Previously, I suggested that shamanism is the kind of “open source religion” that some people have looked for in things like “Open Source Judaism.” This bears further elaboration. When John Robb made his argument on “open source warfare,” he compared the activities of “global guerrillas” to Eric Raymond’s six defining criteria of open source from The Cathedral and the Bazaar. So, as a little exercise, let’s see if we can do the same for shamanism.

1. Release early and often. Shamans often share their dreams and visions freely with other shamans, often as soon as possible. This can be compared to a software release at least as strongly as John Robb can call a new type of terrorist attack a release. In that sense, shamanism “releases early and often.”

2. Linus’ Law: “Given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow.” Shamans tend not to contradict each other–ever. More often, it seems the goal is to reconcile disparate, even contradictory visions, than to discount them. However, elements that are seen by many shamans multiple times become emphasized; abberant elements that are only seen by few shamans, or only seen rarely, tend to become marginalized. In that sense, then, the “bugs”–parts of the vision that are particular to an individual but hold little power for the whole group–tend to be weeded out by the process of so many shamans collaborating. That seems to be a pretty good application of Linus’ Law.

3. Your co-developers (beta-testers) are your most valuable resource. Shamans rely on one another a great deal, and often consult one another on spiritual matters. The “shaman boat” practice that Harner describes in The Way of the Shaman certainly underscores that notion. In the spirit world, a shaman’s most valuable resource is often the aid of other shamans.

4. Recognize good ideas from your co-developers. The process of reconciling disparate visions is a central one to most forms of shamanism, allowing the visions of other shamans to inform their own.

5. Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away. The virtue of simplicity would be harder to personify than shamanism. It’s a religion whose practice can be pared down to nothing but a drum.

6. Tools are often used in unexpected ways. As are shamanic visions. All of our current religions, for example, are very unexpected uses of shamanism.

Of course, not all shamanic traditions are so open. David Lewis-Williams makes a strong case in The Mind in the Cave that Native American shamanism, for example, with its emphasis on solitary “vision quests” and the secretive “shaman’s cache,” was anything but open. The secrecy of the Native American shaman engendered a mystic aura around his “hidden knowledge,” and that was a source of power for the Native American shaman.

But that isn’t inherent to the nature of shamanism, as the shamanism of the San shows. Their shamanic rituals are public, open, and engage the entire community. So, shamanism has the potential to be a great “open source religion,” or it can be a secret cache of “hidden knowledge” used to control and dominate others.

It’s up to us to choose which kind of shamanism we prefer.