How to be a Hacker

How to be a Hacker

Hey everyone! Before you start reading this whole thing, I would like to mention a thing

or two. First off, I would like to let you know that although a lot of this book is

complete fact, a majority of it will be filled with opinions of my own. You aren’t

obligated to follow any of my beliefs or mindsets, so please don’t feel like I am forcing

anything upon you. Also, I will try to keep this eBook updated as much as I can, but as

fast as technology changes, that may not happen at the rate you would like. That being

said, I am extremely sorry if something you read here is out of date. If you do find any

errors, whether it is out of date, or a spelling/grammar error, please send me a private

message at HackForums. Additionally, any content that you request will most likely be

added to the eBook, so if you want to see anything new, PM me. You can do so by

clicking this link: PM ME! So, without further ado, let’s begin the eBook

Chapter 1 “Getting in the Zone“ ------------------------------------------------ Page 4

Chapter 2 “W.W.W.W.W” -------------------------------------------------------- Page 10

Chapter 3 “The List” ---------------------------------------------------------------- Page 18

Chapter 4 “Life Hacking & Occultism” ----------------------------------------- Page 32

Hey there! Thanks for taking interest in my eBook, and I sincerely hope that it helps

you. This chapter “Getting in the Zone” is all about the mindset of a hacker. It will be

concluding different ways of approaching this new (or maybe old) lifestyle. That’s right;

I did just say that hacking is a lifestyle. Now before I start rambling on about mumbo

jumbo that you might have never heard before (or maybe you have, who knows?), I

would like to say that this chapter is an optional read. Many people would rather get

right down to business, and I can respect that. However, for the people who wish to

get the full experience of this book, let’s begin.

The glass is half full, but at the same time, it’s half empty. Or is it 100% full? If a tree falls

in the forest and nobody is around, of course it makes a noise! Or maybe it doesn’t,

according to quantum physics. Not everyone can be a hacker, but at the same time,

anyone can do it! Have I lost you yet? The point that I’m trying to make here, is that

things can be interpreted completely differently depending on how you look at it. It’s

all about your mindset. For example, your mindset might have enabled you to believe

that this entire paragraph was worthless; however, I think it’s setting the mood

perfectly.

Now, before I go any further, I would like to elaborate on what I said in the last

paragraph. “Not everyone can be a hacker, but at the same time, anyone can do it!”

Those words may sound completely contradicting and useless. What I mean by this is,

unless you have the correct mindset, being a hacker will be nearly impossible. It has

been said that “we are born ignorant” however, we must break that ignorant state, and

emerge into a more intelligent one.

Now, you may be thinking, “What is the mindset of a hacker?” and that is an excellent

question. I think that there are multiple ways that hackers can think, both depending

on the type of hacker and the type of person. Here are a couple that we will be

discussing:

o The Genius Mindset o The Prankster Mindset o The Lazy Mindset o The Evil Mindset

There we have it, the big 4. There are variations of each of these, but for the most part,

each subcategory is relatively similar to its brethren. I think it is fair that I go a little bit

more in-depth into each one.

The Prankster Mindset

The prankster mindset is a fairly immature way to go about your life as a hacker. In fact,

it is possibly the exact opposite of the Genius Mindset. Pranksters really aren’t hackers,

but a couple things they do are used by hackers. The majority of people who are

“Prankster Hackers” are limited to batch programs or tools made by other people (also

known as a ‘skid’ or ‘script-kiddie’). Although it sounds like I’m looking down on them

now, I was actually one once myself. In fact, there was a point when I had absolutely no

intentions on learning anything more than the essentials to annihilating other people’s

computers. I could tell quite a few stories (and they are actually pretty entertaining),

but I’ll save that for another time. Feel free to PM me if you would like to hear them

though.

The Lazy Mindset

The Lazy Mindset, in a way, is similar to that of a prankster. Not in the sense that they

like to prank other people a lot, but in the sense that they don’t make an obvious

effort to learn new things. In fact, they also have traits that are opposite of the Genius

Mindset. The Lazies will use other people’s programs to do things, but a lot of the time

they won’t even do that. Lazy people will find themselves constantly getting distracted,

and doing other things away from the world of hacking, and can often recede in the

pursuit for knowledge.

The Evil Mindset

The Evil Mindset is actually pretty self-explanatory. It really just consists of people

wanting to do bad things to computers. This can be due to lack of morals along with a

number of other reasons, such as greed. The Evil Mindset is obviously a group of black

hats, with no valid reason for their path of destruction.

The Genius Mindset

Alright guys, I’ve saved the best for last: The Genius Mindset. This one is by far my

favorite, and it is the one I try to stick to myself. This specific mindset is all about

learning as much as you can. The whole point of it is to improve (and trust me, there

will always be room to improve). The Genius Mindset includes the people who stay up

late every night, reading the last couple pages in a manual, or the people who spend

hours on end writing code. These are the people who will end up being hacking

“Legends” someday.

So, you’re probably asking yourself how you can get in the Genius Mindset. Maybe you

aren’t, I’m sure there are a couple people reading this that think the Lazy Mindset

sounds pretty good. But, if you are one of the people who want to “Get in the Zone,”

then this part is for you.

Getting in the zone can be accomplished in a number of ways. For me, I try to build up

my mind to the best that it can be; the more I know the better. I try to constantly

improve, and it seems to work. There are also other forms of motivation that push me

forward. Usually, when I see videos of other people (better than me) hacking, it

inspires me to go after that, and seek after their knowledge. A good place to look for

videos like that would be the DefCon YouTube channel. A great video can be found

here. Some movies may also get you inspired, such as “Hackers” or “The Social

Network”. While movies often contain hacking scenes that are completely impossible,

the overall gist of it should get you in the zone.

