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Debunking Chase Hughes of NCI University: The lies of the “#1 expert in behavior & influence”

Chase Hughes refers to himself as the “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” A popular YouTube show that he’s on, the Behavioral Panel, gets millions of views. Dr. Phil has featured Chase on his show and called him the “best on the globe.” Chase’s company NCI University charges people thousands of dollars for their training and products.

And yet Chase’s career is built on a foundation of lies and exaggerations — not only in the behavior and psychology space, but also in other pursuits, including pick-up artistry and vitamin supplements. He makes many claims that just about every psychology expert would disagree with (for example, claims that he can teach people to hypnotize others and make them do things against their will). He has claimed since at least 2012 to be well known in the behavior and psychology space, despite there being almost no mention of him in the 2010s. This video, the first of at least a two-part series, examines his many deceptions and his many grandiose (and in some cases clearly absurd) claims. It establishes the extremely deceptive patterns that Chase Hughes has been practicing since 2007, when he wrote his pick-up artist book The Passport.

This episode includes research done by Zachary Elwood. A transcript with links to resources and a synopsis of major points are below.

The YouTube video is the preferred format to watch, as it includes a lot of visuals, but the audio-only version is decent, too.

A follow-up episode about how Chase’s work/approach relates to Neuro-Linguistic Programming is here.

Episode links:

The most pertinent information from my investigation is summarized here below. A transcript of the video is below that, which includes links to resources mentioned in the video.

Synopsis of analysis:

  • He implies that his military service is related in some way to his behavior and psychology work. For example, in 2021 he wrote: “After 20 years of teaching interrogation, persuasion, and ethical brainwashing to the top Intelligence agencies in the world… And years of observing elite, high-ranking government officials using my military security clearance…” On his current site he writes, “He developed the 6MX system for intelligence agencies, which is now the gold standard in Tradecraft.” He writes that he got interested in working in improving military intelligence when his friend was killed in 2000 on the USS Cole: “Luckily, I had top-secret security clearance in the military, which I used to figure out the answer to this question: ‘How can we make intelligence gathering more powerful?’” (this despite sometimes saying he got interested in behavior/influence due to his interest in picking up girls; his pick-up artist book came out in 2007). In event descriptions, he writes that it’s “the SAME class attended by advanced government operations personnel.”
    • There’s no evidence I’ve seen that his military experience is related to his behavior/influence work, or that he’s trained a government agency/dept in an official capacity.
    • After this episode came out, two people who said they knew Chase from the Navy told me that he was a Quarter Master.
  • He has apparently claimed to have some sort of Harvard education (including studying neuroscience there) and also possibly a Duke University education, but there’s no evidence for that that I’ve seen. And he seems to no longer mention that kind of education in his bio.
  • He has claimed to be a 2020 “top CEO” and a 40-under-40 CEO but both of those were from low-quality pay-to-be-featured sites.
  • He released a pick-up artist book in 2007. He spoke at the time as if he and the book were popular in the pick-up artist space but I could find no evidence of that. His book had only a single Amazon review in the first decade after its publication. It is no longer in print.
  • In 2007 and 2008, he was selling a vitamin supplement called “RedShift with Neuridium” (both words having trademark symbols). The claims made about it on the website (https://web.archive.org/web/20071125084359/http://www.redshiftlabs.com/10_reasons.asp) were obviously false and resembles grandiose claims he has made about his psychology/behavior work. For example, they claimed RedShift was used by all armed forces in America, that it had international recognition and media attention, that it contained an advanced, unique substance (Neuridium) that helped boost mental performance and mood, and more. The only mentions of the product I found from that time period were his website and a few clearly self-promotional posts on fitness forums. Two of the testimonials on that page seemed highly likely to be two men he thanks in his pick-up artist book.
  • Only 4 years after he was selling these vitamin supplements, he set up his ChaseHughes.com website (https://web.archive.org/web/20120923030140/http://www.chasehughes.com/reading-people.html) aimed at selling behavior-reading and hypnosis/influence products. There are many clearly false things about this endeavor as well, similar to the overstated claims of the RedShift product:
    • For example, his bio in 2014 says that his work is well known and used by many agencies and people, and that he offers many different trainings and services (law enforcement, jury consultancy, military, more) but there is no evidence for that when looking for online resources at that time. There are almost no mentions of him by other people/sites at that time (and that internet-silence continues all the way up until the late 2010s).
    • One of his first testimonials, in 2012, is from a Dan Allenby, of Intel, seeming to imply that this was a training Chase did for the company Intel. Dan was a Maintenance Technician at Intel in Oregon; an unlikely role to get behavior training. Also, one of the people who gave a review for Chase’s pick-up artist book was a Dan A., of Oregon. Also, both Dan Allenby and Chase were in the Navy.
    • Chase makes many extraordinary claims, including that he can teach people to “literally see a person’s entire life and personality by a momentary glance.” He says that his “published works on cult victim deprogramming and neurology-based hypnosis have changed the way many forensic and psychiatric practitioners conduct business,” despite there not being any evidence I’ve seen for that. He says that “his behavioral analysis of political debates and televised crime testimonies have become the new benchmark for over 29 United States media outlets,” despite, again, there being hardly any mention of him online in the 2000s or 2010s.
    • He has written that his materials can fairly quickly give people complete control over others, which pretty much all experts in psychology would disagree is possible. He writes that “Using the Ellipsis Manual gives an operator complete access to the psychological compromise of almost any human being they encounter” and that it “teaches operators a world-first set of methods ranging from covert creation of multiple personality disorder to developing mental slavery scenarios, wherein a subject will disregard all beliefs.” “From the first day, you will be able to read the thoughts of people you interact with, and you will eventually learn to control them as well.” He writes that “Ellipsis has the proven ability for trained practitioners to erase memories, and even create new ones.” You get the idea.
    • About this “Behavioral Table of the Elements,” he has a quote from a J. Thomas Preston, PhD that reads, “Quite possibly what will replace and outperform the polygraph.” But I can find no person by that name.
    • Chase has removed the more outlandish and absurd content (like this “Evergreen Girl” stuff) from his website in the last few years. But it is easily findable via the Wayback Machine, and I only looked at a small percentage of his site backups.
  • I’ll get into it more in another episode (not covered in this one) but Chase Hughes (like many faux experts in this space) relies on many debunked and non-researched concepts/ideas from Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and other pseudo-scientific arenas. In addition, he also creates his own behavior/influence concepts; this, coupled with his many deceptions, should make one question whether there’s any value at all in his unique ideas.
  • Long story short: Chase has made many claims, large and small, about being well known and respected in various fields, with pretty much no evidence to show for it. Even just a few of these suspicious and irresponsible actions from Chase should be sufficient to cast doubt on everything he says about his claimed expertise — but there’s simply an immense quantity of outlandish and easily falsiable claims that he’s made. The primary difficulty lies in wading through the huge quantity of over-the-top and often silly claims.
  • It makes sense that he may eventually have gained some legitimate clients, after getting some recent attention (that is how these things often work). This can muddy the waters, as he is able to say, “See, I do have some legitimate clients; I do have trainings” but that rebuttal of course doesn’t address the deeper issues with his many claims. It seems evident that his past is full of deception, both about the claims of his experience and skills, and the claims of his renown.

