@Marty,
...I very much doubt that I would notice any of this as it was happening. I just don't have the peripheral social awareness developed to that level yet. Therefore, I would probably conclude that I was being ignored, and I would be back to square one.
That's the first thing you need to work on developing, then.
Otherwise all these signals will fly right over your head.
I suspect this is all much harder for some folks than for others. If you are naturally in a constant state of social attunement, paying attention to what everyone around you is doing, picking up on various signals subconsciously even when your mind is on something else, you learn this stuff fast. Some folks I have noticed just do not pay attention to this stuff nearly as much.
Folks with ADD and folks on the autism spectrum are two examples of lower levels of social attunement (both tend to be off in their own worlds/thoughts/focuses a lot, and less focused on other people; although it's a lot easier for one of these to tune in than the other if they try). There are probably others.
As an experiment you might want to spend some time laser-focused on people whenever you are outside for a few weeks or a month. Just try to read what the body language, eyes, and facial expression of every person you see is telling you. Which people are behaving nonverbally friendly toward you? Which people look like they are trying to avoid you? Which people look like they are in a bad mood and spoiling for a fight? Which people seem predatory? Which people seem like they might want to meet you?
Pay especial attention to anything that makes you go, "Huh? Why did he/she do THAT?" because those are the more obvious signs people are shooting at you that you have not been reading correctly until now. When you notice difficult-to-understand signs, really zero in on those. If you can't figure out what they mean, it might make sense to make a list of them and the context they occurred in on the forum for guys to give you feedback. e.g. "Woman with a confident walk locked eyes with me, licked her lips, then tossed her head and looked away as she passed me. What's that mean?" "Man squinted his eyes at me as he passed me then spit on the street away from me. What's that mean?"
@Chase, tell me: You mention in several places that you went through a phase of attracting passive attention. I get the impression that this was in an institutional environment (college?), where you saw the same people over and over in the course of a few months.
During this period, were you able to attract attention passively only in social circle, or also in public settings such as the street, parks, malls, etc.? How would you advocate gaining attention passively in this way as a man?
The reason I ask is that over the years I have done a lot of work on my fundamentals (dressing stylishly and attractively, remaining in good shape, being able to speak intelligently on any subject, maintaining a desirable downtown residence to invite women home, etc.) but I'm not sure how to "convert" that into female attention.
No, I got it outside of social circle too.
Social circle was the most pronounced/aggressive, because I was doing so much to attract attention and was so totally focused on "never check out anyone else, ever" that girls figured out they had to be REALLY aggressive if they wanted to get me to focus on them. (those years were both really fun when stuff like that happened, and really horrible during all the long, lonely periods between-times of waiting for stuff like that to happen)
But yeah, I'd get that elsewhere too.
I don't have a lot of clear memories of "stranger attention" as a teen, but one that stands out was on a cruise with my family. I hated wearing shorts and considered them embarrassing. My father forced me to wear shorts that day, so I messed my hair up crazy to hang in front of my face and ditched my glasses, hoping to make myself invisible / make it so no other cruise passengers would notice me or look at me. Instead that backfired and some really cute teenage brunette with her own parents seated at the same table as us for lunch started brushing her hair back like crazy, smiling at me, and trying to get my attention. I was just sitting at the table with my arms crossed scowling the whole time as I ate my ice cream with my hair hanging in front of my face and ignoring this girl while also thinking about how hot she was and wishing our parents weren't there, as if I would've done anything back then (I wouldn't have), lol. I probably looked like some kind of moody emo kid which I guess caught her interest. I remember it because after we left my father commented, "That girl at our table seemed to like you," and I just muttered back, "I know."
I think I have said this a few times before, but... I am not 100% certain how much of "get women/people to pay attention to you" is learnable. As far back as I can remember I have always attracted attention. I didn't start trying to deliberately cultivate it even until I realized I already WAS attracting a lot of positive attention, then decided, "Let's see how far we can take this... can we make people just be CRAZY TRYING TO GET OUR ATTENTION 24/7 LIKE SOME KIND OF ROCK STAR?!?!?!"
Doesn't matter how I am dressed, what I am doing, if I am trying to avoid attracting attention to myself... people just pay attention to me anyway.
That said, as a result of this, I have also spent a lot of time focused on figuring out what you can do to attract MORE attention and get more chasing behavior happening... so I do have articles on it here:
Yesterday evening I was out walking home, when I noticed a tall, thin girl with long hair and a good body in front of me, walking very carefree in heels, tight jean shorts cut off just below the butt, and a tank top, swinging her hips very sexy as she went. She turned around and looked back in...
www.girlschase.com
Here’s an oldie but a goodie from the bygone days of Fast Seduction: Jay’s (Formhandle’s) pre-approach invitation male approach invitation, which used the (rather exhausting) acronym ‘pAImAI’. It’s a complicated-sounding name for a simple technique: behave in an attention-grabbing way that...
www.girlschase.com
Guys often post up in all the wrong places when they hit the club. This is the guide to posting up right: all the best spots to nail down in clubs. If you pick up girls in bars and clubs, one of the issues you will soon run into is where to post up inside these venues. You’re not going to be...
www.girlschase.com
The most attractive men stand out. But many men fear standing out too much; to do so is to invite criticism, exclusion, or attack. How do you stand out in positive ways, and not negative ones? One of the biggest early revelations for me, and one I discussed with our charisma course, which we...
www.girlschase.com
@Gunwitch has one on attention grabs here as well:
Your normal go-to openers may be great, but they can be even better if you make her think SHE invited YOU to approach. It’s so easy you can start doing this now! Contents I. The Approach Invitation II. Induce Your Invitations III. How Does It Work? IV. Other Examples V. Get Her Attention VI...
www.girlschase.com
A related topic is pre-opening, which I started doing to get the attention of women who were too caught up with friends or drinking too much or too in a hurry, etc., to notice me first... since I noticed that women noticing me first led to better-on-average receptions than me going in sans first notice:
Opening (or engaging a woman verbally for the first time) in-and-of itself is a necessity, something that must be done 96% of the time when you want to meet a girl (if we imagine that about 4% of opening is done by women themselves). It’s unavoidable and inescapable. Different types of openers...
www.girlschase.com
@Teevster has written multiple articles on pre-opening:
Being able to open girls and hook them in quickly is essential. These pre-opening tools will help calm your nerves and make the process smoother. So I listened to Gunwitch’s podcast, and in it he mentioned that passing through the hook-point – when you and the girl (or group) feel settled in an...
www.girlschase.com
Less pressure on her, more leeway for you. This simple technique lowers her defenses and sets you apart from all the ‘other’ guys. Hey, guys, and welcome back. So, previously I shared a quick recap of the keys to hooking a girl – or a group – into a conversation. Contents 1. Speaker-Centered...
www.girlschase.com
Do a few things right before you approach a new girl, and you raise the odds your approach succeeds. Spot invitations, create invitations, screen, build micro-momentum, and more. Contents I. Pre-Opening Spotting Approach Invitations Inducing Approach Invitations Target Screening II. In-Field...
www.girlschase.com
Anyway, to a certain extent it absolutely is learnable. I have multiple testimonials from guys talking about how they started focusing on fundamentals and on looking for women's signals and it's like all of a sudden they just emerged out of nowhere. One of our video One Date testimonials is from a buyer who talks very excitedly about how he never saw women's signals before, but once he started to notice them and discovered they were everywhere, happening all the time, and that "If guys only KNEW...!"
Hope this helps some.
Chase