According to http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html:

“Contrary to popular myth, you don't have to be a nerd to be a hacker. It does help, however, and many hackers are in fact nerds. Being something of a social outcast helps you stay concentrated on the really important things, like thinking and hacking.

For this reason, many hackers have adopted the label geek as a badge of pride it’s a way of declaring their independence from normal social expectations (as well as a fondness for other things like science fiction and strategy games that often go with being a hacker). The term 'nerd' used to be used this way back in the 1990s, back when 'nerd' was a mild pejorative and 'geek' a rather harsher one; sometime after 2000 they switched places, at least in U.S. popular culture, and there is now even a significant geek-pride culture among people who aren't techies.

If you can manage to concentrate enough on hacking to be good at it and still have a life, that's fine. This is a lot easier today than it was when I was a newbie in the 1970s; mainstream culture is much friendlier to techno-nerds now. There are even growing numbers of people who realize that hackers are often high-quality lover and spouse material.

If you're attracted to hacking because you don't have a life, that's OK too at least you won't have trouble concentrating. Maybe you'll get a life later on.”

Before I go more in detail about this excerpt, I would like to mention how great the catb website is. In my journey to becoming a hacker, it has helped me a lot (especially the article I linked above).

Now, those can be some pretty intimidating words. I mean, you may have an amazing

social life, a million friends, and 17 girlfriends. Honestly, I don’t find that it really matters how social you are, but the author did make an extremely good argument. He

mentioned that if you throw away your social life, you have so much more room to

focus on learning, and you really have nothing to lose. I mean, if you detach yourself, why should anyone care if you spend your time on the computer. If you have real

friends in the first place, they shouldn’t care if you spend your time on the computer. Basically what I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to be a nerd to be a hacker, but in

some instances it may help. Another good thing to realize is that not all hacking is done on a computer. Hacking

itself simply means that you are modifying something from its original purpose in order

to improve it in some way. So, opening up your phone and hooking up a Bose speaker

to it would be considered a hack

The title of this chapter may seem completely ridiculous to you, and you may be stuck

clueless wondering what it could possibly mean. In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m

debating whether I should even tell you what it means.

Actually, you may have already guessed it; the title means:

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

So, in this chapter we will be looking at those 5 questions. It may be more of an F.A.Q.

really.

What is a Hacker?

Knowing what a hacker is, is obviously the first step to becoming one. If you ask any

regular person what a hacker is, they will most likely just tell you “someone that

messes up computers and gives you viruses”. They also think that it is just like in the

movies, where a hacker just pushes a couple buttons on a keyboard and they

instantly break into any system in the world that they want. If you think about it,

that is ridiculous, but the media is making look like something it's not.

Hacking, in its essence, just means: Modifying something to the user's benefit.

Yep, that's it. A lot of people will tell you that hacking is only done in

cyberspace, but electronics in general are a hub of hacking. A lot of people think

hacking is all bad, but that is also not the case.

There are 3 main types of hackers:

• Black Hat

◦ These are the bad guys; the ones that you hear about on the news. They

hack for personal gain, and destroy other people's computers and

networks for fun. This makes up a large portion of the hacking community,

because when people hear about hackers on the TV, they think it's cool

and so they try it. There are many other motives that may be the cause of

a black hat, such as greed or revenge.

• Gray Hat

◦ Gray Hat hackers are the people who fall in-between white hats and

black hats. They usually won't go out of their way to be bad, but may do

something illegal every now and then. Another difference between gray

hats and white hats is that white hat hackers get permission to pen-test

on a company or website and then they tell the owners about the

vulnerabilities, while gray hat hackers will do it without permission, and

possibly even release the exploit to the public.

• White Hat

◦ The good guys! White hats dedicate their time to securing the Internet and

making it a safe place for everyone. They are rivals with the black hats, and

try to patch up the exploits that they make. Good white hats have years of

experience in computer security, and can fix almost any computer problem.

A lot of people spend long periods of time just trying to decide what kind of hacker

they will be. I personally don't think it matters. I don't put any specific hat on myself,

because I feel that it is just a limitation. For example, if I was to say that I am going to

be a white hat, then I may be limiting myself to just do security related things. I would

rather choose to just hack how I want, and let other hackers decide what hat they

think I am.

What is Hacking?

So now that you know what a hacker is, you may be asking what is considered

“hacking”. That is not easily answered.

Many people come to the dark side of hacking because of lust. They seek

revenge. Or they want to show off. Hacking was never meant to be something

that people used for a malicious purpose, but it evolved into that.

Preforming a Denial of Service (DoS) attack is not considered hacking. Using

programs that other people have created is not considered hacking (with the

exception of an operating system/web browser/etc.). Copying a code that someone

else gives you is not hacking, unless you are modifying it yourself and know what

you are doing to it. If you are just following a tutorial that you found on the Internet

(with the exception of a

guide like this that tells you 'how to be a hacker', as opposed to 'how to hack') then you

are not really hacking. If you are using a common exploit, then you are not hacking,

but if you are developing a new exploit, you are.

There are multiple styles of hacking, and I basically covered them already, but

to say them in different terms, I would say that you can either:

• Hack for glory

• Hack for money

• Hack for revenge

• Hack for security

• Hack because you have to

Glory: You want everyone to know your name. A form of lust; Greed. You want to

destroy or build systems and you want everyone to be damn sure it was you that

did it.

Pros:

• You will be remembered for a long time

• You will have a taste of fame

• People may fear you

• People may love you

Cons:

• You will get caught

• A lot of people will dislike you

• The consequence can be worse than the benefits

• Prison... People get raped there.

Money: You are either a sort of cyber-bounty-hunter, or you are offering assistance

in exchange for money. This is taking your skills that you have worked hard to get

and trying to get some pay out of it. Usually illegal work is in play.

