Open loops are extremely powerful constructs. In relation to pickup, they are most commonly used as conscious open loops. An example of a conscious open loop is:
“You have three really great qualities. You’re very positive, you’re attentive. The third I cannot enclose, you’ll get self conscious and stop doing it.”
The purpose is obvious, to hook the attention of a listener by creating a strong yearning to resolve what the third point is; to close the open loop. (Note that this is actually also in a way a command to make the person get self conscious. It’s actually quite a nice ice breaker).
Other examples are:
(SMS) “I had a dream last night.”
“What was it about?”
“It’s too complex to tell, but you were in it! I’ll tell you when we meet!”
…and…
(doing the classic “ring on which finger”-routine from Style on a person wearing the ring on his/her index finger);
“The thumb is a typical sign of independence, the long finger is typically worn by rebellious people, the little finger is for power hungry rulers. I’ll tell you the other two later.”
…and even the dreaded…
“We need to talk.”
Now, if the power of these open loops aren’t immediately apparent to you, try to simply incorporate them into your outer game by running the lines. Their structure will become apparent to you with practice, and you’ll start to use them unconsciously when you see the power they bring.
While these are quite simple to implement (and actually quite simple to defend oneself against once it’s recognized as an outer game gambit), there is another, more subtle approach to open loops. It was brought to my attention when attenting the John La Tourrette-seminar in Copenhagen, and while it wasn’t taught to us directly, some of the attendants pointed out that Dr. La Tourrette used them extensively. La Tourrette used them mainly (I suppose) as a teaching tool; by creating subconscious open loops, the mind gets more attentive.
I cannot give you a full description of potential or even how Dr. La Tourrette uses it, but I can give you some rough pointers on how to experiment with it. When is it potent, in addition to as a teaching tool? In many cases, I suppose. Captivating an audience with storytelling is an apparent one.
So what distinguishes a conscious open loop from a covert open loop? It’s really quite simple; you don’t point out that there is an open loop.
Let’s modify one of the previous examples:
“You have three really great qualities. You’re very positive, you’re attentive. I first noticed you were attentive when I [insert tangent story].”
By inserting a relevant tangent story, the attention of the listener will be held. To get the maximum long-term effect of the open loop, try to keep it unresolved after the tangent story is over, perhaps even ending the tangent story with another open loop.
This works for anything that needs to be enumerated; “You need to know three things to make this technique work for you”, “The car we rode had five magical abilities”, All these enumerations contain hooks that can be taken on wild tangents, creating loops that never need be closed, each loop drawing the listener further in.