The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women into Bed

The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women into Bed (2007, St. Martins Press) was a groundbreaking book on the pickup arts written by Mystery (Erik von Markovik) with Chris Odom.

Released first as an e-book, called, The Venusian Arts Handbook (2005, Mystery Method Corp), a year later, the book was revised for mainstream publication. A new chapter was added at the beginning of the book, and Erik and Chris spent weeks poring over the manuscript. The two of them sent the final copyedited pages to New York from a hotel room in Fairbanks, Alaska, and it was published by St. Martins Press in 2007.

Featuring a foreword by Neil Strauss, bestselling author of The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, the original Mystery Method book has been a smashing success and continues to sell briskly.

The book covers survival and replication value, an overview of the structure of the game, approaching and opening, attraction, including DHVs and Negs, IOIs, IODs, Group Theory, Multiple Conversational Threads, Winging, Waypoints, Accomplishment Intros, Storytelling, Lock-in Props, Forward and Backward Merging, Pawns, Obstacles, and Interrupts, Frame Control, Hoop Theory, Screening, Intermittence, Escalation, Kino Pinging, Takeaways, Compliance, Qualifiers, Bait-Hook-Reel-Release, Conversational Rapport, building Comfort and Trust, Commonality, Conspiracy, Vulnerability, Jealousy, Punish/Reward, Grounding, Kissing, Mid-Game and End-Game, Phone Game, Dating, and Overcoming Last Minute Resistance.

Lovedrop described the book:

The Mystery Method (2007) is the published version of The Venusian Arts Handbook (2005). The form of the book is like a textbook and some have described it as a dry read. Its main purpose was to introduce Mystery’s concept of pickup as based on evolutionary psychology and field work, and to accurately describe the model. (The Mystery Method presents the M3 model, which is also the outline for the book itself.)

The book has also taken some criticism for the subtitle “How To Get Beautiful Women Into Bed”. I’d like to point out, for the record, that subtitle was chosen by the publisher. Our own subtitle when we originally wrote the book was, “How To Put Beautiful Women Under Your Spell”. That’s cheesy but certainly not disrespectful or misogynistic.

Mystery is the alter-ego of entertainer Erik von Markovik, the star of VH1’s The Pickup Artist and the world’s foremost expert in the art and science of social dynamics.

Mystery gained international prominence when his exploits were documented in Neil Strauss’ 2005 bestseller The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, and he has also been covered by a wide variety of media including CNN, Conan O’Brien, and The New York Times.

See also:
The Pickup Artist (2010, Villard)
Revelation (2008, Venusian Arts)
Mystery’s official website, VenusianArts.com.
The Wikipedia entry on The Mystery Method book.
An article about The Mystery Method at VenusianArts.com