Pros:

• People will pay you for it

• You may actually get some decent practice to keep your skills sharp

Cons:

• Doing these illegal acts can get you in trouble

• The person hiring you may be undercover, and it could all be a trap

• There is always the risk of getting scammed

Revenge: Your girlfriend dumped you. Rage is filling your soul. What is the one

thing that she can't live without? Her Social Networking account? Let’s hack it. This

is an example of hacking for revenge. Although I personally don't believe in this

kind of revenge hacking, it is one of the most popular reasons.

Pros:

• You can savor the sweet taste of revenge and watch that person suffer

Cons:

• The person could report you to the police

• You could have had a decent friendship with that person, but you just ruined it

• They could get you back for it later

Security: This basically defines a white hat hacker. Security hacking is all about

finding exploits in your own system and then finding a way to patch them (This

method is called penetration testing). Your cause it to fight off black hats, and to

make the Internet/cyberspace a safe place for everyone.

Pros:

• There will be very little chance of you getting a virus

• You will learn a lot about security and computers in general

Cons:

• You might get bored

Because you have To: I am referring to an actual job. What? Didn't think that the

people that work for Google or Microsoft are hackers? You basically have to be a

form of a hacker to get into there.

Pros:

• You are hacking for a living, what more could you ask for

• You may get to see software that won't be released for months

• You might get free products, or at least a discount

Cons:

• Maybe you hate your job

• You could have a bad boss

• You might have a small paycheck

So how do you know if you are a hacker already? Well basically if another, well

respected, member of the hacking community considers you one, then you’re a

hacker. Hacking is not about degree, it is all based off of experience and

achievements. So if

you are a well-known, helpful member of the community, then you are probably a

hacker. “How do I help out?” you may ask. Well, in a number of ways:

• Teach new hacklings how to hack

• Test and debug new software

• Help develop programs

• Release open sourced software

• Give out free guides and tutorials

Those are the basic few that will get your status up. But don't limit yourself to those,

those are just the most common ways. Be creative. The more you can do for others

the better

As I see it, hacking is made up of a list; a list of things to learn. Instead of making up some fancy name for it, I’m going to call it “The List”. The list is basically every piece of hacking-related knowledge, compiled into, well, a list.

As a hacker, you look at the list, and choose which item listed you would like to

try. Then you master it. Every time you master a skill, you can check it off of the

list, and move on to a new skill. You have not mastered hacking until there is

nothing left on the list. Sadly though, that has never been done. The reason for

this is that the list is eternally growing.

Here I will show you a basic list, which is by no means, complete.

● Remote Administration Tools

● Keyloggers

● Encryption

● Decryption

● Proxies

● Socks

● Virtual Private Networks

● Virtual Private Servers

● Windows

● Linux

● Unix

● FreeBSD

● All of the programming languages

● Exploitation

● SQL Injection

● Cross Site Scripting

● Remote File Inclusion

● Local File Inclusion

● Program Cracking

● Website Design

● Computer Security

● Network Administration

● Social Engineering

I could go on, but for the sake of boredom, I’ll leave it at that.

Now, we have a nice little list set up here, and looking through it even that

would take a long time to master. Let’s be crazily optimistic and say that it only

took you 4 months to master each item on the list. Since there are 23 things, it

would be:

23 x 4 = 92 months 92 / 12 = 7 years and 6 months!

That is an insane amount of time.

With that said, I’ll leave you with a quote:

“In order to master anything, at least 10 years of practice must be put into it”

That doesn’t just mean that it is going to take you 10 years to be a hacker, but

think about how many skills you have to master! I will admit, some skills can be

mastered faster, but others will take that long. And it’s the combination of all of

these skills that make a successful hacker.

So you’re probably asking yourself, “How do I choose which item to pick first off

of the list?” It really depends on personal preference and what you want to do.

For example, if you simply want to create a successful website in the future, you

may want to learn about web site design, but if you want to do something a little

bit more malicious, you may want to learn how to use MetaSploit, and use/write

exploits.

There are plenty of good places to start off on the list, but a lot of people may not

know where to start. Over these next few pages I will try to cover some popular

list items that may be a possibility for you.

Html is a very basic web-based programming language. HTML stands for

HyperText Markup Language, and is the basic building block for most websites. It

is a great starting block for beginners, as it helps gain an understanding of both

the Internet, and programming. The HTML code for a website can be viewed by

right clicking anywhere on the page, and clicking “View Page source”

Pros:

● Will help you further you career as a web designer

● Helps you gain an understanding of the Internet

● Helps you to understand how websites are made

Cons:

● Can be more boring than going and hacking into someones computer

● If you never make a website, then you might not have as much use for knowing HTML

Some good tutorials can be found at http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

RAT is an acronym which stands for Remote Administration Tool.

Wikipedia defines a RAT as:

A Remote Administration Tool (a RAT) is used to remotely connect and

manage a single or multiple computers with a variety of software tools, such

as:

● Screen/camera capture or image control

● File management (download/upload/execute/etc.)

● Shell control (from command prompt)

● Computer control (power off/on/log off if remote feature is supported)

● Registry management (query/add/delete/modify)

● Other software product-specific functions

Its primary function is for one computer operator to gain access to remote PCs.

One computer will run the "client" software application, while the other

computer(s) operate as the "host(s)".

RATs themselves are illegal, because they are used mostly for malicious

purposes, but there are actual legal RATs. The thing that makes some RATs legal

is permission. Legal Remote Administration Tools, such as TeamViewer, require

the other computer to accept the incoming connection. In addition, legal RATs

don’t have any malicious features built into them.

Pros:

● Can give you access to sensitive data, such as bank account info

● Will give temporary satisfaction

● Bragging rights if you have infected enough people

Cons:

● Can get in serious trouble if you are caught

Tutorials can be found throughout the web, but a RAT is a program, and

programs are ever- changing. Therefore, if I post a link to a guide, it may be

outdated by the time you are reading this.

