By Indiana.
"I hope you will find this to be a critical but fair review of my weekend with the Masters in order to help decide if a Classroom & In-Field Training event with VA is right for you. I will discuss the Good and the Bad with a focus on in-field work and hope that other students will add their opinions (whether they agree with me or not). By the way, I was the one with the outback hat that some people referred to as “Indiana”.
Was it a perfect event? No, perhaps not. Would I do it all over again? Hell yes, it changed my life.
Why VA?
My awareness of pick-up began about six months ago after stumbling across Vin DiCarlo’s Pandora’s Box. I also achieved some success with Sasha Daygame’s techniques. Both had their strong points but lacked the cohesion of a fully developed model. After further research into PUAs (with help from YouTube), I found that most of the leading experts in pick-up (Style, Sinn, Mehow, etc.) originated from the teachings of a man called Mystery (Erik von Markovik). At first, his in-field videos seemed ridiculous. After reading The Mystery Method and Revelations, watching VH1’s ‘The Pickup Artist’ and reanalyzing the YouTube videos, I found the M3 Method to be nothing short of brilliant. Having found the ultimate teacher, I decided to sign up for in-field training with Erik at the Las Vegas Conference.
Registration:
I entered my contact info into the VA website and was called the next day. All my questions were answered very well and I was convinced to sign up for the VIP package. I called the Las Vegas hotel to confirm that the event had been booked and that I had a room. A few weeks later, I was asked to accept an agreement specifying the terms under which I could claim a refund.
LMR:
During the last week before the event, I had buyer’s remorse. I started searching for critical reviews of Venusian Arts’ programs to brace myself for disappointment and found many claims that in-field sessions failed to meet expectations. The problem with these reviews, however, is that they seemed emotionally charged with no basis in fact. I decided to proceed on intuition. Indeed, these reviews turned out to be unfounded. My first-hand experience is that the in-field sessions improved me as a person, Discovery accommodated several requests for changes to my training program over the weekend and Erik was… in a word… Magical!
The Night Before:
I flew in to Vegas and opened a two-set on the hotel shuttle just for practice. I didn’t know until he introduced himself later that another student was sitting behind them. The two of us hung out and met Erik in the lobby later that night. He made me feel like an old friend and encouraged us to start gaming right away. Now I was excited again!
Day 1:
The conference started two hours late. Erik was sick and Chris (Lovedrop) was delayed having locked himself out of his hotel room in nothing but a towel. Discovery, however, carried the day very well. A powerful speaker, he began covering material with an enthusiastic delivery and in-class exercises. Then I prepared for my first night in-field with a PUA Master (Erik) and a coach (Jenson - a tall enthusiastic black guy with an enormous smile).
We arrived at Bond (a lounge bar at the Cosmopolitan). Erik gave his students a pep talk about our place in the universe and inspiration to smile and feel energized. After that I didn’t interact much with Erik. He didn’t appear to be paying much attention to me. I was almost disappointed until later in the evening when his feedback demonstrated that he’d noticed every move I made (seriously, it’s scary how in tune this guy is with his surroundings). Erik spent part of the night competing with Matador over a girl who they ended up pulling together Later I learned that such competition between the masters is common.
I opened four sets that night, had two girls open me and enjoyed some good conversation. I ran my stack and practiced my voice projection, smiling and body language. The highlight of the night was when I was in set with two girls (giving and receiving light kino) when Jimmy Chicago (another junior coach) came in to my set. He put one hand on my shoulder, looked the girls in the eyes and said, “This is the greatest guy in the world. He once drove 600 miles to bail me out of a Mexican prison”. Then he rolled off. Instantly, one of the girls threw her arms around me and screamed, “I love you!”
Day 2:
Discovery pulled off another day of strong material with Chris covering story-telling with DHV spikes. This involved a powerful workshop with Tynan (Herbal from The Game) as my classroom coach. I asked Shaun (Discovery) if he would be my in-field trainer with Jimmy as my coach. He agreed.
This time in field I opened many more sets (I lost count after seven or eight) and stayed in them significantly longer. Three times I ejected only because I had run out of material and didn’t know what to do next. Shaun gave some feedback and at one point came into my set, looked my target in the eye and said, “This is a great guy, if you don’t suck his cock, I will”. The girls eye-coded each other and continued in set with me for quite some time. Later I asked for more feedback and Shaun provided help with my field presence and attire (chin up, smile and no name-brand clothing).
My coach, Jimmy Chicago is the man who changed my life. His inspiration (and kicking my butt when I needed it) helped me improve my game significantly. He kept me moving with a visual display of the 3-second rule. Whenever I was not in set (and he was done debriefing me) he would call out a set, count with his fingers, look me in the eye and say, “One… Two…” I never let him get to Three. One time I was blown out so badly I asked him to show me what I should have done. He opened the same set as I was blown out of. When the girls’ soccer coach came over to ‘save’ them, he disarmed him by saying he was gay and still number closed the girls in about 10 to 15 minutes.
