In this paper the atom-photon interaction Hamiltonian, known as the Jaynes-Cummings model, without the rotating wave approximation is diagonalized by an auxiliary operator that commutes with the Hamiltonian. The eigenstates obtained as a combination of the coherent light and the atomic states. It is shown that choosing the initial state as a linear combination of the eigenstates, and computing its time evolution and measuring the atomic states, sets the light state to a general superposition of the coherent states. The well-known Yurke-Stoler state and the even and odd cat states, was obtained as some examples of the method.