Seduction

Seduction, The seduction community and the art of seduction

If you read NathanX's blog and listen to our products you'll often see and hear him talk about "The seduction Community" or simply, "The Community".

You may also have stumbled across a few strange acronyms and words you may not understand. Things like PUA, AFC, SET, opener, wing girl and so on. Chances are these unfamiliar terms and acronyms were "community" terminology, a language created ironically to simplify explaining social dynamics and seduction secrets.

So what is the "community"?

The "community" is a once secret subculture of mainly men who have a mutual desire to improve their social, sexual and romantic skills with women. This improvement is based on a greater understanding of social and sexual psychology and body language.

This subculture exists mainly through the Internet and local groups around the world called "lairs". Members of the these lairs meet up and go out and learn how to seduce women and exchange ideas. Guys generally refer to themselves and each other not by their real names but by nicknames or "handles".

The more accomplished members of the community refer to themselves as "pick up artists" (PUAs) or "master pick up artists" (MPUAs) and those less skilled as "average frustrated chumps" (AFCs).

The type of guy who would typically join the community has drastically changed over the years. When once it was only computer geeks and engineering nerds, it's now any guy looking for any type of self-improvement and date ideas to seduce women. There are guys who are already good with women through to guys with some real social issues.

The geeks basically cracked the code of social dynamics and simply by applying their minds to a problem, learnt how to seduce women without the benefits of looks or money. Now there are all types of guys learning about the success these skills bring and wanting to know what this secret community knows.

The community is not about learning the best pick up lines, then learning how to seduce a woman, sleeping with a woman and dumping her. The community is about mastering your social skills. How a person chooses to use that knowledge is up to them and their seduction style.

 

The history of the seduction community.

There have been many famous seducers throughout history from Casanova to even Elvis Presley. But no group or community of people existed for any length of time who shared information between them that really worked.

The first book on the general topic of flirting with and seducing women was "How to Pick Up Girls" (1970) by Eric Weber. A pretty basic book by today's standards and understanding of social dynamics but it still set the scene for the beginnings of the seduction community.

In the early 1980's two Californian dating gurus emerged and started selling their advice on how to meet women.

One of these was a guy by the name of "R. Don Steele". His theories on the art of flirting are heavily influenced by Russian-born American novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand and her theories of "objectivism". In the method he called the "Steel Balls" approach, Steele focuses more on helping men over 35 to meet and seduce young women. Or at least women who are younger than the students themselves.

The second name to emerge was that of "Ross Jeffries". His theories on attracting women are heavily influenced by hypnosis experts and authors R. Bandler and J. Grinder and their theories on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Ross's seduction style and collection of techniques are called "Speed seduction" or (SS) for short.

In an attempt to promote Speed seduction, in 1994 Ross Jeffries had Lewis De Payne, then a student, create the Internet newsgroup called alt.seduction.fast (ASF). Interestingly enough, Lewis De Payne is a known associate of the infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick. Kevin had been known as the Godfather of "Social Engineering" or obtaining information by deception from people.

The ASF newsgroup really was the true birth of the seduction community. It enabled a small number of people from all over the world to exchange ideas, flirting tips and reports on what worked for them. The main reason that community members use handles and nicknames even today is because these handles were the online names they used on the original ASF.

Because of the nature of newsgroups most people had no idea what they were or even how to access them. So from the beginning the community was only available to those computer savvy enough to access it. For a few years ASF and Ross's SS was the main focus of the community and Ross was the acknowledged guru with little challenge from anyone else. Ross then wrote his book "How to Get the Women You Desire into Bed".

What made the community different from more mainstream advice at the time was both the non-politically correct approach that seemed to sit well with men and unlike most mainstream advice, some of the theories really did work!

Around this time male escort NathanX joined the community in search of advice on how to improve establishing quicker rapport with female clients to help them relax and enjoy sex more. He then started contributing to the small community.

Eventually the un-moderated ASF became overwhelmed with too many messages, spam and flames. Ray Gordon, another self proclaimed dating guru, was a large contributor to the flames and spam on the group.

In order to moderate discussion, the "Learn the Skills Corporation" created a moderated alternative known as "Moderated ASF" (mASF) and Ray Gordon was banned. A guy by the name of "formhandle" took over the running of this group.

Ross had had a long run as the leading voice of the community, but from around 2000 onwards other guys in the community were coming forward as alternative teachers or gurus. Ross gradually lost his status as the main guru as different theories and competing methods emerged.

Some of the respected seduction tips, methods, theories were collected together into what was called the "Lay Guide" which was really just a collection of posts from the various top guys of the time such as Mystery, Ross, Manic high, Grand Master Flash, Nathan and so on. The "Lay Guide" in more recent years even became a published book. It was good for what it was for the time but is a little dated in its explanation of social dynamics now.

Next an ex-student of Ross', David DeAngelo, started teaching his own style. Allegedly Ross tried to steal David's girlfriend of the time and they subsequently fell out over it. Neither of them to this day will confirm or deny what actually happened, suffice to say David broke away from Ross and created his own school called "Double Your Dating".

David DeAngelo's approach was a lot more politically correct than Ross' and was able to penetrate into more mainstream media. Ross never really tried to angle his approach so he could reach a wider more mainstream media in the way David has over the years.