Cryptography is not so much a method of hacking, but it will definitely help you

along the way. Cryptography is basically the act of encrypting/decrypting

something (ex. a file) so that wandering eyes can’t see it. To explain encryption

and decryption a little bit more, refer to this picture:

A good tool to use to encrypt your computer is TrueCrypt.

To understand the different kinds of encryption methods, I recommend you

take the time to read:

This page

Website Hacking

Website hacking is, obviously, the art of hacking websites. This can be done in numerous ways:

● SQL Injection

● XSS

● RFI

● LFI

SQLi (Structured Query Language Injection)

SQL injection is a code injection technique that exploits a security

vulnerability occurring in the database layer of an application (like queries).

The vulnerability is present when user input is either incorrectly filtered for

string literal escape characters embedded in SQL statements or user input is

not strongly typed and thereby unexpectedly executed. It is an instance of a

more

general class of vulnerabilities that can occur whenever one programming

or scripting language is embedded inside another. SQL injection attacks are

also known as SQL insertion attacks.

Definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/

XSS (Cross Site Scripting)

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically

found in web applications that enables attackers to inject client-side script

into web pages viewed by other users. A cross-site scripting vulnerability may

be used by attackers to bypass access controls such as the same origin policy.

Cross-site scripting carried out on websites accounted for roughly 80%

of all security vulnerabilities documented by Symantec as of 2007. Their

effect

may range from a petty nuisance to a significant security risk, depending

on the sensitivity of the data handled by the vulnerable site and the nature

of any security mitigation implemented by the site's owner.

Definition from

http://en.wikipedia.org/

RFI (Remote File Inclusion)

Remote File Inclusion (RFI) is a type of vulnerability most often found on websites. It allows

an attacker to include a remote file, usually through a script on the web

server. The vulnerability occurs due to the use of user-supplied input

without proper validation. This can lead to something as minimal as

outputting the contents of the file, but depending on the severity, to list a

few it can lead to:

● Code execution on the web server

● Code execution on the client-side such as JavaScript which can

lead to other attacks such as cross site scripting (XSS).

● Denial of Service (DoS)

● Data Theft/Manipulation

Definition from

http://en.wikipedia.org/

LFI (Local File Inclusion)

Local File Inclusion (also known as LFI) is the process of including files on a server

through the web browser. This vulnerability occurs when a page include is not properly sanitized, and allows directory traversal characters to be injected. A typical example of a PHP script vulnerable to LFI is as follows:

<?p hp

$file = $_GET['file']

;

if(isset($ file))

{

include("page s/$file");

} els e

{

include("inde x.php");

}

? >

Definition from http://hakipedia.com

/

Possible helpful links:

http://thehackerlounge.blogspot.com/2009/05/full-sql-injection-

tutorial-mysql.htmlhttp://ferruh.mavituna.com/sql-injection-

cheatsheet-oku/ http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

http://www.steve.org.uk/Security/XSS/Tutorial/

http://r00tsecurity.org/forums/topic/10405-xss-tutorial-from-bug-

to- vulnerability/

http://penetrationengineer.blogspot.com/2009/01/rfi- tutorial-

remote-file-inclusion.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PtZcYFsmGY

http://elitehackerz.net/hacking-tutorials/1017-local-file-inclusion- lfi-tutorial.html

As a web site dev (developer), it is also important to know how to defend your

site against these forms of attacks. For help on securing your site, refer to

these links:

http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/self-publishing/15-great-ways-to-

secure-your-website/

http://www.onlinesecurityauthority.com/thoughts-on-security/10-ways-to- secure-your-website-from-hackers/

Another programming start. Batch has been the starting point of a large amount

of hackers. Batch refers to the Windows command line (So do this if you are using

the Windows operating system). If you see things online that say “CMD hacks”

“Batch viruses” or “Notepad Hacks” then you are seeing people talk about batch.

Basically, it is used by opening a blank text document, and entering the script you

want, and saving it as a .bat file rather than a .txt. Windows implemented this so

that macros could be run on the system that would drastically reduce the time it

takes to complete a task, but many new hackers took advantage of this, and use it

in malicious ways.

Great sources for batch:

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.ericphelps.com/batch/

http://www.google.com/

Life hacking is something that should be a part of every hackers life. In fact, I

daresay it should be a part of every person’s life, regardless of if they are a

hacker or not.

Life hacking is the act of making yourself a better person, making life easier,

and hacking things outside of the digital world. Personally, I spend more time

life hacking then computer hacking, as I feel it is even more important.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to find a good balance between

computers and real life, but with life hacking and other self-improvement

methods, it’s possible to enjoy it even more than the digital world, as I do.

So, first off, let’s get a good definition of life hacking (from Wikipedia, of

course):

“The term life hack refers to productivity tricks that programmers devise and employ to cut

through information overload and organize their data.”

With that in mind, you could think of it as learning ways to improve faster, be

more productive, and get more out of the time you have. If you think about

it, it directly impacts how much you can get out of computer hacking, and

how you can learn these things faster.

Since this chapter isn’t 100% about life hacking though, let’s take a look at

the definition of occultism:

“hidden and difficult to see”

“the study of the supernatural”

“The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to

‘knowledge of the hidden’.”

So, that might be a lot to take in. I had to use 3 different definitions, because

“Occult” is a difficult word to understand (especially in the sense that we will

be focusing on).

Now, we know the definitions of these words, but we don’t know how to

apply them, or really much about them, so let’s fix that.

First off, I think it is important to address one fatal matter that I should have

mentioned a long time ago. Part of being self-sufficient (and really part of

being a hacker) is being able to learn on your own. If your only method of

gaining knowledge is reading my eBook’s and tutorials, you’re going to have a

tough time getting anywhere. I have seen too many people fail in their

pursuit of knowledge because they only relied on others, rendering

themselves useless.