Transcript of this episode

Hi there. This is the People Who Read People podcast, with me, Zachary Elwood. This is a podcast aimed at better understanding other people – and better understanding ourselves. You can learn more about it at behavior-podcast.com. This will be the first of at least a 2-part series on Chase Hughes, who bills himself as quote the “#1 expert on behavior and influence” – and who many people believe to be such an expert. Chase has been on the Dr. Phil show; he’s on a YouTube show called the Behavior Panel, which has almost a million subscribers and gets millions of views; apparently this year their show has been picked up as a real TV show. 

[Post about their show being picked up for TV: https://www.instagram.com/scottrouse3/p/C20O1A2O5jr/] 

Impressive seeming stuff. But is everything what it seems here? Who is Chase Hughes? Is he really an expert? What has he actually done? What’s his background? In this video I’ll examine Chase’s background and how he came to be where he is now. In a future video we’ll talk more about the specific behavior-related concepts that Chase writes and talks about. I’ll try not to be too opinionated about Chase’s background; you can probably tell where I stand from the video title, of course, but my goal is to present the information to you in as neutral and unbiasing way as possible, so you can make up your own mind. Chase Hughes talks a lot about using verbal and nonverbal clues to understand what people are like; their traits, their patterns, what they’ll do in future. You could consider this video a similar exercise. Can you deduce what Chase Hughes is like from his past behaviors? Can you be a Sherlock Holmes of human behavior? Time to put your deductive skills to work. 

Also just a quick note: this is a youtube video, and includes video of the things I talk about. If you’re listening to this on audio, the video will be a much better way to consume this. I’ll read and describe the things I’m sharing for audio purposes but the video will be much more engaging. 

I also want to say: if you like this episode, please consider donating to The Internet Archive, who runs the Wayback Machine: https://archive.org/donate. This kind of work wouldn’t be possible without them doing backups of web pages; they provide a great free service. After doing the research you’ll see in this video, I donated $100 to them. So consider donating to them, and to me, too, if you want. 

And I’d also say: This video gets more interesting the farther I go. It is a bit long, because i wanted it to be complete, and so it does start out a bit dry. But I think you’ll want to stick around to see where things lead. This rabbithole leads to all sorts of weird stuff, from deadly fighting techniques, to pick-up artist and seduction strategies, to weight-loss and mental-improvement vitamin supplements; it even includes beautiful women being turned into deadly psychological weapons! Amazing and shocking claims are made about all sorts of things! The secret information contained in this episode will probably change your life forever! You’ll be able to see through people like an X-ray after watching this video! Sorry, I got excited; that’s probably just Chase Hughes rubbing off on me; I’ve been looking at way too much of his content. In any case, I think you won’t be disappointed. Welcome to the Chase Hughes rabbithole — the Chase Hughes cinematic multiverse. 

His claims and products

Let’s look at some of Chase’s claims to fame. On his site (chasehughes.com), he refers to himself as the “#1 expert in behavior and influence.”

Here’s his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUBj_5pwQZaoXfBrEQQbADw where he refers to himself as the #1 Body Language Expert, a #1 Best-Selling Author, and a Behavioral Tactics Creator for Uncle Sam.

On this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TovxJfkRHNo we can see these other things he’s done: 

  • Named in 2020 top 40-under-40 CEO’s in America
  • Bestselling author of five books on human behavior
  • Member of The Behavior Panel
  • Featured in Entrepreneur Magazine as an Oracle Member
  • Creator of the world’s first behavior profiling tool
  • Creator of the TFCA cycle for violence prediction
  • Creator of the PEACE 4A Police De-escalation model

You can also see that Dr Phil has dubbed him the “best on the globe”. Here’s a quick clip from him being on Dr. Phil’s show in 2023: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYcDuOM8Yq/ 

The Behavior Panel YouTube channel that Chase is involved in has almost 1 million followers. They describe the group like this: “They are the top body language and behavioral analysts in the world.”  Here’s a clip from what seems to be the first Behavior Panel video:  [clip from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKpjC8rwZW0&t=20m27s ]

Here’s an article in Entrepreneur Magazine about Chase: https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/behavior-science-expert-chase-hughes-trains-real-world/342717

The title is: “Behavior Science Expert Chase Hughes Trains Real-World Jason Bournes on How to Negotiate, Interrogate, and Read People for Extreme Persuasion.” About his background, in that article Chase says, “I served in the U.S. military for 20 years and have become a behavior science expert for intelligence work and now business. For the better part of 15 years, I have been developing world-first behavior skills courses and tactics for intelligence operations.” He also says, “ I’m a world leader in human behavior and influence.”

You get the idea. A lot of people are talking about Chase Hughes. Chase Hughes is so hot right now. 

Let’s look at some of his products and trainings. There are a whole lot of them but let’s just look at a few. www.chasehughes.com 

  • The Ops Manual: This is a $897 piece of content. About the Ops Manual it says: “The Ops Manual is the operatives Bible. There are thousands of training programs out there about human persuasion and behavior. But there’s only one opportunity to use them in a moment. ​This is why I’ve spent +20 years and $5.3M (government money) to learn, research, and develop the training you’ll get with The Ops Manual.”
  • Then we’ve got a resource that’s apparently the most popular on the site: the Op6 Bundle, which is selling for $1097. A little bit about this one from the site copy: “Learn how to become an operator with the ultimate training package. In addition to the Ops Manual you’ll get access to the FIVE courses where you’ll deep dive into topics ranging from Confidence and Elicitation to Deception Detection, Influence, & Authority.”

On this page about his programs, https://www.chasehughes.com/programs he writes: 

  • “WEAPONS-GRADE SKILLS TRAINING: Are you ready to upgrade your skillset and join the world’s most elite operatives in unlocking key secrets to human behavior and influence so you can positively impact yourself, your family and the people around you?”
  • Farther down below he writes:  “Chase has spent decades of his life and tens of millions of dollars creating Neuro-Cognitive Intelligence and he’s going to give you a complimentary 40-minute introduction so you can understand what the best negotiators in the world use only about 10% of…”

One of the things he’s known for making is what he calls the Behavioral Table of Elements: https://www.chasehughes.com/btoetour Here’s an image of that. A very thorough and complex looking resource.

One of the things that stands out about Chase’s work, especially if you use the Wayback Machine to go back and study his past website versions, is the huge amounts of courses and materials he’s put out. I’ve shared just a small percentage of the many products that have appeared on his site. 

So this is all very impressive seeming. Or maybe not. Again, i’m just presenting information. You’re the one who will decide what it all means. I’ll leave the opinions to you.  

On this page of his site, he talks about something he calls his CuePrime training (https://www.chasehughes.com/abr), which he says quickly became an “international bestseller.” It also includes this snippet: “After 13 years of research, experimentation, training, and in-field study, Chase worked with the world’s leading experts and discovered one of his most famous quotes: ‘Results matter much more than credentials.’”

And that is a sentiment that Chase often repeats in his work: education and training and academic work don’t matter; what matters is getting results. I think we’d mostly all agree with that: getting results matters more than theoretical knowledge.  

So what are Chase’s qualifications? What’s his experience? What results has he gotten?

Experience and education 

Military experience

Chase refers to his military service a good amount. For example, on the home page of his site (chasehughes.com) it says in big letters “Chase Hughes retired from the US military in 2019. After a 20-year career, Chase now teaches interrogation, sales, influence, and persuasion.” The impression given by this and other things Chase has said is that his military service is related to his behavior and psychology work.  

But what did Chase do in the military? In one bio on a podcast from 2017 (https://www.successpodcast.com/show-notes/2017/10/4/the-military-influence-training-that-maps-out-human-weakness-harnesses-confusion-and-triggers-obedience-in-others-with-chase-hughes) it reads, “Chase previously served in the US Navy as part of the correctional and prisoner management departments.”

