Posts In This Category

• Program Review for Mystery, Matador, and Lovedrop by Mirage, Miami Bootcamp, Aug 07 by Blitz
• Program Review for Hawaii by Qbert, Vegas Bootcamp, Aug 07 by Blitz
• Mystery on Chelsea Lately Show by Blitz
• Program Review for LA Bootcamp, by rawkstar, Aug 07 by Blitz
• A Message From Mystery by Mystery
• Program Review for Playboy Mansion Bootcamp, by hrithik Aug 07 by Blitz
• Program Review Las Vegas Bootcamp, by hrithik, Aug 07 by Blitz
• Program Review for Las Vegas Bootcamp, by StoryyTeller, Aug 07 by Blitz
• Program Review for Lovedrop by Soul, Chicago Bootcamp, Aug 07 by Blitz
• Program Review for LA Bootcamp, by Artisan, Jul 07 by Blitz
• The Pickup Artist Reviewed in The New York Times by Blitz
• Mystery interviewed on Salon.com by Blitz
• Mystery in The New York Post by Blitz
• Mystery VH1 Pickup Artist – Montage of Women & PUA Lifestyle by Blitz
• The Pick-Up Artist Reviewed In The Wall Street Journal by Blitz

Program Review for Mystery, Matador, and Lovedrop by Mirage, Miami Bootcamp, Aug 07

This was an incredible experience. The wealth of knowledge was unbelievable. The information with examples really cleared up a lot of questions and put everything together. Just reading the forums, books, and online posts will never get you the lecture detail and in field knowledge that every PUA needs.

There were a few downsides to the whole experience. We had a few underage students in the group which made it difficult to get into the nightclubs. In my opinion, this situation should have already been taken into consideration. Another downside was time management. It appeared that there was little organization when it came to lecture start times, break times, and nightclub time. This was quite frustrating for many students I had talked to.

Watching everyone infield was incredible. All the instructors did exactly what they said they would do. I was thoroughly impressed! Most of our instructors were eager to help and analyze what we were doing right or wrong. Hawaii gave me the most pointers and really improved my sets 100%.

Overall, I had a kick a*s time and can’t wait to get my game up to speed and hopefully see these guys in the field!!! Until then I’ll be sarging.

Program Review for Hawaii by Qbert, Vegas Bootcamp, Aug 07

Here’s my review of the Las Vegas Boot camp with Hawaii (8-10-07 / 8-12-07)

Classroom:

First off, Hawaii has been limiting his Vegas boot camps to just three students. So with the small number of students, Hawaii was able to tailor our lecture portion each day to our individual knowledge levels. In fact, this started a few days before the boot camp with a call from Hawaii. During the call, he gets a feel for your knowledge and skill level and plans the entire boot camp accordingly. This was really helpful as we spent more time learning and practicing material that was specific to our individual needs. In fact, I don’t think we spent any time going over concepts or material we already knew. I took pages of notes and got lots of new material to try out in the field.

Field:

Day 1 was at a local night club on the strip. We thought it was going to be just us and Hawaii, but to our surprise, Matador joined us also. Since this was demo night, the first thing we did was watch Hawaii open a set. Hawaii approached a two set and was sitting down with them and had them laughing within thirty seconds. The target was leaning over the obstacle she was so attracted! Hawaii used the exact routines he had taught us in class and they worked perfectly. Listening to someone talk about this stuff is one thing, but to actually see it in action is incredible. After Hawaii’s set, Matador went to work. Well, I don’t even know how to describe that. He basically took over the entire venue. Matador adds new meaning to the words alpha and kino. On one of his sets, he had the target so attracted she left the set and asked us what was happening (to her). I don’t think she had ever felt that level of attraction before. Thirty seconds later she was cleaning Matador’s tonsils! Incredible thing to see. I watched him make out with five different girls that night, so this guy is definitely the real deal. After Hawaii ran another demo, he started sending us into sets. Both Hawaii and Matador were incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. You definitely have to be able to take criticism, but it was always delivered in a helpful manner and there was no judgment or egos involved.

Day 2 was just us and Hawaii. Instead of another night club, Hawaii decided to have us run sets in the casino lounges. The good thing about this was it was way quieter than a night club, so we didn’t have to yell to be heard or lean in to hear. Hawaii gave us instant feed back on every set. This was the most helpful thing for me and the reason I took a boot camp in the first place. Hawaii brought a video camera with him and covertly filmed us in set. That’s not part of the boot camp, just something he is experimenting with. We reviewed the video on Sunday and it was incredibly helpful to actually see yourself in set.

Day 3 was at a local buffet which was more relaxing than a classroom setting. We debriefed, ate and then actually ran some more sets.

Intructors:

Hawaii: First off, Hawaii is an all around great guy. He is incredibly helpful and really takes his job seriously. I sincerely believe his motivation for teaching this stuff is to help people and ensure they succeed. During the boot camp, Hawaii went above and beyond the call of duty to help us out and make sure we were successful. He is very easy going, but is relentless in pushing you past your comfort zone to get you doing things you don’t believe you can do. Hawaii has a great knowledge of the material and he presented it in a fun, interesting way. He followed up each presentation with insight and experiences that really helped me understand the material. I would highly recommend him for a boot camp or a one on one!

Matador: I am not going to write a lot about Matador, because I think his reputation says enough. His knowledge of the game is very, very extensive and deep. When he talks about game theory, it seems almost spiritual. Watching his style of game is incredible. I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. He is at a level way above anyone else I have ever seen. If you ever get a chance to take a boot camp with him, do it!

Overall Impression:

The boot camp was definitely worth the expense. There is no better way to learn than taking a boot camp. The instructors were great and incredibly helpful. The most insightful thing for me was watching both Matador and Hawaii open sets. Both of them were using the same method and material but with entirely different styles. Matador was over the top, guns blazing alpha guy, while Hawaii was low key and under the radar. It showed me that any type of guy can make this work with a little dedication and practice.
Thanks to Venusian Arts for the experience!

Mystery on Chelsea Lately Show

Program Review for LA Bootcamp, by rawkstar, Aug 07

Let me guess.

You want to have sex with more beautiful women, and you want it soon.

Otherwise, you wouldn’t even be considering going to a highly-priced Venusian Arts bootcamp.

You’re probably just like I was before I attended this one — I remember scrolling through all the reviews on this forum to see if it would be worth it or not…

So, I’ll give you the short answer first:

YES.

In other words, if you want to turn your life around RIGHT NOW, and your sick and tired of waiting, then this is exactly what you need.

Especially if you’re the kind of person (like I was) who’d read all the documents online, and watched all the movies available on the Internet.

See, I’d actually spent years drifting in and out of the "online" community, and haphazardly putting the material to work with limited success.

I’d always figured that I didn’t actually need to go to the bootcamp for training.

After all, I’m a pretty self-sufficient guy, and a lot of the things I know I taught myself.

Well, you’ve heard it before, but I’m going to tell it to you again…

Simply seeing Mystery, Matador, and Lovedrop in PERSON will leave you walking away NEW MAN…

And there are three reasons for this, in my opinion.

1. Seeing them in person will reprogram your subconscious mind. Chances are one of the main reasons you aren’t having the success you want to have with this stuff just yet is that your subconscious mind is providing a lot of resistance. A good analogy would be if I told you I had a method to teach you how to levitate. One of your biggest roadblocks would be believing that it was even possible, and that if it was, that my method would work.

Once you’ve seen this stuff with your own eyes, a lot of the subconscious resistance will be gone. You’ll finally KNOW that it’s possible to reach your goals.

Watching Matador teach his top-secret "alpha caveman" method was mind-blowing, and watching him use it to kino-escalate with girls at Le Deux right before our eyes was a life-changing experience. You need to see it.

2. You’ll get the "real truth" from directly their mouths to your ears. Although the seminar itself was pure gold, perhaps even more valuable were the breaks we took every few hours. During them, Mystery, Matador, and Lovedrop were all available to talk casually about anything any of us wanted to know. And, since it was off camera, they told us some things which I wasn’t expecting…Unfortunately I don’t think I can re-type them there

3. You’ll finally get a chance to take this part of your life seriously. Like I said earlier, if you’re anything like me you’ve been dabbling in the Venusian arts and you have already realized that it’s time to take it all to the next level. Well, this is it. The combination of the intensive in-class bootcamp, the in-field training, and the personalized one-on-one help you’ll get will kick you into the next gear. I know it did for me and everyone else there.

Hopefully, without sounding too much like a sales pitch (they aren’t paying me to write this, I swear), I want to leave you with one closing remark.

This is your LIFE.

What the heck are you doing wandering around WONDERING if you should really do what it takes to have sex with beautiful women?

Especially when there are amazing, giving people like Mystery, Matador, and Lovedrop who have literally dedicated their lives to helping people like you figure it all out?

Go to the bootcamp. And, take advantage of their money-back guarantee if it doesn’t work out for you.

I doubt you’ll want it — nobody at my bootcamp was even considering asking for a refund because it helped everyone so much — but, if it doesn’t work for you, then that’s what it’s there for.

Just don’t lie and tell them it didn’t work for you, because these guys are truly here to help you.

Get up. Go. Then, send me an email, and we’ll go out sarging!

A Message From Mystery

Program Review for Playboy Mansion Bootcamp, by hrithik Aug 07

I’ve always wanted to do a boot camp, but always found an excuse. So when I saw that it was going to be at the Playboy Mansion I jumped on it immediately. I expected the opportunity of a lifetime. This was worth EVERY FUCKING PENNY.

Although the official instructors were supposed to be Mystery, Matador, and Lovedrop, we had others there not only in the field but also during seminar. Styles was a special speaker on our second day, Ross Jeffries on the third. We also had other people who came out with us on the field to help us out. J-Dog, Blitz, Kerr, as well as others (cant remember all the handles) were there. There were even some alumni who came around to offer their advice and help us open sets. Even the girls who served as pivots helped. I had one instance where one of the pivots saw me standing around, and grabbed me to dance. She then says "You see those girls over there behind me…they were looking at you and saw me grab you to dance…go open the set".

