When psychologists describe today’s hacker subculture, they often call us “possessed programmers” — people who see the real world as some kind of “operating system for the universe’s supercomputer.” It’s a flattering take, but it needs a bit of a tweak. We actually believe the reverse: each program is its own “world,” alive and running by its own rules and logic. As hackers drift through these “worlds,” they get the knack for slipping into complex structures and even protected systems. They explore, admire the elegance, and sometimes use what they find for their own purposes.
Psychologists’ take on hackers as “possessed” was seen by some as a kind of challenge, and their findings may well respond to today’s needs. I’ll try to share the journey of a group of hackers who decided to “break into” one of the most complex “programs” of the human brain — the world of dreams.
A project that began about eight years ago has led to some fascinating results, some of which I’ll share with you in these letters. This information is only being shared for one reason: due to a ridiculous blunder by a colleague from Novosibirsk, our “dream hacking” materials ended up in the hands of the Russian FSB and are now being scrutinized by experts in two classified institutes. We don’t know how the agencies might use our tricks or where they’ll take the research next. So, in hopes of leveling the playing field and giving others a shot at breaking free from Big Brother, our group is “leaking” the core of our findings to the public.
This material won’t contain any code, algorithms, or flashy hacker lingo. The situation is serious, and I think it’s inappropriate to bog down strangers with our “kitchen” talk or inside jokes. Plus, you won’t need any in-depth computer knowledge — or even basic familiarity with computers — to understand this info. This material is tailored for regular people drawn to mysteries and discoveries. Our “know-how” lies in one simple thing: we applied a hacker’s method of “breaking into” protected programs to the world of dreams, along with a few concepts for creating artificial space.
You already know that dreams are a “protected program.” We all spend a third of our lives asleep. Dreams have been studied for five thousand years. And what have we got out of it? Practically nothing.
Imagine the massive amount of knowledge humanity has built about the everyday world over fifty centuries, and then compare that to what we know about dreams over the same stretch of time. There’s a strange imbalance there, isn’t it?
Dreams are a “protected program.” We learned this the hard way. In the dream world, there are forces that aren’t exactly friendly to humans. Depending on your beliefs or worldview, you might see them differently, but to us, they’re like a faceless template of all the controlling and oppressive structures we run into in the real world.
This is why the material is divided into three parts, each with its own level of risk. In the first, introductory phase, there’s no danger to you. Here, I’ll introduce you to our theory of sleep and dreams, give you a foundation to flip your world around, and walk you through a simple but effective way to start having lucid dreams.
If you follow our lead and start working on these altered states of consciousness, you’ll eventually find yourself up against “the negative forces of fate.” At the first level of risk, you’re gambling with your own health and the well-being of those close to you. Some might see this “karmic racket” as a “test of maturity” or as “obstacles that strengthen the spirit.” For us, though, this backlash from universal forces came as a complete shock. We paid dearly.
In the second part, beyond laying out further steps in exploring the dream world, you’ll get a detailed report on the attention traps we found. We’ll also get into the uses of lucid dreams and the integrity of our consciousness. I’ll share my experiences, encounters with personified friendly and hostile forces, and the merging of the dream world with everyday reality, which is happening right now in the lives of many dream hackers.
The third part will cover our group’s latest achievements. Our experience and growing skill at sidestepping direct clashes let us connect with forces that, though neutral and universal in both worlds, don’t allow even a single slip-up in handling. These are the ultimate forces — death and knowledge. Beyond them are realms we don’t understand — at least, not yet.
Real knowledge is absolute. A few fragments, embedded in the mind of one of our hackers, revealed several ancestral paths we never knew existed. Sharing those paths will close the circle of my intention, linking the present to the past.
It’s worth mentioning that two-thirds of the “Dream Hackers” group are dedicated followers of Carlos Castaneda, so I’ll be using his terms. I promise not to rehash Castaneda’s books. This approach is driven by two reasons: first, there’s no saying it better than he did; second, I’m well aware of the disgust Castaneda fans feel toward fake “naguals” riffing on his ideas.
So, here’s an exciting, effective method of self-discovery that no one has explained, broken down for you, or worn out with “expert” opinions. What you have here is a guide to action, sort of like a travel guide. You can think of it as a portal to a multidimensional world, waiting for your insights and discoveries. On this path, each traveler is the first. And the development of this method and its philosophical backbone? That depends on you.