Erik von Markovik - Mystery Method, The Venusian Arts Handbook
Who is Mystery?
A cartoon drawing of Erik von Markovik, creator of the Mystery Method, showing a parody on Neg theory.
Mystery is the alter-ego of entertainer Erik von Markovik. He is the world's foremost expert in the art and science of social dynamics. His exploits have been covered by publications such as Elle, The Montreal Gazette, Las Vegas Life, Saturday Night, Marie Claire, and The New York Times.
Exploding onto the seduction community in the late 90s, Mystery quickly gained underground fame for his groundbreaking contributions to the art. Mystery was the first person to pioneer and offer live, in-field instruction, and he has trained thousands of students all over the world, including a Who's Who of the most respected pickup artsits in the community.
(More info on www.venusianarts.com)
Chapter 1: The Ultimate Purpose in Life
- The ultimate purpose of life is survival.
- The penultimate purpose of life is replication. Someday you will die. Before that time comes, you must pass on your genes.
- The average person lives for just 28,251 days. The logical course of action is to determine the most effective way to survive and replicate, and practice this until it becomes an automatic response.
- The Martial Arts consist of practiced routines that, once internalized, improve your survival chances. The Venusian Arts consist of practiced routines that, once internalized, improve your replication changes.
- Dynamic Social Homeostasis is the balance between the drive to protect ourselves from others and the drive to align ourselves with others.
- Our emotional circuitry is designed to best suit our survival and replication needs, based on an ancient environment and tribal social order that once existed tens of thousands of years ago.
- People make sexual decisions largely based on this emotional circuitry.
- People tend to form social alignments with one another, where such alignments most benefit their changes of survival and replication.
- A pair bond is an emotional bond associated with a sexual alignment, beginning prior to pregnancy and continuing up through child reasing several years later.
- Women take a much larger risk, evolutionarily speaking, when they have sex. Sex is also a much larger investment for them than it is for men. For this reason, women have emotional circuitry designed to take this into account. For example, women tend to experience much more anxiety just prior to sex with a new lover.
- Men take a larger risk than women when first approaching. In ancient times, this posed a legitimate safety concern and thus men still experience approach anxiety.
- Women tend to look for social validation of their choices. For example, a woman will find a man more attractive if he has already been preselected by other women.
- Bound by the human condition, everyone has a hierarchy of needs that must be met, including psychiological needs, safety needs, social needs, and so on.
- Our emotions are designed to motivate us to get these needs met.
- There are three vital areas of life we must focus on: Health, Wealth, and Love. Deficiencies in any one of these categories will cause problems to surface in the other two.
Chapter 2: Social Status and Behavioral Circuitry
- Emotions are circuits in the brain that judge value and create motivation. They are designed to keep you alive and to replicate your genes.
- People seek alignments and pair bonds based on survival and replication value.
- Part of being a man of value is pursuing your dreams, having a strong identity, and living a passionate life.
- Your image should congruently convey your identity.
- Peacocking is the use of attention-getting clothes to amplify your responses in the field. Try wearing at least one item that is cool and attracts attention.
- People are likely to act based on their emotions and then backwards rationalize. Because women are more emotional, they are especially susceptible to this.
- What a woman likes, or says she likes, is not necessarily what she responds to emotionally (and thus sexually).
- To get results with women, stimulate their emotions. They will follow their emotions and then backwards rationalize whatever happens.
- If a woman remains non-responsive, that means she is deliberately cutting you off from gaming her. A woman will not allow herself to become emotionally vulnerable around you if you haven't demonstrated enough value, or if she doesn't feel safe enough.
- Don't borther trying to convince her, argue with her, or otherwise engage her on a logical level.
- Don't act as if things are a big deal. Just repeat the words no problem in your head until you believe it. No matter what happens, it's no big deal.
- A woman's reputation is very important to her, and thus she is much more likely to indulge sexually when she trusts that there will be no social consequences.
- All women have a powerful interruption mechanism known as anti-slut defense, or ASD. When you play solid game, you will be able to escalate smoothly without triggering her ASD.
- A woman won't do anything that makes her feel responsible for the escalation - she needs plausible deniability. The venusian artist must take responsibility to make things happen and act with moxie.
