The Charismatic Fool

Charisma, it’s a funny trait. If you ask most people if they have met a charismatic person in their life, they, would undoubtedly say yes. Ask that same person if they can explain what made them charismatic and watch as their eyes glaze over, trying to put into words, the essence of personal attraction. The ancient Greeks believed that Charisma was a Divine gift, the word charisma itself actually comes from the Greek word χάρισμα (kharisma), which, you guessed it, means Divine gift. Can we really believe that though? Is charisma some innate trait that the gods have blessed upon a person? Are people just born with the ability to be charming?

I personally will not stand to believe that people are born charming and others do not have the ability to charm the masses. I believe charisma, as we experience it, is nothing more than a series of learned social behaviors that instill good feelings in others and causes them to bend to the will of the charismatic individual. The more astute of you may ask “Where is your proof?”, “How do you come to that conclusion?”. At that point I would pull out my notebook of data collected from first hand observation with detailed analysis of each interaction and then show you a system that repeatedly works and the field reports to prove it.

The reality is, I have no proof, no detailed observational records of human responses. At this point of time I may not even have an individual in the world that agrees with me. That is the purpose of this blog.

I ask you all to come on a tour. A tour of the workings of human attraction. Weekly, I will be reporting in with field reports of my own interactions with people, while trying to teach myself the art of charisma. At first it will be painful, awkward, and quite possibly very funny but, I hope as you read this blog, you begin to realize that we all respond to the same things and that Charm is nothing more than what we have be conditioned to respond positively to.

My initial field reports are planned to be done at bars and clubs, as that is the working grounds of a charismatic individual, but, it will not end at those venues alone. We will scrutinize and analyze each report and see what works and what doesn’t. In the end my hope is to distill the essence of charisma and make it into a system that everyone can learn and teach. So, without further delay, let’s begin our trip.