this book from cover to cover, in order, without skipping any parts. Complete this book within the next 48 hours. The hardest part with a book like this is starting to read it. Immerse yourself and ride the momentum you've already picked up. Stay open to the discomfort. Your conditioning, built over decades, will fight back. If you can rise above the resistance, everything will change. Guided support options. While this book contains the complete SoberClear system, you may prefer the speed, accountability, and personalized guidance that come with working directly with me and my co-coaches. If you're ready to apply, head over to soberclear.com forward slash apply now or scan the QR code for fast, easy access. If you've enjoyed this book, you can get the full copy on Amazon. It's available as a Kindle, a paperback, and a hardback. Either go to Amazon and search the 48 hour alcohol reset, or you can scan the QR code on the screen now, or you can click the link in the description. You'll be able to purchase the book and read the whole thing. I recommend doing it now. Don't put it off, you've got so much momentum by making it this far into the video that the quicker that you can finish this book, the better. And once you've successfully read the book, make sure to email me at leon at soberclear.com. I will respond to every single person who sends me an email. Congratulations on making it this far, and I'll look forward to sharing the rest of it with you in the book. Who am I? Why should you read this book? Before I tell you more of my story, I need to be honest with you. Your situation may not look like mine. Your drinking story may be completely different. You may never have done the things that I did, or you may have done something worse. You may drink less or more or in totally different circumstances. But here's why my story matters. Not because we are the same, but because the trap is the same. The mechanism that keeps you drinking, the beliefs, the rationalizations, the cycle, is identical whether you're a daily drinker or a weekend binger. Whether you hide bottles or drink openly. Whether you've lost everything or consider yourself high functioning. Think of it like a computer virus. It doesn't care if it's running on a$5,000 state-of-the-art PC or a$200 Chromebook. The code is the same and it causes the same system failure. And once you understand how I escaped the virus of alcohol, you'll see precisely how to escape it yourself. Cardiff, spring of 2017. It started with a blackout. I woke up unsure of how I got home. My laptop was open on my bed, covered in a brownish substance. I searched for brown vomit on Google with trembling hands. At first I thought it was food. Then I realized I had vomited coagulated blood all over my MacBook Pro. The laptop was destroyed, but worse, I'd done something seriously damaging to my body. That day I quit drinking. I had no choice. The fear was too real. Every time I wanted a drink, I'd remember that morning, the terror and the blood. This worked for eight months. I stayed sober and felt great. I built a successful personal training business that generated thousands of dollars per month. My confidence came back, my clarity returned, and I thought I'd finally cracked the code. That lasted until New Year's Eve. I spent it in a private members' club in London. I declined the first glass of champagne easily, but the whispers started. Just one drink. You've done the hard part. You have nothing to lose. Surely you can handle one glass. That night I drank, and to my surprise, nothing bad happened. I woke up slightly hungover, but generally felt fine. I got home and my business was still intact. A few days later, I had a beer with a friend and things were still fine. The following weekend it was the same. A few beers and no issues. I finally got it under control, I thought. A couple of weekends later, I decided to go on a night out, and I got drunk. And slowly but surely I started drinking more and more and more. At some point I realized something. Even a health scare that made me vomit blood couldn't keep me sober. Even eight months of sobriety couldn't break the cycle. The trap was stronger than fear, stronger than willpower, stronger than logic. Then in 2018, I made my discovery, and I haven't wanted a drink since. And my discovery can work for you as well. In the live soberclair coaching program, some of my clients are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They can afford any treatment. Some of them have spent$150,000 on luxury rehabs for three months and paid cash. Yet they still choose to use the Soberclair system because they know it's the missing piece in the puzzle. The system doesn't care if you're drinking wine every night or if you're blacking out on weekends. It doesn't care if you hide your drinking or if everyone knows. It doesn't care if this is your first attempt or your hundredth. It works because it attacks the root cause, the beliefs that make you want alcohol in the first place. Once I fixed the beliefs, the fight didn't end. It stopped existing. Why this works when everything else doesn't. You may have tried other methods before and been disappointed. That's completely understandable. But here's why the soberclear system is different. Every other method out there tries to help you fight alcohol. AA teaches you to resist temptation one day at a time. Willpower tells you to be strong and push through the cravings. Moderation suggests limiting yourself to two drinks and hoping for the best. The Sobaclear system does the exact opposite. It removes the fight. It won't teach you how to resist alcohol. Instead, it will show you why there's nothing to resist. Every false benefit that you think alcohol provides, relaxation, confidence, stress relief, connection, will be systematically dismantled. When you truly see that alcohol gives you nothing, the desire to consume it disappears. How many times in your life have you resisted drinking gasoline? Never, right? Because you don't want to drink gasoline. You have no desire to, so there's nothing to resist. You see it for what it is, a toxic substance that would destroy your body, so the temptation never appears. Now imagine your friends started a trend. They started mixing 5% gasoline with soda and drinking it. They told you it was fun and relaxing and that it made them more confident. They posted about it on social media. Then celebrities started endorsing it. Companies started spending billions advertising it. Would you feel tempted? Would you feel that you were missing out by not participating? Of course not. You'd see through the nonsense and know that it's just poison with attractive marketing. By the time you finish this book, that's how you'll approach alcohol. Instead of saying, I can't drink, you'll naturally say, Why would I? Why this book and not another? There are already hundreds of books on quitting drinking, good ones. Some of the best-selling books come from authors including Alan Carr, Annie Grace, and William Porter. I've read more of these books than I can count, and I've tried to put their lessons into practice. So why did I write another one? Because while these books helped me understand the problem, they weren't enough. Four critical things were missing. 