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• Mystery in The Los Angeles Times from September 2005 by Blitz
• Mystery in Marie Claire Magazine from August 2005 by Blitz

Mystery in The Los Angeles Times from September 2005

Danger: Pick Artist Ahead

We’ll call this one Cupid because, with his golden curls and wide-eyed cherubic face, it seems like a decent handle. He’s 26, fresh out of the military and, despite his Abercrombie good looks, he tends to panic when he talks to girls. "I’m totally an introvert," he says early on a Friday evening.

But now it’s into the wee hours of Saturday morning and he’s at the Saddle Ranch on the Sunset Strip. He’s watched as a man called Mystery made out with a cute brunet with pale lipstick and another guy did a "bounce," leading the most scantily clad woman at the bar from one part of the patio to another.

But Cupid hasn’t approached anybody all night, and now that the bartenders are hollering for everybody to get out he’s worried it might be too late. He turns to Neil Strauss for guidance.

Strauss once counted himself among those who were panicked around women. Then he overcompensated. After attending a seminar on the art of seduction in 2002, the former New York Times columnist and current Rolling Stone writer has been obsessed with, even addicted to, a little-known community of men who consider themselves pickup artists. He posts to message boards, helps out with seduction courses, even concocted an ill-conceived plan to get the best in the business to live together in Dean Martin’s former mansion above the Hollywood strip.

He chronicles his ascent (descent?) into this world in the new book "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists," which arrives in stores, bound like a Bible, on Tuesday. In it, Strauss describes in graphic detail a personal journey that begins with him being terrified of women and ends with him believing he could seduce any woman in a club, bar, coffee shop or elevator. He is a diminutive man with a shaved head and angular goatee, and though he seems gentle and sweet in person — nervous and cute and maybe a touch effete (affectations he’s learned in seduction training, perhaps?) — in the book he comes off as debauched and predatory.

But he is a hero to the 11 men who have signed up for the $2,250 Mystery Method Bootcamp — a three-day, 40-hour intensive seminar designed to help "men from any background meet, attract and build relationships with exceptional women of extraordinary beauty and quality," according to the workshop’s website.

"He’s supposed to be one of the best," says Chongo, a 30-year-old special effects designer who is on his third seminar this weekend.

"See that girl over there with the pink shirt?" Cupid asks Strauss, who is known as Style in the rapidly growing community of pickup artists and who once appeared in a porn movie while ghostwriting Jenna Jameson’s memoir. "I think she’s, like, the hottest girl in the whole place."

"You may have missed your window because now she’s with a guy. But go and approach her anyway. It’s a two set," says Strauss, in pickup lingo referring to the number of people.

"Can I do that even though the lights are on?" Cupid asks.

"Don’t even think about it and just do it," Strauss says. "If you don’t, you’ll be regretting it the rest of the weekend."

Strauss doesn’t have high expectations for Cupid. After all, this is only the first night. The whole point of the evening is for students to watch the self-proclaimed pros in the field and to take their own fledgling steps into the world of seduction by starting conversations with women.

"The first night we go out, the students will walk in and crash and burn because they don’t have a clue yet. The second day is more about the students and they’ll go and do openers and do OK, and the third day is kind of fun. On the third day, they actually start to have some success," Strauss says. "People forget how petrified men are to talk to women they don’t know." But Cupid does well for a first outing — the couple engage in conversation with him.

Strauss isn’t teaching this weekend’s workshop. He’s assisting his friend Erik von Markovik, arguably the best pickup artist in the community, who uses the name Mystery — and who first taught the course three years ago, the class Strauss attended. Now Mystery is teaching seduction seminars almost every weekend in cities around the globe. He isn’t the only one — Strauss estimates there are roughly 100 others.

Mystery is a 6-foot-5-inch lanky magician from Toronto who intentionally "peacocks" (dresses outrageously to attract women) — today it’s black fingernails, black cowboy hat, brown corduroy bell-bottom suit with little slashes of orange all over it and snakeskin boots. A virgin, he says, until he was 21, he developed the "Mystery Method" through trial and error and the kind of single-minded determination and willingness to practice that all magicians need to be successful at deception.

Mystery has a term for everything in the pickup game — a "neg" is a casual insult you tell a girl you’re interested in to show her you don’t think she’s so great ("Your nails look nice, are they real?" "Look, her nose wiggles when she laughs"). Walking up to a group of people and starting to talk to them is called "opening a set." A "false time constraint" is a white lie that implies you’re not going to hang around and bother anybody ("I can only stay a minute," "I have to get back to my friend"). Mystery encourages his students to tell stories that show DHV (demonstrations of higher value) and to look for IOI (indicators of interest) from their selected targets. (Yes, women are referred to as targets.)

In the field, he’ll speak over students’ shoulders while they’re talking to a girl and tell them "push, pull, push, pull," which means hold her hand, then drop it like you don’t care, then hold it again. He’ll tell them when to start to "kino," or begin the back rubbing, hand holding and arm stroking that indicates this relationship is about being more than just friends. He’s like a choreographer of the seduction dance and the boot camp is for people with two left feet.

