DYD Mastery Recap, Day One --By Thundercat

David X also didn't do himself any favors by joking about how he didn't know why guys had to study this dating and seduction stuff. He said that, to him, it was mind boggling that there were guys who actually existed that NEEDED to study this type of thing. This was bad for two reasons. The first was that he alienated his audience who are obviously a group of guys who WANT or NEED to study this stuff. Strike two was that this comment was a bit incongruent with the fact that he's being presented as a dating guru who teaches guys how to get laid through personal coaching. He often bragged about how his students used to never get pussy, and after he graduated them, they went on to have more sex than they could ever imagine. Yet the very statement that he was above the guys who needed to learn this stuff undermines his pride in his students.

Another problem with David X was that after the first day, he wasn't seen again until after the seminar ended on the last day. His absence may have been because he was visiting friends in LA, but the other guest speakers managed to hang out with the audience and offer advice and counseling for free. His absence conveyed to many that he was either afraid to be around guys who were interested in testing his abilities, or he simply didn't like hanging out with guys interested in learning how to pick up women because he thought they were a group of losers. Either way, his absence didn't go over well in my opinion (hell, even Rick H, one of the flakiest guys out there, showed up for 2 days).

Major Mark was also in attendance the first day of the seminar, sitting by Cliff of Cliff's List fame in the back of the room. Major Mark was sporting a new look that included a pony tail and goatee with thick eyeglasses. It was a more hippy looking than the image we see of him in all the SS products, and it took me a second to recognize him. I got to talk to him briefly at the breaks, and he was a very engaging guy who had a lot of great things to say.

But no where was the intricate social drama more apparent than during the VIP dinner David DeAngelo treated his invited seminar guests to that night. When I picked up my VIP badge at the beginning of the morning, it was accompanied by a rather nice gold invitation to join him for supper. This meal took place in the hotel restaurant at the biggest table available. David D sat at its head, and Mystery sat at the opposite head. Tyler Durden, Merovingian, and a few others gravitated to David D's sphere, while other invited guests (who were of the non-PUA persuasion) were at the other end of the table enraptured by Mystery and his talk of Dating and Seduction. I was at the middle of the table with Major Mark, David X, and Swinggcat, along with a few internet marketing gurus who were at the seminar as guests of David D's.

The most noticeable thing was the way David X and Major Mark regarded people like Mystery and Tyler Durden. They looked at them with a slight air of snobbery, like these young punks were fakers that didn't deserve to be at the table. Major Mark often referred to Mystery by his SS-inspired nick-name "Misery." The good Major also went on to talk about his prowess with women, and he and David X expressed how lame they thought it was to hang out with men all day long instead of being with women. At this, Tyler Durden spoke up, playing a subtle mind game with the two by disagreeing with them and making the two men qualify to him in their arguments. This, of course, was only picked up by Swinggcat and I, who were in the vicinity of the conversation and knew the tactic Tyler was using.

Major Mark also tried to distinguish himself by saying he's the only hypnotist at the seminar, which Tyler slyly undermined by pointing out that Swinggcat was a skilled hypnotist as well. Swinggcat and Major Mark then got into a conversation about how Mark used to flame Swinggcat when they were both on the SS List. The two had never met before, and seemed to enjoy sharing their experiences in the "Rapid Romance" camp like two old veterans exchanging war stories. Major Mark then went on to tell us all a good deal about his experiences with MINE'99, which he asked me not to repeat on the blog. I'll leave it to your imagination what he had to share with us. =)