1. The updated reality. Things have changed. Since all these books were written, hundreds of billions more dollars have been spent conditioning you. The manipulation has evolved, and the defense needs to as well. 2. The reasons for failure. This book systematically shows you why AA doesn't work, why willpower always runs out, why moderation is impossible, and why you've been fighting the wrong battle. Once you understand why every other method fails, you'll stop wasting energy on approaches that can't work. 3. The physical science. Understanding the mental trap isn't enough when you don't know what alcohol is doing to you physically. Going deeper and applying first principles thinking to this problem makes the solution seem obvious. 4. The emotional shift. Other books give you intellectual understanding. Yes, alcohol is poison, I get it. But intellectual understanding doesn't change emotional desire. This book bridges that gap. It shows you how to take what you understand logically and make it feel true emotionally. That's when the desire vanishes. How to use this book. Through working with people in the Soberclay Coaching Program, I've identified exactly what separates those who succeed from those who don't. So please pay close attention. There are five common mistakes that will undermine the system's effectiveness. Mistake number one, skipping ahead. The Soberclay system is designed to be read in order. Each chapter builds on the last. Each insight unlocks the next. If you skip ahead, you'll miss the context that makes everything click. Read it straight through and the reframe happens naturally. Mistake number two, reading while drinking. You need a clear head to see clearly. Read this when you're sober, focused, and can process what's being said. I'm not telling you to quit drinking right now, but if you read this drunk, it won't work. Mistake number three, thinking you already know this. You may recognize some ideas along the way. That's fine. But if you read through the lens of I've heard this before, you're already setting yourself up for failure. Approach this book like a fresh start. Let yourself be surprised by the content. This is particularly important during part four, the internal reframing. During that section, I'll repeat some key ideas. Don't use this as an excuse to stop reading. It's intentional and is a crucial component of the deconditioning process. Mistake number four. At some point, this book will challenge you. You'll feel resistance, doubt, maybe even anger. Usually, this is the moment when you're on the verge of a breakthrough. When it becomes uncomfortable, remember that that is the moment your brain begins to rewire itself. Push through. Those who succeed are those who finish. Mistake number five. Forgetting why you started. You picked up this book for a reason. Maybe it was your health, your relationships, your future, or just your self-respect. Whatever the reason, keep it in mind. When things get tough, go back to it. Remember why this matters. What to expect? The book works through five sequential parts, each building on the last. Part 1. The problem. First, we'll deconstruct the problem. You'll see precisely how you got here. Not through some character flaw or weakness, but through a carefully engineered system of manipulation. In this part, you'll learn how the alcohol industry spends billions conditioning you to believe that drinking is normal, fun, and harmless. You'll discover why your brain chemistry makes alcohol feel like a solution when it's actually the problem. And you'll see how society programs you from childhood to see alcohol as a reward, not a drug. By the end of part one, you'll understand what's happening to you better than most experts.

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Crucially, you'll stop blaming yourself. Part two, the solution.

The Vault And Support Options

Nobody Is Born Wanting Alcohol

Social Pressure Runs The Script

How Big Alcohol Won

Cancer Risk And Bought Research

Sport Sponsorship And Sweet Alcohol

Lobbying And Narrative Control

Learning To See The Scam

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Next, we'll expose why popular solutions don't work. AA, willpower, moderation, medication. These methods fail most people. Not because they are flawed, but because the methods are. You'll discover why AA's success rate is no better than doing nothing and why they don't publish their data. You'll learn why willpower always runs out, why fighting desire is a losing battle, and how rehab centers, treatment programs, and pharmaceutical companies profit from keeping you stuck in lifelong recovery. By the end of part two, you'll understand why it's so hard to stop by using these methods. I'll also show you why you're not an alcoholic. You'll see that the label is a trap. You'll see how there's nothing wrong with you. You just need a different approach. Parts 3 and 4. The reframe. This is where everything changes. We'll use first principles thinking to rebuild your entire understanding of alcohol from the ground up. We'll strip away every assumption, cultural myth, and false belief and replace them with logic. First, there's the external reframe. You'll learn what alcohol does to your body, the science that you should have learned in school but didn't, and how it affects your brains, organs, sleep, and emotions. We'll examine the raw truth with no marketing spin. Once we've done this, we'll tackle the internal reframe. You'll discover the beliefs keeping you trapped, the lies you've been told, and the illusions that make you think that you need alcohol. We'll dismantle them systematically, one by one. By the end of parts three and four, the desire to drink will evaporate. You won't be resisting temptation. You won't be staying strong. You'll see alcohol for what it is a poisonous carcinogen, and you won't want it anymore. You'll become sober clear. Part 5, Sober Clear Living. Finally, we'll talk about what comes next. Not recovery, not sobriety, but freedom. In this final section, we'll cover what happens to your health, energy, and clarity in the first days, weeks, and months after stepping away from alcohol. We'll look at how your personal life transforms from rebuilding relationships, confidence and trust, as well as practical steps to handle social situations without feeling any sense of awkwardness or discomfort. We'll discuss what to do with all the time, money, and mental space that you'll get back when you aren't enslaved by big alcohol and how to find purpose and direction now that alcohol isn't stealing your potential. With this method, you won't spend your life avoiding bars