In another podcast, he goes into more detail: (https://podscripts.co/podcasts/creating-confidence-with-heather-monahan/how-to-read-people-like-a-secret-agent-with-intelligence-behavior-expert-chase-hughes-episode-89, 29.50): 

“So I started working in the correctional part of the military in detection faciltiies. And I initially got on as a counselor, and just talking to people, and starting to see that this stuff is working. I’m seeing interrogators come in and out. And it got to a point where that stuff, just for this one little facility, it became something that people started to use. And I thought, wow, I’m gonna figure out a way to package this up and I can replicate it to other people, because it started doing a lot of good. And that’s kind of how it came into the military.”

So he says he was a counselor of some sort in the Navy’s correctional department and that his techniques were being used in interrogations in that department in some way. 

It’s been hard to find much details at all on the specifics of that; in his more recent interviews he’s given where he talks about his Navy service, he gives hardly any detail about how his military service ties into the products and services on his website. Maybe someone listening would have more knowledge about that. 

But okay. Worst-case scenario, maybe his military service isn’t related at all to his behavior and psychology work; maybe he learned all this stuff on his own. 

Harvard and Duke education

Chase apparently at one point claimed that he had a Harvard education. Someone on a Reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/ygqwld/the_world_expert_in_brainwashing_not_so_much/) the user thegirlwho8herhat wrote that Chase’s LinkedIn page (quote) “at one point listed a degree in Psychology from Harvard University, which sounds impressive until I checked it and noticed that it was in fact a continuing education certificate [where] one’s name would be printed on a piece of paper for a small fee. Chase Hughes was never, in fact, enrolled at Harvard University for any degree program.” (end quote) 

The Missouri Military Academy, where Chase went to school, has a page about Chase. https://www.missourimilitaryacademy.org/news-details/~board/news/post/chase-hughes-99. The bio for Chase on that page states that you can see his qualifications on LinkedIn but the URL is broken. The non-working URL was linkedin.com/in/chasehughesofficial. It seems likely this was the LinkedIn page that allegedly contained a reference to him having some sort of Harvard education. 

In that same bio about him on that military academy’s site https://www.missourimilitaryacademy.org/news-details/~board/news/post/chase-hughes-99, it reads that he holds quote “certification in Government Leadership from Harvard Business School Executive Education.” end quote. 

On a site called RocketReach, which is an aggregator of people’s information https://rocketreach.co/chase-hughes-email_19311808, it says that Chase was in a Harvard Business School Executive Education between 2007 and 2010. But those two references are pretty much the only references to Harvard Business School education I could find. 

In 2023, Chase was on a podcast titled Easy Prey (https://www.easyprey.com/reading-and-understanding-behavior-with-chase-hughes). In the notes for that episode, the podcast host writes that Chase is quote “a Harvard educated neuroscientist.” 

During that episode, Chase seems to imply he’s studied at Harvard and at Duke. I’ll play that. (3:08) 

“I went to Harvard University for Neuroscience and Neuro-endocrinology. I’m again enrolled at Duke University for Medical Neuroscience.”

Regarding Chase’s mention of going to Duke University, I can find no mention of that elsewhere. 

For what it’s worth, Chase doesn’t seem to mention anything prominently about a Harvard or Duke education on any of his current bios or other properties I’ve seen. 

According to some bios online https://www.missourimilitaryacademy.org/news-details/~board/news/post/mma-hall-of-fame-chase-hughes-99 , Chase is a “Certified Master of Clinical Hypnotherapy from the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy.” Another bio (https://natfluence.com/interview/chughes/)  reads “He is internationally board certified by the Clinical Hypnotherapy Board.” From what I’ve read, pretty much anyone can get a certificate from these kinds of organizations by attending the trainings, which can range from 40 hours to several hundred hours. Considering the differing descriptions of these things and the different group names used it’s not clear to me what kind of training he has. He doesn’t seem to mention it prominently on his website these days, in any case. 

Top CEO status

Chase has claimed to be a “top CEO”. In 2022, his website (https://web.archive.org/web/20220520193008/https://www.chasehughes.com/abr) includes this tidbit: “Named in 2020 top 40-under-40 CEO’s in America” 

In that same Reddit post mentioned earlier, the user thegirlwho8herhat points out that: “Chase Hughes is who CEOweekly.com lists as #15 of 20 ‘Top CEOs of 2020’, which sounds impressive until you realize that CEOweekly is a pay-to-post website and that nearly everyone on the list besides Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are ‘consultants’ and ‘life coaches’ that no one has ever heard of and whose accomplishments and qualifications are, like Mr. Hughes, largely self declared. It’s an paid advertisement for credibility.” 

The URL of the CEOWeekly page that apparently used to show Chase Hughes as a top CEO is no longer working https://ceoweekly.com/the-top-20-ceos-of-2020/

In the bio of his on that military academy’s site (https://www.missourimilitaryacademy.org/news-details/~board/news/post/mma-hall-of-fame-chase-hughes-99) it reads that in 2020 Chase was quote “named a Top 40-under-40 CEO in America.” 

On his Facebook in 2020 (https://www.facebook.com/chasehughesofficial/photos/a.696174597149462/2918216808278552/?type=3) , Chase wrote the following “Honored to be featured alongside Mark Zuckerberg in LA Wire’s TOP 40 UNDER 40 for 2020! 🙌🏼”  

And he links to the URL https://lawire.com/40-under-40 

The LA Wire link, like the CEOWeekly link, no longer works. LA Wire is also, like CEO Weekly, a place you can pay to get featured.  Chase seems to have stopped referring to himself as a “Top CEO” of any sort in 2023, from what I could tell. 

Pick-up artistry

If you want to understand someone, it often helps to look at how they got their start. Going back to someone’s origins can help you understand: What do they want? What do they seek? Often the things they want and seek will be aligned over time. Not always, of course. But beginnings can tell you a lot. 

So how did Chase get his start in these areas? As Chase has talked about in some interviews, he initially got interested in behavior and manipulation through the world of pick-up artistry. Pick-up artists are men who seek to learn techniques for quickly seducing and sleeping with women. 

In 2007 Chase wrote a pick-up artist book titled The Passport. https://archive.org/details/chase-hughes-the-passport/page/n1/mode/2up. Here’s that book. For context, this is five years before he sets up his chasehughes.com website that will have his behavior analysis and psychological influence products. 

The Passport has only 3 reviews on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Chase-Hughes/dp/1432712829/). The book is no longer in print. Two of the reviews are recent, with people who learned about Chase via his recent fame; only one is back from 2007 when it was published. It reads “Years of weak kneed conversations, and insecurities all disappeared after reading just a few chapters. I wish I had read this 5 years ago. I now rock. Thanks, dude.” That review was written a month after the book was published. The review was written by an account named ‘Texas Builder’ and it is Texas Builder’s only review. Chase is from Texas. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my goal is not to bias you. I’m simply trying to include potentially pertinent information. 

On GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9243098-the-passport) a reviewer writes, “Even though the author tried to make sure that there’s almost no evidence for the existence of this book there are still ways to find a copy.” 