The first night we went out to the Playboy Mansion. Yes it was everything I expected! Mystery walked in and pretty much owned the place. There was one chick who told her friend "Oh my god, that pick up artist guy mystery just hit on me…I cant believe he paid attention to me". To me thats a sign that the VH1 show is not going to kill the game like all these Chicken Littles are screaming. Anyway…so there were all types of random celebrities there. DMX, Pauly Shore, Bishop Don Magic Juan, Mad Mike & Diggity Dave from MTV’s Pimp My Ride, Bobby Brown (who was pissed cause Matador took his girl away LOL). Not only did we get to see these guys in action but we got some action of our own. The pictures, the memories, and some of us were able to number close a couple of the chicks. I was able to get one and Im still amazed it worked. And of course there’s the bragging rights…how many people can honestly say they’ve been to the Playboy Mansion. I’m told that at other bootcamps the first night is demo night where we watched the Instructors in action, but this was a special bootcamp so were given a crash course and unleashed into the field to have fun. I wasnt sure how to go so Mystery told me to stick to me Rockstar persona which worked like a charm. Peacocked with these dark glasses and chains. Some hot chick runs up to me and screams "Oh My God its you". I smile but then she says "Youre the guy from pimp my ride!". My first reaction was to crack up and say no. So she was upset and walked away (dumb move by me). After realizing my fuck up I moved to an area near the bar where she would bump into me. When she came over I smiled but she gave me this look which said "Oh no this loser". SO I go whoa whoa..you dont have to be a bitch I was going to introduce you to the cast. Then she was confused and says but I thought you werent on the show. I tell her you coming or not…and signla to grab my arm. So I walk off with the hot chick on my arm for all the other females to see, and over to the Pimp My Ride guys. She’s so happy she calles over her other hot friends and now they want to take pics with me and the Pimp My Ride guys. It was an 8 set now…I managed to pull 3 who I worked on all night. It didnt really matter which of the 3 I get cause they were all hot. We danced, I made them laugh using some routines Lovedrop showed me, however they came with some guy who kept AMOGing me every so often and pulling the wntire group away. EVentually I would find them elsewhere and the group would come back but whenever the AMOG showed up it was back to him. At the end of the night I remembered what mystery said about Survival & Replication and it reminded me of something I saw on the discovery channel. There were these 2 males (cant remember if it was birds or insects) comepting for a female. They both wanted to mate with her and got into a fight. While the two were busy fighting a third male came in and mated with her while the 2 knuckleheads were fighting. So while the AMOG was trying to find the rest of his girls I went in for the kill on one of the 3 girls. I told her she was a cool ass chick but my friends were leaving and I wanted to get in touch with her later. Number closed, myspace closed…and went back to the rock I was sitting on like nothing happened. As the AMOG leaves with the girls…she waves and gives me the signal telling me to call her.

Second night we go to this ultratrendy, ultrachic club called Les Deux Cafe. Anyway its the hangout spot for Lindsy Lohan, Paris, Paula Abdul, etc. We had Styles as a guest speaker and he gave us some more openers and different tests to run. We go there in a stretch hummer limo, we’re on the list and we skip EVERYONE. 90% of the girls were 10′s (if you use #’s to rate girls LOL). So we get there and we’re put out into the field I was one of the lucky guys that got to crash & burn (learn). I got good feedback from everyone to show me what I was doing wrong. By the last couple of sets I was doing way better than the first ones. I was actually able to bring them over and mix them with other groups. SO once I was burned I decided to watch the masters in action. Lovedrop was seriously trying to look bad. He was trying to show us how not to do it…but it wasn’t working since he was still doing the correct body language, kino, etc. So he wasnt the sloppy guy, he was the funny guy and they loved him (even though he wasnt trying). I saw Mystery make out with some chick in a matter of seconds. Some guy walked up to him in the club, said he watches the show but thought it was all BS. He felt his game was good enough and he doesn’t try or do any of the things they do. So Mystery goes…can you do this. He turns around and grabs a chic…and what happened next seemed out of a vampire flick. He smiles at her…gazes into her eyes…rubs her ears…caresses her neck…then he makes out with her for 2 secs and pushes her away. I was like what the fuck!?!?! and the guy who doubted mystery had the same look on his face . Then Mystery goes…"SO yeah…I’m going to give you a website talk to this guy over here (cant remember who)". The guy was just amazed. As was I. Lastly I was one of the guys who got to see Matador’s Bootcamp within a Bootcamp. Matador is a beast. He went to open this 3set, of mean looking hot asian chicks. I remember thinking "Ha lets see this one". He just kinoplowed these girls with his superalpha game. SUre one of the girls was still bitchy but even she was eating out of his hands after awhile. Picked them up, had them sitting on his lap, kissed all of them…the funny thing was right after each move he would walk away tell us what just happened and turn right back into the set. I dont know how the fuck they didnt see it. At one point they recognized him and one of the girls was trying to point out that he had students watching him…he just paid no mind to them and it was as if it was never said (I thought the spot was going to be blown and the set was over). The 3set became a 4set and of course…he eventually pulled one of them back to the hotel.

The third day we shared our stories and had some more seminar. It was supposed to be over at 7PM but it ended WAY after that. A couple of us had to change our flights. We had Ross Jeffries come in and say a couple of things which was cool. Once again we had the instructors giving us advice and pointing out what they saw us do or not do, and what to work on. Lots of Q & A…what a weekend. This weekend has changed my life. I have seen my mistakes and will now work on them. I learned tons and tons of new things. I’m glad I finally decided to attend a bootcamp…even if it took the playboy mansion as a motivator. I was a little skeptic at first and wondered why did I need the bootcamp if I have the forums plus the books…I now know and dont regret it at all. The weekend will live out in my memory as one of the best weekends I have ever had. These guys are the truth!!

Program Review Las Vegas Bootcamp, by hrithik, Aug 07

Here’s my review of the Las Vegas Bootcamp on August 3-August 5. I’m going to split up in a few different sections [Instructors, Seminar, In-field, Personal Experiences, & Tips and Conclusions], with my personal experiences/tips sort of elaborating on the whole experience…it’s probably going to get to be a little long, so get comfortable! I tried to include the types of things that I would’ve found helpful myself when I was trying to decide whether to pay up the price for a bootcamp. If you have any specific questions about the entire workshop, I’m glad to answer them.

So, some background on me: I’m a good-looking guy [as Matador and one of the pivots (who shall remain nameless only because I don’t know if she’d want her real name in here) pointed out to me a few times over the weekend] who doesn’t have too much trouble attracting girls. At the moment, I have a very hot and smart girlfriend who is a year shy of graduating from one of the top nursing schools in the country. However, when it comes to girls, I’ve always felt that I never really took advantage of the opportunities that were presented before me, and as much as I may care about and think long-term with my girlfriend, I can’t help but feel like I’ve missed out on being with other gorgeous girls [I’m only going to be 24 in September]. So, I decided it was time to stop “being lucky”: I had always gotten by with my looks and the natural attractive qualities of my personality when it came to girls, and I’d finally resolved that I didn’t want this to depend on my looks but rather that I wanted to have a much stronger understanding of and much tighter control on how my interactions with girls go as well as how far they go.

I had a good number of questions and concerns about the whole thing, but I feel that Matador and Blitz did a really good job of handling them over the course of about 3-4 months because, well, I finally signed up, right? Originally, I was to do a 1-on-1 with Matador, but due to the legal battle going on with The Mystery Method, Matador was basically unable to meet with me to do it. To show how serious these guys are about delivering on their word, Blitz told me that Matador was offering me a spot at the Mystery Final Tour as well as the agreed-upon original 1-on-1 in Miami for later..who does that?? Ridiculously awesome! Anyways, I was really excited and a bit nervous at this point [the days leading up to the bootcamp weekend]. This just immensely added to the nervousness of actually attending the bootcamp, since I didn’t really know what to expect, and even felt kind of weird going to such measures as attending a class on how to pick up girls. When I first walked into the room, I really had no idea what to expect.

Instructors:

Mystery: From the very beginning, I could sense that Mystery was really passionate about the things he was teaching us. We were all sitting around, waiting for him to make his entrance, and when he finally walked in, he immediately had everyone’s attention; it’s just the command he has, and a certain presence about him – I just can’t describe it in words. One thing I have to say right off is that he was not nearly as extremely peacocked as I’d expected him to be [don’t get me wrong, he still doesn’t dress as conventionally as the rest of us do], considering that he has a whole theory based upon this and that there are enough descriptions and pictures of him to get a pretty accurate physical image of him. He introduced himself, and then proceeded to walk around the room and shake hands with each one of us [he even paused to talk to me about my name and where my family is from]. After spending time in the lecture with him, you feel like you can take on anything. He gave an amazing background in terms of psychology and philosophy mixed in with real-life examples of how these things manifest themselves. The most impressive thing for me was that he had no ego and never talked down to anyone. Honestly, Mystery has a lot of reason to be cocky and condescending [I’ve seen people act much worse for much less of a basis], but he never showed any sign of that kind of attitude; rather, treated each of us as his equals [he even shared with us a big secret that, and he even explained his reasons for having it on the down-low for now, further demonstrating to me that he was on our level, not above]. The other thing about him, needless to say, is that this guy is incredibly smart as well as quite eloquent, and you can’t help but be enchanted with his charm. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to not only meet THE man but also to go out and sarge with him, too! It also helped [especially me] that Mystery took some time to explain to us where he started from and how he had to work through literal trial and error to reach his level of success. I could sense at the very beginning from the other students [as well as from myself] that there was a feeling of disparity between the students and the instructors, like “We could never get to be ‘that good…’ ”, and it definitely helped me feel a little more at ease and reach a point of being more relaxed and natural, since it can be kind of awkward to actually be in a seminar to learn how to improve your skills with women, especially with guys who are themselves very successful with women.

Lovedrop: I 1st saw Lovedrop as I was trying to find the room for the Seminar, and he was on his cell phone right outside, and that’s when it kind of really hit me: I’m here, and I’m about to embark on what’s supposed to be a life-changing journey. Lovedrop was really chill in the classroom, and it definitely helped me to be more relaxed with the laid-back kind of vibe. It was great because he was still getting a lot of the information to us, but he was still able to keep it light enough by cracking some jokes so that things weren’t too hardcore and serious. It was also helpful because he went into a good amount of detail on relating the perfect vibe that you need to have to be in the ideal delivery of not only the verbal stuff but even of the non-verbal stuff like body language and voice tonality. He also provided a bunch of useful information, from different routines and the proper usage/delivery to the deeper ideas behind them. I think the dynamic between the instructors was really cool, too, because they were able to feed off each other’s comments and insights as well as throw in each of their own personal nuggets on the other’s lecturing. Lovedrop’s teaching overall was great, because he definitely knows his stuff and could simplify things for us, especially through his analogies. The only negative was that at times, it seemed [to me, at least] that he got a little carried away with the same ideas and ended up getting a bit side-tracked. But, he’d always catch himself and then be back on track.

