Well it's been a while since Julius Fast wrote the book 'Body Language'.   And the pickup artist community has evolved quite a bit since then.  Right now there are thousands of techniques and patterns available to the beginner and intermediate pickup artist that can skyrocket his success rate in a matter of hours.  Many guys remain the AFC (average frustrated chump) their whole lives and settle for a women that may not be well...what he has been looking for and dreaming to be with since the age of 12.

So what do pickup artists do, and how are they successful?  A very small percentage of guys are what we call 'naturals', and picking up women, and after several years of careful observation and testing, the techniques these guys use (subconsciously) are very very successful in making a woman feel 'attraction' for you.  Many of the techniques are counter intuitive, basically run counter to the way we would expect a woman to react, and so, after many tests, successes, and failures, the art of pickup has evolved into a very sensible science.

In a nutshell, most guys are doomed because they have been taught to be the nice kid, or even if they are bad boys, they still feel powerless in the face of a beautiful woman.   There are so many reasons for this and most of them are not very 'politically correct', but let's just say that men have lost the ability to be 'men' 

Techniques that pickup artists learn are meant to be used to basically find and date and possibly marry that 'dream girl' that
he has wanted all his life.   There is a basic rearrangement of thinking, processing and focus, and there are techniques that are studied (sometimes memorized) and put into practice.  When learning how to become a pickup artists, the key is failure.
Failing at picking up women is beneficial in many ways;  it shows me where I went wrong in my approach, and so much can be learned from failure.   Today, there are TV shows, books, and movies all depicting their own versions of what pickup artists are like.

In my experience it's best to study and practice, study and practice and develop your own techniques based on what you learn from in books and seminars on picking up women.  Don't do too much too soon, remember it won't be long until you are picking up and dating the kind of women you want.