BASICS - Athena Fox Forum http://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/ Athena Fox Society Veni vidi vici en Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:40:49 +0000 wpForo 60 QUALIFICATION https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/qualification/ Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:12:20 +0000 negging and disinterest early in a set. Anybody can walk up to a girl and tell her something nice.” The key is to remember where qualification comes in the set. Qualification comes AFTER the target has given you some indication that she’s interested in you. In other words, you only qualify a girl AFTER it’s clear that she wants you to be interested in her. This is actually a general rule to all aspects of pickup. Ideally, a girl will want you to take every step – from opening, to kissing, and even through seduction – before you do it. Sometimes she isn’t even aware of it. Sometimes the gap isn’t very long – a real master pickup artist is taking each step just at the very moment the target realizes she wants it. (That is pretty much the definition of sweeping a girl off her feet). But this is especially true with respect to qualification. Remember that an attractive woman’s default response is always going to be to reject suitors, so you can’t make it clear you’re interested in her until she wants you, first. If the only change you make to your game is to hold off on praising her until she’s attracted to you, you will see your results improve dramatically. You may well qualify more than once. Qualification marks the end of the opening phase of the set, and the move into comfort or “mid-game,” but you will probably continue to qualify her as the set progresses. Finally, it’s very important to remember that after you qualify a girl, you no longer need to pretend that you’re not interested in her. Yes, you may do a little push-pull to keep her on her toes, and it’s always important not to be too eager, which we’ll discuss more in future articles. But for now just remember that once you’ve qualified her, she knows you’re interested, so pushing her away too hard will feel like a rejection and can kill the set. I’ve seen lots of beginners blow sets by going back to disqualification after they’d already told the girl they were into her. Don’t make that mistake. Luckily, qualification should be easy. Most of the time if you’re interested in the girl, there’s a reason. Share it with her! Make her feel good about herself, and she’ll reward you.]]> BASICS Vibez https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/qualification/ PEACOCKING https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/peacocking/ Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:10:47 +0000 Level 1: Have a few interesting rings, bracelets, or a pendant around your neck. Wear an interesting hat, or add at least one completely unnecessary item just because it looks cool or interesting. The idea is simply to give the women you meet some aspect of your appearance that they can notice, talk about, or touch. Hypnotica’s “better orgasms” t-shirt is an example of this sort of peacocking, especially because he can back it up by saying, honestly, “I teach women how to have more powerful orgasms.”  (This is a great example of how simple peacocking can feed into a DHV story).  If you’re not peacocking at least at this level, you are simply not trying very hard, and your results will really suffer. Level 2: This is taking it a bit further. Think about the image you want to portray, and then go for it, moving a little past your comfort zone. Style used to talk about tribes: how can you present yourself as a member of a tribe that she – your target – wants to join or, at least, to visit. Don’t go in half steps. Decide what your tribe is – are you a hippy, a goth, a rocker, a jersey-shore type, or whatever, and own it. The mistake most PUAs make in this area is not making a strong enough choice. It’s fine if you want to be an intellectual, for example, but make conscious choices about what it means to dress like an intellectual – don’t just wear whatever you normally wear because you are one already. Level 3: This is what Mystery practices, and it’s not for everyone. At this level, you are making spectacular, garish choices, primarily for the purpose of being noticed. Attention for the sake of attention is the goal here, but there’s a catch: if you’re getting attention, you will magnify whatever you’re doing. If you’re holding court, generating tons of preselection by being surrounded by women, then peacocking like this will help you. But if you’re obviously trolling the club, looking for people to talk to, and look uncomfortable, level 3 peacocking will hurt you: you’re inadvertently calling attention to your demonstrations of lower value. You should start practicing level 1 peacocking today. If you don’t have any jewellery, go out and buy some. Find pieces which speak to you, and learn to talk about them in interesting ways. As you develop your identity, find ways to add more strong elements to achieve level 2 peacocking, advertising who you are. And if you really want to maximize your results and have the game to back it up, go for the whole enchilada. It’s fine to start small … but the key is that you start.]]> BASICS Vibez https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/peacocking/ FALSE TIME CONSTRAINTS https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/false-time-constraints/ Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:09:15 +0000 false time constraint is one of those little things you can do which can have a surprisingly large impact on your success rate. All a false time constraint (or “FTC” for short) is a comment like, “I have to get back to my friends in a minute, but …” delivered at a key moment. FTCs work because when you approach or lock in with a group, their defenses are – naturally – up. They’re wary that you’ll be uninteresting or unpleasant, and an FTC disarms them. It allows them to relax because, even if it turns out they don’t like you, they know you’ll be gone soon. There are two key times to deliver a FTC. The first is when you open. Rather than just launching into your opener, e.g., “Hey, Give me a female opinion on something …” you add a FTC. “Hey. I’ve got to get back to my friends in a minute, but before I do, give me a female opinion on something …” The other time to use a FTC is when you are joining the set in such a way that you’re entering their space. For example, you open a set who is seated at a table. You’re standing as you open.  They respond, and, as you sit down, you deliver a FTC as you give the next part of your opener.  Here you are disarming, in advance, their fear that you’ll impose yourself in an unwanted way on the group by staying. Generally you’ll only deliver one FTC per set. If the set is seated, and you know you’ll want to deliver a FTC when you sit down, you might, instead, root your opener. Rooting your opener just means giving the set a reason why you’re opening them. For example, you might say, “My friend just told me this crazy story, let me know what you think …” If these concepts seem trivial, experiment with them. Most PUAs discover that they get less resistance from their targets early, and open successfully more often, when they use these tools. The impact they have is small, but very real.]]> BASICS Vibez https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/false-time-constraints/ IOI'S https://jamiedob.com/athenafox/basics/iois/ Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:06:16 +0000 Indicators Of Interest

