Where Mystery got his Ideas From

Last week I received an interesting email by Andras who has digged up a video that demonstrates how one is supposed to use magic to pick up women. The parallels to Mystery Method are more than obvious.

Guest Article on Cliff's List: "Spotting Greedy Women"

I completely forgot to mention this article on my blog or the forum. "Spotting Greedy Women" originally appeared on Cliff's List in early January. The backstory is as follows.

When I was going through some of my writings last autumn, I came across notes I had made on dating. As I was sifting through some of my scribblings, containing anecdotes and some rudimentary analysis, it struck me that some of those thoughts should be polished and put online.

I don't plan to release a book on dating and relationship anytime soon, but the article on greedy women I wrote should nonetheless be interesting, and it certainly can stand on its own. It is based on my experiences with dates, and insights into selecting suitable girls for relationships, and on ways to figure out whether she has ulterior motives.

Here's a teaser from the article:

Most guys in the “community” sooner or later want to have a girlfriend. Hopefully, though, they won’t settle for any girl who wants them but make a careful choice instead. Since one of the main gripes with Western women is their rampant materialism if not downright greed, which makes them view men as walking wallets, I’ll give you some good tips on how to easily spot the greedy ones. After all, if her main interest is your bank balance, you better spare yourself the experience of entering a relationship with her.

Commentary on Presence's Breakthrough

Yesterday’s post was about the “breakthrough” of guy who calls himself Presence. He tells about his sudden shift of perceptions, and how this has made his interactions with women a lot better. Today, I want to discuss a few points that will surely be helpful for those of you who have problems with talking to women in a natural way.

 Also, it will cover what some people refer to as "inner game."

Presence's Breakthrough

After I my Q&A session at Reddit, I was contacted by a guy called Presence who excitedly told me about his “breakthrough.” Something clicked, and where he had hit a brick wall before, he now found success with women. The collection of his emails amounted to much more than 5,000 words, but I saw some great lessons hidden in it, which is why I was happy to work on it and present it to a wider audience.

Due to my rather busy schedule it took me a long time to go through the text, and edit it, but now it's finally done. What you can read in this blog post is not the story of a guy who found some “magic pill.” Instead, it's about a guy who managed to overcome some mental obstacles. If you can't yet genuinely talk to women and put a lot of pressure on you, then you'll surely get a lot out of this.

Today, I will let Presence speak for himself. But tomorrow, I will post a commentary on some important aspects.

There are Two Enormous Elephants in the Room

Last week was quite busy thanks to literally hundreds of comments on my blog, and most were about the daring notion that cold approaching is a highly inefficient way to meet girls. Eventually, the trolls, PUA shills, and keyboard jockeys disappeared. If you've got some time to kill, it may be interesting to go through the comments because you will not only learn a thing or two about why one of the main ideas of mainstream pickup is nonsensical. You'll also learn about the shady rhetorics their defenders use.

Among the many comments, there are many great statements to be found, made by guys who have found success after turning their back towards mainstream pickup and pursuing a much more plausible and efficient path, such as the one I outline in Minimal Game.

One of the visitors of my blog gave himself the fitting name "fed up with classic dating advice". He left two insightful comments on my article "Why do You Want Pickup to be Difficult!?" He talks about real and imagined limitations, and some basic factors that determine your success with women. It's blunt and honest, but it's the kind of advice that really helps people, unlike the dreck the commercial dating industry churns out. I've waffled on long enough, so here's "fed up with classic dating advice" with his two great blog comments:

Interview in Interesting Times Magazine #8

After some delay, the Interview Illuminatus did with me last year has now been re-published in Interesting Times Magazine. You'll find the interview in issue number 8, on pages 28 to 39. In case you are wondering, the book I mention in the last answer is Minimal Game. When we did the interview last year, it was still in the editing stage.

Calling (Out) All PUAs!

PUAs, do you want to become rich and famous? If so, read on!