Therefore, try wholly to learn on your own, given the resources available to

you, and don’t try to take the easy way out (expecting others to tell you

everything they know).

It may sound ridiculous, but there is one hub of information that I get most of

my life hacking knowledge from. In fact, I’m almost certain you’ve heard of

this site. You may have used it before, and you may use it currently, I’m not

sure.

Alright, I’ll tell you. This all-knowing, wonderful website, is called…. …. … … …

… … … StumbleUpon. Now, it’s true, a lot of people just use StumbleUpon for

games, humor, and sometimes music, but when used properly, it can be a

VERY valuable resource for finding new

information.

First off, you’ll need an account, to save

preferences, etc. You can sign up here.

You’ll get a screen that looks something

like this:

As you can see, the sign up form is very

minimal, and it won’t take very long at all.

You can sign up with Facebook if you want,

but I personally opt not to. You can be

legitimate with your birthday, or for the

sake of being anonymous (of course,

always be thinking about making it hard

for people to Dox you), you could use a

fake birthday. I usually put my really

month and day, with a different year, such

as 1990.

Once you get signed up (and verify by email), you can view your dashboard.

So, with just this dashboard, you can do quite a bit with your account.

Clicking the arrow by your name in the top right gives you 4 options, but the

one you will probably want to use is the “Settings” option.

Clicking on the settings menu will automatically take you to the profile

customization page; you can fill that out or leave it blank. Again, due to

anonymity reasons, I opt to leave it blank. However, just as an idea, you could

put fake information on it, leading doxers astray as they try to find

information about you. Fake information is the hardest thing to deal with

while trying to compile a dox.

Obviously, the picture tab just allows you to add a profile picture.

Connected accounts lets you connect with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and

Google. That won’t matter much though.

Password is obviously where you go to change your account password.

Privacy settings should be on maximum, unless you want your information

public.

Notifications are optional, but I like them all off, so I’m not bothered or

spammed.

Stumbles and Labs are optional, and you can change the settings on those as

you see fit.

So, you have your settings out of the way, and you might have thought that

all of that was pointless, but I want to make sure that you’re following me,

and get the full experience out of this, as it’s a very important site.

So, now let’s get to the important part: Interests. Interests determine what

site’s you’ll see while stumbling. Over the period of time that I have used the

site, I have found, what I believe to be, the best compilation of interests for

our purpose.

Interests

Bizzare/Oddities**

o Can actually have a lot of useful information, and it extends your

knowledge and experience in general

Computers**

o While you’re mainly using this site for life hacking, you could still

find a lot of computer/hacking related information, so why not do

that, too?

Key

* = ==== Optional

** ===== More important

*** ====== Completely necessary, very important interest

Computer Security**

o Having a secure computer is always important, and should be

learned no matter what your focus is

Ethics**

o Maybe you’ve been wrong this whole time, maybe you need to

rethink your life. I’m not sure, but ethics is a good one for self-

improvement for sure.

FireFox*

o The unofficial “hacker browser”. There’s always more to learn

about it for being more efficient online

Gadgets*

o If you’re a hardware type of guy, or just like cool gizmos, this one

is a keeper

Hacking**

o This is pretty self-explanatory

Humanitarianism**

o Learning to think about others and be selfless, it’s a good quality

to have, and good to look into

Internet*

o While this may include a lot of internet culture in general, you

can also learn about its functions and what makes it tick.

Internet Tools*

o Helpful for being more productive, and finding new tools

Logic***

o This one is huge, and very helpful for exercising your mind, and

finding new truths that you didn’t before realize.

Psychology***

o More learning about the mind and how it works, and overall brain

enhancement. Very important interest

Self Improvement***

o This one is self explanatory, and should definitely be on your list

Software**

o Finding new tools and programs is always useful, and should be

on your list as well

Technology*

o For finding out more about the technological world, the latest

inventions, etc.

Along with these, I also have a few more, which aren’t necessary, but are

situational to me personally. My additional interests include:

Celtic Music

o Because I enjoy foreign music

Classical Music

Computer Graphics

o I find this interest to produce some fun, interesting results

Ethnic music

o Because I enjoy foreign music

Folk Music

Exotic Pets

o Because why the hell not?

Guitar

o Because I play guitar, and enjoy learning more about it

House Music

o I enjoy listening to this music while doing digital work

Humor

o It’s good to get a break from all of the heavy thinking sometimes,

and get a good joke in

Lingerie

o It’s a nice break from the heavy thinking, and gives you a reward

for going through all the thought-provoking pages

Music

Music Theory

Music Composition

Photography

o Another good interest to exercise the right half of your brain

Songwriting

Techno

Trance

Video Games

In total, I have a bit over 30 interests. However, you may find it necessary to

have more or less depending on your personality.

When you’ve added the interests from the list above that you like, go to the

“add interests” section, and set your search filter to “All” (As imaged above),

and read through the list. There are 512 interests total, as of this issue of the

eBook, and there are bound to be a couple that apply to you, that you will find

interesting.

Now, this site sounds great and everything, but there is one major setback:

addiction. It’s very easy to get addicted to this site, and become unproductive.

However, you have to remember your goals, and continue to improve

yourself. If you find yourself adding a large amount of interests that seem off

topic, and unproductive, you may want to consider removing them, and

sticking with ones that will help you get things done.

With all of that in mind, all you have left to do is begin stumbling. Hit the

Orange button on the bar at the top of the page to go to the next page. If you

find something that you would like to come back to later, hit the “I Like it”

button, or add it to a list, then you can browse the list/likes later.

After reading all of that, you should know enough about StumbleUpon to do

the rest on your own, so let’s continue to the next part.

