^I got a **** buddy, and it wasn't really fulfilling =P
The most important part of this post is in bold at the bottom. The rest is kinda just stream of consciousness, to show my thought process and hopefully trigger some insights in someone
I want to have sex with hot girls, but I also want them cuddling with me, calling me, and basically doing the normal stuff. I'm not interested in the super-flashy PUA lifestyle where you're constantly calculating. In fact, I'd like it all to flow naturally.
After studying the PUA stuff for so long, I don't know quite who I am anymore. I remember being an "AFC", and actually LIKING girls. I'd talk to them on the phone for hours, enjoying myself. I think I used to "game" them, but I thought of it as "being cool" or whatever... Now, I'm confused as to what strategy I should follow, and it's a struggle to just... be myself. Or to figure out what that means.
I never used routines, or cold-approached a ton of women. I have had sex with about 10 girls and flirted with dozens of others. I've had several LTRs that went well and ended amicably. Learning PU principles definitely increased my social standing and decreased my social anxiety. I just feel like I've lost myself. By following advice of people I've never met, which I don't talk about with most of my friends, I've gained a lot of ability with girls, but it all feels kinda "in my head".
It's like all I think about these days is pickup. I spend so much time on it. It's driving me crazy. I don't get the results you had, but I don't put in the effort you put in, either.
I don't like feeling manipulative. I don't like thinking about things in terms of pickup techniques. I feel like interaction with women has lost most of its magic.
I think I understand the power of genuine affection for women. Sadly, I usually feel those things while on drugs. On drugs, I feel much less calculating and manipulative, and more genuine (confident.) Once, I was shrooming, hanging out with a female friend in the dorm, when I decided I wanted to make a new friend. I went out in the hall, saw a girl I knew, and gave her a big warm hug saying "MADELINE, come here, I wanna get to know someone new and we don't know each other well enough, let's get breakfast tomorrow!" She "melted", responded well, you know. As it should be.
The next day, though, it was kinda... business as normal. I felt insecure and unsure of myself. I guess it's about following your feelings and desires or something. I'm not sure how to turn off the "calculating" nature and let the genuineness out.
Another time, I was on acid with some friends, including a girl I'd just met and never spoken too beyond pleasantries. I noticed she was just sitting back, not involved in the conversation. I took another look at her, and I saw her 'as she was, at the moment'... She was bored and horny! So I tapped her on the shoulder, quietly asking her if she wanted to take a walk, and she said sure. We walked off (blowing off the question as to where we were going.... They were on acid, after all... They'd forget soon!) Once we got out of sight, we immediately started making out.
I don't think that would have happened if I hadn't studied and practiced pickup like I have, and I greatly enjoyed it, as did she. (On acid, her tongue in my mouth felt like a tentacle from an octopus sex goddess
)
I remember thinking, while on acid, that everyone is manipulating one another, calculating, and it's normal; you might as well accept it. It IS genuine. It's like international politics... Every person is a state unto themselves.
Well, I guess that's OK. I'm learning that sex is mutual, that I'm not being manipulative by trying for it, etc. I feel socially comfortable more often lately, even while sober, and it's mostly because I keep having it proven to me that girls LIKE me and ARE actually sexually attracted to me... They want me to be affectionate towards them. It's all about confidence; you already are good enough, but you'll screw it up if you think you aren't.
I guess.
****tt, this stuff is hard
I'm as intrigued as I am by your writing because you seem to have escaped the "gaming people" mindset. Maybe it came from realizing that you're never NOT gaming people...?
"Instant Attraction and the Truth About Sex" feels like a manipulative tactic, but it actually stems from that lesson you learned about unconditional love, right?
I just feel like I've glimpsed the mindset you're talking about, many times... Sober or on drugs... but I haven't held onto it.
This might get kinda creepy but I've studied your posts a lot... The way I see your development is: You used manipulative PU tactics (whatever those may be) but you felt unsatisfied. I guess you felt fake, didn't get satisfying affection, and felt like... I don't know. Like I do now. Confused.. =P
Then, you talked to your friend John and had an epiphany. You stopped talking to girls for awhile and started practicing
unconditional love and genuineness. I'm thinking that what this meant to you is that you stopped trying to act "high value" or cool, and started showing them the affection you wanted to, even though you felt like they might not accept it from you. That's the way to be unconditionally loving. You can't worry about what they think of you; no insecurity allowed, or necessary. What they think of you wouldn't change how you treat them.
If I could consistently do that (and I can do it sometimes, but it's super hard) then I think it'd be all I need. It's what I'm gonna keep practicing.
I'm not sure what you began to look for in relationships (a long term girlfriend? one night stands?) But I bet it just came naturally and you did what you felt like doing...
Well, I'm done. Mad respect to you and your balls of steel... heart of gold... whatever you got in there.