Let’s go back to looking at the book. Here’s what the back cover reads: 

  • Live above other men. 
  • What if there were secret techniques to get any woman you wanted? You’re holding all of it…
  • Have your pick of women when you walk into a room
  • Get phone numbers in three minutes flat
  • Kiss gorgeous women within fifteen minutes
  • Get women chasing you today
  • Have women trying to impress YOU
  • Be the guy women leave their boyfriends for
  • Make everyone wonder if you are a celebrity
  • Never be put into the “friends” zone again

On the back cover under that is a very young-looking Chase Hughes with a big smile. Chase is, from what I can deduce, about 44 years old now, so he would have been about 27 when this book came out. I could be wrong on that by a few years. The picture, though, looks significantly younger than 27 to me; he looks like a high-school kid to me. 

The bio reads, “Chase Hughes has been teaching and researching the art of attraction for six years. He resides in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he is stationed in the US Navy.” End-quote. Obviously a very short bio. I think there’s a lot this bio, in its brevity, tells us about Chase and his experiences in the Navy and in the behavior space, especially when you consider that he set up his ChaseHughes.com site selling behavior and influence products only 5 years later. But I’ll keep that to myself. This is not the time for personal opinion. 

I’ll read a little bit from Chase Hughes’ book. I find this stuff very interesting. 

Imagine…You take your first few steps into the bar. People stop what they are doing to look and wonder who you are. As you walk, women are looking you over, adjusting their hair and making sure you see them, guys are getting out of your way and you see the body language of the whole room begin to shift towards you. “Is he a celebrity or some-thing?”, you hear from across the bar. As a woman that would make most guys fall to their knees walks behind you, you grab her arm and she takes in a deep breath of excitement that she is able to talk to you. After two minutes, she’s bringing her friends to meet you, buying you drinks and touching you every time she laughs. Within ten minutes, you are kissing her. You tell her things are moving to fast and you’ll come find her later. As you say goodbyes, you walk straight up to the next group of women and repeat the exact same process.

It’s like this every. Single. Night. This book is the no-fluff reference guide for men. The simple five-step process you can use tonight: All first-time sexual experiences will revolve around the same basic steps:

REMEMBER: F.A.I.R.S. Focus – Grab attention and hold it. Attract -Build attraction by having high-status. Interact – use humor and stories to get her going. Resist – play the ‘we’re moving too fast’ game. Seduce – advance, advance, resist, repeat

[Play clip from Glen Gary Glen Ross: Always Be Closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO_t7GtXO6w&t=30s ] 

And just a note here that when he wrote “You tell her things are moving to fast” the ‘too’ in ‘too fast’ is spelled wrong, spelled TO. An interesting detail, I thought, about the quality of the book. 

I’d also add that Chase, in his later books and products, would also talk about them having “no fluff.”

Here’s a disclaimer from the beginning of the book. It reads: 

“This book was written for entertainment purposes only. The contents of this book are not to be considered as legal, professional, or spiritual advice. This book is not intended to be read by anyone under the age of eighteen. The author assumes no responsibility for any result of reading this book. In fact, this book should not be read by ANYONE… ever.” end quote

This is pretty much the same disclaimer in other books of his; for example, this is almost verbatim the disclaimer from his Ellipsis Manual.  

Here’s a diagram from the start of the book (page 10) meant to demonstrate what he calls the 5-2-6 Method. It’s a chart with several lines across it and a key explaining what various things mean. Similar to his later Behavioral Table of Elements, it’s pretty hard to understand at a glance what’s going on.

On page 87: “W – Willingness to accept her. Here you will tell her specific things you like about her that she’s never heard before. These will validate her experience with you. She does not want to feel like a slut, so this is why we are making sure she knows exactly why we like her. Kissing will happen here…. Nothing is more satisfying to women than the feeling of having earned a man’s affection. The watchword in WILLINGNESS is ‘validation.’ When you validate parking, you give it justification and reason. The same goes for your girl.”

This was an interesting section: Dealing with Other Guys (page 140). He writes: “If you aren’t sure if he’s with her, but he comes in the conversation and starts trying to make fun of you or tell you to go away, simply tell him there’s nothing to worry about because you are gay. The guy will believe you, but women are extremely intuitive and she will know you aren’t.” 

This was all kind of interesting to me; I wouldn’t have predicted that acting gay when slightly threatened would be an Alpha Male Gentleman strategy. On the next page (page 142) he follows up with more thoughts on the advanced acting-gay strategy: “Don’t EVER be afraid or embarrassed to act gay or completely back out of a fight if your safety is at risk.” The word ‘EVER’ is in all caps, really emphasizing the need to be courageous enough to pretend to be gay when necessary.  

Towards the end of the book, (page 160) Chase talks about relationship advice in the longer term. Here’s a section with the title “Dealing with her bitching”. Here’s a section titled “Keeping her hanging on” (163). On page 165, he writes, “Women are very simple to maintain and need only the slightest amount of maintenance. I don’t care if you think you have a high-maintenance woman, she’s not. With the right man, who knows his role in the relationship as a man, she can relax and be a natural woman.”

On the acknowledgements page, he thanks his wife. He also mentions a few friends of his, including Brian Mittenburg, who he refers to as Wingman. Another friend he mentions is Jonathan Cave, who he refers to as a True Alpha Male.  

Now, to be clear: I’m not sharing this stuff because I’m trying to shame Chase for being into pick-up artistry. We all have our own opinions on that. And I’m not doing this because I think his pick-up artist endeavors, however seemingly immature, preclude him from later becoming an amazing behavior and influence expert. I include this stuff because I think it’s pertinent to our examination of Chase’s background; it’s pertinent to how he talks about his work and the things he claims he can do. Again, it’s up to you to think about what these claims tell us about Chase and his claimed expertise. 

Here’s a post he made on a pick-up artist forum in 2008 (https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/cypruslair/owner-of-hawaii-lair-visiting-t406.html#google_vignette). 

Brothers, Chase Hughes here. I am the owner and founder of the Hawaii lair and have just traveled through Singapore and Hong Kong and had the opportunity to party with their lairs.   [a note here: lairs are the pick-up artist community’s word for pick-up artist hang-outs]  Great people. I would love to sarge with anyone while I am there in Cyprus in a couple of weeks.   [a note here: sarge means going out on the town to pick-up girls ] I have never been there and I am pretty excited to see it. I am trying to unite the lairs everywhere I go so that I can meet everyone. Everyone has been very hospitable. 

About Me: I have been doing pickup for almost six years now and I have been teaching it for a little over three. I have given seminars with Jeffy, Tyler Durden, Jlaix and Mystery. I published a book on pickup last year and it has been doing well. I would be more than happy to sarge, have a few drinks or even bootcamp a few guys. I have tons of pickup material on thumb drives as well and would be willing to pass it on to anyone. I will also upload my e-book to the lair if you’d like. My Book: www.outskirtspress.com/thepassport. My site: www.themenspassport.com. My email is [HE GIVES A NAVY EMAIL]. I look very much forward to meeting all of you guys. Please email me if you’d like to meet up in a couple of weeks! Fraternally, Chase Hughes

Here’s a look at the wayback machine backup of his 2007 site TheMensPassport.com (https://web.archive.org/web/20070622233142/http://themenspassport.com/Home_Page.html). The site shows that he was using the name CK Hughes at that time. Near the top of the page it says “Create a girlfriend anywhere in about three minutes.” There are some testimonials. 

One says: “This book will be passed down for generations,” by a Brian M. of St. Louis, Missouri. This name seems similar to the Brian Mittenburg he thanks in his book. 

Another one says, “I never thought this was possible unless you were a celebrity!” from Dan A. of PBX Lair, Oregon. I think that maybe is supposed to be PDX, which is the airport code for Portland. 

