Being open-source is an essential priority at the structural core of Evolution Spirituality. It is the fact that it is open-source that makes it a meta religion and meta personal spirituality.  The open-source religion and open-source spirituality principles build the essential co-creative, adaptive, and self-organizing space where people can collaborate and cooperate effectively in their search for truth while discovering, creating, and personalizing that truth. For this to happen it is necessary to have a safe environment with healthy yet flexible and discerning operational values and principled boundaries.

This safe and collaborative environment creates the basic social agreements, shared community values, and minimal procedural harmony essential to effective learning, and --- it also gracefully manages any naturally arising spiritual and other conflicts in most spiritual ideas and beliefs in an optimized way. To help us achieve that optimal safe and collaborative environment for learning, cooperation, and discovery within Religion 2.0 (and for the creation of a new trans-denominational meta-religion for all of humanity,) we have developed an indispensable set of the following spiritual collaboration, validity principles and structural boundary guidelines called the Open Source Religion and Open Source Spirituality Manifesto principles. 

Open-source religion also is a participatory process designed to also help us continually and optimally evolve the principles, policies, community, and organization's evolvability in a collaborative process. These open-source religion and open-source spirituality principles deal with many things such as how to answer the very difficult questions about what should or should not be treated as fact or useful wisdom from other religious heritages. It is through the use of the essential minimal filtering structural boundaries of the open-source religion principles that Evolution Spirituality can also filter out parts of Religion 1.0 and Religion that would be harmful to the Evolution Spirituality and its member's ability to coordinate.

To help us achieve that optimal safe and facilitating environment for learning, collaboration, and cooperation for individual and community development, we have developed the Open Source Religion and Open Source Spirituality Manifesto. In many ways, this manifesto also helps to deal with the objective "it," subjective "I" and intersubjective "we" naturally arising reality conflicts and misunderstandings found in postmodernism. After reading the manifesto overview below, we recommend coming back to explore more about the objective "it," subjective "I" and intersubjective "we" realities of postmodernism.)

Evolution Spirituality also being open-source allows us to work effectively in collaboration toward the goal of creating a trans-denominational meta-religion and Collaborative Commons for all of humanity

The Quick Overview and Definition of Open Source Religion and Open Source Spirituality of Evolution Spirituality:

Open Source Religion and Open Source Spirituality is an evolutionary new tool for empowering today's individuals and spiritual organizations—especially the Millennial generation. Open Source Religion and Spirituality are also critical and vitally enabling elements essential to the flourishing of the Personal Spirituality movement. 

Open Source Religion and Spirituality as a spiritual movement includes (yet transcends) the global interfaith movement as well as many other types of spiritual movements. It is essential in helping to collectively provide and, when necessary, co-evolve a core spiritual "kernel" (the core operational spiritual principles, processes, information, and safeguards), for an open-source, collaborative, and cooperative new planetary meta-religion and meta-spirituality. (A meta religion and meta-spirituality includes and transcends the best of humanity's vast spiritual wisdom heritage and religions without including their worst.)

In software computing terms, the kernel is the main component of most software computer operating systems--think Windows, Linux, Mac OS X; it is a management and communications bridge between various general software applications and the actual data processing done at the computer hardware level. (From the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.)

A few of the 22 principles of open-source religion and spirituality (which will be explained in more detail later on) are open access, open process and participation, transparency, non-exclusive ownership, shareability, and forkability (forkability is the ability to use the essential spiritual information and principles (the kernel of source code in software terms) to create any new "source code" application by having the ability to "fork" the original source code and create a new derivation or iteration of it).

Our organization, Universe Spirit, with its promotion of Evolution Spirituality follows the principles of the open-source movement as applied and appropriately adapted to a new science-grounded personal spirituality that can be practiced in groups. Open Source Religion and Spirituality is a significant part of and tool in our Evolution Spirituality/Religion 2.0 movement and is a major contributing factor to the new and integral global meta-spirituality that is evolving within the Universe Spirit organization.

A open source religion and spirituality is one in which:

1.) Humanity's most life-affirming and non-pathological or conflict-producing spiritual knowledge and current scientific knowledge is made freely available (on the Universe Spirit website, for example) for any individual or organization to openly access, share, use, and "fork" in order to enhance, modify or empower themselves or their organization on their spiritual path, by adapting the open-source structural and organizational spiritual kernel to their needs. (The core kernel as found on the Universe Spirit website is the result of decades of spiritual, theological, historical, and organizational research on what works for healthy personal and organizational spiritual development as well as what does not work in today's globalized world of competing organized religions and urgent global challenges to humanity's survival.) (Humanity's spiritual and scientific core "kernel" of source code #1, by the way, is the requisite minimal organization and essential necessary core structure needed to have an effective and safe process of creating your own spirituality or creating a new spiritual community. It contains, among other things, the open-source religion and spirituality operational principles, basic spiritual processes, ethical codes, and principles, and spiritual safeguards. For a full definition of the religion 2.0 Kernel, click here.)

