This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "The Game" by Neil Strauss. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.
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Who are Steve P. and Rasputin in The Game? How did these pickup artists influence Neil Strauss?
Steve P. and Rasputin were two PUA gurus that Neil Strauss met early on during his time in the PUA community. Steve P. and Rasputin both relied on forms of “hypnosis” in their strategies.
Steve P. and Rasputin: Hypnosis
DeAngelo’s seminar also featured a session with guest speakers Steve P. and Rasputin, who worked together as a hypnotist duo. Each had impressive credentials within the seduction community.
Steve P. got women to pay him up to a thousand dollars to have sex with him because he claimed he could:
- Teach them how to orgasm when they heard a particular voice command
- Make their breasts grow up to two cup sizes via hypnosis
- Teach them deep throat techniques for oral sex
Rasputin performed hypnotic sexual engineering, in which he framed sex as a privilege for the woman. For example, if a woman gave him oral sex, he might limit her to three sucks the first time, and then grant her five sucks the next time.
According to Rasputin and Steve P., nerves and emotions only hindered PUAs. To be successful, they said, you had to live in your own reality, making you impervious to rejection and humiliation.
Style got a taste of the duo’s hypnosis powers when he first met them: Rasputin saw that Style was nervous, so Steve P. did a quick hypnosis to get rid of Style’s anxiety.
First, Steve P. had Style say his phone number backward. Then, Steve P. snapped his fingers and told Style to breathe deeply and exhale forcefully. Finally, Steve P. ran his fingers up Style’s torso and said, “Be gone!” Style wasn’t entirely sure it had worked, but he’d felt something.
Steve P. gave Style his card and offered to teach him inner-circle techniques—but Style had to vow not to share them with anyone else. The pair’s hypnosis tactics were so powerful that they could only be trusted to certain people.
Style’s Apprenticeship
Style agreed to the conditions, and he began visiting Steve P. and Rasputin every weekend, in hopes of acquiring inner game in time for Mystery’s workshop in Miami. Through hypnosis, Style hoped he could:
- See himself as attractive to women
- No longer worry about other people’s opinions of him
- Carry himself with confidence and strength
- End his fear of sexual rejection
- Believe that he was worthy and deserved the best
Style’s weekends were spent reading Steve P.’s NLP books and undergoing hypnosis. Steve P. and Rasputin a variety of tactics when they hypnotized Style:
- They played music that was meant to evoke certain psychological responses.
- They put Style under deep trances.
- They spoke into each of Style’s ears at the same time. Rasputin narrated complex stories to occupy Style’s conscious mind while Steve P. spoke to Style’s subconscious.
- They told Style stories and metaphors but didn’t tell him the conclusions until the following week, which created an open loop in Style’s mind.
After Style had apprenticed for a while, Steve P. and Rasputin told him he wanted to make Style a trainer for Steve P.’s and Rasputin’s methods. But he had to turn it down—Style had already disconnected from much of his regular life, and he knew if he accepted their offer, he’d be completely consumed in the world of seduction.
About Steve P.
As a teenager, he worked at a Catholic girls’ school, but he was fired for giving students oral sex (school administrators caught on from the girls’ confessions).
As an adult, Steve P.’s life was centered around sexuality and spirituality. He’d learned secret magic from shamans and applied it to seduction.
Steve P.’s spiritually-based sexual tactics—which he taught to Style—included:
- Soul-gazing, which entailed breathing in synchrony while looking into a woman’s right eye with his right eye. Soul-gazing created a strong connection with the woman.
- How to stack a woman’s orgasms, so that the energy of withheld orgasms compound.
- How to use words and touch to lead a woman to an intense orgasm.
Style’s Takeaways
Style’s time with the gurus had taught him about hypnosis, cocky funny, and sheer brazenness.
He also picked up some universal lessons, which would serve him in the world beyond seduction:
- When you approach someone, your opening line isn’t as important as you think. How you start the conversation is less important than where you take it.
- There’s a misconception that asking a lot of questions during conversation shows interest—but it comes off more as interrogation.
- In contrast, making statements in a conversation is a confident and intimate way of talking. Old friends speak in statements, because they allow each other to offer information through their own sharing.
- Talking fast indicates a lack of confidence. If you’re talking fast, you’re trying to fit everything in as quickly as you can because you may be worried that people aren’t interested, or you can’t bear to leave out any details.
Style felt he’d met enough gurus. He’d picked up plenty of philosophies and strategies—now he simply needed to practice using them.
Steve P. and Rasputin had similar strategies, and used them on Neil Strauss so he could experience them first hand. Steve P. and Rasputin’s “hypnosis” method helped Strauss develop confidence as “Style” the PUA.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Game summary :
- The secrets of the Pickup Artist community in seducing women
- How key Pickup Artist leaders fought with each other and split the group apart
- What author Neil Strauss took away about women from his years of training
