A Hypnotic Seal — where one hypnotist places a block, preventing anyone else from hypnotising that person. A good idea, or bad? You decide…

One of the strangest uses of hypnosis that I've read about is the Hypnotic Seal. Briefly, this is where one hypnotist places a post-hypnotic instruction about who can - and can't - hypnotise a client in future.

I've read several variations on this. Here are the main ones:

1. The hypnotist is a psychiatrist, and he (or she) instructs the client that only qualified psychiatrists will be able to hypnotise the client from now on.
2. The hypnotist instructs the client that no one else, ever, can hypnotise the client.
3. The hypnotist places a seal against the client being hypnotised by a specific person.

Abusing one's professionalism

The important thing about a seal is that it's almost always put in place without the client's permission or knowledge.

Now, you may ask, what possible reason could a hypnotist have for creating such a seal?

Let's have a look at the examples I gave.

Some examples

1. The hypnotist is a psychiatrist, and he (or she) instructs the client that only qualified psychiatrists will be able to hypnotise the client from now on.
   
   Well, the reasoning behind this is simple. The psychiatrist thinks, "Only psychiatrists know how to heal clients and so no one else must hypnotise people."
   
   Now, I won't say that this is right or wrong. But let me ask you a few questions. First, how does the psychiatrist know that? What about trained medical doctors — are they incompetent? What about, say, Richard Bandler, who is not a medical practitioner, who co-developed NLP, and has healed thousands of people that psychiatrists had given up on? What about a dentist or a hypnotherapist specialising in pain relief?
2. The hypnotist instructs the client that no one else, ever, can hypnotise the client.
   
   Wow, what possible reason could there be behind this one? A big head and a small ego, perhaps?
3. The hypnotist places a seal against the client being hypnotised by a specific person.
   
   In one (anecdotal) case that I read, the client was a woman who had been repeatedly hypnotised by an abusive husband. The seal was placed against the husband only.

When the hypnotist places the seal without the client's knowledge or permission, I feel that that violates the client's personal rights. It can also create a dangerous situation.

For example, suppose you have a dangerous allergy to anaesthetic drugs, but you need an urgent operation. The only known solution to this is hypnosis. If you've had a seal, what can you do?

Or suppose the original hypnotist was incompetent (and certainly not ethical) and makes a mess. Now, who's going to fix it?

All locks can be broken

Now here's a thing. Even when a person has a hypnotic seal, a trained practitioner can quite easily and quickly break the seal!

I won't go into the details here (if you're interested, Google it).

Ethics

Are hypnotic seals ethical?

If the client needs or desires the seal (such as the woman with the abusive husband), and it's done with her knowledge, then it's entirely within her rights and privileges. And, of course, she can break the seal herself any time.

But when placed without the client's knowledge or permission, I feel that this is a clear violation of our ethics, trust and professionalism.

What do you think?