 2.) Once a person or organization understands the core "kernel" of structural and organizational working principles of open-source religion and spirituality, through an open and participatory process they too can begin co-creating and contributing their spiritual and/or science-related knowledge to expanding and/or refining the existing global spiritual commons of Religion 2.0 knowledge and practices. Or, they can "fork" off the collective spiritual source code that they have accessed from the global spiritual commons such as is found within Religion 2.0 and exert additional, but not total control over their new variation of it because they have to make their new religious and spiritual "source code" open source as well. (Ultimate source code control is not possible because of the inherent shareability factor of the basic open-source principles.) 

If you think about the existing Religion 2.0 body of meta-religion and meta-spirituality materials like the core operating system "Kernel" in traditional open-source software, you would have a good image of what you are finding on this website. If you have not read the full definition of our open source spirituality kernel, click here to do so now.

 3.) At its most fundamental level, open-source religion and spirituality is trans-denominational. It is the new form of integral meta-religion and meta-spirituality that is naturally and inexorably emerging out of the process of evolution itself to expand the wealth of human knowledge and spiritual wisdom to an open and shared global spiritual commons to more effectively and quickly deal with all of the challenges that we collectively face in the 21st century.

 

The concept of open-source, when applied to a new trans-denominational meta-spirituality that is found on this website and with our new form of Evolution Spirituality, can be understood as running parallel to the concept of open-source software functioning: it is a mega-tool and super process for sharing vital information from humanity's life-affirming spiritual heritage and sciences for social and life betterment.

For its primary kernel and source code, open-source spirituality uses all the available sources from humanity’s great life-affirming heritage of spiritual wisdom. This also includes current science-related information as well as humanity's knowledge base of what can be or become destructive in personal or organized spirituality or religion. (If you do not know what a "kernel" is in software programming, click this kernel link and read more about what it is and how it holds the core principles of the new open-source religion found on this website.)

Because of its evolutionary “including and transcending” qualities, open-source religion and spirituality appear to be evolving the next natural step of Religion 2.0 well beyond what is found in today's denominational sectarianism or even the progressive interfaith movement. It brings into being a new spiritual era for new forms of open-source, evolutionary, trans-denominational, and omni-denominational meta-spirituality and meta-religion. 

Like the programmers who collect any code or formulas that they might need to perform open-source software code processes, open-source religion and spirituality collaborators and co-creators collect and organize the essential information, principles, and processes from humanity’s vast spiritual and scientific-related wisdom with the intention of sharing these things as effectively as possible within a new form of an open-source, global spiritual commons. This open-source global spiritual commons created by using the peer-to-peer open source spirituality principles becomes an empowering meta-resource for individuals seeking to create their own personalized spiritual paths, new spiritual groups, religions, or personal life paths. 

This is partially because, in this new open-source spiritual commons, a great cross-pollination of spiritual and scientific ideas and processes can take place, and completely new wisdom, principles, and processes can emerge from the ongoing dialectical synthesis process derived from the cycle of including and transcending. The accumulating new knowledge and perspectives expanding within the global commons can greatly aid any individual in their personal spiritual growth as well as expand their direct spiritual experience of the Ultimate Reality and improve their balanced practice of the virtues toward achieving spiritual completeness.

When individuals use the open-source global spiritual commons to modify, improve or create their own personal spiritual, religious or personal life path, they are now creating what we call secondary source code, which, if they also add it back into the open-source spiritual commons (as found on this website) also expands and enhances the existing primary kernel and source code (humanity's spiritual and science-related wisdom that our Evolution Spirituality forwards.)

Just as programmers need to know the minimum technical principles for creating effective software code to make effective software products, individuals in any co-creative open-source religion and spirituality peer-to-peer collaboration will need to know the minimum spiritual and administrative principles and processes to work effectively to help grow or co-create effective new spiritual knowledge processes, principles, visions, perspectives and contributions that can be used by anyone to forward their personal spirituality or to grow in their secular life as well.