I had a run-in with Justin Wayne on a bigger PUA forum recently. He claimed that he could consistently get girls out of his league, but when I pressed him, he offered half a dozen alternative interpretations of "out of his league".

However, if "game" claims to have any merit, then it is exactly that: the claim that you could get girls you otherwise wouldn't get. Thus, you see those people writing that you can "bang any woman no matter how you look, how little money you have, where you live etc." Those are of course all bullshitty claims. But what else could they say? Nothing. "Asking girls out game" is just as effective as everything the PUAs have come up with.

Women Are Raised to be Friendly

In yesterday's "Reader Success Story" where one of the commenters on my blog describes his experience with cold approaching women, there was an element that deserves further elaboration:

Over a period of 2 x months I approached 100 or so girls (all hot), on the street, nothing indirect about it at all. Here is what I experienced. 

1. 90% + of the girls responded in a friendly manner. The remaining 10+ brushed me off as quickly as they could. Noone was rude or abusive. 

2. All the girls who didn't brush me off loved the compliments and attention etc. 

3. 95% of the girls told me they had a boyfriend and made their excuses. 

Do you already see the big problem?

A Reader Success Story

The debate surrounding my article Why Cold Approaching is Pretty Much Useless rages on. Everybody who criticized my position either hadn't read the article, or did lack real world experience. A particularly interesting encounter happened yesterday, when someone sent me angry messages on facebook. I got the impression that he simply lacks sexual experience and for psychological reasons defends a theory he has bought into which hasn't helped him much in scoring girls. I was in a somewhat confrontational mood, so I kept asking him about his "count". Of course, he evaded this question and stuck to his theories.

One of my readers, John Graham, left a great comment on my blog the other day which illustrates perfectly what the problem with cold approaching is. Since the comment thread of the original post is at around 130 already, I decided to republish it on the front page.

Here's John Graham, telling you about his experiences with cold approaching. Enjoy!

"Vince Kelvin is an Entertainer, You Fucks!!1"

I really wanted to stop making fun of Vince Kelvin, but whenever I think that it's been enough now, some more bullshit shows up in my email inbox. Some days ago, I received a notification of a new comment on my classic post "Vince Kelvin, the Joke is on you!" that almost made me spill my mango smoothie.

Glitch in the Matrix, Loophole in her System!?

I thought about some of the accusations the PUA crowd made regarding my article Why Cold Approaching is Mostly Useless. It just hit me that those are the guys who love to proclaim that they have found “a glitch in the matrix”, or a “secret loophole”. Their methods don’t give you any better results than “asking girls out game”, though. It’s quite funny that this camp now accuses me of going for “low hanging fruit” when I propose a simple procedure that really allows you to get more (and "better") girls with much less effort. Now suddenly their more complicated “loophole” is preferable to my “low hanging fruits” approach.

Why do You Want Pickup to be Difficult!?

One of the more ridiculous comments about my rather controversial article “Why Cold Approaching in Mostly Useless” was by Mark Manson (Entropy). Just have a look at this statement and be in awe of his bizarre logic:




What bugs me the most about this though is the mindset it implies. It implies a mindset of, "Hey, you should settle for the low-hanging fruit. Take what's given to you."  

The idea that you should wait around for a girl to make eye contact, or that you have to join classes or groups to make it easier for yourself -- it's saying that you should wait around for women who want you, instead of directly pursuing the women who you want. 

For me, I approach women I want to approach for no other reason than I want to approach them. It doesn't matter if it's in a yoga class, on the street, in a night club or at a friend's birthday party. It doesn't matter if she's been staring at me for five minutes or if she has no idea I exist. I don't care and I don't really think about it. I approach based on MY INTERESTS not based on HER INTERESTS.

Oh, the Controversy!

My recent article Why Cold Approaching is Pretty Much Useless caused quite a stir. On Reddit, I had PUA shills go for my throat, on my blog another shill showed up, trying to convince some of us by changing his story to accommodate our objections. It was a sight to behold.