Matador: Matador was pretty much awesome. I caught up with him after the 1st day’s Seminar portion, where he was standing in the lobby with Lovedrop, Kerr, and “D.” [I’m not sure of his “handle” or if he’d want me to put his real name in here]. I went up to him, and he was immediately warm and friendly, and when I told him who I was [since I had been corresponding with him through phone and email for a few months], he instantaneously reacted as though we were close friends who went way back. He then proceeded to introduce me to the others and provided my background, and had assimilated me into their group, just like that. And this impression was even before I’d had any Seminar or In-Field teaching from him. He wasn’t one of the instructors lecturing on the 1st day, but he definitely made up for it by really delivering on the 2nd day. He has an undeniable presence about him, and yet he is really easy to approach [if you can get past the feeling of not being worthy haha]. Just being physically around him, or even hearing him speak to you, causes you to feel like you can do anything! You feel as though you’ve just had all this deeper-level understanding of social dynamics simply diffused into your own mind. He’s really articulate as well, but he would also ask to turn the camera off and then spout off all kinds of random stories or points that were things that you’d do with “one of the guys” – meaning, despite all this intelligence and super-alpha demeanor, he is still someone you can simply kick it with. I feel like he is not only very passionate about all of this, but he is also very dedicated to it, especially for ensuring that the students have grasped everything that he is trying to get across to us and are able to take as full advantage as possible of his time and expertise; in other words, he really genuinely cares about the students’ comprehension and success. He also always seemed to have TONS of information to give and that there was just not nearly enough time to discuss everything he wanted to tell us. I’m definitely planning to take that 1-on-1 with him as soon as I get back from school, simply because he obviously knows his shit and can get it across to you by breaking things down into a very easy-to-understand way, and I think it helps that he’s only a few years removed from his own bootcamp, so it’s easier for him to relate to the students and thus be a sort of bridge between where the students ARE and where the students want to BE.

 ivots: One really cool thing that we had at this bootcamp was girls. Yeah, I realize that that sounds like a desperate, lame-ass loser-type comment [“Oh, my god!! Girls!!”], but hear me out: I’d never really had female wings before, and it was an awesome thing to experience – it definitely opened my eyes to just how important and helpful girls can be when gaming other girls. Having these pivots definitely had its own advantages, especially because both of them brought their own unique personalities, and they were there for one basic purpose: to help YOUR sets. And trust me, they did one hell of a job! I mean, talk about instant social proof [having girls with you] as well as effortless jealousy plotlines to run while gaming another girl [having girls hang on you]..it makes things almost too easy!!

Kerr: Having Kerr was a nice added benefit, at least for me. He would be in and out of the seminar, but each night, he would join us at the venue, and it was cool to get his extra insight. Especially on the 1st night [which was a sort of “observation night”], he was positioned perfectly at the bar to be able to provide us students a running commentary on what was happening with Mystery’s and Matador’s sets as well as things to watch for [both from them as well as the sets’ reactions]; it was like watching a game on tv and hearing the commentators talk about it..except that in this case, the commentator knew what the fuck he was talking about! On the 2nd night, he was able to catch a bit of one of my sets and gave me some real quick, in-the-moment feedback. Plus, having yet another guy watching us and providing tips and pointers in-field? I’ll definitely take it!

Seminar: Okay, so the web page has this list of all the different things that the bootcamp was going to cover..well, despite my doubts of them being able to do so, they did, in fact, cover every single one of those points! And not just by briefly mentioning it, but rather in such specificity that it was astonishing! Each of the instructors gave us a very detailed, in-depth understanding of the theory that the method itself is based on, plus they supplied us with a ton practical knowledge as well as canned material, to the point that I STILL recall things that were mentioned or discussed, a full week later! I’m still working on trying to internalize everything that we were taught and calibrate things to my own personality. I liked that the format of the Seminar included some interactive parts, whether in the form of certain drills or the asking of questions [personal and otherwise] so that we don’t end up just scribbling down a bunch of information that doesn’t make sense to us when we look back at them a few weeks later; instead, it forced us to take the knowledge we had and apply it to reason things out and make more sense to us in our own minds. I feel that if we hadn’t been so cramped for time, it would have been nice to run through some more of the exercises and activities that were mentioned by Mystery and Matador in the Seminar in order to help us internalize the theory as well as develop a little of our own practical material. Even during the scheduled breaks [which I feel we actually took less of than we were supposed to, because the instructors would lose track of time, which to me was yet another example of their tremendous dedication to their training as well as to the students], the instructors would take the time to answer questions, ranging from all kinds of topics from clarifications to community drama to random topics like music or travel stories [they are normal guys, after all!] and even some pretty outrageous sexcapades [with a lot of the “outrageous” part coming from Matador, like when he pulled a girl and fucked her in an alley behind 7-11 haha]. Even more dedication and passion on the instructors’ part was their willingness to stay past the scheduled times, even when they know we would be cutting things close, simply to ascertain that all the students comprehended all of the concepts that had been covered [since there was a LOT of information to take in, which they knew themselves and kept reassuringly conveying to us]. The only negative thing I have to say is that I wish we could have started earlier in the day or that there were 30 hours in a day or something, because it always felt as though we were running short on time and ended up having to go almost directly from the Seminar to the venue with just enough time to eat and/or shower in between, and I personally would have preferred some time to let my brain recover from the overload as well as to allow all the shit to sink in.

In-Field: For the first night, all of the students were excited to get out into the venue and watch the things we’d learned that day in the Seminar be put into effect by the biggest names in pickup. The main objective for this night was to observe the instructors properly running through sets [their verbal delivery, voice tonality, and most importantly their body language!] and then by the end of the night, to be opening and creating attraction in as many of our own sets as possible, and even push the sets as far as we could until we were literally forced out of them. Unfortunately, the venue itself [the bar inside the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel] was a little weak [both students and instructors agreed] due to the low number of targets as well as the kind of cramped space of the area itself; however, I think it actually worked out better in the long-run for us because we were all able to watch the instructors without seeming to be leering or anything, plus we weren’t really affected by negative social proof [i.e. a bunch of dudes standing around without many girls] because there weren’t too many girls to begin with. The lack of targets also caused us to overcome sets with some pretty serious bitch-shields and just plow through, regardless of the reactions [and thus experiencing “reaction independence” 1st-hand] since the same girls were being approached by various guys as well as students throughout the night. I think once the students who did do their own sets got into their first couple of sets, it was much easier to start approaching with a more cool and confident attitude, almost trying to see just how badly we could really get blown out and then realizing that things don’t ever really go that badly.

The second night venue showed just how much we’d learned, both the theoretical side in the Seminar as well as the real-life application from being In-Field from the night before. It was good because there was no worry of a bad reaction from a set when opening because the previous night’s experience gave us all a “we’ve all been through the worst of it the night before, how could it be any worse?” kind of attitude: there were plenty of really hot girls around, we were in the VIP section in the club, we knew that our biggest fears of what could go wrong weren’t anywhere near the reality, etc, and it made sets much easier [and much more fun!] to run. The objective for this night was to open, create attraction, and move into comfort [with bounces, time-bridges, and isolations involved], and again push the sets as far as they’d go, ideally closing them one way or another. When comparing our results to this objective, I think that every single one of us had incredible growths in our skill-set as well as overall confidence in approaching and handling sets. The only complaint I’d have about this is that I wish we’d covered some more information in terms of how to perform the different closes in a little more detail so that we could apply them to our sets [if not now, then for later].

Honestly, the In-Field session was nearly flawless! The only real criticism I have about it is I would’ve like having a bit stronger/longer debriefing segment – I think it would’ve been a really good idea to do it with like personalized advice, based on what each of the instructors had witnessed from us.

One thing I must say is that the In-Field portion was just as helpful as I could’ve imagined, and I went into it with high expectations. Most of the time, it seemed like there was always an instructor around, watching me in action [because that was something I was worried about, with 12 students and only a handful of instructors] and able to give me feedback either during or after the set. Having these top-notch instructors with you in the venues helps make it possible to eliminate sticking points and to calibrate as you go, as with me. In other words, it basically raises the level of your game to new heights almost immediately. The other thing that served as yet another example of the whole “above and beyond” attitude that appears to be intertwined with the entire Venusian Arts way of operating was that even though the In-Field portion was supposed to end at 2am, these guys kept opening and running sets late into the night [I think I got back at about 4am both nights], and it wasn’t for themselves: I witnessed Mystery and Matador open tons of sets, many of which they could’ve easily bounced with, but instead they would eject or time-bridge so that they could come back and discuss it with us, then move into the next one. Frankly, I can’t say that I wouldn’t be tempted to just run a couple of sets for myself, but these guys were totally dedicated to their students and showing us how the game is played.

Personal Experiences: In the seminar, I found these things really helpful: On the first day, one really important point that both Mystery and especially Lovedrop emphasized was that the Opener is not that important [like Mystery’s latest involving something as random as Google Earth] but rather it was our delivery [voice tonality and volume] as well as our body language during the Openers that really mattered. We spent a fair amount of time discussing our approaches in the classroom. A big thing for me was Lovedrop’s emphasis on the whole overall ATTITUDE that we need to have rather than actual lines or routines, because again, it’s not what you say but how you say it. He even took it to this whole deeper level of Yin Yang, with plenty of examples of what belongs where [for example, being chill and unreactive vs. being very positive and high-energy], which I think really helped make it sink in better. Lovedrop also provided some exercises that we can use in order to keep our material creative when we’re in sets, and despite being seemingly basic, they are very helpful tips.

On the second day, Mystery’s discussion on building your own identity with all the different levels of achieving your desired identity [and examples of a bunch of cheap and easy things to do to be able to accomplish all this] was just unbelievable! You don’t have to be like Mystery [as in, having plenty of money and celebrity status through your own tv show] or Style [as in, having a ton of money and fame and being on the New York Times best-selling list more than once] – anyone can be whatever or even whoever they ideally want to be. Then, there was Matador, who just broke every single social interaction down to the bare basics, to the point that you sit there like you’re brain is numb, and yet you feel almost stupid for not having seen all this before. Seriously, by the end of the theoretical part of his lecture, I felt like I’d never be able to have just a simple conversation ever again because of all of the insights I gained from him. Then, Matador brought the instruction back to the more specifics in terms of the different phases of the model and provided a plethora of sound bytes for each phase as well as the “goals” of each phase that we are trying to accomplish so that we can then move on into the next one.