Indicators of interest, or IOIs, are behaviors from women which communicate – consciously or not – that the woman is attracted to the man that she’s talking to. It’s very important to a pickup artist to learn how to read these signs, because a key principle of pickup is that you must get your target attracted to you first, before you move into qualification and comfort, and IOIs are how you know when to switch gears. Before listing some common IOIs, a few guidelines. First, be aware that IOIs that are not a response to your displays of higher value are often false. Women – consciously or not – use false IOIs to get men to pay attention to them. “Hired guns” – waitresses, bartenders, strippers, etc – often give false IOIs to get bigger tips. IOIs that you can trust occur spontaneously after your display of higher value. When Mystery began teaching game, he suggested that you should count three IOIs before moving into qualification. That’s a little robotic, and while it’s a good starting point, real mastery is achieved when you can sense a girl’s attraction without necessarily being able to put your finger on exactly what she’s doing. To that end, you should train yourself to recognize attraction. Next time you’re out and about, look around at the various couples. Ask yourself the following questions: “Is she into him?” and “How can I tell?” Be very literal – notice as many specific behaviors as you can. Over time, it’ll become intuitive. But while you develop your intuition, let the following list be a guideline. All of the list below are well known IOIs:

PUA IOIs

Her body is oriented to you, despite other people being around. If her feet are pointed right at you, despite other reasonable options, that’s a very good sign. She touches you while talking (even as little as a hand on your arm). This is a very big giveaway. She grooms herself casually – smoothing her hair, adjusting her blouse, re-applying lipstick, etc. Playing with jewelry counts, as well. She holds eye contact with a soft smile. She breaks brief eye contact by looking down. (This is a very powerful one, but only if you don’t look away yourself. It might be the biggest pre-approach IOI.) She leans into you or brushes against you. A girl knows when she “accidentally” brushes her breasts against you when walking past you. She doesn’t do it with everyone. Her body language to you is open (shoulder’s back, arms uncrossed). She perks up – improves her posture, maybe thrusts her chest forward – when you pay attention to her. She leans towards you, or enters your personal space. She exposes (perhaps “accidentally”) additional skin while you’re looking – letting her dress fall of her shoulder, or showing you flashes of “soft” skin like her neck, underarms, or the inside of her wrist. She caresses herself, sliding a hand along her own neck or collarbone. (This is a very powerful one. It tells you something about where her mind is – she wants you to be caressing her). She mirrors you. This is a very powerful IOI, which we’ll discuss more when we talk about comfort. But when you find a woman subconsciously mirroring your posture (holding her arms in the same way, making similar gestures, or drinking when you drink) it’s a strong sign she’s feeling powerful emotions towards you. She plays with a straw or toothpick in her mouth while looking at you or talking to you. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a good starting place. With practice, picking up on IOIs will get intuitive quickly. And remember, once you’re getting consistent IOIs, qualify the girl and move into mid-game.
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