...
Max
Course 0 — The Intelligence Pillar

Elicitation
& HUMINT

The art of obtaining information people wouldn't normally give you — through conversation, not interrogation. 40 field-tested techniques from 20 years of HUMINT operations. Including the defense module: how to recognize when you're the target.

40+
Techniques
8
Chapters
3
Formats included
1
Real case study
Individual Course
$247
Or $597 with full bundle
🎬
Format 01
Video Episodes
Max and O'Neill demonstrate every technique live — with real dialogue, psychological breakdown, and field context. Not slides with bullet points. Actual demonstrations of how elicitation works in motion.
  • Technique demonstrations with live dialogue
  • Case walkthroughs including the Berlin Conference operation
  • Psychological mechanism explained for each technique
  • Defense module — recognizing when you're being elicited
📖
Format 02
Complete E-Book
All 40 techniques documented in full — with description, psychological trigger, application context, and example dialogue. Your permanent reference for every elicitation scenario you'll encounter.
  • All 40 techniques: Foundation, Conversational, Advanced, Specialist, Team
  • Full case study: The Elicitation of Sorin Damaschin
  • Defense chapter: How to deflect elicitation attempts
  • Verification framework for obtained intelligence
🏋️
Format 03
4–8 Week Training Guide
Structured exercises to develop real elicitation skill — not just theoretical knowledge. Each week builds on the last, moving from foundational techniques to complex multi-technique operations.
  • Week 1–2: Foundation techniques in low-stakes conversations
  • Week 3–4: Conversational techniques — professional settings
  • Week 5–6: Advanced techniques — planned operations
  • Week 7–8: Team techniques and defense application
40 Field-Tested Techniques

What you'll
master.

Organized in five progressive tiers — from conversational foundations to advanced multi-operator team techniques. Every technique includes its psychological mechanism and the reason it works on most people, most of the time.

Defense Module — Included
Chapter 7 teaches you to recognize every technique from the other side. If someone is running Approximation, Confidential Bait, or Need for Arbitration on you — you'll feel it before you can name it. Then you'll be able to name it.
01–08
Foundation Techniques
Assuming Shared Knowledge, Approximation, Confidential Bait, Criticism, Denial of the Obvious, Feigning Ignorance, Flattery, "Can You Finish This?"
09–17
Conversational Techniques
Leading Questions, The Good Listener, General to Specific, Shared Interest, Opposition, Oblique Question, Provocative Intervention, Questioning, Word Repetition / Echo
18–26
Advanced Techniques
Breaking News, Staged Interview, Outsider's Perspective, Quid Pro Quo, Reframing, Engaging Question, Open Question, Follow-Up Question, Clarification
27–37
Specialist Techniques
Disarming Behavior, Bracketing, Presumptuous Question, Deliberate Misquotation, Thoughtful Pause, Case Study Analysis, Using Statistics, Ethical Challenge, Thinking Challenge, Emotion Mirroring, Using Examples
38–40
Team Techniques
Need for Arbitration, The False Target, Double Distrust — multi-operator operations where the target doesn't realize the conversation is constructed.
Real Case Study — From the Course
Operation · Berlin Aeronautics Conference

How Dr. Sorin Damaschin — PhD, 23 Patents, Head of R&D — Lost Classified Intelligence in One Conversation

The target was not naive. Dr. Sorin Damaschin was 49 years old, a distinguished aeronautics engineer with 23 patents, Head of R&D at a major South African aerospace firm, and an Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He had every reason to be careful. He was also proud of his work, a skilled speaker who enjoyed explaining — and that was exactly his vulnerability.

Using Approximation to trigger a correction reflex, Assumed Shared Knowledge to lower his guard, and the Need for Arbitration technique to get a subordinate talking in his presence, two intelligence operatives extracted: the development stage of a classified drone program, the funding status of three active research lines, the names and roles of key personnel, and proximity-to-completion data on a stealth aircraft project. In a single conference break.

"It's not just the weak who talk too much. Sometimes it's precisely the person who feels strong and comfortable in their expertise. Confidence doesn't protect you — awareness does." — Max
Max
Lead Instructor
Max
HUMINT · Elicitation · Profiling · Counterterrorism
Max developed and refined these 40 techniques across 20+ years of active HUMINT operations in environments where the quality of information extracted directly determined operational outcomes. He has run elicitation operations on targets ranging from corporate insiders to foreign intelligence assets — and has been the target himself.

Every technique in this course passed a single filter: did it work under real pressure, with real people, in real situations? The ones that didn't are not in this course.
"Well-executed elicitation doesn't just produce accidental slips — it produces complete narratives, clarifications, and voluntarily offered details."
HUMINT CollectionSource Development 40 Elicitation TechniquesCounterterrorism Behavioral Profiling
Who This Course Is For

Every profession that runs
on information.

Elicitation is the most universally applicable skill in this system. If you have conversations where information matters — this course is for you.

🎯
Negotiators & BD
Sales · M&A · Dealmakers
Know what the other side values, fears, and knows — before the negotiation begins. Elicitation in pre-meeting conversations changes the game entirely.
🏢
Corporate Management
Team Leaders · Operations
Extract real information from employees, partners, and stakeholders who give you the polished version. Get the actual version instead.
📰
Investigative Journalists
Reporters · Editors · Freelancers
The best interview your source gives won't feel like an interview to them. 40 techniques to get the story they wouldn't tell you directly.
🔐
Security & Intelligence
CSO · Compliance · Investigators
Competitive intelligence, due diligence, and background research — elicitation produces what databases and documents never will.
⚖️
Legal Professionals
Attorneys · Counsel · Advisors
Pre-deposition intelligence gathering, witness preparation, and understanding what the other side knows before they know you know it.
🎯
C-Suite & Founders
CEOs · Founders · Directors
Conferences, board meetings, investor conversations — every environment where someone may be running intelligence on you, or where you should be running it yourself.
— Elicitation & HUMINT · Brave Minds

40 techniques.
One complete system.

Video episodes, complete e-book, and 4–8 week training guide. Everything to take you from understanding elicitation to applying it — with the defense module included at no extra cost.

$247
Bundle with 3 more courses: $597
Individual · All 3 formats · Lifetime access
Delivered digitally · office@braveminds.ro
Seraphinite AcceleratorOptimized by Seraphinite Accelerator
Turns on site high speed to be attractive for people and search engines.