There are two parts to every day of the boot camp — a classroom component and a field component. The classroom component this weekend was held in a small room at the Holiday Inn on Highland Avenue and taught exclusively by Mystery. In the field (the Saddle Ranch, the Standard and the World), he brings "approach coaches," guys like Strauss who have already taken his classes and have established themselves in the community, to advise the students while they are doing a set.

Dressed in his corduroy suit, Mystery paces around the Holiday Inn conference room talking about hard-wired responses in interaction between the sexes, refers to photocopied handouts with suggested openers on them (most begin with "Can I get your opinion on …"), and writes charts on a white board breaking down the time from "Meet" until "Sex" into three, then nine, then 13 sub-moments.

The students take careful notes on everything; Chongo even has his laptop. They range in age from mid-20s to mid-40s and come across as quiet and nice guys — maybe a little sad, or a bit lonely. Except for the gangly guy who walked in late wearing a tight red shirt with mesh panels in it. ("Love the shirt," Mystery says. "Got it.")

"There are three main types who take the seminar," Strauss says. "Guys who just got out of a rough breakup after several years and are out of the loop of dating, guys who have had no luck with women — whether it’s a 25-year-old guy who never held a girl’s hand before or guys who are 40 and are still virgins — and then there are guys who are attractive and socially adjusted but they feel the girl always chooses them and they never choose who they are attracted to."

Strauss admits that he got carried away as an MPUA (master pickup artist) but says for him it wasn’t about power but instead the fear of failure. "I do think I went through a dark period where I got seduced by seduction," he says. "It was about how far I could get, how far I could push it…. I’m finally able, for the first time, to go out again and not think of people as sets that I need to approach."

Over the last year he has begun to distance himself from the pickup artists a bit. He has a girlfriend; he’s been writing the book and now he’ll be promoting it. But he says he’s not done with the community yet.

"I still like helping the guys," he says. "If I can boost someone’s self-esteem, help him get a girlfriend for the first time in his life and keep him from opening fire in a supermarket because of his frustrations, then I’m doing something good in the world."

And Cupid, well, he already has some vague ideas about healthy relationships being so important they could put an end to wars. In the meantime, he says the class is really helping him get his nerve up for talking to strangers.

On Sunday, the final night of fieldwork is held at the World, a loud dance club on Hollywood Boulevard. Cupid approaches one set in the main room, but the girls can’t hear him so he backs away after just a few openers. Strauss suggests he go to the outside patio, where it is a little quieter. Mystery is already out there with some other students, towering above everyone in a red leopard print T-shirt and a top hat.

Cupid sees three girls leaning against the wall and decides to go in, but Strauss advises him against it. "Jon says that set has been done two times already," he says. "They’re going to think it’s a line."

"I don’t care, I’m going in anyway," says Cupid, who walks away, purposefully, to the girls.

"Oh, my God," Strauss says. "He’s going to be good."

Excerpted From Los Angeles Times.  View original article Here

Mystery in Marie Claire Magazine from August 2005

Article from Marie Claire Magazine

Attired as he is in ski goggles over a woolly hat, Mystery does not exactly cut a dash as your romantic hero. He’s unnerving rather than seductive. But this is the man that claims he is the world’s greatest pick-up artist, a modern day Casanova who boasts he can seduce any women he chooses. With that kind of build up, you’d imagine he could at least look like George Clooney.

It had taken some time to persuade Mystery to meet me. A phenomenon in America thanks to his alleged prowess with women, he’s on magazine covers, signing book deals and giving autographs all over the country. There is a waiting list for those anxious to attend his exclusive men only seduction boot camps (three-day workshops where his students are taught his copywrited seduction techniques). I am one of the first female journalists to infiltrate one.

Mystery bounces into the opening seminar, held in a hotel conference suit in Las Vegas, like Tiger-all smiles and affability. He’s wearing black nail polish, lot of jewelry and despite the 90 degree Celsius heat, his trade mark ski goggles over a ski hat. Anxiously waiting in the room are his seven students, who, in Mystery’s jargon (he uses a lot of it) are AFC’s (Average Frustrated Chumps). When they finish the course, they will be PUA’s (Pick up Artist).

None of them wants to talk to me. It is quietly explained how humiliating it is for a man to admit he has trouble attracting a women. None of them is particularly unattractive. One, a handsome doctor in his thirties, admits later that he works all hours at the hospital and has no time to find a wife. There’s a fireman in his forties who is divorced and just plain shy. There is one who is a lawyer-good looking but short. And there are several who are computer specialists. Probably rich and nerdy.

The purpose of you being here is to begin is to begin a sexual relationship with a woman, 32-year-old Mystery begins. But that doesn’t necessarily mean going out and laying a lot of girls. This is about the women of your dreams. Lets be honest, there are less than attractive women out there, but they are always available to you. I say Raise your standards. Tonight you’re going to learn how to approach really beautiful women without creeping them out. For most men, approaching women is as frightening as throwing yourself out of an airplane, but I am going to show you ways of desensitizing yourself. And you are going to practice. This is something you need to practice.