On PUA Zone, a forum I occasionally check, Keyboard Jockeys and guys who get laid fought it out. I got great support from those who know what pussy feels like, while the others dreamt up bizarre objections (some of which I'll address in a follow-up post). They apparently neither read nor understood my article.

Guess this PUA, Part II

Vince Kelvin isn't the only PUA who looks pretty fucked up. The guy in this picture is among the biggest bullshitters in this scene, but he tries to keep a low profile. One wonders why.

Who do you think this is?

(Note: This PUA has posted that picture on the Internet a couple of years ago, along with some others, to demonstrate his "skillz" and since then tries to take them down. But the Streisand Effect is a bitch.)

A Seduction and Hypnotic Revolution!!!

My girlfriend occasionally has a look at my blog, and one thing she said was, "Why do you keep making fun of those people? They are such easy targets." She definitely has a point. Ridiculing the likes of Real Social Dynamic's Tyler, Vince Kelvin or Vin DiCarlo is hardly challenging. It's not as if I have to think about their output for hours until I finally find an angle to refute their statements. Instead, I look at it, and I am shocked and surprised at the depths those people reach. Then I laugh, and when I laugh so hard that my neighbors knock, I normally type something up so that others can share my enjoyment.

It's not all fun and games, though as it is indeed the sad reality that too many clueless fall for the empty claims and promises of PUAs. The mere thought that a mentally healthy person could look up to a person like Vince Kelvin may be absurd to you, but if someone really is socially inexperienced, then I can understand that you can be tricked.

I did receive some interesting reader feedback. The guy wants to remain anonymous, but has allowed me to quote his statement in full:

Ripping on Vince Kelvin is truly a public service. Meeting him in LA began my decision to GTFO of "the Game" and actually meet a few psychologically healthy people.

What ended it for good? Those photos from the Casanova Crew's Memorial Day picnic. Not a tit in sight. In a public park. In Los Angeles. On Memorial Day.

This made me laugh as well. "Anonymous reader" did add a correction later on, though:

Quick fact check: The Casanova Crew picnic was on July 25, 2010. Not Memorial Day. Still, there's no excuse for a bunch of "players" throwing a sausage fest in Griffith Park in the summertime. 

...which I just mention for the sake of completeness, and because I am a bit anal about details.

It is indeed a problem that some guys are completely deluded. One picture is currently making the rounds among the anti-PUAs, and it is this one:

Thanks to "Tryhards" for digging up this picture!

When I saw it, I was literally looking at it for something like ten seconds just to process it, before I erupted in boundless laughter. Reality really is stranger than fiction. I don't even know where to start here, but let me tell you once thing: If the guys in the audience had any clue, they'd get up and leave. I hope that just one or two among them figured out that something is seriously wrong here and stayed to watch this utter train wreck Vince Kelvin. Seriously, you've got some dude who tries his best to look like a fucked-up fifteen-year old, demonstrating pickup on a girl most butch lesbians would turn down. And you thought picnicking with the Casanova Crew guys was a bad idea...

Generation Nihilism reviews Minimal Game

I don't know whether you are familiar with Generation Nihilism, but if you are not, you should definitely check it out. It's a blog containing musings and often hilarious stories of a happy bachelor. Since I like this blog and sensed that the author comes from a similar place as I do, I asked him whether he'd be interested in reading and reviewing Minimal Game. He was, and this is why you can now read about his opinion of my book.

His perspective is most interesting because he is not associated with the pickup community and was never involved with it. By his own admission, he thinks that "a ton of PUA stuff is fucking stupid." So, if you want to know what a genuine "player" (as opposed to a guy who went through PUA at one point in his life) thinks of my book, read on:

Believe it or not, this was actually the first Game book I have ever read, and I was looking forward to possibly learning a thing or two along the way. Shit, I even took notes for the first time in years. 

