Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #559 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-06
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Never at risk of being called humble, Mystery (aka Erik von Markovik), heralded as one of the best pick-up artists in the country, has created a science of seduction. His meticulously researched system, the "Mystery Method," offers advice to men of every ilk, along with complex charts, social science jargon (e.g., Dynamic Social Homostasis and DHV—Demonstrations of Higher Value) and potty humor Mystery comes off as forceful, provocative and excessively arrogant, but one thing is clear: he's good at what he does. You'll laugh, you'll scoff, but in the end, you'll probably learn something. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"One of the most admired men in the world of seduction" (The New York Times)"

About the Author
Neil Strauss is the author of the New York Times bestselling book "The Game" and coauthor of three New York Times best-sellers: Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, " MOtley CrUe's "The Dirt, " and Marilyn Manson's "The Long Hard Road Out of Hell "-- as well as Dave Navarro's "Don't Try This At Home, " a "Los Angeles Times" bestseller. A writer for "Rolling Stone", Strauss lives in Los Angeles

ALAN SKLAR has narrated over 75 audiobooks and earned numerous awards for his work. He has also provided the voice for thousands of corporate and medical videos, as well as many radio and TV commercials. He lives with his wife in New York.

Customer Reviews

Recommeneded for Pick-up Artists in training
Out of all of the books and programs I've bought on seduction and PUA, the Mystery Method is by far the most systematic, on-target book of techniques I've read. There are other good how-to books on the subject, but this one stands apart.

The Mystery Method breaks down the various phases of an interaction from first meeting a woman to following up with a day 2 and then closing the deal. Each phase of the progression is covered in detail so you understand what is happening, why its happening and what to do to transition from one phase to the next.

I was skeptical at first because the book seemed to take something a fluid and dynamic as a conversation and essentially apply a programming mentality to it. I realized that you can program conversations with certain body language and phrases that help steer the conversation. You keep pushing one phase into the next until you get a desirable outcome.

In some ways the Method can take the fun out of meeting women because you're thinking about how to transition from one phase to the next, but eventually I stopped thinking about that and just enjoyed the interactions. I guess I could say I "internatilized" the techniques to a degree that I was just going what I was taught without having to think about it. That took a few months and a lot of practice, but eventually I was having more success with women.

Highly recommended for PUAs in training.

Not just for pick up artists
This short book is about being persuasive and asserting influence. If you peel away the title,though, it could be about marketing and closing any sale: don't be needy; be mentally able to walk away from any deal; understand the value of having a high social proof; invest others in you; develop a process, not a one liner. It has some good stuff about how our brains are wired and why. And, having read Strauss's book, I believe that Mystery and his method works for a PUA but it sounds like a lot of work, which maybe why he claims that there is only 4 to 10 hours between meeting and congress. The book is well written and makes good use of charts, although the bullet points are overdone---like apricot jam spread on toast, a little can go a long way. A book that anyone who persuades for a living should ,well, pick up.

Mystery's Magical Tour.
I have never been a consistent reader of the "pick up/player" genre, but I've become more attuned to it recently as I have begun a work of my own on a similar topic. Based on the tomes I have consumed, The Mystery Method currently ranks as second best--just behind How to Succeed with Women by Lewis and Copeland.

Many of us know Mystery from The Game or his new TV show on VH1. Unlike most of the Amazon reviewers, I was not a big admirer of Neil Strauss's account, but I found Mystery to be, by far, the only compelling character in the book. He was the only person you cared about. In the narrative sections concerning him, readers become entranced. He arouses feelings within us of elation, zeal, and sympathy. He is a man of depth and vision which was a major reason why The Game was worth perusing.

If you have any doubts about this offering--thinking that perhaps the 6'5" would-be rock star is trying to cash in on his recent celebrity--think again. He has produced an instructional volume of which he will forever be proud. I think that is why some people found it dry because, in my estimation, he attempted to put everything he had into this publication. It stands alone and is not a "teaser" vehicle by which struggling Average Frustrated Chumps will feel a need to purchase a registration ticket for one of his seminars. You get the vibe from these pages that he was scared to leave anything (essential) out as he knew it would be a work from he would always be judged.

So much about women and our romantic relations with them is counter-intuitive which renders conventional wisdom completely useless. Mystery asks us to suspend disbelief in these pages and we are wise to do so. He analyzes the irrational process of seduction and attraction in the most logical way possible. These chapters are full of symbols and lingo which (yes, can be trying) but ultimately describe the privileged sex in a manner far superior to anything you will find in the self-help section of the local bookstore.

I have studied women to a great extent, and believe that what Mystery reveals here informs us more of their group behaviors than the majority of psychology textbooks. As I read this work I looked back on some of my own romantic successes and failures--particularly those with unexpected outcomes. I came away with the realization my most fantastic memories were a result of my own--generally unintentional--practice of negging and demonstrations of value; while my memories of disaster sprung from a diminishment of personal value and a refusal to build comfort. All of us can learn from this man and we must always remember that in this game, as in so many others, fortune always favors the bold.