The Basic Principle of Stage Hypnosis is that the performer selects individuals who are willing and are able to respond to his suggestions irrespective of whether they are 'awake' or in an "hypnotic trance."   The technuque that is typically used to select cooperatively responsive sugjects is as follows:

      Before an attempt is made to induce "hypnotic trance," volunteer subjects are given preliminary test suggestions, such as arm lowering or hand locking, and only those who are highly responsive to suggestions are used in the subsequent demonstrations.

      The phenomena of stage hypnosis can be explained by this principle of subject selection, taken together with several additional principles such as:
   (1) The unique social psychological characteristics of the stage setting (i.e., the "fun" aspects of participating in the show and the strong expectations for unusual performance on the part of both the subjects and the audience.), and
   (2) The utilization of 'feats' (i.e., the human plank feat, the pen through the flesh, and the burning match on the hand) which seems amazing but are actually not extremely difficult for normal individuals, when properly performed !