Mystery (real name: Erik von Markovik) is annoyingly likeable. You have to remind yourself that this is a man who rates women on a scale of nought to ten, based on looks. And that he also boasts that the female of the species ought to be grateful to him for ensuring that being picked up is fun. For his arrogance alone, he ought to be disliked. But there is something disarmingly charismatic about him. During breaks in the workshop, we get to talk. All this has come upon me, he purrs with what seems to be incredulity. If you had told me when I was 21, when I lost my virginity, that I would be known as the world’s greatest pick-up artist, that I would have this lifestyle and some very beautiful women in my life; if you have told me that what I do would turn into a nationwide culture phenomenon, I’d never have believed you.

Mystery draws breath for a second. The truth is, every man has to do what it takes to attract a women because if he doesn’t, he is effectively sterile. So for the first time in my life, I am doing the honorable thing. I am doing something where I can give to others.

Mystery’s method is based on human psychology. If a man approaches an HB (Hot Babe) and says something like, What’s your name? he is almost certain to get rebuffed. Beautiful women, Mystery explains, are constantly approached by men, so that questions will immediately put them on the defensive. The average frustrated chump goes wrong because he is telegraphing sex. But if a PUA were to approach a group of women and men and befriend all in then circle, he stands a good chance of eventually talking to the HB on a one-to-one basis.

By getting in with the group, the PUA demonstrates higher social value, meaning that he is gaining validation from the HB’s friends. It is crucial to show no interest whatsoever in the HB. He should even go as far as to deliver a well placed neg. This is a negative comment or veiled insult such as, I don’t think I like you. HB’s are not used to men ignoring or criticizing them. The lack of interest in her also disarms her friends.

The PUA must also use crucial body language. If he talks to the HB at all initially, it should be in a disinterested fashion over his shoulder. He should also aim to position himself at the center of the group, preferably sitting in the chair that the HB may already be sitting on. This is called being locked in. If a girl is sitting on a chair, and I’m leaning over her, it looks like I’m moving in on her. It will also make her feel uncomfortable, explains Mystery. But if I’m in a chair leaning back, and she has to lean in to speak to me, it looks like the girl is moving in on me. Here, let me show you.

Suddenly I find myself acting as the HB for Mystery’s demonstrations to his students. He offers me his hands to help me out of the chair so we can swap positions. I give mine to him. Ah, interesting he says slyly, and later explains that the PUA must also periodically test the HB’s indicators of interest (IOIs) by offering her chances to touch, such as this. Could I really be falling for this unlikely charmer?

Mystery’s fame grew first on the internet, in the underground subculture of men dedicated to chat rooms discussing ways of wooing women. Mystery’s second love after women is magic, and it was by doing tricks of illusion that he realized that he could disarm women. By hid mid-twenties, he realized he had a winning formula and began disseminating his seduction tips online. He eventually moved to Los Angeles and began his seminars.

He is at pains to point out that his classes are not about men simply trying to get laid. Why go to all this effort just for a one-night stand? And Mystery practices what he preaches- He tells me that he has a girlfriend for the last 10 months, but they are breaking up because she has a problem with him touring all the time.

Over three days, the would be PUA’s are subjected to more than 19 hours of classroom theory. Then each night, the class transfers to nightclubs to put the theory to practice. As Mystery’s pupils hit the Las Vegas bar later, all are nervous but expectant. Befriending a group of strangers when you don’t happen to do magic tricks is easier said then done. For this purpose, Mystery provides all his students with a number of openers, tried and tested lines and anecdotes to get conversation going with women. He also brings along some of his former students, who have spent the last year practicing.

What is miraculous is that it works. In four hours, I watch Mystery work his way into five separate groups of people in the nightclub, and target a beautiful woman who wraps her limbs around him in less time then it takes to say impressive. It also works for his former students.

In the first ten seconds, I saw these guys use this material and I knew they had it down, says Gary a computer system operator in his thirties, the only one who agrees to talk to me at the end. It’s remarkable. I tried out the material they gave me, and I’m not smooth yet, but these girls talked to me. Typically things don’t go too far when I try to talk to women. I’m a pretty smart person, but sometimes I don’t have the lulls in conversation and I know it’s a weakness. There is so much involved in attracting a woman. It’s really impressive what Mystery does. He’s given me confidence. I know that if I present myself right, I could probably seduce any woman.

Not his one, because like the girl who works behind the bar at the club where Mystery always brings his students, I’ve heard all the lines now. And if I hear another acronym, I may have to SLBM (Scream Like Bloody Murder). But I can see why Mystery is successful. I just wish there was a course like this for women.

As the evening draws to a close, Mystery is wrapped in the arms of another woman. I feel, in the spirit solidarity, I should let her know who he is. But she looks like she is enjoying herself too much.

Excerpted From Marie Claire

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