Opening to Open Source
Saturday, April 21st, 2007 by Maryam WebsterAs I’ve been writing Everyday Bliss this past month, creating new practices, tightening up old ones and spinning off ideas on possibilities far beyond the methods I’m writing about, I’ve been blessed with insights. One of those is surrounding the whole idea of healing:
(a) being a human right
and
(b) the necessity of having at least one superior healing technique be Open Source technology
Here’s a bit of background on why I’m thinking about Open Source at this time:
In the late 1990’s an attempt was made to trademark and restrict the Reiki healing method only to those who trained under the individual applying for the trademark. Cumbersome contracts would have heavily restricted practice, teaching and writing about Reiki. This structure was ostensibly to provide standardization, but was also openly acknowledged as a generator of massive revenue for exclusive benefit of the individual forwarding the trademark application.
The greater Reiki community did not train with this individual or her highly exclusive organization, and were outraged. Many of this individual’s own students even refused to sign such a restrictive covenant.
Around the world, Reiki teachers and practitioners rose up against this attempt, wrote thousands of letters to the U.S. Trademark Office, quashed the application, and there was no more talk of trademarking or restriction of use after that.
Sadly, quite early on in this process, tremendous fear and grief gripped the Reiki community. People stopped teaching and writing about Reiki in fear that they would be prosecuted for trademark infringement. Many stopped their practice entirely and never resumed it - even though Reiki had given them great comfort and healing.
A culture of fear and anger was created that caused many to abandon what was otherwise an essentially fine healing method. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first nor will it probably be last time such a thing would happen in different communities and with different healing methods.
This situation is regrettably not unique. It has much in common with efforts all over the world to restrict and curtail people’s efforts to heal themselves and others using methods that may not be establishment-approved, and to made a fair and decent living at it, if this is their wish.
In additional to individuals, governments and their restrictions on complementary medicine present difficulties to those wishing to heal themselves and others quickly, inexpensively and for want of other resources.
I am all for someone making a profit on their hard won ideas, intellectual property, personal gnosis or scientific study. And I support my colleagues in protecting their business interests. This is ever more important to those of us whose stock in trade are ideas, inquiry, synthesis, catalysis and holding training and healing space in a special way unique to each of us.
Those who are currently trademarking and licensing their healing methods are doing a form of public service in creating journeyman and professional classes in energy healing. This can be of great help to the public when dealing with methods that can often only amorphously be described and experienced in the beginning phases.
But while professional level training may be useful in some sectors, it will only serve a small fraction of the public who need such methods. Most people balk at learning any method whose practice is made difficult or becomes politicized in any way. Even though these methods might otherwise help people, those that are curtailed in any way have some key drawbacks:
a) they are restricted in practice or scope
b) they may cost a lot to learn, practice and/or teach
c) they may restrict a practitioner sharing healing with those in deepest need
I am concerned, as current energy healing methods gain more structure, financial constraints and complexity, they can lose the grass roots of what really works, and be taken out of the hands of those who stand the most to benefit. My personal concern is for women and children worldwide who have no health insurance and no other primary provider in the family. This is where we truly need such a freely available Open Source healing method.
What I would like to see is an energy healing technique that is made completely Open Source, under community development, and available to people to do what they like - to heal themselves and their families, to become better people, have the lives they’ve dreamed of and even to teach and make income from. A method that is easy to practice and whose centerpiece is essential, unadorned functionality.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
If you’re not a computer geek, you may not be familiar with the term Open Source.
For defining and pursuing Open Source, we have the free computer software community to thank. From opensource.org comes the following definition, pertinent to software, but easily transferrable to any product:
"Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in…"
The parameters for open distribution, modification and no reliance on any one predescessing method or architecture would also be applicable to an open source healing method.
Interesting idea, isn’t it? Volunteers, anyone??
Read more about one method of Open Source technology here: http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd
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