- She will use congruence tests to provoke a reaction from you. Then her intuition tells her whether you seem congruent. She tests in this way so that she can find your boundaries, which allows her to feel secure. This behavior is instinctive and allows her to more accurately determine what sort of man you really are.
- Most women view men as an abundant resource. Thus it's not enough to attract her - she must become invested in the interaction.
- She will seek out fun and stimulation, and avoid confrontation and discomfort.
- The decimal scale is used for rating women based on their looks, from 1 to 10.
- As you proceed with the pickup, keep her just inside that window between validation and rejection. She must be baited to chase in small increments, just like a cat with a string.
- Don't ask about her boyfriend, and don't be fazed is she mentions him. Just take it as a hint that you telegraphed too much interest too soon, and then continue gaming as normal.
Chapter 3: Structure and The Game
The M3 model and the proper mindset for learning the Game.
- The Game is played in the Field. Get out there.
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The Mystery Method Newbie Drill:
- Go out gaming four nights per week for four hours each night.
- Make three approaches per hour.
- Gaming is like golfing or fishing. You must enjoy the process and release expectation from outcome in order to get the best results in the long term.
- Every sexual relationship has a beginning, middle, and ending. The beginning is known as the courtship.
- The courtship has three stages, known as the pick-up, mid-game, and end-game.
- Mystery Method focuses on attraction first, not seduction. Ethically, practitioners of the Mystery Method are attractors, not seducers.
- There are certain hardwired attraction switches in every woman's mind. Attraction is not a conscious choice that people make. Rather, it's a response that they feel automatically as a result of these switches being flipped.
- One example of this is pre-selection. This switch gets triggered when a woman sees that you have already been pre-approved by other women.
- The M3 Model describes the structure of the courtship as occurring in three steps: Attract, Build Comfort, and Seduce. It is necessary to build comfort before you can seduce a woman, and it is necessary to build attraction before she will bother to build comfort with you.
- The phenomenon where you occasionally get sex even when you haven't built enough comfort is known as Fool's Mate.
- There are three types of location changes: the Move, the Bounce and the Time Bridge.
- Women have certain strategies, built-up over time, that enable them to avoid constant approaches from men. This is known as the protection shield. Even though she is probably a nice person, she can sometimes appear bitchy as a result of this. It's not who she really is.
- While comfort building, it is important to convey to her that you are a sexual man and a potential romantic interest. Otherwise you can get trapped in the friendship zone.
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The three steps of the M3 Model are broken down into three phases each:
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A - Attraction
- A1 - The Approach
- A2 - Female to Male Interest
- A3 - Male to Female Interest
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C - Comfort
- C1 - Conversation
- C2 - Connection
- C3 - Intimacy
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S - Seduction
- S1 - Foreplay
- S2 - Last Minute Resistance
- S3 - Sex
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A - Attraction
- There are three types of locations: the Meeting location, the Comfort-building locations, and the Seduction location.
- The pick-up occurs at the meeting location and covers the phases A1, A2, A3, and C1. It usually includes at least one move and ends with a bounce or time bridge.
- The next stage, called mid-game, occurs in one or several comfort-building locations and covers the C2 phase. Various bounces and time bridges may occur here. When this stage is over, you will be with her in the seduction location and you've already been somewhat intimate with her (kissing, etc.).
- The final stage, called end-game, begins in C3 but soon shifts into S1 (foreplay). Often last minute resistance (S2) will come up, which is normal, followed by sex (S3). If you initiate foreplay before enough comfort has been built, it will cause buyer's remorse.
- It is necessary to have sex several times before the sexual relationship actually begins. During and even after this point she will continue testing you for congruence.
Chapter 4: A1: The Approach
Opening a set and crossing the Social Hook Point without conveying neediness.
- A1 begins when you run an opener.
- A1 is complete when you reach the Social Hook Point. This is the moment when the set ceases to wonder when you will leave, and instead hopes that you will stay.
- The meeting location is a target rich environment where the venusian artist visits in order to practice his game. This is also known as a field.
- Women will often use proximity to signal their receptiveness to an approach. They may not be consciously aware that they are doing this.
- Although proximity and other approach invitations are opportunities to be capitalized on, a skilled pickup-artist can consistently open sets without waiting for these signals.