or struggling through parties. Alcohol will be in your rearview mirror from day one. You'll be free to live fully, show up completely and thrive in ways that you didn't think were possible. The Promise. By the end of this book, one of two things will happen. One, you'll stop drinking without willpower, without cravings, and without feeling like you're giving anything up. Or two, you'll realize you never actually wanted to stop in the first place. In which case, you can close this book guilt-free and carry on. But if you're still reading, I have a pretty good idea of which one it will be. Access the SoberClear Vault. To help you navigate this book and execute your reset, I've prepared a collection of digital resources, cheat sheets, and implementation guides. These are designed to be used while you read to help the system's logic stick. Inside the vault, you'll find case studies. Dozens of case studies of people who have already achieved success with the SoberClear system. Chapter summaries, printable and downloadable summaries of all chapters, helping you quickly refresh your understanding. Quotes, a collection of printable quotes that you can stick up in your office to remind you of the key ideas, cheat sheets, downloadable cheat sheets to help with cravings, socializing, and inner language, as well as many other things. You can access the vault at soberclid.com forward slash the vault or scan the QR code on the screen now for fast, easy access. Part one. The problem. Chapter 1. A drinker's born or made. The birth of a drinker. Nobody is born wanting alcohol. Think about that for a moment. There's not a single person on earth who came into this world craving a drink. No baby ever looked at a bottle of whiskey and thought, I need that. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Every human's first experience with alcohol is the same. Disgust. Can you remember yours? Did it taste good the first time a spirit burned your mouth? Or that first sip of wine? I certainly can. I was convinced that everyone telling me that they liked it was lying. Your body knows immediately that alcohol is poison. Your taste buds revolt, your throat burns, your stomach rejects it. Your body tries to protect you from a toxic, poisonous substance. So here's the question. If everyone starts out hating alcohol, how do billions of people end up drinking it? How do we go from gagging on our first sip to craving it daily? Put simply, you were conditioned. And that conditioning started long before you ever took your first drink. This chapter will show you exactly how it happened. I need to warn you that the purpose of this chapter isn't to make you feel like a victim, but to show you the trap. Because once you see how the conditioning works, you can't unsee it. And that is the first step to freedom. The conditioning machine. Before we ever taste alcohol, we're taught what it means. Think back to your childhood. How many times did you see adults with drinks in their hands? At family gatherings, on TV shows, in movies, at restaurants. The message was everywhere. Drinking is normal. It's what adults do, it's how you celebrate, it's how you relax, it's how you have fun. Psychologists have a term for these beliefs, alcohol expectancies. You may have never heard of this term, but alcohol expectancies are the foundation of the trillion-dollar alcohol industry. They are beliefs like drinking makes me confident, alcohol helps me relax, alcohol helps me connect with people, and so on. Crucially, these beliefs form before you ever drink. Decades of research have shown that alcohol expectancies develop early in life, well before the first drink. In fact, children as young as 10 years old have already begun to form positive associations with alcohol, believing it's fun, social, or grown up long before they take their first sip. Across multiple studies in children, researchers found that positive alcohol expectancies increase with age, while negative ones, such as alcohol makes people sick or alcohol leads to trouble, tend to fade. By adolescence, alcohol expectancies shift from primarily negative to primarily positive. This shift predicts who starts drinking early and who later develops problematic use. Exposure plays a massive role too. Kids don't need to drink to learn what alcohol means because they've already absorbed that lesson from the world around, from parents, peers, advertising and media. Seeing adults use alcohol to unwind after work or watching characters toast in movies reinforces the idea that alcohol equals reward. While children remain oblivious to the formation of these expectancies, the trillion-dollar alcohol industry exploits them. It spends tens of billions of dollars annually to create positive associations with its product. The industry can't advertise the truth. Drink this cancer-causing toxin that will damage your liver, destroy your sleep, increase your anxiety, and potentially ruin your relationships. So, instead, it engineers expectancies. It pairs alcohol with everything you already want: success, confidence, romance, adventure, belonging, relaxation, status. You see alcohol at celebrations, weddings, sports victories, and romantic dinners. You see it on yachts, at the beach, and in mountain lodges. You even see it in the hands of your fictional heroes like James Bond sipping on a martini. Everywhere you look, alcohol is paired with the good life. Watch any alcohol commercial and look carefully. Notice what they're actually selling. It's never about the product itself, it's about the lifestyle, the feeling, the identity. Beer commercials show a group of attractive friends laughing at a beach. The message, beer creates friendship and fun. Wine commercials show elegant women at sunset, candles glowing. The message, wine creates sophistication and romance. Whiskey commercials show successful men in tailored suits appearing confident and assertive. The message, whiskey creates status and strength. None of these messages are about the drink itself. They're about the expectancies, and they work. Researchers have found that the more young people are exposed to these advertisements, the more their future alcohol consumption increases. This is a multi-billion dollar propaganda campaign designed to make drinking seem inevitable. And it begins targeting you before you can even read. By the time you're old enough to drink, you've already been exposed to thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of positive alcohol messages. Your brain has been primed, and the alcohol expectancies are embedded. You believe, without ever questioning it, that alcohol will give you something valuable. This is one of the most sinister traps in the modern world. These beliefs were installed in you systematically from childhood. Every commercial, every movie scene, every family toast reinforced them, and layer after layer, year after year, the conditioning became invisible until you thought these beliefs