On the third day, we reviewed the important points from the previous 2 days and then moved on in our discussion of the model. Unfortunately, I had to leave early and was not able to take full advantage of things [especially because it turns out that they went out again on Sunday night, too]. However, if it’s not apparent by now, I got much more than I could’ve even hoped for out of all of this. We had some added bonuses of having Style talk to us [through Mystery’s phone]. Afterwards, Mystery showed us this cool little program that he really advised that we all use in order to keep our life organized [and obviously, it helps keep the girls sorted, too] and then had a slideshow for us of some of the girls from his life, to give us an idea of all that we can achieve in our lives, and not just from advancing in our skills with females but rather with our overall quality of life.

Out in the field, I tried my best to watch the instructors in their own sets, although I got there late both nights – the 1st night, I simply fell asleep because I’d been tired all week, and the 2nd night, my pizza took too long to arrive [and obviously I didn’t plan to shower and dress up until after I’d eaten]. So basically, I didn’t get to see all the sets that the instructors ran, but what I saw was more than enough to convince me that I at the beginning of what was going to be one hell of a change in my life! I made sure to be watching an instructor at all times on the first night, and it was really awesome because, even though I got there so late, since the instructors went way later, I still got a lot of opportunities to watch the correct execution of all the stuff we’d been learning. It was really cool seeing Mystery work his famous magic [literally and figuratively], and he was taking over just about every group of people while being completely relaxed and chill. I think one of the most important things I saw was Mystery talking to guys, even some who weren’t in sets with any girls, because I’m not afraid to talk to guys in sets but definitely am hesitant to do so [for whatever reason], and it really helped to see how easy and consequence-free it is. Then there was Matador, who was just effortlessly getting attraction from girl after girl after girl! There was one set in particular [that I think Matador had opened and Mystery jumped in as a wing] that was just great to see: the girl who Matador was gaming had a boyfriend..who was RIGHT THERE!! Mystery jumped in and occupied the boyfriend, after Matador had told them he was gay and continued to game her! It was just too funny to even be able to describe! Then they would “switch partners”, which they later explained was a ridiculously easy way to get DHV spikes to your target by having your wing brag for you! For some reason, based on all their tests, it doesn’t come off as bragging if someone else hypes you up. The best thing was, as all of this was taking place, I was standing with Kerr, and he was breaking everything down, play-by-play, and pointing out things to notice and pay attention to. What made this stand out for me was that it really drove home the point that nothing these guys were doing was some unknown, inexplicable phenomenon – in Matador’s words, “It’s all learnable!” By the end of it [because they would game her, then go around and do other sets, then come back to her], Matador made out with her and she slipped her number into Mystery’s palm as she left..and her boyfriend was right there for all of it! It was just unbelievable, but it was only an introduction for the next night.

There was one set that Matador opened while standing with like half the students, and he had this girl and her fat ugly friend hooked almost immediately. He escalated so quickly [another thing that just blew my mind: girls can be escalated MUCH more quickly than you’ve ever thought – Matador’s Kino-Plowing is just RIDICULOUS!!] that he was kissing her on the cheek and then on the lips within minutes of having opened her, all while her fat ugly friend was laughing and asking “Oh my god, what’s going on? She’s never done something like this! What’s wrong with her? Hahahaha”, and she finally dragged her away. I was standing a bit away and was actually where the 2 girls came over to, and the target started talking to this guy [her male cousin or something] and was making a big scene about trying to wipe her mouth and complaining about how weird “that guy” [Matador] was and reapplying her lipstick, and then a few minutes later, she brought the whole thing back up again. I was loving this, because the thing was, at first I thought “Oh man, maybe this shit doesn’t work quite like I was assuming it does…” as I was seeing this girl doing and saying all this, and then I realized that she kept looking back at Matador – despite the fact that she was “totally weirded out” by him and “it was so gross”, she couldn’t stop looking at him [and especially when he would be running game on another chick, she would be blatantly staring with an almost jealous expression on her face!]. Later on, I motioned Matador over and discussed this with him, and he explained that it was a classic example of her anti-slut defense kicking it, trying to save face in front of her friends and cousin, and I agreed, telling him about how she couldn’t stop looking at him for the rest of the night.

A great advantage of being in Vegas was that there were plenty of bachelorette parties around us, and one of them opened me and some students as we were in line for a taxi. It was especially cool because 2 or 3 of the girls were really talkative girls, so it gave us all another opportunity to run through our material as well as work on our calibration depending on the circumstances. The thing about it was that it really helped me realize that in the end, none of the sets that you open really matter – you run so many in 1 night, and the next night is a new night with new sets to run.

The 2nd night venue [Studio 54 at the MGM Grand] was hot! Especially because we got VIP access in the club, which just made things that much sweeter. When I got there, I was watching some of the students [and of course, Mystery and Matador] running some sets, and I wanted to get in on some of the action. I found Kerr, who started talking about game with me [which helped me get into a positive state and feeling like I could open and attract any girl in the club], and then he hooked me onto Matador as sort of his project for the moment since I had some catching up to do [due to my late arrival]. I told Matador to give me sets to do so he could watch me [because I can open sets on my own, but if no one’s watching, what’s the point? I can do that by myself any time]. It was an awesome chance to work one-on-one with Matador – he and I went around and opened like 3 sets to start off, all of which basically fell flat, but it was okay because it was only the warm-up sets that helped me get over the approach anxiety as well as the pressure of having Matador watch me [and I’d rather get shut down on those warm-up sets rather than a set I would want to hook], and then I told him to let me to try to open the sets myself and have him just watch me all the way through. The next couple of sets went pretty well, and it obviously helped boost up my relaxation mentality, and I realized that it doesn’t take much time or effort to get warmed up and be in-state.

I think one of the high sets of the night for me was when Matador and I opened up this hot-ass Asian girl standing with her friends [but not really engaged with the group]. Next thing I know, I’m in the middle of running game [so cool, because it was all “just happening” without me having to really think or over-analyze anything – it was just flowing] while Matador was talking to her friends. Then Mystery appeared out of nowhere, and he joined our group, too. From here, Matador and Mystery would take turns, with one occupying the group [which was a few feet away from me and the Asian girl at this point] and the other observing me and passing me tips along the way as to which routine to move into or giving me feedback on my body language. It was fucking awesome seeing Mystery in my set, especially because I got to watch 1st-hand what was going on and see the routines and the proper delivery, in essence witnessing the method at its best: by the originator himself! Mystery was really cool in my set later on, too, because he would start up a story [like the 1st line or so of a routine], and then he’d pass it on to me to take over from there, which I thought was a pretty tight wing-maneuver. And all the while, he would continue to whisper to me what I should say and do next. One of the best pieces of advice that I got [which I completely forgot: it’s one of those things that I know myself, and yet I still ended up forgetting to do it, and probably wouldn’t have ever realized it if Mystery and Matador hadn’t both pointed it out to me] was to get the introduction with the rest of the group before the obstacles become just that – obstacles. I very quickly won them over, and in the process I disqualified myself by dropping a few negs at the target in front of them. Then, I realized what I had to do next: bounce my target, or at least the whole group, back to the VIP area with me [and this was reinforced by having Matador and Mystery gesture the same idea to me]. We all moved back to VIP, and then I isolated my target on the couch and began running comfort routines on her [and even got in a few quick kisses here and there, trying to remember what I’d seen from Matador the night before – a girl can be kissed in less than a minute of having opened her, if done properly, so I had no excuse not to, right?]. Here was a specific point in time [because there were definitely others] where having a pivot really came in handy – Matador saw that I had the Asian girl isolated on the couch, so he sent over Blitz’s girlfriend to create a jealousy plotline [she came over, leaned across the Asian girl to reach me, kissed me on the cheek, chatted for literally 30 seconds, then kissed me on the cheek again and disappeared], and the effect was instantaneously noticeable! At this point, Kerr totally came in handy here and reminded me of one of the most important pieces of body language information there is [because again, something I know not to do (lean in), I was doing, without even realizing it] – lean back! I had been sitting with my arm wrapped around the girl, but I was leaning into her while talking, and this was brought to my attention by Kerr through a quick lean-back motion, and as soon as I had done this, the girl’s body language slightly changed from real positive to very positive, and I knew at this point that if I wanted, I could probably pull her that night!! All I could think was “thank God Kerr was there to catch such a simple yet critically serious mistake; it’s like the number one body language rule!” Eventually, we went to go check on her friends [who had since wandered their way back outside of the VIP area and wanted to get back in], but one of them wasn’t feeling too good, so we checked on her and then I decided to leave her there [non-neediness] and told her I was going to check on my friends and make sure they were all having a good time [protector of loved ones]. It would turn out later that the hot-ass Asian girl I’d been gaming was one of the dancers at the club!! Even Mystery was quite impressed with the ass on her when she was up on the mini-stage in her thong! Haa

Another interesting bit from this that it totally reinforced to me that a few instructors can handle 12 students – when I was reaching comfort with the Asian girl and looking around to make sure that there was an instructor watching so I could try to get feedback later, and [like I already mentioned], Matador was right there to create some jealousy with the pivot, then Kerr was there to remind me of one of the most important rules of body language, and even Mystery was sitting directly in front of me, just chilling and gaming this really cute Asian waitress while watching me game my Asian girl. Like I said, it did put at ease my worries about being watched and made it clear to me that obviously these guys were making sure to keep track of each student and to watch them in action.
Another high point for me was just chatting with Mystery about various things, the most important one being the game and just how deep and subconscious the whole thing is and all the different ways it manifests itself in everyday life. I already said this before, and it should be pretty apparent anyways, but this guy is just ridiculously sharp! I mean, he not only has figured out a girl’s innate hard-wiring, but he has explored things to such a deep level that he’s literally figured out social dynamics altogether!