Despite claims that he was well known in the pick-up artist community, I couldn’t find evidence for that. His book on Amazon only had one review from back when it was released, and I couldn’t find any mentions of his work aside from things he’d written. But it’s of course possible he was well known in the pick-up artist world. 

Fighting videos 

What else was Chase into at that time? He also had a YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@RedshiftLabs for a company called RedShift Labs. On that channel he shared what was allegedly advanced fighting and covert ops-type knowledge. These were videos from around early 2008. There were 21 videos in all; the output didn’t seem to last very long. Let’s watch a few of those; I’ll just flip through a few so you can get the idea. 

[plays assorted clips, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21uzdXve3I, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXDWv7zlFwc , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgBOsTfRp9I]

For what it’s worth, I couldn’t find anything online about an “omega strike” fighting technique so I assume it’s a term invented by Chase. I searched online for other references to Chase Hughes and fighting-related terms but this video channel was all I could find. 

Vitamin supplements

So what other things did Chase Hughes’ company RedShift Labs get up to? Here’s his RedShift Labs website (redshiftlabs.com) from 2007: https://web.archive.org/web/20071018043047/http://www.redshiftlabs.com/ It sells a product they call RedShift with Neuridium, with both words having a trademark symbol beside them. This product could apparently do a lot of things! Here’s a few things from the home page: 

Fat burning energy boost… fog-lifting, razor sharp mental focus…explosive, long-lasting mood enhancement.

You’ll feel it within minutes: Your veins pump new life; your physical energy and mental focus soar to mind-blowing heights. Your brain is overloaded with electrifying positivity and determination

Redshift™ with Neuridium™ technology is designed to drastically uplift your mood and flood your mind with positive reinforcement, intense focus, faster reaction speed, and earth-shattering determination so that nothing stands in your way.

Here’s the testimonials page (https://web.archive.org/web/20071125084430/http://www.redshiftlabs.com/testimonials.asp). I’ll read a few of these: 

“Redshift gave me the unfair advantage I needed to stay focused and in great shape while I was deployed. I was amazed by the results in such a short time and am blown away by what Neuridium did for my mood.” Brian Mittenburg, U.S. Navy

If that name sounds familiar that’s because it was one of the friends Chase thanked at the back of his pick-up artist book. His wingman. 

Another testimonial reads: “Redshift brought me to a whole new level. Everyone thought I had won the lottery or something on my first day and that was only the beginning. I am a changed man. Redshift has earned a permanent place in my cut cycle. I won’t go without it.” John Cave, U.S. Navy

If that name sounds familiar that’s because this was the “True Alpha Male” Chase thanked in his book.

And there are a few more testimonials on that page. 

There’s a page titled 10 Reasons to Use it https://web.archive.org/web/20071125084359/http://www.redshiftlabs.com/10_reasons.asp. I’ll read just a few of these entries:

1. Redshift is used by Navy SEALs, Surgeons, U.S. Marshals, Personal Trainers, and college students for it’s ability to dramatically and immediately improve energy level,mental focus, reduce stress and enhance your mood.

2. We GUARANTEE immediate results. No need to use Redshift for months to get results.

3. Redshift has been featured in publications from Navy News to the Houston Chronicle and have gained international recognition to be the world’s best.    

4. Redshift has been used by all branches of the United States Armed Forces. These intense environments have put Redshift to the ultimate test and has succeded every time.

5. Redshift is manufactured and tested in a state of the art facility that is independently inspected, verified and scientifically tested. 

It goes on for a bit more.

On the Frequently Asked Questions page https://web.archive.org/web/20071125084359/http://www.redshiftlabs.com/10_reasons.asp , one entry reads:  

Do Navy SEALs really use it?

YES! Not only do SEALs use it, Redshift spans the spectrum of the U.S. Armed Forces and Government Agencies. 

So what is this amazing Neuridium substance? I searched online for it and found nothing about it; it seems to be a term made up by the people who created Redshift. What I did find were several accounts on fitness forums talking about the Redshift product. 

On a forum at freetrainers.com (https://www.freetrainers.com/forums/topic/has-anyone-tried-redshift-with-neuridium-41707), someone was talking about this product. The post is from a user named KFit, and it reads, “Hi, I was wondering if anyone has tried Redshift with Neuridium? I’m thinking of trying it but I like to get feedback before trying new supplements. I tried some that don’t mix well with my medication (Effexor XR). Yohimbe was the worst for me – almost ended up in the hospital so I tread carefully now before trying new stuff. Any information would be appreciated.” 

The second post in that thread is from a user named Nutritionist281 in January of 2008 and it reads “have been on this stuff on and off for almost three weeks. I have recommended it to several clients and Ihave done a LOT of research on the stuff. My personal results have been tremendous. The mood and focus ingredients in the supplement are one of the only ones I’ve seen that dont counteract eachother. PS: TAKE WITH FOOD!!”

The third post is from a user who sarcastically writes, “Thank you for the outstanding endorsement with your first post.”

There were a few more posts promoting RedShift in other forums but you likely get the idea. 

In another thread, on bodybuilding.com (https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=5286103&page=1), a user named kudzu writes “I just tried a new supplement called redshift with neuridium. I’ve never tried anything quite like it and I’ve tried LOTS of supplements.”

A few months after that, the second follow-up post on this thread is from an account named NewYorkFit who writes, “I have been using redshift…or neuridium, for two months now. It was made by two guys in the Special Forces and it was designed for COMBAT USE. Once civillians got wind of it, the market exploded…haha. My trainer was the one who showed it to me first…haha…credit to Jeff.”

A few months after that, the four post in the thread, a user wrote, “have any of you tried to order Redshift recently? I just heard about it, called the number on the website and got a recording that it was not valid (I also couldn’t find an order form on their website). Are they still in business. I’d appreciate any help with this. Thanks.”

About a year after that third post, a user named kristieg writes: “Hi. I am just now seeing your post. The owners of the company dissolved the company last year due to deployment. I was their assistant and had downgraded my VA services around the same time. Chase H., one of the owners, has recently turned the product over to me to sell as I see fit. I have about 500 bottles and will not be producing anymore and am not taking over for the company, simply selling the remaining product. If you are still interested, please contact me and I will sell this supplement to you at a reduced cost. It’s a great product and I’ve been using it for over a year now. I just don’t need 500 bottles of it :-).  Thanks so much, Kristie G.”

And again, aside from the website and the few forum posts mentioned, I saw no evidence of Redshift or Neuridium being talked about by anyone; no sign that it was popular. But, again, I’m not here to bias your thinking. Maybe it was very popular. Maybe it really was used by all branches of the armed forces, by Navy Seals and U.S. Marshals. Maybe it really did gain international attention despite no one talking about it online. Maybe Chase Hughes really did have a state-of-the-art laboratory where he invented an amazing and unique compound called Neuridium that increases mental functionality and improves mood. Maybe this product really was extremely popular but the only reason Chase Hughes stopped selling it was because he had to ship out for his Navy deployment (I hate when that happens). If you’re interested in getting a bottle of Redshift, reach out to Kristie G; she might have a few more bottles left.

Early behavior and influence work

So all that stuff, the amazing supplement, the fighting videos, the pick-up artist stuff, was happening in 2007 and 2008. From what I can tell, the chasehughes.com website appeared first in 2012 — only four years after those accounts were promoting Redshift on fitness forums. Let’s take a tour of Chase’s 2012 website: https://web.archive.org/web/20120921233016/http://www.chasehughes.com/ 

The home page reads:

What if you could SEE the private thoughts of everyone you meet?