were your own. When you finally took that first drink, even though it tasted disgusting, you pushed past the disgust because you believed the lie. You believed that alcohol would make you confident, fun, relaxed, grown up, and part of the club. How it happened to me. I remember how it all started. In my teenage years, my best friend Richard and I found his parents' liquor cabinet. We tried everything, and it was all disgusting. I gagged trying to swallow mini shots of vodka. But here's where the conditioning kicked in. Richard said he liked it. I knew he was lying. I could see it in his face, but I couldn't show weakness. I had to keep up. When I found a black currant liqueur that was sweet enough to mask the bitter, poisonous taste, I told him, this is nice. I said it proudly, as if I'd accomplished something, like I was finally part of the club. Deep down, I knew I was lying. But the lie mattered less than Richard's approval, less than feeling like I belonged, and less than proving I wasn't a kid anymore. Before long, I discovered what happened when I drank more. I remember the first time I drank cider with a girl that I thought was way out of my league. That was my first time catching a buzz. The alcohol gave me this newfound bravado. I wasn't nervous anymore. I could talk to her without my usual awkwardness. I still hated the taste, but that mattered less and less. The feeling it gave me, or what I thought it gave me, started to outweigh everything else. I finally started feeling like I belonged, like I was one of the adults. Growing up, I never felt like I truly fitted in with other people. I wasn't a star athlete or a popular kid. I'd craved that feeling of belonging for so long, and alcohol seemed to give me a slice of it. The drinks I once couldn't stand quickly became tolerable, then familiar. Soon I'd convinced myself I liked them. That shift happened so subtly I didn't even notice it. But looking back, it was obvious. The taste hadn't changed. My perception had. There was pride in pretending I enjoyed alcohol. I got approval from my peers, a nod from a friend, a moment of shared rebellion. I felt like I was part of a club. That illusion mattered more to me than honesty. So I learned to fake it. When I turned 18, the legal drinking age in England, I felt like I'd finally crossed some threshold into adulthood. I could legally order a pint, a man's drink, pubs, bars, and nightclubs would let me in. No more asking older friends to buy alcohol for me. I remember holding that first legal beer in my hand, feeling like I'd finally made it, like I was really one of the adults now. And then, at some point I can't pinpoint, I forgot that I was faking it. I have no idea when I crossed the line from feeling indifferent about drinking to wanting it. But by the time I realized I was in trouble, I'd already built a pattern around it, and society had taught me that pattern was perfectly normal. Over time the drinking increased, and looking back, nothing dramatic announced the shift from casual drinking to losing control. It was more like watching a snowball roll downhill. One beer became two, two became four, a four-pack became a case. Each new milestone in my adult life was marked by alcohol. Turning 18, joining a fraternity in Florida during my exchange semester, moving to London after graduating. Every transition point had alcohol waiting at the center of it. Every emotional state, celebration, stress, boredom, grief, had alcohol as the default response. And I never once questioned why. I thought I was choosing to drink. I believed I was in control and was exercising a choice. But the truth is, I was walking a path that had been carefully laid out for me long before I was old enough to understand what was happening. The emotional hooks, the rituals, the timing, the social pressure, it was all part of how alcohol gets anchored into our brains and behavior. When I finally understood this, two critical mind shifts happened. One, I realized I wasn't alone. Everyone who drinks fell into the same trap. And two, I realized it wasn't my fault. And this isn't your fault either. The social trap. We'll go deeper into big alcohol and the tricks they play shortly, but there's another factor to all of this that multiplies the effect of alcohol expectancies. If your drinking were a building, three forces built it. The media laid the foundations, advertising stacked the bricks, and the people we love furnished it and made it feel like a home. Think about someone who's never tried alcohol. They're not watching Leonardo DiCaprio in the Great Gatsby raise a drink and immediately think, huh, I'll make my own cocktail at home and drink alone tonight. That's not how it works. Instead, alcohol enters our lives through the people around us. Usually it's the people we're closest to, our parents, siblings, and best friends. These people offer it to us, not because they're bad people, but because they're just as conditioned as everyone else. This is how I experienced my first taste of alcohol. It's one of those distant memories, you're unsure if it's even real, but it's one I think many people can relate to. I was three or four. My dad let me dip my finger into his Guinness, grinning with pride at his little boy acting like a man. Guinness isn't a drink, it's food. Used to be his trademark slogan. I honestly think he believed it. As I grew older, the people I was closest to were the ones I drank with first. The same friends and family who would warn me against taking drugs were completely silent when we opened beers together. Nobody warned me of the potential dangers. Nobody said there's a chance you'll develop a problem with this. Nobody mentioned that it's an addictive substance that ruins millions of lives every year. Instead, it felt totally normal. As I got older, alcohol was linked to everything: college socials, work events, celebrations. Alcohol was already there, waiting. Nobody needed to suggest it. We all just went along with it because that's what everybody did. That's the multiplying effect of conditioning. The media teaches us what drinking means. However, our social circles ensure we live it. Our social circles reinforce the idea that consuming poison is a good idea. It becomes how people belong. The science they don't show. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam analyzed the drinking patterns of thousands of adults. They found that people mirror the drinking patterns of their closest ties. Moderate drinkers who spend time with heavy drinking friends steadily increase their own intake. On the other hand, when spending time with non-drinkers, they drank less. Why does this matter? Because your drinking isn't just about you, it's also about who you're with. The science here isn't new. In a classic experiment from 1975, psychologists Brian Cordill and Alan Marlett seated volunteers with another person, an actor working for the researchers, who drank either heavily or lightly. When the actor drank heavily, the real participants automatically drank more even though nobody told them to. When the actor drank less, or when no actor was present, participants consumed less. This experiment demonstrated a critical finding. People unconsciously match others' drinking behavior in social settings. Psychologists call this social modeling, and it happens completely outside of your conscious awareness. You're not thinking, that person is drinking heavily, so I should too. Your brain does it automatically. Deborah Prentiss and Dale Miller at Princeton University discovered something even more disturbing on college campuses in the 1990s. They asked students privately how they felt about drinking. Many admitted they were uncomfortable with how people drank at parties. They didn't enjoy it as much as they pretended to. The key twist, however, was that those same students believed the others thought heavy drinking was acceptable. They thought they were the only ones with doubts. So, because they didn't want to be the odd ones out, they started drinking more to match what they thought was normal. This was especially true of the male students. Over time, their attitudes and drinking habits drifted towards this imagined standard. In psychology, this is called pluralistic ignorance, when everyone silently disagrees with the norm but goes along with it anyway, believing they're alone in their doubts. The same phenomenon happens outside college campuses. In offices, at weddings, at family gatherings, and at dinner parties. People routinely overestimate how much their peers enjoy drinking. So they keep pouring another glass to keep up with a crowd that isn't nearly as thirsty as they think. This is how the trap captures us completely. Drinking stops being a decision, it becomes a social reflex, you don't even have to like it, you don't even have to want it. You do it because everyone else is doing it, and no one wants to be the odd one out. No one wants to be the person who must justify themselves, nobody wants to face the questions, the pressure, the subtle disapproval. So you drink and the cycle continues. Why this matters. Here's what I need you to take away from this chapter. You didn't choose to want alcohol. You were conditioned to want it. From childhood, you were exposed to billions of dollars worth of propaganda designed to make you believe alcohol gives you something valuable. Then it was reinforced by those around you. The conditioning was so thorough and pervasive that it became invisible. Before you'd even taken your first drink, the trap was already set. Once you started drinking, your brain created new associations. Alcohol became linked to every good memory, every celebration, every moment of connection. Alcohol didn't cause those things. It was just there when they happened. Your brain innocently attributed the good feelings to the drug when, in reality, the drug was stealing you from those moments. That's why quitting feels so hard. You're not only fighting a chemical addiction, you're fighting decades of conditioning, layers upon layers of false beliefs that alcohol adds something to your life. The good news is that this conditioning can be undone. Once you see how the trap works, you can't unsee it. Once you understand that every benefit that you think alcohol provides is an illusion created by expectancies, social pressure, and marketing, the illusion starts to crumble. This is what the sober clear system does. It systematically dismantles every false belief, every conditioned expectancy, every lie you've ever been told about what alcohol does for you. When those beliefs fall away, so does the desire. The fog will lift, and for the first time, you'll see alcohol for what it really is. A toxin with good marketing, a drug that takes everything and gives nothing, and a product designed to trap you. That's the transformation thousands of people have already experienced. And it starts right here with understanding that none of this was your fault. You fell into a trap that was meticulously designed to catch you, a trap built over decades, funded by billions of dollars. What you need to be clear on. You're not weak, you're not broken, you're not an alcoholic beyond fixing. You're a normal person who was conditioned from childhood to believe a lie. But now we're going to show you the truth. And once you see it, you'll be free. Before moving to the next chapter, take a few minutes to identify your own conditioning. Think back to your first memories of alcohol. Think back to when you first noticed it. Not when you first drank it. Write down any childhood memories where alcohol was presented as normal, fun, or celebratory. Who was drinking? What was the context? What message did you absorb? Identify your alcohol expectancies. What do you believe alcohol gives you? Relaxation? Confidence? Fun? Connection? Stress relief? Write them all down. Be honest. These are the beliefs that we will systematically dismantle throughout this book. Notice the social pressure in your life. Who are the people you drink with most often? What would they say if you stopped? How much of your drinking is about wanting alcohol versus not wanting to be different? Please write it down and be honest. This stage isn't designed to make you feel bad or judged, but to make you aware of the system around you. The trap only works when you can't see it. But once you do, you'll find the power to break free. Let's keep going. Free GIF Conditioning Identifier Worksheet. If you want a printable version of the conditioning prompts from this chapter with space to write and a few extra questions to uncover hidden conditioning, I've included a worksheet for you. You can access the vault at soberclear.com forward slash the vault or scan the QR code for fast, easy access. Chapter 2. How big alcohol won. Wanna hear something insane? The alcohol industry spent$7.7 billion on advertising in 2021 alone. That's roughly$21 million per day every single day. All of it is designed to keep you drinking and it works. Most people who try to control their drinking blame themselves. They think it's because they lack sufficient willpower and that they're weak and lack self-control. The reality is that a multi-trillion dollar industry has been systematically engineering your addiction. You have been set up to fail. For years I thought my drinking problem was my fault due to my weakness and lack of discipline. Everyone else seemed to be in control. Everyone except me. It wasn't until I started researching the industry that I realized I'd been manipulated from the beginning. Every belief I had about alcohol, every reason I drank, had been carefully planted in my mind by an industry that profits from addiction. This chapter will show you exactly how they did it. Not to make you angry, though you may well be, not to make you feel like a Victim, because you're not. But to show you that what you think is a personal problem is a