The secret to learn stage hypnosis is quite a simple one really, it comes down to making the audience believe that they're going to be experiencing effects of hypnosis, and it's this believe that will trigger their reactions and subsequent actions. In order to be a proper stage hypnotist, you'll obviously need to have a good understanding of covert hypnosis. Covert hypnosis is basically the ability to make other people think or do things via inferences and subtle suggestion.

Now in order to put on a grand stage hypnosis show that everyone appreciates, you'll obviously need to prepare things adequately. Knowing exactly how many members of the audience will be susceptible to your suggestions and how many won't be is on the keys to being a good hypnotist. You must identify audience members whom you know will succumb to your suggestions and influence, and discard those that won't.

You see, selecting volunteers isn't as an easy process as you might think. Some people think that selecting a volunteer is an entirely random process, as if you just pick out any odd person that puts their hand up. This is of course not the case at all, and a stage hypnotist is always very careful whom he or she selects as a volunteer. If you want to learn stage hypnosis, then knowing which people make better volunteers than others is essential.

The sort of volunteer you want to look out for is someone that is more of an open minded person than say, someone who just wants to get up on the stage so that they can prove you wrong. You have to be wary of people that may want to make a 'fool of you' so to speak, so always be cautious whom you select to come up on stage. Even once people are on stage, you're always going to testing them to ensure they're suggestible, and will obviously succumb to your directions.

Such things take time and practice, and no one is saying that you'll be able to instantly hypnotize everyone in the room, for such things just aren't possible. However you will notice that when you give the audience a basic induction into hypnosis, through some pre-show entertainment, some people, particularly those who are more somnambulist than others, will already be hypnotized before the main show has begun. These are the sorts of people you want to find, and use as volunteers if you can, as odds are, they will be following your every suggestion when they're up on stage.