- The 3-Second Rule states that upon entering the field, you must open a set within three seconds. Also, if you are later not in a set, and you see one, then you must open it within three seconds. Following this rule will give you more Social Proof, which affects how people respond to you.
- You can create negative social proof with certain behaviors. Such as: standing against the wall with your drink against your chest, standing in a group of guys, circling the venue in a predatory fashion, looking around the venue with a serious expression on your face, etc.
- Don't try to look 'cool' or 'tough'. It's better to be comfortable and friendly.
- Don't drink.
- It's normal to need two or three warm-up approaches at the beginning of the night.
- Try to approach sets that have men, and practice gaming them as well. Women have a 'leader of men' attraction switch.
- Women have various Protection Shield Strategies, which they use to screen out men. But a venusian artist can coax a woman into lowering her shield by conveying disinterest while demonstrating value.
- The Mystery Method makes use of canned material, which can generate consistent responses. You should create a routine stack in order to practice this skill.
- The natural delivery of the material, including body language, facial expressions, and vocal tonality, is more important than the content itself.
- The Mystery Method makes use of indirect openers because they do not telegraph interest, and are proven in the field to open consistently. Other types of openers can also be quite effective, such as direct openers. Experiment and field-test your ideas.
- The use of new material in the field can feel clumsy and incongruent. Only through a couple days of in-field practice can the new material become naturalized.
- An opener must have a root, which is anything that gives it situational relevance.
- A false time constraint allows the venusian artist to create the illusion that he is just leaving. This is a powerful tool for opening consistently.
- Body rocking is the use of body language to deliver a false time constraint.
- When opening a seated set, it is important to sit with them soon after starting the opener. Use a false time constraint and then continue talking as you sit down.
- When opening a moving set, it is important that they not perceive you as chasing after them in any way.
Chapter 5: A2: Female to Male Interest
Demonstrating value, indicators of interest, and Group Theory.
- In the A2 phase, you demonstrate higher value to the set while simultaneously negging the target. She will respond with indicators of interest which can be used to gauge your progress.
- Some IOIs don't happen without a minimum amount of attraction. A girl may be attracted enough to sit down with you, but not to leave the venue together.
- The most important IOIs are: she laugs, she re-initiates the conversation, she touches, and she tries to get rapport.
- Passive IOIs are sometimes the only IOIs that she will give. This is why it's important to use compliance tests while gaming.
- Girls will occasionally give fake IOIs when it suits their purposes, although most of the time people are not consciously aware of the IOIs they are giving of.
- There are also indicators of disinterest, or IODs. When a person gives an IOD, she conveys disinterest and an unwillingness to invest in the interaction.
- A Neg is an innocuous statement that only a disinterested party would say. Negs are actually a form of IOD.
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There are three types of Negs:
- The shotgun neg, which conveys disinterest and disaims the group.
- The tease neg which is cocky and playful and used for flirting.
- The sniper neg, which causes the target to believe that she has done a DLV, when in fact she has not. This creates embarrassment.
- Anything you can do that conveys higher survival and replication value is a DHV, or demonstration of higher value.
- Correspondingly there is also a DLV, or demonstration of lower value.
- Using a combination of DHV's and Negs the venusian artist disarms and befriends the obstacles. This enables him to harness the social proof of the target's peer group. At the same time, the negs cause her to crave validation from him. She responds by giving IOIs. This is A2.
- "So, how do you all know each other?" is a question that usually arises in every set, and it tends to yield very useful information.
- People who are well-acquainted with one another tend to use multiple conversational threads while talking, whereas people who are newly-acquainted tend to go from one complete thread to another in a more linear fashion. By using multiple conversational threads, you can create the feeling like you and the target are already old friends.
- When a certain thread is not useful to you, feel free to cut it and introduce a new thread to replace it. Sometimes it is necessary even when it is your own thread being cut.
- Stories should convey positive traits and personality, and lead the listener through a fun series of interesting thoughts or emotional waypoints. The story doesn't have to be amazing or overly impressive, just engaging and enjoyable. Shorter is better.
- Sometime during A2 you should be locked-in to your set. You want to be leaning back against something while the girls face you, with their backs to the room.
- While you are ignoring the target, lock her in using a lock-in prop to ensure she won't leave if she gets bored or distracted in the meantime.