Now, the single greatest event of the whole bootcamp: Matador making out with not just 1 or 2, not even just 10 or 12, but SIXTEEN DIFFERENT GIRLS!!!! Like, are you fucking kidding me?? I know you’ve got to be thinking that, because I was [and still am!], and I saw it all happen right in front of my eyes!! And these girls were fucking HOTTT!! I’m not going to sit here and describe each one of them, but the highlight of the highlight was when we had left the club and were all hanging out near the lobby, there was this 4set of girls who Mystery and Matador pulled into our group and began gaming, and within a few minutes, Matador was kissing one of them in front of another one, then he turned to her, said some random shit, and then kissed her, too [in front of the first girl]. A few minutes later, Matador made his way to the other 2 girls that Mystery was gaming, and they basically switched girls, and then Matador put on an encore presentation: in the same way as before, he was kissing the first girl within a few minutes, and then he proceeded to kiss the second girl while the first girl watched. To be honest, I couldn’t stop laughing: this had to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my whole life, and definitely so when it comes to gaming girls. As it turns out, 3 of the 4 girls were taken [I think they were married, and 1 of them was a few weeks pregnant], and yet here was Matador literally making out with them in the middle of the hotel…unfuckingbelieveable!!! Later on, we were outside of the hotel just chilling, none of us really wanting to actually leave and go back [and thus ending our night], and as luck would have it, two of the girls came outside with some guy [as it turns out, the guy was the husband of the recently-pregnant girl]. When I realized this, I decided to send Matador over to get the one girl who was with her husband, and he was all about it. He went over, hugged her, and planted a long kiss on her cheek/lips..RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER FUCKING HUSBAND!!! It was priceless to see the expression on the guy’s face as some random dude comes up and starts kissing his wife – the guy got totally TOOLED! It was shocking to see a dude get AMOGGED so hard right in front of me, and it really helped me to see that most of the time, they can’t/don’t do shit..I mean, this was his fucking wife, and he just stood there [and by the end of that interaction, the four of them had walked into the lobby and were chatting it up, as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened..unbelievable!]. Like I said, I could go on and on about this jaw-dropping feat of 16 make-outs in a span of only a few hours, but there’s no way I could possibly capture how ridiculously mind-blowing it was to witness all of this! The students and I were just standing there, amazed at how all this had just happened – it was simply an awesome display of ridiculous social authority; it was almost absurd how easily and naturally he had [and continued to] pull this dominance off all night long.

A little off-topic, but I caught up with Matador Monday night [after the premiere of “The Pickup Artist”], and I thought that was really cool of him, since he’s no longer obligated to do anything because the bootcamp is now over, and yet here he was, being all chill with me [like I mentioned earlier, treating me like an old friend]. He told me that he was feeling pretty good about the whole show and all, and off-handedly mentioned that he’d ended up pulling on that Sunday night [when I had to leave early to catch my flight]. A few days before this, I would’ve been a bit skeptical, but after having seen these guys [Mystery, Kerr, and especially Matador] in action that weekend, it would’ve been as difficult to believe that he hadn’t pulled!

Tips and Concluding Thoughts: So, the quick conclusion: I was very surprised and impressed at all of our improvements over the span of only a weekend. I’d figured that obviously there must be some strong results on the part of most of the students from the past since the reviews have been so favorable, but I was still pretty skeptical about how much insight we could possibly gain in a span of really only like 40 hours of combined total time. I think that we were lucky in our group because no one really needed to be pushed to approach [don’t get me wrong: many of us had approach anxiety, we just got over it because it was like “I don’t know any of these people in this club, I’ll never see them again if I mess up or embarrass myself, and I paid a butt-load of money to be here!”], so a number of us actually got to do much more on the 1st night than is usually expected. The only thing that I personally didn’t like about that was that I didn’t get to watch the instructors in all of the sets that they ran, but eh, what are you going to do [especially since it was my own fault for being late]? I feel that I got to watch them enough to learn from their example and behavior, the biggest thing being their BODY LANGUAGE…this is HUGE!
Another thing that struck me about this was that you really can open with whatever opener you want [Lovedrop had joked about this in Seminar portion and reminisced about this time in Australia that he’d opened a few sets discussing the fact that their currency has a picture of the queen on it, and the sets had still hooked], but I got a demonstration first-hand: on the 1st night, Matador was opening sets by literally yelling at a girl and telling her to come to him..and it worked like every single time! And he’d just take it from there [don’t get me wrong, sometimes the target would verbally be pushing him away, and yet she would never actually end the interaction by walking away or anything].

Some tips that I’d recommend to keep in mind that helped me out would be to definitely seek instructors out: remember, as cool as the instructors are, in the end, you’ve paid for them to be there and to basically have access to their knowledge and skill as well as experience, and so you have to be a true and almost greedy customer-type who’s trying to get all out his buck [ex: ask as many questions as you want, follow the instructors to watch them in action (since they are the professionals), find them to ask them for feedback/answers, have them break-down an instructor’s or another student’s set as it’s happening in front of you (i.e. what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, what could be better, etc.), grab them to watch you in-field, etc].

Going with the same idea of being a very eager customer, be sure to make the most of the time that you have, since it’s only a single weekend. For example, as I mentioned before, I stayed out each night after we were officially done to watch the instructors doing their own thing because, the way I saw it, I did pay to be there, and so I should try to get the most out of it [they’re going to be doing their sets, anyway, so I might as well watch and learn (like Matador's "Alpha Caveman" thing - can't even describe how fucking cool yet easy it is!)!], especially since I hadn’t gotten to see them as much as I would’ve liked due to my late arrival.

Another tip that I found quite helpful was this: you go out and keep opening sets and running your material and, similar to a video game, you just start over with a new set if things don’t go too well, or even for the mere practice of it. Similar to this was the insight that some girls are just bitches, so they’re going to act like bitches..basically, not everyone goes out to meet new people or whatever, so some will be more hostile than others: the important thing is to NOT take this personally, as it is NOT a rejection of YOU as a person [since they don’t even know anything about you at this point in time] – it is a reactionary rejection based on all the thousands of times she has been approached throughout her lifetime. [A much-shortened story exemplifying this: Matador had been going on his streak, and the obstacle in one set (whose target he’d already made-out with) completely freaked on him! She started yelling at him to not touch her, and he continued being playful, but she just got more and more bitchy, and next thing we knew, she had her hand wrapped around his neck, trying to choke him!! Needless to say, Matador got into trouble (along with one of the students), and a side-note observation was seeing Matador bend and twist social interactions in order to ensure that he was treated fairly instead of the initial reaction of the security (typical sleazy drunken guy going too far with an innocent female), and of course seeing the video footage of their interaction helped to clear things up, too. Bottom line: the girl was non-social and just plain crazy].

 One thing that I found helpful in terms of the debrief was that I spent time after getting back to the hotel each night [after the Seminar portions, too, but especially after the In-Field portions] and reviewed my notes from earlier in the Seminar as well as applying them to my own thoughts and insights from the events of the night. I feel that this really helped to speed up my progress and to solidify all the concepts we had been learning throughout the weekend-long process. By the end of it, I felt as though I was seeing glimpses of things like the Matrix [the whole green numerical lines, etc]: in my own sets, I could see everything happening and knew why it was happening, what led up to it, and where things were going at that point; basically, the whole structure of the interactions was unfolding right before me, and I know that I owed this major amplification in such a short span of time to the instructors as well as the time and effort I had been putting in on my own [for example, the reviewing of my day-notes and the making of new night-notes]. Speaking of notes, make sure to take plenty of them! And also save them, because they make for a very good reference in the future [and they are, in the end, thousands of dollars worth of notes!].

All in all, over the span of one weekend, I was very thoroughly exposed to an in-depth and detailed psychological philosophy coupled with a simply incredible technology that breaks down social dynamics into such simple patterns that it was just outrageous, and it was simply an amazing experience…this is what makes Mystery’s method truly so amazing: it doesn’t matter what your natural style is, because as long as you are hitting the necessary Attraction Switches, the set is always on! I never knew that this type of skill that I had witnessed the instructors displaying [as well as experienced from my own application] could be learned or developed, much less in such a small amount of time. Hearing these guys talk and seeing them in action, I wasn’t sure how closely I could duplicate their results, but they certainly opened my eyes to what was possible with a sufficient amount of time and dedication to the art of attracting and seducing women.

Program Review for Las Vegas Bootcamp, by StoryyTeller, Aug 07

Alrighty, here is my review of the Las Vegas Bootcamp with Mystery, Lovedrop, Matador, Hawaii, and Neo (and Blitz and the wing-women):

Day 1 (in class) : Outstanding

Started on time with Mystery. He is friendly, personable and a very articulate speaker.

I had already read the book twice and watched the DVD’s several times so most of the information was review for me.
There were of course, updated and new distinctions to be learned.

For example;
Peacocking raises the probability of being seen – thus if you are peacocking, you must establish pre-selection as soon as possible. Otherwise you will be "seen" as a lonely loser, thereby losing all the benefits of peacocking.

One of the main benefits for me was learning how to "cope with the fear of the approach."
1. You have permission to fear the approach – it’s normal.
2. Go ahead and "wreck the set" – it’s just practice.
3. "Crash and Learn"

Lovedrop did a great presentation on Emotions, Delivery, and Non-Reactive Attitude. This was an outstanding talk – I took tons of notes. Most of it was new material that I hadn’t read in the book or seen on the DVD’s.
Here are a few tidbits from my notes:
- be unaffected by hot chicks because it lowers your value
- critical mistake: reacting to girls – they perceive your self-perception of lower value
- It isn’t the routine that gets the results, it’s the delivery
- When girls see that you are unaffected, they feel attraction – because of your self-perceived relative value
- High value guys don’t try to impress
- Outcome: get practice – stop caring about getting laid
- Embrace rejection – avoiding rejection is for pussies
- etc…

Night 1 : Demo Night at the club

Matador demo’ed the "alpha-kino-caveman" character. To me it appeared over-aggressive and not my style. He did a great job of shifting my perception the next day and night (read on…).

Lovedrop was the quintessential coach, describing every move that Mystery made (from a polite distance), and correcting my newbie patterns (talking to fast, leaning in, forgetting to lock-in, etc.). He really is an outstanding social-scientist who can quickly assess and deconstruct social interactions.

Mystery was approaching, conversing, hugging (going kino) with many females. I didn’t stand close enough to hear what he was saying because it just feels weird to me to stand that close – but Lovedrop explained what he was doing.

I opened about 7 sets on my own (one set opened me). Made a bunch of mistakes. Really learned the value of "warm-up sets."