Day 3:
The material was excellent. James surprised us with a three hour talk on planning, documenting and organizing our lives and material. The man comes off as a beast but has an extremely structured mind. In the class room, he pauses and delivers clear answers to questions. Erik covered the M3 method in detail.
The training wheels were off now and I went in-field without a formal coach (along with a couple students). I opened seven sets and got blown out fairly early (nothing too nasty though). My eighth set opened well. She was a 30 year-old ex-stripper with a guy friend who I won over quickly. My stack was smooth and I isolated my target. I introduced her to Erik and leaned over to Jimmy for help:
Me: Jimmy, I’m in A3 and can’t think of any qualifiers, give me something to say
Jimmy: Did you do X?
Me: Yes, give me something quick!
Jimmy: Did you try Y?
Me: Yes, hurry up!
Jimmy: Dude, you’re already in Comfort!
Me: Oh, ok.
It took me some time to drag my girl away from Erik. All he said was, “I have an intuition about you,” and rolled off and she was mesmerized. She kept saying she needed to hear his intuition. Erik slid by me and told me to move her into the corner so I could sit her on my lap. Of course, I obeyed. I gained compliance and kino-escalated.
Me: Do you want to kiss me?
Her: I don’t know you well enough yet
Me: I didn’t say you could, I only asked if you wanted to
Her: (Giggling) Let’s get some drinks
On the way to the bar, I recalled something I read in the Mystery Method about not buying drinks for girls. I grabbed Erik’s arm as we passed:
Me: She wants me to buy her a drink, what should I say?
Mystery: “Yes Ma’am!”
Since I told the class on Day Two what Jimmy did for me on Day One, I had four different students come up to my girl and tell her I had bailed them out of a Mexican prison. I was starting to lose credibility and had to get the hell out of there!
I bounced the girl to a bar around the corner where I had shared in the cost of bottle service with some classmates earlier that night (the bastards drank all the booze but seating rights were all I really needed). After some comfort I bounced again to a lounge bar on the opposite side of the Cosmopolitan where we could be alone (and we could get drinks!). Finally, I pulled the girl back to the hotel in a limo and also invited all my close friends who I had rescued from Mexico (Prophet, Jimmy and some students). We had some breakfast, played some Roulette and went up to my room at about 6:00 AM.
…strippers are very smooth, soft and flexible…
Day 4:
We woke up at noon (class started at 11:00 AM). This girl had me so head over heels that I would have spent all of Sunday with her. I wanted her again right away but she insisted on going home to freshen up so we could have our next session in the double-seated bathtub in my room (she had a bikini outfit she wanted to get for me as well as some… substances). Foolishly, I let her leave alone. I used the time to drop into class and shook Shaun`s hand in thanks (he had no clue what I was babbling about but shook it anyway). I was waiting for her in the lobby when Jimmy Chicago came out of nowhere and kicked my ass back to class saying I was missing valuable material and didn`t need to marry this girl. She never did return so I spent the next few hours feeling like crap (but I was back in class thanks to Jimmy).
The day was spent on solid material from Discovery, Prophet (Kevin) and special guest Mehow. James came in at the end with an overwhelming endorsement of Mehow and his products. Mystery gave us an inspirational wrap-up speech and we were invited back (for free) to any seminars within a one year period.
The weekend was over but I made it out one last time with the boys. Discovery, Tynan and a friend were going out to dinner so I joined them and ran into Jimmy Chicago and G (the photographer).
Jimmy was off the clock but agreed to game with me one last time back at Bond. We opened some really cool sets and I ran one target that dropped a reference to VH1. She was more nervous than I was thinking I was a real pro (if only she knew) but kept giving me compliance to see what I would do next. Then Erik came over and I introduced them – I think it made her week.
The Master Trainers:
Erik (Mystery), Shaun (Discovery), James (Matador) and Chris (Lovedrop) are inspiring, energetic and charismatic speakers in the classroom. They deliver the material clearly, use slides, charts and classroom exercises to enhance the learning process and they all without exception care deeply about teaching their art.
The Coaches:
I only really got to know Jenson, Jimmy Chicago and Tynan (who was more a special guest) but I learned so much from them in the field that I would definitely call the Conference a life changing event. The Trainers are there to teach the material but the Coaches are the ones who fix your game in the field. My advice would be not to worry about which master trainer you sign up with (you’ll spend time with them all in field anyway). Just listen to your coach, tell them what you want to learn, work your ass off and don’t get hung up on any one girl (but oh my God she smelled nice).
The Students:
Finally, I want to say a word about the other students. These guys were not at all what I expected. They were a group of well educated, intelligent, hard working men who were focused on learning a new skill. Some have had recent breakups and want help moving on. Some want to enjoy higher quality women in their lives. I hope to see many of them at future events and would be proud to call any of them my friend.
This was much longer than I intended, but I hope it helps."
by Indiana