- A pawn is a girl that you have gamed and put on your arm solely to exploit social proof, to open sets, and to create jealousy with your real target.
Chapter 6: A3: Male to Female Interest
She must be baited to invest herself in this interaction. As a result, she feels that she now represents a unique value.
- In the A3 phase, you bait a woman into working for your affections. As she becomes invested in the interaction, you reward her and the cycle repeats.
- The Frame is the context, usually assumed and unspoken, that provides meaning to the content and the interaction. He who controls the frame controls the communication itself.
- If your frame is strong enough, you can get away with anything. You can use any opener, any line, any spontaneous attitude, and it will work - but you must be congruent.
- The field will give you the answers that you seek. Go, and be in the field, and listen to your intuition there. Over time you will calibrate.
- Women and men will play frame games on you and test you for congruence. Woman are seeking a strong mate and men are testing for dominance. Often this is unconscious and instinctive behavior.
- There are all sorts of hoops that people will produce to see if you will jump into their hoop. Don't. Instead, bait them to jump into your hoops.
- Don't go off the deep end and respond to every social interaction like it's a power play for dominance and like you are so clever for recognizing it. You will turn into a social robot and will lose your ability to vibe naturally with people. Be relaxed and enjoy the process.
- Feel free to jump into someone's hoop if you can first make them jump into one of yours.
- The more obvious it is that it's a hoop, the less likely it becomes that someone will jump into it.
- A useful frame is where you are the person in the interaction with more value, not her. This isn't explicitely communicated, but you imply it with your assumptions, in a fun way.
- When using this sort of material, remember that what's really important is the inner game. With practice, your internal frame will become congruent and comfortable with spontaneous interaction as well as canned material.
- You must have standards about what sort of woman you want to be with. This will be communicated in your frame through many subtle cues in your body language and speech.
- One way to do this is to screen her by asking her certain questions. Calibrate gently - you don't want her to think this is a tactic to flip her attraction switch. (The standards must be real.)
- Intermittent rewarding is more effective than consistent rewarding. Use IODs to add a hot/cold push/pull dynamic when you are stimulating and rewarding the target.
- There is a natural flow of kino from the very early stages of the set that leads all the way to sex. Nothing is ever a big deal, there is never any "big move" - it's just how the two of you are when you are together.
- Takeaways, properly timed, will condition her to chase.
- Don't compliment a woman on her looks. Don't mention her looks.
- Almost all interactions at some point come down to a test for compliance. Will you get compliance or defiance?
- Compliance momentum can be built by rewarding "good" behavior using intermittent IOIs and punishing "bad" behavior using IODs. A venusion artist will continue compliance testing all the way up to sex.
- The compliance threshold is the point where she realized that she benefits more if she complies.
- Bait-Hook-Reel-Release is a metaphor used to describe the application of compliance testing, screening, qualifiers, and other aspects of A3.
Chapter 7: C1: Comfort and Conversation
A wide conversational rapport, a sens of comfort and trust, a sens that this interaction is real and genuine, a feeling of connection.
- The game is played in comfort. It's necessary to develop a wide conversational rapport, a sense of comfort and trust, a sense that the interaction is real and genuine, and a feeling of connection.
- Missing elements of A3 and comfort are the primary reason that girls will flake on you and blur when you call them the next day. Most guys get all blurry numbers when they first start gaming.
- When you are real with her, it creates trust and allows her to feel safe. Don't front, sulk, or have a confrontational attitude. Keep it fun and remember that whatever the issue, it's no big deal.
- A comfort building location is usually a more quiet and secluded setting where you, your romantic interest, and potentially a few friends can share in lenghtier dialogue.
- The C1 location is a quiet spot somewhere within the meeting location. The C2 location is a place to go on a bounce or time bridge. The C3 location is within the sex location.
- Practice moving her - take your romantic interest from the meeting location to the C1 location.
- It's important to be a talkative person and to constantly be practicing your conversational skills. Don't get stuck on boring or creepy topics - keep it fun, interesting, and emotionally compelling. (Add value.)
- Be agreeable, don't ask a lot of questions, and remember; don't seek attention, approval, or understanding from others. (Be unaffected.)