Day 2 (in class) : Opened with Mystery for an hour or 2, then Matador for the rest of the day.

Regarding Matador, it was quite interesting to see an intellectual social-scientist speaking to us during the day after witnessing the "alpha-kino-caveman" from the night before.

I expressed my concern that the caveman character seemed overly aggressive and a little rude to the women. He helped me to shift my perspective by pointing out a few things:
1. He is constantly calibrating, testing for tension, and releasing and rolling-off when he feels it.
2. No one is forcing the women to stay and talk to him. They can walk away anytime they want.
3. If they didn’t like what he was doing, they would leave. Therefore, they must like it.

Later that night (in the club), he re-demonstrated even more dramatically by calling our attention "hey guys, right now, watch this, (alpha-caveman demo), see it’s that easy." Sure enough, the women didn’t leave, they stuck around for more of the same. This was very valuable for me.

At the end of Day 2 (in class), Matador set our goal for the night to be 1 makeout session. He asked if we were ready. I said "Hell no, I’m scared shitless." Then I remembered Mystery’s advice from the previous day; don’t be afraid to wreck the set, crash and learn.

Night 2 (at the club):

We had a VIP table. Matador did an endless stream of "alpha-kino-caveman" demos – which totally shifted my whole perspective.

Lovedrop continued to watch me in-set and provided post-set analysis of what I did right and where to improve.

I went into my social-dancing role (which I mastered many years ago), and eventually got my make-out session with a cute married woman. When I went for the kiss, she said "I’m married" – to which I responded "Hey, I’m not going to fuck you right here on the table." We started making out. A few minutes later her friends came and took her away. It was fun. When I told Matador that I got my make-out, he said that he had done 9 so far – so I went off to open some more sets (practice, practice, practice).

Day 3 (in class):

- More comprehensive theory from Matador (hoops, neg theory, group theory, specific gambits, micro-calibration, shared projects, archetypes, etc.) – I already knew most of this from the book and DVD’s, but it was great to be able to ask questions in an interactive format.

- Another great presentation from Lovedrop which covered Evolutionary Value Switches, Emotional Relevancy in Story Telling, Bait Hook Reel Release, Conversational Rapport, Building Comfort and Trust, Displaying Vulnerability, and a couple new routines.

- Mystery got us on the phone with Style (author of The Game), and provided a lot of motivation to continue practicing by showing us pictures of the results he has achieved – he made my goals seem very real and achievable (hell, if a tall skinny guy who didn’t lose his virginity till he was 21 can get hot chicks, then so can I). He also demo’ed some cool mind-mapping software that helps to keep the social life organized.

Night 3 : bonus extra night

The seminar is advertised with 2 club nights but we did 3. I have no idea if this is normal or if they just felt like going out again.

I gave Matador a run for his money, dancing with lots of cool girls – BTW, this is a great wingman tactic to occupy obstacles.

Lovedrop, once again watched me in set and provided exceptional coaching:
- slow the fuck down, talk slower
- lean back
- don’t make your hoops to big (move her 10 feet away before trying to promenade the club)
- when you are in the club, go on instinct – don’t try to remember everything you learned in class because the analysis will fuck you up – fall to your level of training.
- be the cool, unaffected rich guy who is having a good time no matter what happens

He also sent in a wing-woman to provide social-proof at a key moment in one of my sets – it worked great – thanks!

BTW, the 2 wing-women were great. They made it really easy to social-proof the room right off the bat. It is a lot easier to open sets when you have pre-selection.

Towards the end of the night I was having a great time dancing with a little hottie. I almost wrecked the set but managed to salvage a number close. I left before I could fuck it up beyond all repair. She must have liked me because we did a "Day 2" the very next day. We had a great time, but I failed to give here enough "plausible deniability" to spend the night with me. Oh well – crash and learn…

Day 4 : brief wrap-up with Neo and Matador

Matador debriefed and answered any remaining questions before handing over to Neo.

Neo covered LMR (last minute resistance) – cool guy.

One of the great things about Neo is that he is short – which proves that you don’t have to be tall to get girls.

I already knew most of the LMR theory from the book and DVD’s. But one new distinction that I did get from Neo is this:
Fundamentally, a woman needs to feel that she has the option of keeping you around the next day.

Overall : Time and money well spent. I would do it again (and probably will). Highly recommended.

Cheers,
__________________
—StoryTeller

Program Review for Lovedrop by Soul, Chicago Bootcamp, Aug 07

I came out to Chicage not knowing what to expect. I’d been working solo for a year and this was going to be my first workshop experience. I understood that through the course of the weekend a lot of new concepts would be thrown our way. It became obvious to me that the instructor would have a difficult job making the material interesting and understandable. That being said, Lovedrop did not dissappoint. He knew his stuff from background evolution to the various techniques used by RSD, Speed Seduction, Cocky Funny and of course, The Venusian Arts.

On Saturday evening, with my newly aquired knowledge, I successfully opened 4 out of 5 sets. The highlight occured when I got a hostess so interested after a CT – IOD combo, that she threw ice at me from a cooler, begging me to continue a palm reading after I had hand tossed and walked away!

Overall, I had a great time, but this is just the begining. I’m heading back to another Conference and hopefully I’ll see you guys there.

Cheers,
Soul

Program Review for LA Bootcamp, by Artisan, Jul 07

A unique experience to see the stars who started it all! I went to the LA bootcamp somewhere around Sept. of 2007 and found the whole 3 days of my stay, quite insighting! I benefited alot from the lectures and EVEN MORE from the answers they gave me! Hearing from all the instructors you definately get to see each of the masters’ own style of pick up, and if anyone can say peacocking, well all 3 instructors make that look like nobody’s business! Judging by observing how they talk and teach I could easily tell, Matador was the dominant alpha-male like artist who mixes his rock-star image with a straight dominant attitude, Lovedrop was the playful, friendly, popular, social, and young in heart artist, Mystery well of course from his image is kind of a mix of playful, dominant, and mysterious, nuff said for his part. For all those curious about what a bootcamp is like, let me break it all down for you of what happened day by day…

Day 1: Everyone is introduced to the instructors and each other. The day consists of generally the narrow basics like female psychology, what openers are and an IMPORTANT overview of HOW TO ACTUALLY OPEN (not only is the line taught, the PROPER BODY LANGUAGE is shown, and trust me, it doesn’t look hard but delivering the line and body language properly at the same time isn’t a cake-walk) along with further A phase stuff. You do go out at Day 1 and get to see the instructors do their thing

Day 2: THe nitty gritty happens here! A fast overview and break down of what happened last night is discussed, I believe micro-calibration thoroughly emphasized (once they explain it, you won’t need to memorize the perfect come-back for every shit-test she gives you, AND you’ll know how to make your own negs and teases PROPERLY)
A2, A3, and some C phases are thoroughly explained, a bunch of the instructors’ personal routines and sound-bites are said throughout the whole discussion. You do go out on Day 2, but this time YOUR APPROACHING

Day 3: Final day, again an overview and break down of all interactions are briefly told, Mystery holds court for a long time in the C2, C3 to S phases, a the S phases. You learn so some important concepts and material that i can’t seem to find in the VAH anywhere! Definately a big insight on story-telling and various versions of the stock stories told in their ACTUAL REAL FORM (they’re much more richer in quality), and well after last remainding questions are answered, class is dismissed

(side note: yes there are breaks in between and all 3 instructors are more than happy to answer your questions, it seemed that EVERY DAY we probably went 2 hours over the scheduled ending b/c of extended teaching with Q&A, a live practice is done where the instructors will critic your opening body language and delivery, BRING A LAPTOP FOR NOTES!!! Yes they do critic your fashion too so make sure to dress like how you’d dress normally to get an honest review, it’s wise to have already read the VAH however that is not required but recommended b/c they go beyond that book, and lastly if you got questions always ask cause they’re giving you the top notch answers.

Well hope this helps

-Artisan

The Pickup Artist Reviewed in The New York Times

And the Girls Fall Panting at Their Two Left Feet

The descriptions of romantic ruin given by the eight goofballs who show up for sexual makeovers tonight on VH1’s “Pick-Up Artist” feature more slapstick than misery. The dateless guys use metaphors involving pratfalls, bottles that break on their heads and even backward cartwheels to evoke how they feel when stunned into terrified silence by desirable women.

Surprisingly none of these guys mumble or stutter when talking about their awkwardness. Rather, they laugh and ham it up. They have antic personalities, and make self-effacing jokes. (“I had a woman come up to me only to reject me,” one says, guffawing.)

It’s entirely appropriate, then, that the man brought in to reform these loners on this reality competition and to teach them how to get girls encourages them above all to be theatrical. Mystery, the womanizer impresario who has made a name for himself as a seduction coach, does not tell his charges, as love counselors from grandmothers to Men’s Health magazine have, that they should “be themselves,” “smile” and “ask girls about themselves.”

No way. Instead he simply teaches the buffoons a whole new way of clowning, complete with its own costumes, sketches and stagecraft. They lose their computer-schmo uniforms in favor of regalia — eyeliner, hair dye and accessories that seem lifted from John Malkovich’s “Dangerous Liaisons” wardrobe. And they learn to deploy elaborate forms of social manipulation in place of nervous banter.

This is a shrewd bit of coaching — more artifice, not less — and it’s no wonder that Mystery has a reputation for getting results, turning schlubs into ladies’ men. (Neil Strauss, a former reporter and critic for The New York Times, chronicled Mystery’s methods and adventures in his best seller “The Game.” He was also won over to the technique, and used it to seduce women himself.)

The advice to do more acting is a terrific counter-directive to the commands that young people get from all sides in our therapeutic culture, with its focus on internal calm and personal authenticity. These keyed-up young men are unlikely to relax anytime soon, and “being themselves” has landed them nowhere so far. (At least four confess to being virgins; all are sorely disappointed with their romantic track records.) The guys are all at their happiest when mugging with one another or for the cameras.

It’s likely that women find these men not too “insecure,” “inadequate” or “shy” — as they typically fear — but too madcap. They are comic actors who need to learn, for the short term at least, to play suave leading men.

“The Pick-Up Artist,” which began last week, brings together men who appear to have been waiting their whole lives — in one case 45 years — to see seduction codified in some way, and essentially turned into Pop Art. When, in the first episode, Mystery and his henchmen — Matador and J-Dog, themselves former nerds — are seen triumphantly working a roomful of bubbly girls, the art of courtship seems like prancing: like rich comedy and a great time. It does not seem boring, honest and wrenching, like therapy.

