I’ve been around the pickup/influence community for quite a while and one thing some of the guys pride themselves upon is the secretive cabal approach to keeping things very underground. Well, it’s not quite as underground as some would like it to be or as they might pretend it to be . . . here we see the ABC Primetime Special About The Underground World of Pickup Artists . . . but that "expose" is actually rather late.
Anyone familiar with posts here, know that Neil Strauss went public with The Game some time ago (see archives here and elsewhere on the blog). Even before Strauss went public, the underground community of PUAs was not quite so underground. Certainly Ross Jeffries had infomercials for some time. I bought my very first book on pickup from Eric Weber back in the 1970s (don’t forget there was even a television movie based on his writing of his first pickup book). There have been recent sitcoms that had seduction community stuff. An old episode of CSI dealt with cut-throat trainer competition in the community (leading to a fictional murder). The film Magnolia parodied Ross Jeffries and seminars.
The community has not been secret for a long time. In fact, I would guess that most of the "big league" trainers of seduction are perfectly happy to have the community expand . . . it means more fame, product sales, and cash for them.
There are several film and television programs that have borrowed from the community for fodder as well and I am sure there will be many many more.
I’m pretty sure ABC did not have to trick a reluctant Mystery, Cliff, Strauss, Ross Jeffries, and the rest into letting themselves be interviewed for their piece. Quite the opposite, I am sure.
The last time I taught an Advanced Hypnosis Techniques course in Taipei where I set things up so that the students (most of them professional trainers in their own right) could just pick my brain and ask me anything and I would up-front and frankly go over the topic with a fine toothed comb as it were, the students ended up requesting more and more on erotic and sensual hypnosis as well as descriptions of and explanations of covert influence sets as used within the PUA community. We also had fun with some of Derren Brown’s effects that are based upon genuine influence, suggestion, and hypnosis and not merely gimmicks or illusion (and how to get the other effects with suggestion alone).
Recently, in our own backyard in Taiwan, the PUA community has once again made it into the news with the announcement of the release of a Chinese edition of The Game by Neil Strauss and the news stories about a "Local" Chinese who Teaches Pick-Up (evidently he learned "The Game" and then fell in love with and married pretty much the first woman he "picked up" and now teaches seminars on PUA here, with a Chinese adaptation and with the help of his wife). Last year, there were some feature stories in Hong Kong on the seduction community as well.
So, now the Chinese media is finally aware of the community, something the rest of the planet has been aware of for some time. So I imagine the market for localized PUA type stuff is going to grow (despite the Taipei City Gov’s debacle some time ago with the supposed-to-be tounge in cheek essays on pick up for foreigners visiting Taiwan that a whole bunch of folks found offensive, esp. on an official govt. information magazine’s webpages).
That’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is.
Nope, not secret at all . . . however, most folks do count the seduction community as fringe and not worth investigating so most of your "secrets" are still safe. Of course, the folks who teach solid technique and advice on character building and communication that is based upon informed consent and mutual fun don’t have anything to worry about. The ones who only have lines or manipulation or exploitation gimmicks or one-off tricks . . . well they have problems at the get-go and are most likely to attract negative media coverage.
Of course, one advantage of the "secret" being out . . . folks in the community have the opportunity to work on better game, being more genuine and up front in their approaches . . . or not.
All the best,
Brian
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
