mag

Heeb Issue #12 : Interview

Chairman of the Broads

Ross Jeffries and the Ethics of Seduction

Photo Illustration by Erin Sparling, aaarrr!!! Interview by Elliot Ratzman
(excerpted from original article)
According to 49-year-old author and seducer Ross Jeffries, love and sex are human needs, not wants. And men, he proclaims, have been unjustly deprived of fulfillment for far too long. Jeffries, a failed comedy writer, blames the dating game for crippling unattractive and uncharismatic men by instructing them to be “nice guys” while exalting the sweaty, monosyllabic hunks who always end up getting the girl. Ross Jeffries teaches techniques based on principles of hypnosis and behavioral psychology to help men understand, interpret… and manipulate women, aiming to awaken the dormant Casanova in every schlub, turning every bumbling baldie into a seduction machine. Now presiding over a vast Speed Seduction empire, Jeffries’ ideas have spawned an army of followers and imitators (he was the inspiration for Tom Cruise’s terrifying life coach Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia and the mentor to _The Game_’s Neil Strauss). Heeb Contributing Editor Elliot Ratzman spoke with Jeffries about picking up chicks.

How did you come to be the godfather of the Seduction Community?
In college and for many years afterwards, I was skeletal—6’2” and 125 pounds. I just could not get the traditional dating model to work for me, and many men, if they are honest, will admit that it doesn’t work for them either. I don’t think that’s anyone’s fault—it’s just the way that game is structured. So, I struggled for many years trying to figure out a way out of it. I can very clearly recall imagining myself in a pit 100 feet deep, having to climb out rung by rung, slowly, until I could see the sunlight. My first glimpse was in 1987. I had just quit my first career as a comedy writer when I encountered Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), which was developed by Bandler and Grinder. I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this could actually solve all my problems.’ I began to dabble in it to deal with my self-confidence issues and to learn to communicate. Voltaire once said, ‘Give me 10 minutes to talk away my ugly face and I’ll bed the Queen of France.’ Soon I was able to talk away my own ugly face.

It seems like the game is rigged against the nice Jewish boy.
There is this idea that Jewish men tend to be wimpy, but there’s also a perception that they’re great providers, catches as husbands, so there are conflicting stereotypes. But as Jews, we are programmed to be achievers. So if our emotional and sexual needs aren’t met, we also have the problem of not being able to accomplish this goal.

What do you want your students to take away from Speed Seduction?
Speed Seduction teaches that you have choices and ability and that you don’t have to buy into a power structure that is fundamentally oppressive. You can change huge aspects of your thinking and you don’t have to bring the failures of the past into each new opportunity. I have guys focus on women and dating because that’s where they can really concentrate their attention, but the tools can be applied anywhere.

Giving people choice and confidence in their social lives is a good thing, but what about world views and politics? If you had the President of Iran in front of you…
This is mechanics, not magic. Not all people are amenable to full-blown persuasion. I don’t have any power to change the President of Iran, but I can point out what goes on in the U.S. political system and confidently assure you that the same techniques I teach are being used in politics and advertising. I have to tread carefully here, but it’s possible that people very highly placed in law enforcement and in the intelligence community have taken a peek at my work and, from time to time, have actually studied with me.

 

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