designed outcome, a predictable result of a system built to profit from your suffering. But first, let's look at where they learned their tactics. It all starts with big tobacco. The lesson from Big Tobacco. In the 1960s, big tobacco was destroyed. Scientists proved that cigarette smoking causes cancer. The evidence was undeniable. Smoking leads directly to lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and death. The research was published in the British Medical Journal in 1954, and by 1964, the US Surgeon General had reviewed over 7,000 studies and issued a 387-page report with an unequivocal conclusion smoking kills. Governments responded with force. They did it all. Advertising bans, massive tax increases, mandatory warning labels, graphic images of diseased lungs on cigarette packs, public health campaigns that made smoking socially toxic. The results were devastating for the industry. Smoking rates collapsed from 42% of American adults in 1965 to around 11% today. Smokers were pushed outside into the cult. Cigarettes went from glamorous to disgusting in a single generation. But here's what everyone missed. While public health figures were celebrating, big alcohol was watching. They watched diligently and they learned. Internal documents, now made public, proved that alcohol executives studied big tobacco's downfall carefully. They analyzed every mistake, every vulnerability, every regulatory move that destroyed their sister industry, and they vowed never to let it happen to them. So they built a strategy, a multi-decade plan to avoid big tobacco's fate. And it wasn't just effective, it was flawless. Instead of big alcohol following in the footsteps of big tobacco, the industry exploded. Today, 2.3 billion people drink worldwide. The industry is valued at$1.7 trillion and is projected to reach$3 trillion by 2030. More than half of American adults drink every year. No one calls drinkers disgusting. No one makes them stand outside in the cold. To this day, drinking is socially acceptable. It's expected, celebrated, and normal. How they pulled it off. When it comes to manipulating you, big alcohol uses four primary tactics. Because it's not just effective marketing, it's much more sinister. It all starts with a decades-long campaign built on a straightforward idea. If you can't control your drinking, that's your fault, not theirs. You're the problem, not the highly addictive drug they spend billions convincing you to consume. Tactic number one, blame the victim. Drink responsibly. You've seen it everywhere, on billboards, in commercials, on bottles, and at the bottom of every alcohol ad. Those two words appear so often that they've become invisible. By this point, it's more or less background noise, just part of the landscape. It's one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever created, not in the way you would expect. These campaigns first appeared in the US in the 1970s, initially promoted by well-meaning public health agencies. But it didn't take long for big alcohol to seize control of the message. Today, the industry itself is the primary source of drink responsibly slogans, and they serve two purposes. First, they create the appearance of corporate responsibility. Look at us. We care about your health. We're being responsible. This is just advertising dressed up as concern. More importantly, these campaigns exist to prevent regulation. The message to the government is clear. We're handling it. You don't need to step in with taxes, restrictions, or warning labels. We'll educate the public ourselves, we've got this under control. It should come as no surprise that these campaigns are basically useless. Researchers examined 1,800 alcohol advertisements in magazines. Nearly 90% included some version of drink responsibly messaging. But there was a catch. In 95% of those ads, the message was in a smaller font and less conspicuous than the main product slogan. Often, the print was so tiny you'd have to squint to read it. These messages are everywhere. But do people notice them? And even if people did notice, what would they do with the information? What does drink responsibly even mean? For one person, it may mean one drink. For another, three. For somebody else, it simply means don't drink and drive. There's no universal standard, no guidance, no actual instructions on what responsible drinking looks like or if it even exists. This vagueness is intentional. It allows the message to serve two opposing goals, appear to limit consumption while actually encouraging it. Think about it, they're still telling you to drink a highly addictive poison. Responsibly is open to interpretation. Drink, however, is a command. Another factor with any drink responsibly campaign is what is being left out. They focus on short-term damages. They focus on short-term dangers like drunk driving, accidents, and losing control at a party. Things that you can avoid if you're responsible, but they ignore the slow, silent damage that builds over the years. Have you ever seen a drink responsibly campaign mention cancer, depression, liver disease, divorce, financial ruin, the destruction of relationships? Of course not. These words don't exist in the industry's vocabulary. They can't afford to remind you of those consequences. Instead, they associate drink responsibly with an immediate, achievable goal that is decoupled from any long-term harm. By acknowledging only the harms you can avoid in the short term, alcohol companies hand you a moral loophole. I didn't drink and drive, so I'm drinking responsibly. I got home safe, so everything's fine. It's a psychological trick that keeps you feeling safe and more importantly, keeps you drinking. As Bruce Lee Livingston, former CEO of the non-profit Alcohol Justice put it, big alcohol should stop disguising its alcohol promotion as a public service, and government should stop accepting the drink responsibly charade at face value. But blaming the individuals is just the beginning. Tactic number two. They couldn't let the same thing happen to them. They funded their own research networks. Big alcohol shaped the questions, controlled the narrative, and bought the conclusions they needed. Another one of their genius strategies. Myths like moderate drinking protects your heart, or a glass of red wine keeps the doctor away still circulate widely today. Millions of people genuinely believe a toxic drug is somehow a health supplement, something suitable for you in moderation. But how did they accomplish this? It's simple. Scientists need funding for research. The industry has money. It's a perfect match. First, the people funding the research get to decide what gets studied. Next, they fund sufficient research into the potential benefits of ethanol consumption until eventually the numbers align in the right way. Then they cherry-pick the favorable results and bury the unfavorable ones. Finally, the media picks up the positive story, turns it into a