- Talking is also a powerful logistical tool that keeps her conscious mind occupied and out of trouble while you progress the courtship. You don't want her anti-slut defense rearing its ugly head and screwing everything up.
- Sharing commonalities builds comfort and rapport, and helps her to imagine spending time with you in the future. Beware: if it comes off like you are fishing for commonalities with her, it is a DLV. Seredipity must be preserved!
- A conspiracy is a shared frame between you and your romantic interest, characterized by inside jokes, nicknames, and a growing connection. It is the natural outgrowth of the A3 process where validation was used to bait her into frame submission.
- Vulnerability is attractive and builds comfort. Instead of trying to protect your ego, set it free. Be willing to laugh at yourself - it shows confidence.
- The freeze-out is the deliberate use of IODs to create discomfort (as a way to train her out of bad behavior). The freeze-out should come off sincere and inadvertent, she shouldn't perceive that you are trying to punish her, rather, just a bit of disinterest triggered by her behavior, resulting in a temporary loss of attention or validation.
- After you 'punish' her with the freeze-out, give her a compliance test so that you can reward her for passing it.
- Jealousy is a very powerful motivator. If she feels it, that's often when she first realizes that she want you. This also gives her that much more drama when you do eventually choose her.
- When we relate our identity, sometimes it can create distance instead of closeness. But the use of a grounding routine allows her to follow your life through stories, leading up to where you are today. This helps her to relate to you and to empathize as if she had been there with you.
- Figure out what you do repeatedly. Pursue your dreams. To ground her reality to your indentity, tell her stories that convey how you got to where you are today and what's coming next.
Chapter 8: Mid-Game and End-Game
A sense that "it is on" between us... logistical issues and the passage of time... intimacy and seduction.
- It usually takes four to ten hours of comfort building before a woman is ready to have sex. This is known as the Seven Hour Rule.
- Kissing is a comfort builder. Through practice it is possible to isolate and kiss girls consistently within twenty minutes of opening the set.
- The C2 location is any comfort building location that is separate from the meeting location and the sex location.
- Moving from one comfort location to another is called jumping. There are two ways to jump: the bounce and the time bridge.
- Bouncing is the act of leaving one venue and going to another one at a time.
- If you bounce, get her number first. That way you won't appear to be settling for the number later if the bounce doesn't work out.
- A time bridge is an agreement to see each other at a later date. This is an optional move in your game that you play only if you cannot follow the standard game plan of bouncing her for food and eventually sex.
- Having solid game is more important than getting numbers. Solid game makes for solid numbers.
- It's important to be practicing your game and getting lots of phone numbers. When you have five or ten numbers to call, you are much less likely to worry about fucking it up. No single number ever becomes that important to you, which is exactly the right attitude.
- After you get her phone number, stay and talk for a few more minutes.
- Get in the habit of going through your numbers and calling them up just to chat or invite girls to whatever fun activity you are currently doing.
- Many girls will flake when you call on them. It's no big deal. Just keep working on your game and keep up on your calling rotation. The game is a combination of skill (which requires practice) and luck (which requires random chance). Both are greatly increased by playing the numbers.
- If you are getting numbers, but not sex, it's useful to practice dating in a structured way. Design a date plan that you can repeat over and over again for the practice.
- Build the most useful logistics into the date. Design in the seven hours. Design in the venue changes. Design it so she ends up at your place.
- The C3 location is a comfort building location within the sex location, such as your living room or Jacuzzi.
- A sex location is marked primarily by its privacy and should be in close proximity to a C3 location. Usually this is your bedroom.
- Once you go from C3 into S1 (foreplay), you have crossed the point of no return. She will get buyer's remorse if you do this too soon, before enough comfort has been built.
- Last-minute resistance is a fear that women experience just prior to having sex, similar to the way that men experience approach anxiety. It is your reponsibility to ease her through this.
- Often LMR is greatly increased as a result of weaknesses in your game. By improving your game, you also reduce LMR as an issue.
- Other techniques for combating LMR are token resistance, freeze-outs, and persistence.
- Waypoints are points in the game, such as opening or isolating, that must always be present in any set that leads to sex.
- Sticking points are parts of your game that are currently causing you trouble. All venusian artists have sticking points.
Posted on 28th April 2008 by Quintus Hegie
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