Remembering Sites

In order to remember interesting sites or articles that I find, I use a great

website called PearlTrees. Pearltrees is a great way to organize links, music,

and notes into a web that you can navigate through, so you’ll never forget

something you find on the internet again.

The above image shows a sample pearl tree (mine). The highlighted circles

with an image in them are links directly to websites. The ones with a face

indicate another PearlTree is insides of them. In other words, I’m simply

nesting other sites within those, based on subject. I do this to have some

form of organization within my tree, and make it more navigable.

A lot of people dislike PearlTrees, but I personally think it saves a lot of time,

and helps you get to sites more efficiently. You can try it yourself, and see if

you like it. I’m not going to spend much time talking about it though, because

it’s not nearly as important as StumbleUpon or other topics.

You can get the PearlTrees addon for FireFox here.

You can get the PearlTrees addon for Chrome here.

Meditating, or simply knowing how to meditate, is a very important skill,

even if you don’t use it as often as you should. Meditation brings about a

peace in your life, and a nearly unparalleled relaxation, that it is definitely

worth looking into. Not convinced, before going into the topic more

thoroughly, I want to make clear how many benefits meditation actually has.

Physiological benefits:

It lowers oxygen consumption.

It decreases respiratory rate.

It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.

Increases exercise tolerance.

Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.

Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.

Decreases muscle tension

Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.

Helps in post-operative healing.

Enhances the immune system.

Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress

Helps with weight loss

Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.

Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.

Prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases

Cure headaches & migraines

Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning

Less energy wasted

More inclined to sports, activities

Significant relief from asthma

Improved performance in athletic events

Relaxes your nervous system

Produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity

Psychological benefits:

Builds self-confidence

Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behavior

Resolve phobias & fears

Helps control own thoughts

Helps with focus & concentration

Increase creativity

Increased brain wave coherence

Improved learning ability and memory

Increased emotional stability

Improved relationships

Easier to remove bad habits

Increased Productivity

Improved relations at home & at work

Able to see the larger picture in a given situation

Increased ability to solve complex problems

Purifies your character

Develop will power

React more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.

Higher intelligence growth rate

Decrease in potential mental illness

Better, more sociable behavior

Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation

Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia

Decrease in restless thinking

Decreased tendency to worry

Increases listening skills and empathy

Helps make more accurate judgments

Greater tolerance

Grows a stable, more balanced personality

Develops emotional maturity

These benefits are from a blog called ineedmotivation. More benefits can be

found there.

Now, that’s quite a few positive sides to meditation, right? Now, the question

is, “Why would anyone NOT want to meditate after reading all of that?”

The answer is simple, and it’s a sad truth – Laziness. People think they’re too

busy to take 10 minutes out of their day for something that will help

drastically in the long run.

So, how can you become a meditator, and improve your life by an enormous

amount? There are 7 basic steps to this:

1. Sit erect, engaged yet relaxed, as if you’re listening to your best friend

2. Allow your eyes to close

3. Take a long, deep inhale, hold it for a moment, and then let it go

4. Allow your breath it settle down to its own natural flow

5. Bring your attention to where you feel your breath the most. This spot

could be your diaphragm, your chest, or under your nostrils, there is no

wrong spot.

6. Watch your breath from this spot for your next 5 breaths

7. Open your eyes

That’s it. You’re a meditator. Of course, this is a very short example and

meditating for 5-10 breaths total won’t do a ton for your, but it gives you a

basis to work from. What if you increased it to 100 breaths?

If you followed along with those steps, you’ll realize that it was a very

pleasant, relaxing experience. Couldn’t you do that for just 10 minutes per

day? Especially knowing the benefits, I don’t see why you couldn’t.

Try going to this site or use another timer, and set the time for 8 minutes.

Relax, and do the same thing as before, but just wait for the time to run out.

Don’t think about the time though, in fact, don’t think about anything. That’s

the tough part. The only thing you should be doing is focusing on your breath.

Your brain will naturally starting thinking about things, anything, but anything

can be dangerous. The moment that you are aware that you are thinking

about anything, instantly stop, and continue focusing on your breath. This will

happen quite a few times throughout your meditation, but the more you do it,

the better you will get at it.

Try it right now.

Do it.

Stop reading.

Meditate.

I highly recommend you invest in the book 8 Minute Meditation. It will change

your life, and make you a much better meditator.

There are a couple more methods I want to discuss before moving on. You

may try them, you may enjoy them, and you may use them in the future. Best

case scenario, you will develop your own methods from them.

Self-Hypnosis

Go to a quiet room and sit in any comfortable chair, couch, or bed. Make sure

this is a place where you won’t be disturbed for at least half an hour. Although

some people prefer to lie down, you are more susceptible to sleep than when

sitting up. Whether you sit or lie, ensure you do not cross your legs or any part

of your body. You may be in this position for a while and this could end up being

uncomfortable.

Close your eyes and work to rid your mind of any feelings of fear, stress, or

anxiety (Just like when meditating, don’t think about anything at this point,

clear your mind)

Recognize the tension in your body. Beginning with your toes, imagine the

tension slowly falling away from your body and vanishing. Imagine it freeing

each body part one at a time starting with your toes and working its way up

your body. Visualize each part of your body becoming lighter and lighter as the

tension is removed. Relax your toes, then your feet. Continue with your calves,

thighs, hips, stomach and so on, until you've relaxed each portion, including

your face and head. Using imagery techniques of something you find comforting

or soothing, such as water (feel the water rushing over your feet and ankles,

cleansing them of tension) can be effective as well.

Take slow, deep breaths. When you exhale, see the tension and negativity

leaving in a dark cloud. As you inhale, see the air returning as a bright force

filled with life and energy.

