Exploiting Religion and Occult Science for Hacking

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Overview of Reality Hacking
3. Occult Science in everyday life
4. People and Belief
5. A Real Corporate Sabotage example using Occult
6. Conclusion
7. Footnotes
8. Bibliography
   
9. External Links
   

Introduction

In first part of this series, we will look at how we can use religion and occult science to exploit people and use it to our advantage. It is easy to slip into debates related to religion and global issues, so we will focus on how to use the art� to exploit a specific target with some examples and case studies. The subject itself is controversial in nature, so it's best we kept aside the moral values and ethics for a later discussion.

Overview of Reality Hacking

Before we start, lets understand what hacking is and what a system is. Most people say, hacking is about stealing passwords and getting the root or something similar. And a system is any computer or network which we want to hack. But in true sense, hacking is not just about passwords. It's about improvising a process or taking advantage of a system as a whole. A system consists of people, process and technology. So, even the entire company is a system. The way nature operates is a form of system. Even the way you do your daily routine and spend time with your family is a system. And hacking can be applied just anywhere, by studying it carefully. This view is generally known as reality hacking, and is similar to the final climax of Matrix, where Neo finally believes in himself and sees everything, including himself as a part of Matrix.

Occult science in everyday life.

How many times have you read or seen people reading the daily astrology column in newspapers? or, how many times have you shown your hand to a common friend or a hand-reading expert to know the future? How much of it do you believe really?

Some examples:

In India, almost every marriage is done only if the stars� match. You would face considerable resistance from old grannies and mothers in getting married to the girl you like, if the kundalis¹ do not match. Imagine, a small astrological chart can actually determine if your family approves your relationship or not!

The home interiors, design and furniture is largely determined by vaastu shastra�² in many Indian homes. Even today, new apartments or flats are rejected if they do not satisfy the aspects of Vaastu! So if you are a builder, you have a slightly better chance of selling your newly constructed buildings / homes if you promote them as designed as per Vaastu Shastra in certain parts of India!

Huge donations are given in name of Poojaa�³ or Homam�⁴ which are held almost every month some place or other to ward of evil spirits, seek blessings of god and bring peace and harmony. The revenue generated by these donations qualify the religious bodies to be listed in Stock markets! For example, the annual turnover of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam� (One of the largest religious bodies in India) is over 135,093,956. 32 USD! Not to mention reserves.

Again, some of the largest riots and acts of violence are due to differences between religious communities. We have witnessed thousands of people being killed on the name of religion and justice. As they say, even today most people are judged by the color of their skin.

People and Belief

As we saw from the above examples, it does not matter if you believe in any forms of occult or religion. What matters is many people do. And this belief is the single largest factor to utilize it for your advantage. Over many years i have noticed that gaining trust is easiest when you share your victims belief or add weight to it by your experiences or stories.

It is not hard to find out if your victim can be exploited or not. One can start with a simple sociological game like 'nowadays�' or 'Ain't it awful' and quickly move towards stating a personal problem that got resolved due to a certain practice⁵�. For instance, one can say "You know, I was thinking of purchasing this plot, but luckily I had been to this astrologer and you won't believe it, he said I should not make the purchase as it was not a good period. Just yesterday I came to know that the plot was actually having a lot of legal issues and that it had being seized." Depending on the person or place, stories like this might actually work. If you sound convincing enough, then your victim asks for the address and decides to test the astrologer out.

If you can recollect your days at college, there would be at least one guy who would have claimed to read hands, and all girls would flock around him to ask the same stupid questions, "When will i get married?" "Will i go abroad?" "Will my husband be good looking?" "Will i get first class in my exams?" or more family oriented ones like "Will I always take care of my mother and father?"�; "What about my mothers health?" or "Will i get a job soon?"� and things like that.

To tell you how serious this can be, once out of frustration I replied to a girl that she will have two marriages and that she would get a divorce from her first husband within six months. Before I could realize, she fainted out of shock and fell down the staircase. It was very difficult for me to later tell her that it was just a joke and that she would actually be happy in a single long lasting marriage. This is not an isolated case.

People believe "predictions"� when given in a right environment and though most of them can act as "self-fulfilling prophecies"�, it is natural to be concerned when you are warned of danger.