Watching the gurus on a hidden camera, the nerds are in awe. They seem to have approached sex and romance as abstractions that need to be approached through a series of bitterly difficult chores — like, say, conversation with women. Observing the maestros strut and play brings smiles to their faces. Could picking up women be this easy?

We’ll see. “I think they don’t understand the purpose of life,” says Mystery, simply, speaking of his pupils. He’s confident he can teach them in eight weeks.

“The Pick-Up Artist” is intriguing — far more intriguing than its tawdry subject might suggest. Mr. Strauss’s thoughtful book showed how sophisticated Mystery’s experiment actually was: What if modern men could be taught the art of swashbuckling Byronic seduction and thereby be saved from the depression and loneliness induced by therapy culture?

This series adds another dimension to this ingenious hypothesis.

THE PICK-UP ARTIST

VH1, tonight at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.

J. D. Roth and Adam Greener, executive producers for 3 Ball Entertainment. Michael Hirschorn, Jeff Olde and Claire McCabe, executive producers for VH1. A production of 3 Ball Entertainment and VH1.

Excerpted from The New York Times.  View original article here.

Mystery interviewed on Salon.com

The Artful Seducer

When you first see the towering, 6-foot-5 man who goes by the name "Mystery," there’s almost too much to take in. A floppy top hat and goggles, bright red lips tattooed on his neck, kohl-lined eyes, platform boots, black nails, binoculars slung around his neck: These are just a few of Mystery’s unexplainable accouterments. But Mystery says he knows just what he’s doing. He calls his look "peacocking" — and explains that it’s a way of capturing women’s attention, to intrigue and, ultimately, sleep with them.

At 35, Mystery (aka Erik Von Markovik) is widely considered one of the most successful pickup artists in the world and makes his livelihood by getting other men laid. He first shot to fame in 2005, after a best-selling exposé by journalist Neil Strauss, "The Game," brought readers inside his life within the Los Angeles seduction scene. Mystery then published an instructional manual titled "How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed: The Mystery Method." Now he’s starring in his very own reality-TV series, "The Pick-up Artist," premiering Aug. 6 on VH1. There, with the help of his wingmen, Matador and J Dog, Mystery plans to fix the luck of a 45-year-old virgin and seven other hapless Don Juans.

When he’s not in front of the camera, Mystery pays homage to his two idols — Tony Robbins and Casanova — by traveling the world offering seduction workshops, some of which run nearly $5,000 a pop. During these seminars, he roams hotel conference rooms in a headset, scribbling Venn diagrams and flowcharts meant to illuminate the female mind. Later on, students accompany him to a nightclub, where like a skilled magician, Mystery produces three platinum blonds on his lap or summons a phone number from a woman standing next to her boyfriend.

As it happens, Mystery used to work as a magician. But he says that he found he could cut the magic from his interactions with people and still captivate them — especially women. Paired with some self-taught psychology, those mind games developed into "The Mystery Method," which, he says, teaches men to rewire a woman’s "attraction circuitry."

How do you "rewire" a woman? According to Mystery, it involves meeting the objectives of her phases of attraction in order to establish comfort inspired ire, to be sure — particularly his use of the "neg," a "subtle-yet-negative statement that puts a target off-guard and makes her question her own value." Along with "peacocking" — which, some might say, paints women as house cats easily distracted by shiny objects — Mystery has also developed "cat theory," which he defines as "keeping ‘bait’ just out of a woman’s reach and continually enticing her in small increments. She must be baited to chase like a cat with a string." He dubs this school of thought the "Venusian Arts" — the end goal of which is "replication." and successfully seduce her within seven hours. It’s a method that has

Salon spoke to Mystery by phone in San Diego (where he was filming an upcoming product) about sexual psychology, the "need to be hugged," and the loneliness of life as a pickup artist.

What can viewers expect from your upcoming VH1 reality-TV show?

It’ll be heartwarming. Eight lovable lonelies are coming to me — one moment. [Yelling in background: Dude, it started!] Forgive me, I’m being pulled from several sides. I have, in this show, eight students and my job is to get them up to speed in a game their dads never taught them. In order to make it challenging we added in an elimination game to it, whereby by the end, only one of them will have earned the right to hang with me, travel with me and teach others.

Were you worried that someone wasn’t going to be qualified by the end of the show?

No, I wasn’t, simply because I’ve done boot camps for quite some time and learning the elegant art of cold approach pickup is definable, it’s quantifiable. You can do it. It’s a lot like getting on a motorcycle. The first time you get on it you’ll be afraid, just like the first time you approach a girl. The same sort of full-blown adrenaline release will take place. If you desensitize yourself to those foreign environments you’ll get yourself up to speed.

You’re already fairly well known, but what does this show mean for your future as a pickup artist?

[Laughs] I’m a 35-year-old man. I don’t need any more friends. I have all the friends that I need in my life to share challenges with. The women in my life, they’re good friends. I’ve never hidden any of this pickup stuff from them. If you had to hide pickup secrets from a woman, I think those secrets would be unethical. During my boot camps, over the years, I’ve invited girlfriends to these events. And, really, they’re great sounding boards. I get to find out what they feel is moral or immoral.

Have they helped you to tweak your method at all?

Well, what a woman says she wants and what she responds to are two different things.

That brings me to another question. You’ve said your method addresses female psychology.

Human psychology.

So what kind of psychological theories underpin your method?

Well, that’s a loaded question.

It is?

I’m fascinated by psychology and one aspect of psychology, if you’re going to zoom into it a little bit, is sexual psychology. We’re not out to try to figure out the opposite sex, we’re trying to figure out ourselves.

If we could reverse-engineer the way the emotional circuits in our brain work, how they function and why and how they systematically trigger when we’re faced with certain events, we could figure out how to do it right. How do you approach a woman without freaking her out?

A woman wants to align with a man of high value. How can a man systematically convey his value to a woman if she won’t even let him? A woman, by the time she’s 23 years old, if she’s a beautiful young lady, she’s going to have been hit on a good 7,500 times. So we have to approach differently. We can’t approach saying, "Wow, I like you, do you like me?"

There are some differences among men and women when it comes to our attraction circuits. A man’s circuits are calibrated primarily to respond to a woman’s replication value — to her hip to waist ratio, facial symmetry, breast shape and size, health characteristics, and all that, right? And a woman, her attraction mechanism is evolutionarily calibrated to respond to more of a man’s social value. In other words, when I hang out with a woman, I don’t hang out with her because I need to be protected. Men, we respond to her replication value. Women, they respond primarily to a man’s survival value or social value. The purpose of life is to survive and replicate and we’ve got 28,000 days — all of us — approximately, give or take, to make that happen.

But survival and replication have a different importance in today’s world than, say, in hunting and gathering days, right?

Well, the purpose of life is to survive and replicate, whether you know that or not. If you don’t survive long enough to replicate, well, then your genes will not replicate. It’s very simple. Our brains, when you’re looking at it from an engineering point of view, every single circuit, every emotional circuit that exists — there’s got to be a good 300 of them — every one exists for a social purpose.

You want to hang out and share challenges with people who can help you in this life. From a woman’s perspective, there is nothing more helpful than having a relationship with a man who can take care of her. Not that she needs to be taken care of. But it certainly would be nice to have someone in your corner that you can truly trust and has your best interest in mind. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone in your corner that would remove the weight of the world from your shoulders?

Sure.

To give you direction and advice. And help you with all those other emotional things like the need for sex, the need for companionship. The need to be hugged.

But men need that too, right?

Of course. One of my students in the show is a 45-year-old virgin. [Pauses] Wow. It’s not even about sex at that point, it’s about hugging. That man had just not been hugged enough.

I’ve read that, as a teenager, you were a Dungeons and Dragons devotee and a virgin until age 21. So how did you transform into, arguably, the world’s most well-known pickup artist?

Who said "arguably"? [Laughs.] I’m teasing, I’m teasing. Well, I was a late bloomer — went through puberty at 16 and a half and lost my virginity in my 21st year. In order for me to get social, while I was a kid, I used — and was fascinated by — of all things, magic. This is how it all started: I read a book called "501 Magic Tricks." What was amazing was it wasn’t four or five or six different ways of screwing with someone’s head and showing the holes in their perception. There were 501 ways, all in one book. It was mind-altering to me.

By my 20s, I was doing hundreds and hundreds of magic shows all around the world and when I was in my mid-20s, I went down to Florida because I wanted to perform magic on a cruise ship. And while my promo pack was out there and being looked at, I needed to make some money. So, I started working in a restaurant doing what we call intimate interactive illusion. But how the hell do you walk up to a group of strangers and say [adopts dopey voice], "Hey would you like to see some magic?" I needed to come up with a way of making it cool, adding a personality to it.

What I ultimately discovered was that I could remove the magic from my interactions and keep their attention. People would be captivated — they would gravitate toward me because of my fascination in things.

So, maybe it’s no great surprise that you’ve become skilled at interacting one-on-one with people. But how good is the average guy at summoning that kind of charisma and confidence?

I’m less concerned about confidence than I am about competence. Charisma is a very ethereal word …charisma. It’s more about what value you have for a woman and how you can systematically demonstrate it to her without appearing as if you’re one of those seedy players wanting to brag. It’s not about bragging, so you disqualify yourself by throwing out what we call a "neg."

I was just about to go there. Explain for a minute what the "neg" is.

A "neg" is a concept. A "neg" is a statement or action one would make to briefly disqualify oneself from being considered a potential suitor. It’s not an insult, I’m not putting the girl down. For instance, if I’m in a group of people and I say, perhaps to my girl of interest, "Hey, can you pass me that napkin, please? Thank you." I go to blow my nose and I look at her and I say, "What, are you gonna watch?" She’ll laugh, of course, and I’ll blow my nose. I’m not insulting her by doing that but I am disqualifying myself as being considered a potential suitor. Her friends know I’m not after her — I’m blowing my nose in front of her!

Then the friends are disarmed and she’s gonna think to herself, "He’s not after me." If she’s particularly beautiful, she’s gonna wonder why. The only solution to why is either that he’s gay, in which case he’s not threatening, or he’s so accustomed to beauty that he must have beauty in his life. So he must be pretty selective and a hard-wired attraction switch gets triggered.