Welcome to the private world, that is always on public display. 

Imagine sitting in a cafe with a friend.  As your friend tells you about a jacket he just bought, you know he fibbed about the price a little. The waitress hands you your coffee and without a word, you KNOW that she is bulimic. You gaze at the couple across a few tables and you immediately see that she’s ready to leave him simply by looking at her feet, hands and eyes. You also notice by his hands that he’s been hiding years of financial debt from her and has no intention of telling her.  The other couple, at a closer table, you know from a momentary glance that he is a chemical engineer and she is in real-estate. You’ve also noticed that while they are both married, they aren’t married to each other. 

The man at the bar stool came in about 30 seconds ago and sat down. By looking at his clothing, his lips and eyes, and his left thumb, you tell your friend it’s time to go. “Why? We just got here!” He says.

He agrees when you tell him the man at the bar is about to rob the cafe with a gun.

[Insert Bourne Identity clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjrWOZby8s8&t=48s, ]

On a page of his site titled Reading People (https://web.archive.org/web/20120923030140/http://www.chasehughes.com/reading-people.html), we see some pictures of index cards with behavioral notes on them. We also see an image of a car marked up with notes about it, like ‘clean inside, no clutter’, and ‘knows the car well; parked just over the curb’ and pointing to the sticker on the windshield, ‘oil change made on time’. It seems that Chase can also teach you how to read car tells, although honestly these reads seem a bit basic. 

On a page titled “Lessons outline” https://web.archive.org/web/20120923030135/http://www.chasehughes.com/lesson-outlines.html we see assorted things he teaches. This includes: 

  • Top mistakes law enforcement officers make
  • Advanced detection of microexpressions
  • Deception detection 
  • Advanced ‘mind games’ in interviewing and questioning
  • Unorthodox but legal Psychology loopholes
  • Introduction to Neuro Linguistic Interviewing

And quite a few more.

Here’s his testimonial page (https://web.archive.org/web/20120923030204/http://www.chasehughes.com/testimonials.html). One testimonial from David Gustafson of Texas reads, “This type of training is much too rare in law enforcement. The training my troopers received today put them years ahead of the others in the non-verbal skillset. This needs to be a standardized training for all law enforcement. Some of what we learned today may save one of our lives in the future.”

One testimonial comes from Dan Allenby, of Intel. He says “Our team had no idea what was coming. An innovative, captivating and genuine speaker; Chase has all of us feeling like mind-readers now. Thanks!” 

I looked up Daniel Allenby https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-allenby-36475028/ and saw that he worked at Intel in Oregon during that time as a ‘Maintenance Technician’. I was curious why Intel would have someone like Chase training a Maintenance Technician in reading behavior. When I reached out to Dan Allenby about that, he seemed hesitant to give me any details and said “I can’t recall the exact testimonial you’re asking about, that was quite some time ago for me!” When I showed him his testimonial, he didn’t give me any more information and suggested I ask Chase about it. 

Another interesting detail here: one of the people who gave Chase a testimonial for his pick-up artist book was a Dan A. from Oregon. It seems possible that Dan A. is Dan Allenby, who worked at Intel, which is outside Portland, Oregon. Dan also says in his LinkedIn profile that he was in the Navy, which is another connection they share. 

There’s a testimonial from an anonymous person from the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, with a picture of a sign showing that Chase Hughes was doing a training there. And that’s Cleveland, Texas, not Ohio. 

All the people on this page, the ones named, seemed like real people to me on a quick search with the exception of one name. That testimonial reads “Chase was unorthodox, outside the box and the most captivating speaker I’ve heard to date. His insight and delivery changed all of us. We attended the two-day advanced course and learned more than most CIA interrogators, I’m sure. Many thanks, Hughes.” and that quote comes from Abdul Al-Romaizan, President of Nasheed Investments, Saudi Arabia. I searched for this name and the company name but couldn’t find anything. 

Also, at this time, using Google to search for mentions in the 2012 time frame, I found almost no mention of Chase Hughes apart from his website. I didn’t see any references to trainings he was doing, or behavior-related work he was doing. They might be out there but I couldn’t find them easily. 

Let’s look at his site a year later, in 2013 (https://web.archive.org/web/20130615105009/http://www.chasehughes.com/the-people-reading-bible.html). At that time he was working on something he called The Human Codex, which he also refers to as the People-Reading Bible. He says this resource will allow you to do the following: 

  • LITERALLY see a person’s entire life and personality by a momentary glance
  • Identify wrinkles in a person’s shirt    
  • Accurately read EVERY body language gesture
  • Know intimate secrets simply by observing how objects are placed in a room
  • IMMEDIATELY spot insecurity, doubt, neediness, fear, lonliness and deception
  • Detect lies with amazing accuracy
  • Immediately identify what tattoos mean
  • Spot criminals long before a crime
  • See meaning behind scratches on fingernails and picked-cuticles
  • Interview with more skill than a CIA interrogator
  • Break down a person’s ENTIRE life by the contents of their car
  • Look at a person’s shoes and be able to ACCURATELY describe their daily habits and lifestyle
  • Look at a person’s legs and immediately know if they are trusting or suspicious
  • And 6,104 other amazing techniques just like these   

I have to say in that list, the least exciting skill to me was identifying wrinkles in a person’s shirt. I’m surprised he’d put that at the number two spot. Don’t get me wrong: I’d love to be able to read shirt wrinkle tells; I just would have put it farther down the list.  

Let’s go to 2014 (https://web.archive.org/web/20141012191404/http://www.chasehughes.com). That’s when he initially put up his Behavioral Table of Elements. The home page at that time reads: 

Have you ever wondered how the people-reading gurus on TV are able to completely profile a person’s life by a single shoelace or a parting of the lips? What if you could do the same thing WITHOUT 10 years of research? With the most innovative and ground-breaking people-reading and behavior profiling technology in human history, the power to profile behavior even better than the pros, can be in your hands today. Chase Hughes has given us a method that puts the user far ahead of Sherlock Holmes and the CIA alike.  

Let’s read his bio page (https://web.archive.org/web/20141013072122/http://www.chasehughes.com/bio.html): 

Chase Hughes, a native of Houston, Texas, has been involved with nonverbal research and innovation for nearly 12 years. The author of three books and reference volumes and over 13 articles covering topics from cult brainwashing to the use of clandestine hypnosis techniques in interrogations. 

Currently on active duty in the United States Navy; he has been teaching, researching and coaching in body language, nonverbal communication and deception detection during his entire career. His published works on cult victim deprogramming and neurology-based hypnosis have changed the way many forensic and psychiatric practitioners conduct business. 

Chase now lives in Little Creek, Virginia and has worked with  training and coaching interrogators, HR teams and law enforcement. His behavioral analysis of political debates and televised crime testimonies have become the new benchmark for over 29 United States media outlets. 

The Behavioral Table of Elements was originally developed in 2011 and was made public in 2013. It is being employed by government and corporate agencies nationwide, including the US government and FBI. The Behavioral Table continues to evolve as an organic structure and has proven extremely effective both as a training, and an analysis tool.

The Ellipsis System is available only to specific clients and garnered its first media attention in 2012. Chase’s system has trademarked the term ‘pre-havior’ and the P7 system relies heavily on this concept.

The Weaponized Communication Manual has gained a lot of media attention. The new manual, to be released in early 2015, contains the most advanced and comprehensive training and reference system in the world. The book focuses on the use of advanced psychology tactics, interrogation methods, profiling and exploiting human weakness and using neurology-based hypnosis to engineer human behavior.

