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Neil Strauss - Style - Seduction Guru Neil Strauss

Unlike many of his counterparts in the "seduction community", writer Neil Strauss has a career outside of men's advice. Strauss has worked as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, a graphic novelist, even a ghostwriter for celebrities like Jenna Jameson and Marilyn Manson. As a music critic, Strauss' interviews are the stuff of legend. Rumors abound – Neil Strauss interviews The Strokes for over a week, hanging out with them at all times, engaging in all sorts of illicit behaviors. Strauss once climbed into bed with Jewel during an interview, and the myths surrounding his alleged kidnapping by Courtney Love (one version of the story claims she stabbed and drugged him) are dirty enough to be withdrawn from this article.

To top it off, Neil Strauss can list more than a few celebrity girlfriends to his credit, including the drummer from Courtney Love's band The Chelsea. In other words, Strauss has demonstrated that seduction and excitement are both walks he can walk. If you know him as Style or Chris Prowles, then you may be familiar with his seduction and business style – the guy keeps to himself, releasing his thoughts on seduction to ultra small numbers of men, usually other members of the seduction community.

The Annihilation Method

In fact, Neil Strauss' first method, known as Annihilation Method, was taught to five men in Strauss home over a long weekend in 2005. This approach flies right in the face of the methods of men like Ross Jeffries or Doc Love, men who make their material highly available, even leaking large portions of it for free to men who know how to run a search engine. Not Strauss – after this extremely selective seminar, Strauss' method was released to a larger audience. The exact number is unknown, but Strauss offered to sell his method to the first "375" men to appear at his website to place an order.

This group of students went on to feature some stars of its own, including one student who released the controversial "How to Fuck Strippers" book in 2007. This emphasis placed on releasing information to a small amount of consumers is a completely unique idea in the world in which Neil Strauss operates. Moving away from this philosophy only slightly, Strauss has opened what he calls "The first online school for self-improvement and attraction", though it is easy to imagine this "school" as just the next step for pickup artists and their students – why not gather all of your "method" teachings into easy-to-disseminate lectures and packages so that men don't mind paying "tuition" to learn from you. And packaging this material as a 'school' is an equally sneaky way to convince men that this information is valuable and necessary. No one looks down on a man who goes back to 'school', do they?

The release of his book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists is as much of a catalyst in the ongoing feud in the seduction community as any other event. In this book, Strauss relates advice and information on seduction in yet another unique way – by telling stories. Often humorous, often scary, always dirty and usually featuring more than its share of braggadocio, the book was on the top of every bestseller list in the country, including Amazon.com, for months. The basic story of the book is the tutelage of a student named Style (funny – that's the name that Strauss sometimes goes by!) by a mentor named Mystery. The mentor in the book is undoubtedly Erik von Markovik, the most familiar of the seduction community to the rest of the world -- the man known as Mystery, whose Method was featured on a reality show from VH1. Strauss would later release titles related to The Game, including a selection of stories "from the cutting room floor".

The "villains" of Strauss' works are usually men from the seduction community known as "Tyler Durden" (the nemesis of Ross Jeffries and other pickup artist bigwigs) and "Papa". These two, known for their own seduction method known as Real Social Dynamics, have clashed publicly and privately with Jeffries and Strauss over issues related to seduction. Occasionally these fights have gotten personal, taking away what little credibility this community had in the eyes of many. Regardless of what you feel about pickup artists and their community, The Game is a fascinating window into their world.

NeilStrauss.com - Neil Strauss.com

The most shocking news about Neil Strauss is his latest announcement – he is retiring. According to his website, NeilStrauss.com, he is prepared to release most of his method for free to members of his VIP mailing list, and "once this knowledge is revealed, Neil Strauss -- arguably the most successful pick-up artist in modern times -- will disappear from the seduction scene... forever!"

Let's take a closer look at Strauss' method – what we can learn of it, that is. His "Annihilation Method" is notoriously secretive, with forums and discussion groups about AM (as it is known) closed for public perusal for the most part.
Neil Strauss encourages men to "get out and participate" as a first step – this does seem to be more sensible than the baptism by fire methods of his counterparts. Strauss suggests that men will learn their weaknesses and be confident about what they already have right, and are then further prepared to work on "hypnosis" techniques similar to those suggested by Ross Jeffries, or the more mysterious "inner game".

The Annihilation Method suggests hanging out with "natural" guys (guys who do not participate in the pickup artist community) who are "better" than you, for the obvious reasons: you will observe and learn their natural seduction techniques as well as benefit from proximity to more attractive or social guys. This is less method than psychology, and it is a fact that a person's position in society can impact their attractiveness.

In fact, most of Strauss' method which has been made public appears to skirt the line between a basic understanding of social psychology ("celebrities have routines to attract and deflect women akin to those found in the seduction community" – no kidding) and a New Age emphasis on basic hypnosis and the power of language. However, as noted by many in the community, often a small alteration of an elder's method can lead to great success, and Strauss appears to have benefited from his Method's similarity to those of his teachers. This is a common theme in the seduction community – take what is good about what you already know and tweak it to increase your notoriety.

Neil Strauss, while more mysterious than others in the seduction scene, is not much different from the famous names in seduction theory. His methods are similar, even his high profile "retirement" (which is really just another avenue to sell you his books) lines right up with similar actions made by his teachers a few years ago. The difference with Strauss is the assumption that he has lived the life he advertises. All the mystery of his Method is mirrored by the mysteries of his life.

What really happened with Courtney Love?

How did he get Jenna Jameson to open up to a stranger in such detail?

These and other mysteries may have no answer – unless you plunk down your credit card and sign up.

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The Seduction Community - Artists and Seduction Gurus
A somewhat skeptical and critical look at what the "seduction community" is and what "seduction coaches" teach.

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
A review of the Neil Strauss book that was among the first to expose the "Community", a not-so-secret society of pickup artists.

The Mystery Method
Another info product similar to Double Your Dating, but this one comes from another perspective. We provide a detailed review.