The Cigar as an Instrument of Influence

This open meeting explored the cigar as a tool for building dialogue, a marker of status and an element of non-verbal influence.

The speaker was Mikhail Pelekhaty — rector of the Institute of Modern NLP, a student of Richard Bandler and one of Russia’s most experienced trainers in neuro-linguistic programming.

The programme centred on the psychology of power and ‘smoke etiquette’. Participants considered how the cigar ritual can influence negotiations and help a person establish a deliberate line of communication.

Special attention was given to gestures, smoking tempo and the very image of a person with a cigar — non-verbal details capable of shaping an interlocutor’s perception before the main arguments are even expressed.

The meeting took place at 7 p.m. on April 18 at VARVARKA III, Gostiny Dvor, 3 Varvarka Street, Moscow. The original announcement emphasised the event’s open format and limited capacity.