As a recognized jury consultant, Chase has become a specialist in training legal teams to recognize and analyze body signals; from the way a shoe is laced to the inadvertent parting of the lips during questioning. 

Most of Chase’s work is done at no charge while he is still in the US Navy.

I want to repeat that when I used Google to examine results during that time period, I could find no relevant mention of him in the 2012-2014 time range about being a known expert at behavior analysis. He mentions that his analysis methods became quote “the new benchmark for over 29 United States media outlets” but I could find no evidence of that. Now again, I should say it’s entirely possible that he had massive success and national fame for his behavior analysis work while not being mentioned at all on the internet; maybe it was a purposeful attempt to keep a low profile. I don’t know. I’m just presenting information; you be the judge. 

There’s a Covert Psychology page (https://web.archive.org/web/20141012081856/http://www.chasehughes.com/covert-psychology.html). On that page it reads “BY FAR, THE MOST ADDICTING EXPERIENCE YOU WILL EVER HAVE”. The top of the page cycles through various images of official looking books. One is titled “Ellipsis: Operator Manual to the Human Mind” One is titled “Activating Psychological Submission”. Some of them have official-looking logos in the corner that read ‘Black Ops Program’. 

One part of the page reads, “The Ellipsis Manual contains WORLD-FIRST information available no where else on planet Earth.” 

It goes on: 

A person CAN be hypnotized against their will. 

A person can and will perform extremely violent and anti-social acts under hypnosis, without their consent or knowledge and will disregard safety, morals and law. 

Using the Ellipsis Manual gives an operator complete access to the psychological compromise of almost any human being they encounter. 

The Ellipsis Manual teaches operators a world-first set of methods ranging from covert creation of multiple personality disorder to developing mental slavery scenarios, wherein a subject will disregard all beliefs

Farther down it says:

From the first day, you will be able to read the thoughts of people you interact with, and you will eventually learn to control them as well. This is most assuredly a life-changing experience that will continue to grow with you forever. The feeling that comes with knowing your words will work like covert instruments of psychological control is an incredible and powerful feeling. 

Farther down it reads “THIS IS A WEAPON. The Ellipsis Manual can be used to commit crimes, cause injury and even death. It is as much a weapon as an assault rifle. You absolutely WILL go through a background check to order this book as a civilian.  As an added bonus, your name and social security number will be watermarked across the pages of the printed copy you receive as well.”

It also reads “The process, from start to finish, of creating an alter-ego are included, along with the covert methods of installing personality traits of the ‘alter’ and developing complete psychological submission from even the MOST resistant subjects.” 

One section says “AND ANYONE YOU MEET… IS A CONVERSATION AWAY FROM DRASTICALLY MODIFIED BEHAVIOR”

Accompanying that text is an image of a woman dressed in a bridal dress smiling and wielding a chainsaw with blood splattered on her. 

On a Behavioral Profiling page (https://web.archive.org/web/20141012081840/http://www.chasehughes.com/behavior-profiling.html), it talks about Chase’s Behavioral Table of Elements. It has a quote that reads “Quite possibly what will replace and outperform the polygraph.” from a J. Thomas Preston, PhD. I searched for that name and couldn’t find anyone who seemed a likely match to have said such a thing. But again, it’s entirely possible there’s a J. Thomas Preston out there who’s a big fan of Chase’s Behavioral Table of the Elements. 

The page reads: “As an analysis tool, for the first time in world history, an interaction can be mathematically broken down into accurate and universally understood gestures, behaviors, deception and vocal indicators.”

It also says “Official U.S. Government edition available now for pre-release to public”

Farther down, it says “$19.95 until pre-release ends. Government Table will increase to $246.81 upon public release.” 

In the 2014 time range, there are quite a few links to pages from single letters. These are hard to see; it’s like little Easter Eggs sprinkled across his site. 

This one letter link takes us to this page, (https://web.archive.org/web/20141013072319/http://www.chasehughes.com/what-if.html) which reads: 

There are extremely unusual loop-holes in our minds that allow FULL CONTROL. There are exactly 31 loopholes in the human brain that allow full neurological compromise. Neurological Compromise means that a subject will disregard laws, safety and moral judgment in order to follow directions and complete tasks they believe are their idea. More hidden links are here on the site somewhere… for the curious and inclined. 

On another page (https://web.archive.org/web/20141013072150/http://www.chasehughes.com/immersive-mental-reprogramming.html), it reads: 

ELLIPSIS has the proven ability for trained practitioners to erase memories, and even create new ones. Why should this program be any different than any other “mind control” or “covert hypnosis” program? Ellipsis is proven . . . and NO OTHER PROGRAM IN THE WORLD HAS FEATURED THE TECHNIQUES WITHIN ELLIPSIS. 

THAT’S RIGHT. NOT ONE F*CKING PROGRAM.

Here’s a page from his 2014 site about how Chase can help you at the casino and with poker (https://web.archive.org/web/20141216150615/http://www.chasehughes.com/poker-and-casinos.html) 

He says he’ll help you create “ENGINEERED OUTCOMES IN POKER”, and that his advanced manipulation techniques are quote “now available in the casino.” He says you can quote “modify the behavior of your opponents, increase their nonverbal gestures, and magnify the nervousness of anyone at the table”. He says you can “Establishing trust in less than one minute with any opponent.”

At the bottom of that page he has trainings listed. For example, it reads: 

  • HOLLYWOOD: JANUARY 16-18
  • LAS VEGAS: JANUARY 23-26,    FEBRUARY 6-8 (CELEBRITY INVITATIONAL)
  • GULFPORT, MS: MARCH 6-8

But there are no details about where these trainings are exactly or links to learn more. As I stated, I could find no information via google for that time period about trainings Chase was doing. 

Let’s go to Chase’s site a couple years later, in 2016. One page of his site has, in the URL, Dangerous-Girls (https://web.archive.org/web/20160115183948/http://www.ellipsisbehavior.com/dangerous-girls.html) and the title of the page is “Project evergreen, WOMEN TRAINED TO BECOME PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPONS.” It reads: 

Every year, we take one beautiful young woman, and teach her the most dangerous, covert and powerful psychological warfare methods on planet earth. The results are always astonishing. . .and fun. Our goal was originally to teach the most dangerous techniques to the nicest young ladies we could find. These girls learn covert hypnosis, interrogation, psychological thought control methods, behavior profiling, lie-detection and a whole lot more. 

As the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ jokes started coming in, the program simply became an annual thing. The program continues to this day and each of the graduates have become ACTUAL psychological weapons. They have the ability to heal, defend, protect and repair people. However, they also have the ability to control, manipulate and engineer behavior. Our vetting program started in March, 2011 and we found Joanna. She had amazing social intelligence and a perfectly conscientious mental state. As Joanna was the first ‘WEAPON’ we created, and the first civilian graduate of the program, she get’s the benefit of having gone through the toughest (most beneficial) training. 

This research project continues with new students and we continuously ‘monitor’ the progress of the young ‘femme fatales’ as they grow up. All of the Evergreen girls have been thoroughly screened and have proven to be extremely conscientious, caring and invested in the betterment of humanity. 