One "neg" that I’ve seen you do is to walk up to a woman and say, "What do you have going for you other than your looks?"

I would never just walk up to her and say that, no. But, three to five minutes in … My job is to first disqualify myself then to get into a conversation where I can demonstrate higher value. Once you’ve done that, she’ll start throwing subtle indicators of interest. Subtle cues like scratching the back of her hand. That area of the hand gets itchy when a girl is attracted to a man from ape days, you know — it means, "Groom me." That’s a subtle indicator of interest. Once we get that, then and only then, can we qualify her. I’m being social, I’m showing that I have social values, and once she has qualified herself — I ask, "What do you have going for yourself more than your looks?" — and she starts answering. Well, that’s an indicator of interest. She’s actually trying to qualify herself. Then and only then can I give her indicators of interest.

The theory of "negging" is controversial. I’ve heard it criticized as simply veiled insults and misogynistic.

Those are the people who haven’t seen it in action. The result of any "neg" is laughter.

Doesn’t this kind of scheming ultimately harbor a more deep-seated sense of inadequacy in men? Don’t you start to worry about having the "real you" discovered?

You’ve never met me in person, have you? And you wrote that question down on a piece of paper before you met me. Here is the word that I don’t enjoy, "scheming" — I’m not a schemer.

What word would you be more comfortable with?

Let’s go through it again. What’s the question?

OK … would this kind of scheming create a sense of inadequacy in men — a fear of being found out?

Wow. Did you write that? Snap out of it, woman! Oh my god. Let’s come up with better questions than that — that just doesn’t fit into my reality. Are there people out there who scheme? Perhaps. Are there people out there who don’t like themselves? Yeah. I like myself, I’m a good person.

This is really how I see it: If you don’t learn these skills, if you don’t learn what knowledge already exists in the Venusian Arts, your chances of survival and replication in this life will be compromised.

OK, how is this question: When you start looking at women as "targets," as a power to be overthrown, do you lose any intellectual respect for them?

That’s a very loaded question. That doesn’t fit into my reality. Forgive me, I don’t look at women that way. So you’d have to ask someone who does. That’s just not even in my reality. I have a lot of women in my life — do you know what they’d do if I talked like that, if I thought like that? They’d kick my ass!

But if you can, as you say, so effectively summon virtually any woman’s interest, wouldn’t you start to lose respect for them?

In my life, I am very fortunate to have choice. If I’m not in a relationship, there are women who are actually kind of keeping track of that. So that they can, you know, jockey for a position.

That’s just not my reality. The misogyny thing, of course I’m going to have to deal with the preconceived notions of the stereotype of a player. But that’s why we don’t even call it the pickup arts. We call it the Venusian Arts.

If your method is as effective as you say it is, do you worry about it getting into the wrong hands and being abused?

Well, I can’t worry about it. Are there bad people out there? Yeah. Aren’t there people who want to use any tool for evil?

Is it at all lonely, though, having to always follow these rules, rather than telling it like it is, saying things as you feel them?

Wow, yeah. Yeah, it is. How unfair is it that when I see a woman from a distance, I may not know her name and my god has given me attraction circuits in my head that make me want to mate with her. Even though I don’t know her name, right? Women don’t generally feel that. They have to know the man’s name and his Social Security number.

I might disagree with that. I know plenty of women who aren’t that way.

Uh, are they cute?

Well, that’s the end of my questions, is there anything else, though, that you’d like to add?

[Snickers.] You’re funny. Have you ever been to a club?

Yes.

How many boyfriends have you had? Have you had more than one?

Yes.

So you’re one of us then. You’re sequentially monogamous. You’ve had more than one man in your life.

Right. And?

These are just statements. I’m trying to understand who I’m speaking with. What city are you in?

San Francisco.

San Fran. OK, there’s a [seduction] lair there.

I’ve heard.

Excerpted from salon.com  View original article here.

Mystery in The New York Post

Hot Seat: Mystery

HERE in the Golden Age of Nerds, it’s hardly surprising that guys who can’t get chicks would band together to intellectualize the process, deconstructing the emotional mapping of females to unlock secrets that both heredity and upbringing failed to provide them.

The guru of this movement is a man who calls himself Mystery, a Canadian magician who charges thousands of dollars for three-day seminars to help men figure out how to talk to women and turn themselves into masterful PUAs – pick-up artists. His methods, which include such techniques as “negging,” obliquely insulting a woman to get her to want to please the PUA, were documented in Neil Strauss’ book “The Game.”

VH1 has now corralled Mystery for a reality series called “The Pick-Up Artist,” where eight seduction-deficient men come under his tutelage to learn the secrets to attracting these mysterious creatures we call women, while vying for the title of “Master Pick-Up Artist.” Exactly how charming is this conqueror of the female mind? Tune in tomorrow night – or, just read for yourself.

Q: In the show, we learn that you started life as a dork. How big a dork were you?

A: I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 21, or go though puberty until I was 16. I was a late bloomer.

Q: What turned it around?

A: I got into magic. I could hide behind the routines, and it allowed me to be social.

Q: So it was as a magician that you learned to get comfortable with women?

A: Hmm. Ask me other questions, because I don’t think in these terms. You know, I’m a 35-year-old man, and the world wants a great deal from me, and I need nothing. I kind of put my life together now.

So yeah, there was a time it wasn’t together, and I was lonely and needed to get out of the house. I didn’t know what the purpose of life was. Most people don’t. I have clarity now on that, and that’s what I give others clarity, so they can get their s— together.

Q: Was there a revelation for you in this area, or was it gradual?

A: Both. It’s information. I’ve had many epiphanies throughout my life. When I started out, I would be attracted to a woman from a distance, because that’s how a man’s attraction mechanism is wired. The women’s attraction mechanism is not designed that way. It’s designed on a man’s social value, because she has a much better chance of survival and replication if she allies with a man with high social value so she’ll be protected – from an evolutionary standpoint.

She has to see him being surrounded by women, or being a leader of men, or know that he’s a protector of his loved ones. Back when I started all this, I’d just walk up to a girl and say, “Hi, I like you. Do you like me?” That’s how stupid I was. And of course they wouldn’t, because here I was all alone in my little ski jacket, 21 years old, with no value for a woman. If I have no value for a woman, why would she find me attractive?

Q: The method you teach has been tested and calculated over the years to get around women’s defenses.

A: This has become an international cultural phenomenon. This is not just about a television show. The TV show is a way for bigwigs to latch on to something that is already, for the last 10 years, happening. Everywhere I go, I get recognized. It’s f – - – ing cool, dude. In every city I go to, the reaction upon meeting me is touching-the-hem-style craziness. “Oh my god! You’re changing my life! Thank you so much!”

Q: Do you have a girlfriend?

A: Am I seeing someone special?

Q: Yes.

A: Well, they’re all special.

Q: You know what I mean.

A: Actually, I don’t know what you mean. Am I married? No. I don’t believe in marriage. I believe in marriage-style relationships, and I love committed relationships, but I’m a humanist. I believe in marriage as one year with an option to renew.

Q: So it’s not about just hooking up?

A: Well, you haven’t met me, so you’re gonna have a preconceived notion about me being a pick-up artist. I’m traveling now, so I have a tough time having a relationship. To be honest, my teaching others has really compromised my relationship life. I feel martyred in a weird way, but I’m doing something really special.

Q: Do you really believe any guy can be comfortable talking to women?

A: That’s a loaded question, isn’t it? Man, you’re very rich with these questions.

Q: Why is that loaded?

A: Because there’s a life of experience that men need to develop to feel comfort with people. You’re asking, if they learn these tips, will they feel comfortable? Well, how do you define comfort? We’re evolutionarily hard-wired to feel discomfort. I give permission to all the men who are afraid to approach women, that it’s OK.

Q:Where and when were you born?

A: My name is Mystery. So, being from places unknown, and all those little silly questions that don’t matter to people, but they encourage open-ended loops that people want to close off, they go on the Internet – any marketing ideas here?

Q: Sorry?

A: Any marketing ideas? I’m 35 years old, Sept. 24, 1971, but you can decide for yourself whether you’re going to print that. The idea can also be, “He won’t tell me.”

Q: But you did tell me.

A: Yes I did. And you’ve got yourself a dilemma, don’t you? Let’s see if you’re on my side or not – and, if there will ever be interviews again. Ahhhh-haaahhhh! I’m f – - – ing with you.

The score

Birth date: Sept. 24, 1971. Born Erik James Horvat-Markovic in Toronto, Canada. He legally changed his name to Mystery.

Master of “The Game”: No big shock, folks – little Erik was into Dungeons & Dragons.

Notice me! Mystery believes in “peacocking:” getting women to notice you by wearing an outlandish piece of clothing

The Ultimate Late Bloomer: Mystery’s late coming of age was nothing. One of the contestants on “The Pick-Up Artist” is a virgin – at 45!

Excerpted from The New York Post. View original article here.

Mystery VH1 Pickup Artist – Montage of Women & PUA Lifestyle

The Pick-Up Artist Reviewed In The Wall Street Journal

“Make love, not war” isn’t the explicit theme of VH1′s new reality series, “The Pickup Artist” (Mondays, 9-10 p.m.). But the guys recruited for this hilarious show are so desperate to meet women that they have no time for much else. Their teacher is professional babe magnet Erik von Markovic, aka Mystery. His book “The Mystery Method” is a sort of “The Rules” for men. (Along with some nonsense, it reveals an uncanny grasp of human nature and what women want.)

Whether this knowledge can be absorbed by the eight dipsticks here remains to be seen. One guy can’t help giving off strong, if false, gay vibes. Another longs to meet a woman of “moderately Jewish appearance” so that their children will “look like white people with tans all year ’round.”

As fascinating as it is to peer into the minds of insecure guys, Mystery steals the show when he appears with his “wingmen,” Matador and J-Dog. In keeping with their theory of attention-getting, or “peacocking,” all three men sport two earrings this week. Matador appears to be wearing silver lip gloss, and J-Dog looks like a miniature Helen Mirren with a wacky dye job. Mystery has a long, dark ponytail and possibly uses eyeliner. The overall effect is of a Serbian war criminal in Halloween drag.

But you know what? After the geeks bomb out in a bar full of single women, a hidden camera shows Mystery and his wingmen strutting into the room, and BAM! Within seconds they have clouds of females surrounding, and even pawing them. Once you stop laughing, you can’t take your eyes off the spectacle.

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