V-Carded! An Twenty-something adult male's struggle with virginity and sexual frustration

Well, no better pickup artist to start with than the most recognizable one.

Many people first became familiar with Erik von Markovik - better known by his alias “Mystery” - in the book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists as one of the central characters, then later as the host of the reality show VH-1’s The Pickup Artist.

Mystery is easily identifiable by his extremely unusual clothing consisting from fuzzy hats, goggles and even painted fingernails. Not only does this add to his mystique as a magician and performer, but this also goes along with his “peacock theory” that makes him stand out from other men in a crowd.

Mystery’s way of seduction is called The Mystery Method, a system that breaks up the courting process into nine different stages and three different categories, attraction, comfort and seduction and works best with attractive women who are always getting hit on. It also bases it’s principals on evolutionary psychology which I heavily believe in after reading some of the same books on the same subject that other pickup artists have. Originally sold as a $70 eBook, the Mystery Method was eventually published and can now be found in your local bookstore for about $20.

There’s a lot I’ve learned from Mystery and he is very smart about the psychology behind the game. But I do have some issues with him as well. For one, I’m not much of a fan of the scripted game. Sure, it works well for some guys and to them I say not to stop what they’re doing if it’s working. But sooner or later women are going to get too familiar with the various opinion openers and techniques…even more so thanks to the VH-1 show. I personally think you’ll fly far more below the radar with a natural game than a systematic one.

Another problem I have is his infield videos…at least in the ones I’ve seen the women appear to know full well that they’re being filmed. This is apparent in VH-1’s The Pickup Artist as well as some of his footage on his Mind of Mystery DVDs. Even if they don’t straight-up admit that they’re filming a pickup, it’s still a crutch as people are going to be inquisitive about the cameras and not act the same as they normally would.

Speaking of his Mind of Mystery DVD set, that came out on the heels of the success of his TV show - only available for a short time in a limited number *coughmarketingcough* - and it contained 21 DVDs, 13 CDs and other content which was boasted as being Mystery’s “magnum opus.” The set got a lot of flack on message boards due to the extremely high cost of $2400 (gulp), the production values as well as the padding on the DVDs - some of those 21 DVDs are only 20-30 minutes long.

Something else to point out about Mystery is that not only is he dominantly tall, but he’s a performer and a magician…traits that would make him attractive to women regardless of his techniques. He’s now all the more attractive and higher value now that he’s been on TV as well. Keep this in mind.

I don’t blame Mystery for making money off his skill, but I think he’s become far too expensive and mainstream for an average joe to afford learning off of. My advice for men to read his book The Mystery Method: How To Get Beautiful Women Into Bed. It’s only a reasonable $20 and it’s an interesting read on how desired women subconsciously think and why. The man does know his stuff and much of it makes a lot of sense.

That book is all that I would get from Mystery. Take the TV show with a grain of salt (eyebrows were raised last year when several of the “dweebs” on the show had acting and/or modeling on their resumes), and don’t buy any overpriced DVD set. The book up there will do you fine.

Posted July 10th, 2008 in Seduction

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