Hypnotic Ethics

Ranting. I guess that's a good way to start as any, eh?

I've worked myself up into a good rant on a couple of issues of late, but really haven't had the time, or the opportunity to put pen to e-paper and codify any of them. So here we go.

I've been involved with hypnosis for a long time now, mostly as an interest, and then as a hobby. But recently I've taken it to a whole new level, and am about to take the plunge and do this professionally. (Wish me luck!) So I'm looking at some things from a new frame of mind.

Anyhow, one of the things that has really angried up my blood of late, has been the issue of hypnotic "locks" or "seals" used by those who would use them to abuse others.

Hypnotic locks, or seals, are suggestions given by a hypnotist that no other hypnotist will be able to put the subject into trance, or be able to remove the suggestions that this hypnotist has implanted. It used to be a pretty common practice, back in the day, for Dentists to use hypnotic seals on their patients to "protect" them from the influence of lay hypnotists, who might take advantage of the patient's newly acquired hypnotizability. They're also used by therapists and hypnotists who don't want a valuable income stream wandering off to the competition. Think of it as mental "vendor lock-in".

I think of it as unethical.

For example... what happens when the subject, for whatever reason, no longer has or chooses to have access to the original seal-placer? Are they then doomed to an existence of un-hypnotizability, with the previous hypnotists suggestions stuck in their head for the rest of their lives? Well, no, quite frankly. But it's still a pain in the ass, or even dangerous, for the sealed subject and for anyone they go to for help later. Especially when the original hypnotist was a power-hungry abusive asshole.

But breaking hypnotic seals is not impossible, no matter how strong, how deeply buried, or how unpleasantly anchored they are. Humans are wired to be trance machines, and go in and out of trance every day. You can’t stop that from happening, no matter how hard you try. We’re just wired that way. And because of the way we’re wired, putting a hypnotic lock on someone is like trying to seal up the door to Canada. Can’t get in that one way? Go in another.

If the seal placer has specified that no other hypnotist will ever be able to put the subject into trance, then don’t “put them into trance.” Use waking trance to remove the blocks without ever doing a formal trance induction. Or have them remember a time when the previous hypnotist was putting them under, and have them imagine a memory of him removing the blocks. Or use an instant induction and don’t give them time to object. Or use hyper-emperia, taking them higher and higher into a more and more sensitive and aware state (of hypnosis) instead of taking them down into a deep trance. Or, just tell them, with 100% confidence, that you are a much more powerful hypnotist and that the locks just don’t work against you.

One particularly inventive seal-breaker had a subject who said that the locks were like a giant wall that couldn’t be broken through. They asked the subject how wide the wall is, and found it went from horizon to horizon, infinitely wide. They asked how tall the wall was, and were told it went all the way up to the sky. So they asked how thick the wall was. The subject couldn’t tell. So he had the subject teleport to the other side of the wall to find out how thick it was. Once they were there, the hypnotist told the subject to put their back against that side of the wall and feel just how thick it was, pressing against their back. The subject reported that it was a hundred feet thick! The hypnotist had them walk forward. :)