So what is Minimal Game all about? It really is all in the title. Forgoing fancy evo-psych explanations and complicated routines, peacocking, and all that other stuff, Sleazy breaks down approaching, attraction, and closing to the simplest of forms.

[...]

Written as it is for beginners, Minimal Game is good shit. If I was a newbie, this would be a book I would want handed to me, and even reading it now it helped to refocus some things for me and highlight some things I have lazily gotten away from. Sleazy rightly keeps the scope of his book to foundational stuff, and you won’t have your head swimming with hundreds of steps and lines and routines. He writes it all in simple language with concepts that are easy to grasp, with knowledge you can use right away. I know I’ve said simple and minimal a lot during this review, but really, that’s what his stuff is. And that’s a good thing.

Illuminatus reviews Minimal Game

Illuminatus, whom you may know from Personal Power Mediation or as "Corvette" from the olden days of mASF recently wrote a lengthy review of Minimal Game. He does a systematic analysis of the content, but it's not dry at all. In fact, I did find some passages truly heart-warming, such as his statement that,

[t]he wisdom in this book is so simple, yet so accurate, that it is the sort of thing fathers should be telling to their sons when they come of age.

He furthermore gives an interesting guide on how to read the book, geared towards people who are frequent readers of self-help books. You could be forgiven for thinking that books in this genre are sold by the pound. Just have a look at the tomes Tony Robbins has put out. In this vein, Illuminatus advises:

I therefore urge anyone reading this book, especially newcomers to seduction, to take their time and really consider each point Sleazy discusses. It is all too easy when reading a self-help book to skim a paragraph, think “I’ve already got this area handled”, and move on without really looking into whether or not this is the case. I have to make this point quite clear, because I have met up with several guys from the seduction community in the past and commonly found that each guy has at least one basic area where they are simply not doing what they are told.

If you have some spare minutes, I can only encourage you to have a look at Illuminatus's review of Minimal Game , and if it piques your interest, I would of course appreciate if you bought a copy for yourself, if you haven't already done so.

Why Cold Approaching is Pretty Much Useless

One of the basic ideas of the pickup community is the necessity of “cold approaches.” Often, you could get the impression that anything else doesn’t really count. Real PUAs go through hundreds of rejections before they finally get to enjoy the fruit of their labor. This is at least as the shared mythology goes.

In this article, I will show you that the concept of cold approaching is misleading. Please keep your pitchfork in your barn, because if you read on with an open mind, you will not only learn something about about male-female interactions, but you will also understand why, as guys gain more experience, their “batting average” often goes up significantly. No, it is not because their “game” got better. It’s something else.

Guest Review of Minimal Game by TheLetter

The other review of Minimal Game I recently received was from TheLetter, whom some of you know from the old mASF days. He points out the dramatic differences between Minimal Game and your typical community dating advice book. Enjoy!



Disclaimer: Aaron Sleazy is a personal friend of mine, and we've visited each other a few times and gone out. I've seen him pull off the kinds of seductions he wrote about in Sleazy Stories with my own eyes. As a courtesy, he sent me a couple copies, but given the price I would have probably bought it anyway. I bought a copy of the earliest print of Sleazy Stories. He's been a mentor and a friend in my development as a man and a seducer, so feel free to question my objectivity.

When I finally got around to reading Minimal Game, I basically went cover-to-cover in a pretty short amount of time.

Minimal Game really succinctly covers the fundamentals of seduction about being an attractive guy, geared more towards guys who just want to bang more girls, as opposed to guys who want to make their entire life about banging girls. I've met more than a couple guys who became totally immersed in mainstream PUA community crap, and they do not end up as all-around awesome guys. They end up as creeps, who underperform relative to their looks and occasionally get lucky on sheer numbers.