Now how can ones belief help you in hacking? In any business, if crucial sales professionals or account managers leave a company or are not available for active follow up, they will lose a great amount of business to competitors. Is there any way we can "hack"� into a TAM or pre-sales professionals mind and make them not report to office for a few days for a possible business advantage?

A Real Corporate Sabotage example using Occult

In Mumbai, at Andheri, there are over 3000 companies with corporate offices. On any given working day, there are over 120 odd IT security Pre-sales guys trying to sell their services in various sectors. In such a cut throat competition, it is vital that presentations or proposals are given on time. It is also obvious that not all can qualify for certain jobs and that only few competitors remain in the end.

Company X wanted the deal at all costs. What can it do to prevent company Y from winning this order? It was then that they tried out a simple plan. Krishna (let's say) was a pre-sales guy working with company Y. He used to commute daily from Dombivili to Andheri by local train via Dadar. Company X studied the daily activity of Krishna for a few days and strategically sent a sadhu early morning at his area.

Sadhu⁶

When Krishna came out as usual for going to office, the sadhu came forward and asked for a rupee but instead stopped haphazardly and gave him a cold spooky stare before saying "Your death is near! you are going die in a train accident in less than a week"� (In reality, it was very dramatic). Saying this he gave a "you-are-doomed"� laugh and quickly walked away.

Now what do you think would be the effect? Surprised, Krishna paused for a few seconds and regained his composure before moving to his work place as usual. After two days, company X sent another sadhu who "accidentally� " crossed Krishna's path and suddenly froze before giving him the look.

This time the sadhu said "Son, your life is in danger. Stay at home and recite the hanuman chalisaa⁷ everyday if you want the danger to pass away".� Blessing him, the sadhu started moved away chanting mantras. But this time Krishna quickly called him and asked what the danger was. The Sadhu replied that the period was extremely bad for him for he has not fulfilled a promise made to god. And the only way out was to stay indoors for a week or so chanting "hanuman chalisaa" 108 times a day. During this time he should not travel anywhere as it would surely put him in danger of losing his life.

Even now, the company X did not know how Krishna would react to all this. Krishna thanked the Sadhu, gave him a 50 Rupee note and moved towards office. But soon the two separate incidents of being warned of death put Krishna in the desired state of mind. By the time he reached Dadar, he changed his mind and went back home instead of office. In the next few hours Krishna called in "sick"�.

With an able pre-sales guy not attending office due to "sudden illness"� had its toll on the overall aggressiveness of the business of company Y. Even though company Y sent out another sales guy to handle the job, he did not share the same rapport and comfort as Krishna did with his customers. In less than a week, company X was able to close a crucial deal from an energy based company that was worth over INR .85,00,000/- because of less competition.

As for Krishna, he traveled with great caution for the next one month in local trains.

Conclusion

The belief in supernatural, occult or the unknown can be carefully exploited to our advantage in our daily life. It is very important to take precautions as, an unplanned exceution of such an exploit can lead to a serious psychological damage to the victim. In the next part, we will see some more examples. All comments are welcome.

Footnotes

1. Kundalis - Astrological Charts used for predictions. WIdely used in India for match making before marriage.
   
2. Vaastu Shastra - Similar to Feng Shui, Vaastu Shastra deals with various aspects of designing and building living environments that are in harmony with the physical and metaphysical forces.
   
3. Poojaa - A Hindu form of a prayer
   
4. Homam - Homa (also known as homam or havan) is a Sanskrit word which refers to any ritual in which making offerings into a consecrated fire is the primary action. The words homa/homam/havan are interchangeable with the word Yagna. Homas are an important religious practise in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
   
5. Practice - In this case, it refers to a set of superstitious instructions under guidance.
   
6. Sadhu - Sadhu is a common term for an ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (enjoyment), artha (practical objectives) and even dharma (duty).
   
7. Hanuman chalisaa - A special prayer to the all powerful Hindu monkey god - Lord Hanuman.
   

Bibliography

Games People Play: the Psychology of Human Relations; 1964 (1978 reprint, Grove Press, ISBN 0-345-17046- 6); (1996 Paperback, ISBN 0-345-41003- 3)