Imagine you are at the top of a flight of 10 stairs which at the fifth step start to

submerge into water. Picture every detail of this scene from the top to the

bottom. Tell yourself that you are going to descend the stairs, counting each

step down, starting at 10. Picture each number in your mind. Imagine that each

number you count is further down and one step closer to the bottom. After

each number, you will feel yourself drifting further and further into deep

relaxation. As you take each step, imagine the feel of the step under your feet.

Once you are at the fifth step imagine and truly feel the refreshing coolness of

the water and tell yourself that you are stepping into an oasis of purity and

cleanliness. As you begin to descend the last five steps, start to feel the water

getting higher and higher up your body. You should now start to feel somewhat

numb and your heart will start to race a bit, but notice it and let any qualms

about the situation just drift away into the water.

At this point at the bottom of the water you shouldn't really feel anything, just a

floating sensation. You may even feel like you're spinning. Once you have

achieved this state you should proceed to address your problems and decide

upon what it is you want from where you are. (Note: if you do not feel as stated

above, try again, slower with a will to grasp what is happening.) Now start to

narrate what you are doing, speak in the present and future tense quietly to

yourself, or as if you are reading it from a page. Start to picture three boxes

under the water that you have to swim to get to. Once you have found the

boxes open them slowly one at a time and narrate to yourself what is

happening when you open the box. For example 'As I open the box I feel a

radiant light engulf me, I feel it becoming a part of me, this light is my new

found confidence that I can never lose as it is now a part of me' and then

proceed on to the next box. You should avoid using statements with negative

connotation such as "I don't want to be tired and irritable." Instead, say, "I am

becoming calm and relaxed." Examples of positive statements "I am strong and

slender," "I am successful and positive," and, if you have pain, "My back is

beginning to feel wonderful.”

Repeat your statement(s) to yourself as many times as you wish. 2 or 3 times

should be enough

Once you are satisfied with what you have done and embraced, swim back to

the stairs and feel with each step you take the water becoming lower and lower

until you have once again reached that fifth step. Once you are out of the water

and are on the sixth step you may start to feel heavy or as if there is a weight on

your chest. Merely wait on the step until this passes, constantly repeating your

aforementioned statements. Once it passes continue up the stairs visualizing

each step by its number, feeling the steps underneath you, will yourself to carry

on up the stairs.

Once you have ascended, give yourself a few moments before opening your

eyes. You may want to visualize yourself opening a door to the outside world,

do this slowly and imagine the light that pours in through the door way, this

should make your eyes open. Take your time getting up. Then out loud tell

yourself "Wide awake, Wide awake" or something maybe that your mother

used to say when she woke you up in the morning as a child. This will put your

mind back in the conscious state.

The above is taken from WikiHow and was edited slightly. It is a great method

of improvement, and hypnosis that you should give a try if you have time.

Another article I found showed a simple method of improving at anything. I

thought it would be beneficial to describe this as well.

First, picture yourself with a goal in mind – the thing you want to improve in.

For the sake of the example, I’ll choose shooting free-throws in basketball.

Close your eyes, picture yourself in first person view. Then, slowly shift the view

of yourself to above and behind you, until you can fully see yourself sitting (or

standing) there. Picture it as if you were watching yourself on a movie screen.

Then, watch yourself go through the motions of what you need to be improving

at. Go through every detail. Go through it over and over until you get it right.

A study was done where a group of basketball players used this method, and

their free-throw shot success rate improved by ~23% on average.

Now it’s time for the section of this chapter that I’m sure a lot of people have

been waiting for – Occultism. You already know the definition of occultism, so I

don’t feel the need to redefine it for you. Instead, let’s just delve in to a few of

the methods of occultism. This section will probably be updated in the future,

so if you get a new version, make sure to check back here.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is something that many people want to do, but don’t for some

reason they never learn how. Why? A few reasons.

1. The illusion that there is a lack of time

2. An unwillingness to put forth an effort

3. Fear

What was that? Fear? Yes, fear. Once people look into Lucid dreaming, they

realize there is a huge risk to it.

So, let’s continue, and learn about the risks later.

Lucid Dreaming is a great concept, but achieving it can be difficult, time

consuming, and frustrating. Patience and self-control are the most important

things when attempting this.

There are 2 main methods for reaching the lucid state, a quick method, and a

safe method. These are called:

WILDs

MILDs

These stand for: Wake Induced Lucid Dreams and Mnemonic Induction of Lucid

Dreams

We will mainly be focusing on the WILDs method here, because it is much

faster, and the method that most people choose to use. I will, however, provide

a short summary of the MILDs method though.

Before we go any further, I would like to note, I am not the best at Lucid

Dreaming, and I am not an expert. I have done it before, I have some

experience, and I have done a lot of research on it. However, that does not

mean that all the information here will be perfect. Over time, I will update this

section, as my personal knowledge grows, and you may have increased success

with the updated versions.

Let’s continue.

We’re going to begin with the MILDs method. There are a couple of things you

have to do in order to achieve success in this method, and can be a bit of work.

First, you have to be able to recall your dreams. That is a skill that many people

don’t have. Most dreams are completely forgotten within 10 minutes of waking.

The best way to recall your dreams is to write them down in a dream journal. As

soon as you wake up in the morning, pick up your journal, and immediately

start writing as much as you can remember in it. Every little detail should be

included, you can include pictures, colors, specifics, anything. Title it, and make

note of the date. The next day, you should continue on the next page.

If you can’t recall your dreams, they are probably not very vivid, and even if you

have a lucid dream, you won’t be able to remember it. That’s a problem.

Have you ever seen the 2005 movie “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl”?

That movie is completely about the MILDs method. Even though the movie

itself it terrible (scoring a 3.4/10 average on imdb), the concept is exactly what

we’re going for with this method.