Ross has drifted further and further away from the community and hasn't been present at any the large scale conventions, such as the Cliff's List ones, for the last few years. This may in some part be due to the fact that he sees all other styles other than his own as copies of his original theories and as such, inferior to his own. So much so he was nicknamed "mine99" for claiming too often that he had already developed theories during his 1999 conference - the joke here being that whatever new theory came out, Ross would claim it as his own and reference his conference of 1999.

Without doubt Ross was, and always will be the Godfather of seduction and the seduction community. Without him there would have been no secret community learning how to meet women and we would not be as advanced as we are in the understanding of social dynamics.

Much of Ross' terminology and general ideology is still in use even though he has fallen out of general favour.

Another man to come forward was a Canadian going by the name of Mystery. Mystery's style came through an understanding of social skills based upon his performances as a magician. Mystery's style was originally called FMAC, Find, Meet, Attract, Close but later evolved the name The Mystery Method.

Many of the terms still used by the community like "set" and "opener" are taken from terms magicians use and introduced by Mystery.

Mystery method didn't use the NLP patterns as in Ross's SS and for some seemed more natural and less manipulative of women.

Mystery's approach became popular and he was the first person to take students out "in field" (a community term) into night clubs to demonstrate his own skills and critique his students in what are called "boot camps" or "workshops".

One of Mystery's first students was renowned author Neil Strauss, who went by the community name of "Style". Neil join the community to improve on his dismal skills with women and to evaluate the possibility of writing a book on the people of this secret community.

Neil, or "Style", became extremely accomplished in approaching women, seducing women, how to flirt and social dynamics and eventually became a teacher himself.

Project Hollywood was born. Mystery, Style, Juggler, Herbal, Tyler Durden and others rented a mansion in the Hollywood hills and started teaching hundreds and hundreds of students. Other lairs and projects started forming all over the world in London, Sydney, New York and so on.

Neil wrote an article in 2001 for the New York Times detailing his experiences in the community. This gave a springboard to his book entitled "The Game" which came out some time later.

Many other names, schools and teachers emerged during the period following 2002 onwards as the community became bigger and bigger. Around 2004 saw the more general commercialization of the community as more and more people were offering and selling products, workshops and bootcamps.

The difference between the community at this point and mainstream dating advice was that the "community" gurus were actually going out day and night testing and improving their methods. The top guys in the community could seduce a woman every night if they wanted to and had gotten their skills down to a science. The academic and mainstream community was and still is years behind on a practical level of applied attraction techniques.

Neil Strauss's book "The Game" was released around September/October of 2005 and hit the New York Times best-seller list. Neil compared the community to a men's self-help movement and the book detailed his journey from being hapless with women to a seduction master.

The "Community" was forever changed. The once secret community of geeks who had become masters with women had now got itself a mainstream stage. People saw that what these guys were doing was working and people wanted a part of it.

Just after the release of the book hundreds of guys were signing up to the lairs, workshops and bootcamps wanting to learn the secrets.

Neil appeared on a number of TV programs to promote his book including Richard and Judy in the UK and The View in the US.

Later Wayne "Juggler" Elise hosted a TV series in the UK, on the Channel Four network called "seduction School" all about teaching guys how to get better with women.

The teachers and schools of the community gained more and more commercial success and formed more professional businesses. These include the Badboy lifestyle, Real Social Dynamics, PUA Training, Style Life, Charisma Arts, Pickup 101, Swinggcat Method and Master Your Sex Life.

Each dating school now teaches their own style and specializes in their own method. For example online flirting, night clubs, day game, rapport building, confidence and so on.

In 2006 former male escort NathanX formed "Master Your Sex Life" (MYSL). This was and is the only school of sexual self improvement for men where techniques can been seen and learned live in their totally unique live workshops. Master Your Sex Life is the only company to specialize in the whole arena of sexual self improvement including your skills in the bedroom. Everyone else teaches dating advice only.

In 2006 Mystery split with his long term business partner Savoy and The Mystery Method corporation to form the Venusian Arts. The Mystery Method still continues but without Mystery.

2007 saw the release of the book "The Mystery Method : The fool proof way to get any woman you want into bed". Mystery took the community more mainstream by appearing on programs like the US Conan O'Brien Show to promote his book.

August 2007 will see the new reality show called "The Pickup Artist" on VH1 following Mystery, Matador and J-Dog as they teach students how to go from likable, quirky personalities who have trouble getting women into "Pick Up Artists"

Estimated 2007/2008, the movie based on Neil Strauss's book "The Game" and the seduction community has now been optioned by Sony. It will be directed and produced by the brothers Chris and Paul Weitz who directed American Pie.

The 10 volume DVD/CD and book "Sexual Mastery for Men" from MYSL will be hitting adult stores in Europe and the US in 2008 and is set to reshape sexual understanding for men.

Other seduction schools and trainers from the community are also know to be in talks for various TV shows and series around the world.

Gradually, the art of seduction and secret seduction community has gone from geeks on a forum to large scale commercial success as it helps tens of thousands of guys every day improve their sexual, social and romantic skills.

The quality of the available information on social dynamics, sexual skills and how to succeed with women has vastly improved. The knowledge of what's sexually possible and how to massively improve on our sexual skills beyond what most guys think is possible is available to learn today. Maybe it's time you looked into the world of seduction and found out what's possible. For more information please check out our products and workshops.