Reading the book reminded myself of some obvious things, that I learned and forgot in my history of following Sleazy's writings. I will probably re-read it every time I come back from a hiatus where I have to reboot my sex-life after spending some time in other areas of personal development. I do a similar exercise with Razorjack's mASF archives, but this is way, way, way more succinct. This is not a book about routines or gimmicks. It's about how to have the behaviors, fashion, and lifestyle of an attractive guy where women are open to meeting you or even approaching you themselves.

Most "pickup" books are embarrassing to own. If I owned a copy of The Game, I'd be mortified if a girl ever found it in my home. The philosophy behind Minimal Game is so natural, honest and forthright, you could basically flip open any page, show it to a girl, and she'd think something on the spectrum of "Yeah, well, duh?!" to "Oh no! Guys aren't supposed to know that about us!"

My one quibble with the content is that there are some very frank opinions about the bare minimum physique a guy needs to be really successful with women. Sure, more height and a better body can never hurt, but as a short-statured guy in rather mediocre physical shape, I actually well over-perform relative to my looks. Some of that has to do with making the most of what I've got, but a lot of that has to do with the mindsets and attitudes I've learned from Sleazy over the years; much of that knowledge is distilled in Minimal Game. But in fairness, I think the writing there is to limit false expectations and to push readers to better themselves.

Price is very minimal, too. Aaron Sleazy is basically giving it away.
—TheLetter

Guest Review of Minimal Game by illuzsion

I've recently received two reviews of Minimal Game, and I'll gladly publish both on my blog. The first one is by illuzsion. He once called Debunking the Seduction Community the best book on pick-up he has ever read, but he seems to have changed his mind after reading through Minimal Game.

The review is interesting because it puts the content of my book in relation to his personal experiences. Without further ado, here's illuzsion's excellent review of Minimal Game:

Minimal Game is not a guide for wannabe Casanovas who have fantasy pipe-dreams of seducing any women they want. It is written for guys who want to get laid on a fairly regular basis, making best use of their limited time and effort. Those who have been exposed to The Game or any of the pickup fantasy fiction books are in for a shock as they read on.

The aim of Minimal Game is not a phone number, nor a kiss, or a date. It’s objective is crystal clear: sex! Those who have already been led astray by many of the commercial game theories that focus on verbal material can have a sigh of relief when they learn from world-renowned seducer Aaron Sleazy that your verbal skills are not just rather irrelevant when it comes to getting laid, but that they can actually be counterproductive in many situations. This is true, as many guys literally talk themselves out of pussy.

The Dirty Secret Behind Boot Camp “Number Close” Demonstrations

I did play with the idea of adding some material to Debunking the Seduction Community but not only have I for the most part moved on from bashing this industry. I am also quite intimidated by the enormous amount of material I have on various people in this business. Debunking was not necessarily about “guru” A, B or C, but about the industry as a whole, and about general trends and common problems.

 I did not have the intention to slag off some guys. In fact, I really had to restrain myself from not spilling the beans on some people. However, the occasional blog post that surfaced in the meantime did rectify this.

Today, I have something very special for you. It is a “business secret” of one of the many #1 PUAs / dating "gurus" in the world. You can make your own guess, but probably someone will chime in in the comments and reveal it sooner or later anyway. Let’s just call him PUAZiph.



The story goes as follows: Our internationally renowned dating guru PUAZiph needs some money. He always needs money, just like the invisible man in the sky. Thus, he sets up a couple of boot camps in the United States. Because he himself can’t demonstrate all that much, as he doesn’t want to piss off his wife, he enlists some “assistant coaches” from a local lair. He’ll just tell the boot camp students that he’s trained them. It’s also a neat way for him to make more money since those guys are more than happy to “help out” such an esteemed person as PUAZiph free of charge.

This is even worse than VK's "number closes"!

What can you expect during a boot camp? Well, not much, but at least you'll get some decent "demos", like some dude collecting a number in front of you. PUAZiph's students are happy to just see someone talk to a girl in a bar, so they won’t easily get disappointed. However, what they don’t know is that what they are going to witness is not what has actually happened.