headline, and the myth spreads like wildfire. One of the most controversial examples of this was the moderate alcohol and cardiovascular health trial, a 10-year,$100 million study, two-thirds of which came from five major alcohol companies. The plan was to track 7,800 older adults at a high risk for heart disease, comparing abstainers with those assigned to drink just one drink per day. However, in 2018, the US National Institutes of Health abruptly halted the trial. Investigators uncovered extensive coordination between industry sponsors and study leaders. A working group report concluded the study had been essentially designed to produce a positive result for the industry. For instance, although cardiovascular health was esteemably the primary endpoint, the measurements didn't include heart failure. Convenient, right? The study was also insufficiently powered to detect cancer rates, which is critical because we know the risk increases from the very first drink for certain cancers. But the industry wanted to overlook cancer in favour of promoting cardiovascular health benefits. Ultimately, the trial could barely be considered science. It was marketing disguised as research. The cancer truth they're hiding. All major health organizations, the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, and the American Cancer Society classify alcohol as a group 1 carcinogen. That puts it in the same category as tobacco, asbestos, mustard gas, and even plutonium. Alcohol causes cancer in your mouth, throat voice box, esophagus, colon, rectum, liver, and breasts. For heavy drinkers, the risk of mouth and throat cancer increases by up to 500%. Worldwide, alcohol accounts for 3.6% of all cancers. That is, hundreds of thousands of people, every single year. And yet, despite billions spent on cancer awareness, most people have a limited understanding that alcohol causes cancer. A survey in England asked people to list the health conditions that result from drinking too much alcohol. Only 13% mentioned cancer. When researchers provided a list of diseases, including cancer, and asked directly whether alcohol could cause each one, fewer than half said yes when it came to cancer. Nearly a third said they didn't know, and a quarter flat out denied it. How is that possible? How can something so well documented be so widely unknown? Because big alcohol has spent decades running a disinformation campaign that would make big tobacco jealous. A 2018 analysis uncovered three core tactics the industry uses to keep the public confused about cancer. 1. Deny. Flat out dispute or downplay the evidence. Claim the studies are inconclusive or flawed. 2. Distort. Acknowledge that some risk exists, then completely misrepresent its size or nature. Claim danger only appears in heavy drinkers, even though for certain cancers, risk begins at one drink. Say, we don't yet know how alcohol causes cancer, implying scientific uncertainty where none exists. 3. Distract. Shift the conversation away from alcohol entirely. Talk about genetics, age, pollution, diet, and other carcinogens. Anything to make alcohol sound like a minor detail in a complex picture. Through decades of selective funding, strategic denial, and masterful distraction, big alcohol has successfully erased the link between drinking and cancer from public awareness. It's one of the most successful propaganda campaigns in modern history. If a pesticide had the carcinogenic risk of alcohol, it would require a skull and crossbones label. Alcohol gets away with it, and it's killing people. Tactic number three, target the young. Have you ever noticed how alcohol dominates major sporting events? Beer logos are plastered across stadiums. Whiskey brands sponsor teams. Alcohol companies' names are on jerseys, scoreboards, and broadcasts. It's everywhere you look during a game. I remember watching soccer matches growing up and seeing those logos constantly. I never questioned it. It seemed normal, natural even. Of course beer companies sponsor sports. Why not? I thought to myself. But I never asked what the connection was between elite athletic performance and alcohol. It never occurred to me that there isn't one. Drinking alcohol is one of the best ways to destroy athletic performance. It ruins focus, clarity, coordination, and energy. It impairs recovery. It dehydrates you. It disrupts sleep. No serious athlete would drink before competing. Many won't drink at all during their season. And more and more athletes are coming out as completely sober. So, why would the alcohol industry spend billions of dollars associating its product with sports? In the US alone, alcohol brands spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually to sponsor the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. Between 8% and 10% of these leagues' total sponsorship revenue comes from the alcohol industry. Globally, that figure may be as high as 20%. Scientific research has proven that repeated exposure to alcohol marketing during sporting events has long-lasting effects on consumer behavior. It's one of the best ways of creating alcohol expectancies. People unconsciously associate watching sports, especially their favourite team or player, with drinking. Presenting alcohol alongside health activities like sport also normalizes it. It makes it appear less toxic and more part of a balanced active lifestyle. Research shows a positive association between exposure to alcohol sports sponsorship and increased alcohol consumption amongst adult sports people and schoolchildren. You heard that right. School children. Sports sponsorship allows the industry to bypass restrictions on advertising to minors. In many countries, alcohol advertising is restricted during daytime hours, specifically to protect children. Yet most sporting events are broadcast live during the day. Children watching these games are bombarded with alcohol advertising, setting the stage for their early initiation into drinking. This is why countries such as France have banned alcohol advertising in sports entirely, and others, like Norway and Turkey, have imposed severe restrictions. They saw the manipulation for what it was. However, the rest of the world hasn't exactly followed in their footsteps. If alcohol and sports really had a positive connection, athletes would drink before games. They drink the night before. They talk about how alcohol improves their performance, but they don't because it would destroy their performance. Candy in a can. Something the industry desperately doesn't want you to know is that alcohol, in its pure form, is impossible to drink. Your body knows its poison. When you drink it, your taste buds revolt, your throat burns, and your stomach rejects it. This is your body's defense mechanism screaming at you to stop. When I took those first drinks with Richard, it's no surprise the first drink I could stomach was some blackcurrant liqueur. It was sweet enough to mask the poisonous taste, and