Farther down on the page it reads: 

MEET AMANDA . . . the 2015 evergreen girl. After 39 interviews, we found Amanda. Listen to her interview below. She is fun, charismatic, smart, humble, responsible and beautiful…the perfect weapon. She met with Chase at a local Starbucks for her interview and absolutely nailed the position. Amanda is originally from Illinois and now lives in Virginia Beach, VA. She is majoring in Marine Biology and loves animals…she may change her major to psychology…we didn’t make her. She’s about to learn the darkest and most closely guarded secrets of covert psychology…

There are several SoundCloud audio talks with her but they’ve all been deleted.

Farther down the page it reads: “Past Evergreen Girls, Level 7: Angela Byers (#3) Houston, TX, Sam Houston State University (Accounting Major) Graduated:November, 2014.”

Another one reads: “Joanna B. (the first weapon) College Station, TX, Texas A&M University. Joanna graduated Ellipsis in March, 2012.”

Here’s some more details about the Evergreen program (https://web.archive.org/web/20150713020952/http://www.ellipsisbehavior.com/evergreen-information.html): 

ONE GIRL WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. WTF IS EVERGREEN?

The project was originally thought of in a conversation when we began training a female from Texas. Her name is Joanna. As her training progressed, the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ jokes started to fly. We took that and ran with it, and now there are three awesome, and scarily powerful girls roaming the Earth. The entire program will take place in Virginia Beach, VA. So you must live here and have a plan to stay for the duration of the training. The Evergreen training consists of one-on-one training with Chase Hughes.

It also reads “You do not have to pay anything, and all we ask is that you have a few hours a week and that you are comfortable being recorded in audio.”

[Play clip from True Lies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFL7dHHpC2U&t=40s ] 

Here’s another page (https://web.archive.org/web/20141012073507/http://www.chasehughes.com/ellipsis-documents.html) that’s titled ‘Document Vault’. 

It reads “Reminder: The moral use of Ellipsis disclaimer and waiver of liability is required to be signed annually by all clients. If your log-in is not functioning, this is the likely reason. Contact Natalie in support to receive a copy.” 

From the word Natalie there’s a link to an email address: [email protected]. Going to LinkedIn, we can find a Natalie Morris LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-morris-97789511b), that says she’s an Executive Assistant at Ellipsis Behavior Laboratories. She has 3 followers and no posts.

A search for Natalie Morris and Ellipsis turns up this Pinterest board https://www.pinterest.com/morris2573/. With a picture of a woman and the URL ellipsisbehavior.com in her bio. One of her posts (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/385620786820049363) is a promotion for Chase’s “dangerous women” program. It reads, “Women training to be modern day sirens. Dangerous ‘black-ops’ psychology training is being conducted. Ellipsis Behavior Laboratories is training a fleet of girls to become psychological weapons” and then links to his site.

Doing a reverse image search of Natalie Morris’s profile pic, I found that the woman’s image is a stock photo https://www.istockphoto.com/br/foto/linda-mulher-loira-gm92956499-1932569 

Conclusion

Well, that’s bringing us near the end of our journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed learned about Chase Hughes, a man who seems to have elite powers in just about everything: seducing women in minutes, punching people to death quickly, controlling people and getting them to do immoral acts against their will; turning beautiful women into advanced psychological weapons; crafting advanced supplements in secret laboratories. And, from what I can tell, he seems entirely self-taught, making his knowledge even more impressive. A modern Renaissance man. 

But I want to know: what do you think about Chase Hughes? Maybe you could leave a comment in the youtube comments with your read on things. What subtle clues were you able to spot? What advanced deductions did you put together?  

After learning all these things, I’d be curious to know how much you would trust Chase Hughes. For example, let’s say you went to Chase’s site in 2019, and saw this schedule of his events: https://web.archive.org/web/20191020181902/https://www.chasehughes.com/  

Where it reads things like:

  • November 11-14: Gatlinburg, TN – Private Event (Law Enforcement Only)
  • December 1-3: Huntsville, AL – Tactical Behavior Science (Law Enforcement Only)
  • December 6-14: Germany – Private Client Group 

Would you trust that those were real events? Would you trust that those trainings actually happened? Or would you have doubts? 

Or let’s say you were reading Chase’s book The Ellipsis Manual (https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B06X9FY51S&ref_=kwl_kr_iv_rec_1, page 167) and you see the following paragraph: 

“When doing regression work with Ellipsis methods, you can strategically let loose the smell of mothballs during conversations about people’s memories of their grandparents’ homes or their childhood memories of other people who spoiled them. Ellipsis research has proved this to be about 70% effective in activating stronger and more emotional memories in subjects. Operators can carry a small sandwich bag in the field to open it inside of a pocket, during regressive conversational work.”

I’d be curious if you would trust Chase when he says he’s conducted such research. I’d ask you: Would you have 100% trust that Chase Hughes has in fact done extensive mothball regression research? 

Do you think Chase can teach you to read people within seconds and hypnotize them without them knowing? Do you think if Chase and I met before I made this video he would’ve been able to hypnotize me into not making this video? Would he have been able to control me like The Manchurian Candidate? Is it possible he might activate one of his Evergreen Girls to come after me for making this video? I don’t know; these are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. 

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. And share this video with people interested in body language and reading behavior; let’s get some more opinions on this. Maybe we can all figure this puzzle out together. 

Maybe you’re a Chase Hughes fan and you’re angry at me, and wondering who the hell I am to criticize such a respected “expert.” Well, to that I’d say: it shouldn’t really matter who I am; what matters is who Chase Hughes is; this is a video anyone could have made; this has very little to do with me. But since you asked (or since I imagined you asked), I’ll oblige: I started this podcast of mine, People Who Read People, as an offshoot of my poker tells work. I played poker for a living for about 3.5 years and that led to me writing some books on poker behavior, aka poker tells, which many poker players, both recreational and serious professional players, have liked a lot.  If you go to my site www.readingpokertells.com you’ll see some reviews. I do think I’ve written the best books about poker tells, and that’s something I say only after hearing many people I respect say that. I’ll also say that what I’ve never done is exaggerate my background and experience; I’ve always been honest about the stakes I’ve played and what games I’ve played. I’ve always been honest about not being an expert at poker strategy but just very interested in understanding poker behavior. I’ve also been very honest about the limits of using tells; they are a small part of playing strong live poker; they won’t turn a bad poker player into a winning player. 

For what it’s worth, I did send an email to Chase Hughes on August 28th telling him I was going to be doing an episode on these topics but I didn’t get a response. 

I’ll also add that all my research for this episode was quite basic; all this stuff anyone can find without much effort. I’m not a highly skilled researcher and honestly didn’t even try that hard. Which begs the question: what else is out there? What stuff from Chase’s early years has been deleted, or what’s still out there that might be a bit harder to find? How many other Evergreen Girls are out there?

Some of you may still be wondering: “But what about Chase’s ideas? The concepts he shared. Even if he was hawking vitamin supplements of dubious merit, maybe he has actually learned a lot. Maybe he really does know what he’s talking about. What about his work with this Behavior Panel show? Aren’t those ideas credible? A lot of people watch that show. Chase has been promoted by Dr. Phil, for Christ’s sake; is nothing real or sacred in this world?”  

Calm down, it’ll be okay. We’ll get through this. 

On the next episode, we’ll get into those topics. We’ll talk about the ideas that Chase has written about in his books and on his website and talked about in his videos. We’ll talk about deception detection, mind control, neurolinguistic programming, hypnosis, and more. 

I might not get that episode out for a little while so in the meantime, if you liked this episode, go to my website behavior-podcast.com and check out some of the best-of compilations of episodes. I’ve got many episodes about reading and understanding and predicting human behavior in all sorts of arenas, if you’re into that topic.  

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