Second step: reality checks. Sure, knowing all of your dreams in cool, but what

is it going to do for you besides providing a cool though/memory? Well, it gives

a hint of falsehood. When you recognize a dream while you’re in it, you start to

question whether you’re awake or not. This is the correct thing to do. During

the day, constantly ask yourself “Am I dreaming?” until it becomes a habit.

Eventually, you will do the same thing in your dreams, sparking the realization

that you are, in fact, dreaming. The realization that you’re dreaming initializes

the lucid dream, and you have become successful.

An example of reality checks can be seen in the movie “Inception”

Now that you know a little bit about the MILDs method, let’s move on to the

WILDs method.

This method is something that can be accomplished on your first night, if done

properly (and with a bit of luck).

The idea behind WILDs, is that your body falls asleep, but your mind remains

awake. This is a very interesting concept.

To begin, you’re going to want to be in the correct environment. A very quiet or

silent area, where you won’t be disturbed will be the ideal location. Turn off the

lights, and get the area as dark as possible, set up everything as if you were

going to bed. Lie down, put a blanket on you if you want, get in a position that is

comfortable (this is important). Lie on your back, facing straight up. Do not

cross your legs. Put your hands somewhere that won’t bother you, such as on

your stomach, or at your sides.

This is all very important, because you will not be moving at all. Complete

stillness is important, so you have to be in a position in which you will not be

tempted to move or reposition for a long time.

You’ll want to get into a meditative state. I would recommend performing at

least a weeks’ worth of daily meditation before attempting this.

While lying down, empty your mind completely. Relax yourself starting at your

toes, and work the relaxation slowly up the rest of your body until you are fully

relaxed.

With your mind empty, stare into the blackness of your eyelids. If thoughts

appear, observe them, don’t interact with them, and then send them on their

way. Don’t let your mind go astray.

Additionally, to help with your meditative state, you can (optionally) listen to

some binaural beats made directly for lucid dreaming. (Later in the chapter I will

cover more on binaural beats)

You can get a good free one on YouTube here. You could also buy a professional

version here. If you can’t find success with those, you can experiment with

others, and try to find a good working one. However, remember that these are

optional, and lucid dreaming can be accomplished without them.

You’ll want to start taking deep breaths. 3 second inhales, and 3 second exhales

are ideal, but don’t spend brain power counting each breath. This is a very

popular method of relaxation. When smokers light a cigarette, they assume that

the unreal relaxation they are experiencing is because of the drug, when, in

reality, most of it comes from the long deep breaths they are taking. That’s

right, we’re breathing like smokers to accomplish lucid dreaming.

Now, after a while, your body will feel weightless, and go numb. In fact, you

would have trouble moving if you tried. You’ll feel like you’re on a cloud, and

your mind will start drifting off onto the dream world. Let it.

In between being awake and asleep, is the hypnagogic state. Think of this as a

time for your body to check if you’re really asleep, and for your mind to conjure

up a dream world.

While you’re in this state, you will see flashy patterns and colors and objects

take over your vision of the darkness. Continue in this state until it passes after

a couple minutes, and the newly created dream world is apparent. Don’t let

yourself fall asleep though, and don’t open your eyes.

Now I mentioned earlier that there were some risks. This is the point where a

risk may occur. Let me explain what has happened so far first.

Sleeping on your back with long deep breaths invokes sleep paralysis. Sleep

paralysis is completely necessary to achieve lucid dreaming using this method,

and is only temporary. In fact, 1 in 3 people experience sleep paralysis anyways

(including myself), so why not make use of it, and lucid dream?

However, if you open your eyes in the hypnagogic state, there is a chance of

something bad happening. This terrible thing has not personally happened to

me, but many people have experienced it, and they never attempt lucid

dreaming again. I do feel it is important for you to be aware of this though,

because finding it out on your own would be much worse.

First, you would open your eyes, and see everything around you just like

normal. However, you will be in a paralysis state still, so you won’t be able to

move much, if at all. The bad part about this, is the state of mind you were just

in invokes hallucinations. Not good ones. The most fearful thoughts hidden in

the depths of your mind can and will appear before you as if they were

completely real. You won’t know if they are hallucinations. You may not even be

able to comprehend that you had something that scary in your mind to begin

with. After a couple of minutes though, it will fade, and you will be able to

move.

Now, like I said before, I have been fortunate enough to have never

experienced this. In fact, I’m not even sure if it’s 100% accurate, because I’ve

only heard stories of others. It is not something that I would worry about

coming into the world of lucid dreaming, so don’t be afraid, and don’t back

down now.

Secondly, as a warning: When you’re in your meditative state, and you move on

to the hypnagogic, make sure you continue to not move. The body tries to

check if you are still awake, and you will experience itches and urges throughout

your body. Keep still and ignore them, as they are only temporary. This is where

will power alone is the key to your success.

If you make it through all of that, you have accomplished your final goal: Lucid

Dreaming. You can do whatever you want now. You can fly. You can run at the

speed of light. You can be a super hero. You can be an Earth Bender. Anything

you can imagine, you can do in your dream. Everything is vivid, and will seem

real. It is a wonderful feeling; a feeling stronger than your fears.

Congratulations, you’re a lucid dreamer.

More will be added to this chapter in the future. Occultism is a very fun and

unique practice that I am always trying to involve myself in. Therefore, as I

encounter new things, I will add them here. If you have any suggestions for

things to add to this chapter, please suggest them over email or PM.

This guide will be updated as often as I possibly can

If you have anything you would like to see added to this eBook, please

tell me. The more people I have request something, the more likely I am

to add it.

I apologize if there are any formatting errors throughout the guide. This

isn’t the finished version, so it definitely isn’t perfect. If you do find

errors, feel free to report them to me.

If you see this being posted anywhere else besides HackForums,

please report it to me, unless they are giving credit to me.

Thank you for reading my eBook! Please wait patiently while I type up my next version.