I could get it down without embarrassing myself in front of my friend. What I didn't realise is that the alcohol industry wants this to happen. They have built an entire product category around masking the poisonous taste. In the 1980s and 90s, flavoured alcoholic beverages flooded the market. Wine coolers arose in the US, and soon thereafter, AlcoPops arrived in the UK. These products were specifically designed to make the poison palatable for young people who naturally hate the taste of alcohol. What used to be a violent first encounter, throat burn, vomit reflex, and your body screaming no was replaced by something sugary and familiar, something that tasted like soda or juice. From a business perspective, it was masterful. The packaging, pricing, and placement made these drinks as appealing and accessible as soft drinks, especially to teenagers. Within a generation, the average age of a person's first drink fell by nearly two years. Today, most underage drinking still comes from these same sugary flavoured products. The strategy was clear. One, mask the poison. Two, make it taste good. Three, hook them young. Once the taste barrier is gone, the rest is easy. First come the sweet drinks, then the beers, then the spirits. And just like that, another lifelong customer is created. That's precisely what happened to me. It started with that sweet blackcurrant liqueur. Then I moved to cider because it was less harsh than beer. Then beer, then spirits. The industry had a pathway laid out for me, and I followed it perfectly. Tactic number four. Control the narrative. Behind the scenes, big alcohol has embedded an army of lobbyists at every level of policymaking. Legislative committees, government ministries, public consultations, universities, and health organizations. Everywhere you turn, industry representatives present themselves as partners in solving the problems that they create. They fund public health initiatives, they sit on advisory boards, they sponsor research, they position themselves as part of the solution while their real goal is to prevent policies that would threaten profits. Internal documents have revealed what the industry fears most: advertising restrictions, prominent warning labels, limits on sale hours, higher minimum drinking ages, lower legal blood alcohol limits, and above all, higher prices through increased taxation and minimum unit pricing. In other words, the policies that work as shown by the fall of big tobacco. Pricing is arguably the single most effective way to reduce alcohol harm. When Scotland and Ireland tried to pass minimum unit pricing laws to make cheap alcohol more expensive, alcohol companies spent millions on lawsuits and lobbying to stop them. They even claimed to be protecting the poor from higher prices, positioning themselves as champions of the working class. Time and time again, the same playbook is used, disguising profit seeking as social concern and wrapping self-interest in the language of public good. The truth is that whatever big alcohol promotes in the name of public health is often designed to fail. Because if it worked, if it reduced drinking, they'd lose money. And they can't have that. Why this matters? You've been lied to your entire life. You've been gaslit by an industry that profits from addiction. You've been gaslit by research designed to fail, by science that was bought and paid for, and by marketing engineered to trap you before you were old enough to understand what was happening. This is not your fault. For years I blamed myself. I thought I was weak. I thought I lacked discipline. I thought there was something wrong with me that made me unable to control my drinking when others seemed fine. But when I started digging into the research, seeing the internal documents and understanding the manipulation, things began to click. I realized I wasn't weak. I was trapped. Trapped by a system designed to capture people like us. I've worked with some very intelligent, wealthy, and successful people. I've worked with marketing executives who understand manipulation better than almost anyone. I've helped medical doctors who treat the very diseases caused by alcohol. And I've worked with healthcare CEOs who shape public policy. These are people with access to every resource imaginable. Guess what? They all fell for it too. Every single one of them. When an industry spends billions per year, year after year, on psychological warfare, nobody is immune. It doesn't matter how smart, educated, or strong-willed you are, nor does it matter how much money you have. The trap was designed to catch everyone. And it works almost perfectly. So here's what you need to understand, really understand, deep in your bones. This is not your fault. You did not choose to become addicted. You were conditioned from childhood, targeted systematically, and manipulated professionally by people who are very, very good at what they do. The game was rigged before you ever took your first drink. The industry wanted you to drink, they needed you to drink, they spent billions making sure you drink, and they succeeded. But now you're starting to see reality for what it is. Once you see the scam, you can't unsee it. The next time you see an alcohol ad, you'll see the manipulation clearly. The next time a billboard says drink responsibly, you'll see the blame shifting. Being unable to control your drinking isn't about you being weak or lacking self-control. It's about a product that was engineered to trap you and an industry that profits from your suffering. Alcohol is part of a system designed to keep you drinking no matter what it costs you. For the next week, pay attention to alcohol marketing around you. Don't analyze it deeply, just notice it. Really see it for what it is. Count how many alcohol ads you see in a single day. Notice what emotions they're trying to sell. Celebration, confidence, belonging, relaxation. Spot what they carefully leave out. Cancer. Depression, addiction, destroyed relationships. Watch how they pair alcohol with things you already want. Success, friendship, romance, adventure. Notice the drink responsibly message, and how tiny and meaningless they are. If you can, write down what you notice. Seeing the manipulation clearly is the first step to becoming immune to it. So what happens now that we can see the industry for what it truly is? Unfortunately, a system designed to trap you from childhood isn't going to let you go without a fight. In the next section, we'll explore what happens when you try to break free and why the traditional methods of going sober were doomed to fail before they'd even started. Free gift part one summary and worksheets. If you want the part one chapter summaries in a printable format, plus the worksheets to help you spot the conditioning in real life, I've included them for you in the vault. You can access the vault at soberclear.com forward slash the vault or scan the QR code for fast, easy access.