This assembled open-source heritage of spiritual wisdom and related science knowledge is held open, easily accessible, transparent, and free in various online materials, courses, books, etc. for the spiritual and practical-wisdom cross-pollination benefits for all individuals and all organizations to use and further expand, edit and improve. All originators of this collection of humanity's spiritual and science wisdom (our current primary kernel and the source code materials,) can share (cross-pollinate) their spiritual wisdom application additions or improvements in this open-source collaboration and even be recognized for their contributions, thereby helping to expand this new global spiritual wisdom commons in this open-source spirituality peer-to-peer process.

Inside the open-source global spiritual and religious commons is a new global culture of support where individuals can, as they so decide, evolve or modify their current beliefs or practices to expand and improve their own life goals and personalize their spirituality. This is greatly facilitated because of wisdom cross-pollination and any graceful personal questioning interactions with humanity's vast spiritual and scientific heritage held in the global spiritual commons, which is emerging because of the open-source spirituality process.

Heard enough? 

Please click the image below and join us!

 

If you are you potentially interested in becoming a peer co-creator of our open-source Evolution Spirituality or in contributing your unique wisdom to the global spiritual commons, then read all of the additional open-source spirituality principles presented below and later and elsewhere in this manifesto. For now, here are a few very basic starter principles of the open-source religion and spirituality movement:

(Reminder: Please feel free to take any of the ideas on spirituality or science that you find on this website to create or expand your evolving personal spirituality or local spiritual community. The new Evolution Spirituality (Religion 2.0) that you find on this website is an open, personalized, and self-created process. You can always self-select, sequence, and use the processes, wisdom, and tools that you find in the optimal way that will work best for your current conditions, stage of spiritual development, and understanding.)

The Short List of Principles of Open Source Spirituality:

No Requirement of Allegiance: The global spiritual commons is greatly aided by the fact that there is no requirement of allegiance to some particular organizational, religious or cultural “ism,” authoritative book or scripture or some particular religious or secular authority to use it, add to it, edit or improve it. (More later.)

On Organizational Spiritual Authority and Revelation: In the global spiritual commons and in the open-source religion and spirituality movement, it is necessary that there are no highest Popes, Bishops, Avatars, Gurus, Rabbis, Imams, etc. or any religious hierarchy of final spiritual authority or religious orthodoxy outside the spiritual authority of the individual and, where applicable, the "community of the qualified." No one spiritual source, teacher, founder, leader, or organization has the universal or final spiritual authority on what is authentic or appropriate spiritual wisdom, spiritual truth, or spiritual law for anyone other than themselves. (More later.)

Questioning of Faith Beliefs and Practices: We have come to a new point in humanity’s spiritual history where if individuals or religious organizations assert to another that their own faith, beliefs, or practices should be believed or followed as fact and/or that specific behavior is dictated or ordered by those beliefs or practices, then that organization should be open to a gracious public questioning and dialog on their factuality and/or usefulness in directing specific behaviors. (More later.)

Miracles: In open source religion and spirituality, miracles that defy the natural laws are treated as a personal issue of subjective faith. Miracles may not be used as proof of spiritual authority or spiritual truth for anyone other than the individual experiencing the miracle, even if the miracle has been subjected to rigorous scientific investigation. (More later.)

The Pathologies and Abuses of Religion: An open-source spirituality that will help expand the global spiritual commons will need to confront and deal with the issues of the pathologies and abuses of religion within its knowledge base in a forthright and honest way. (More later.)

The Polarization and Usefulness of Information: Polarization in the global spiritual commons and the open-source religion and spirituality movement is avoided by the recognition that humanity’s vast heritage of spiritual wisdom is partial, evolving, and has its own appropriate time, way, place, and target audience for specific applications. In this movement, our combined heritage of spiritual wisdom is appreciated in the context of:

a. the age and scope of spiritual or social problems this wisdom was intended to solve
b. the culture it came from and for what types of personalities, learning styles, and psychological developmental levels it was intended to reach and serve
c. its effectiveness in a specific situation
d. whether or not it causes any consequent harm or conflicts
e. whether or not it creates non-inclusive, unfair benefits for one individual/group over another group/individual
f. how congruent is it with the body of other spiritual wisdom found on our "shrinking" planet and within the global spiritual commons. (More later.)

The Non-Equality of All Spiritual Wisdom: Not all spiritual wisdom is equal. The inclusive collection of all of humanity's spiritual wisdom as part of any synthesis process will naturally involve both general categorization and then some pruning of this wisdom from our combined spiritual heritage. Some spiritual wisdom will be more widely applicable, inclusive, universal, life-affirming, and even empirical. Some spiritual wisdom will be more useful than others in that it is more effective or efficient in producing the fruits of authentic spiritual growth in more people with various personality types, psychological developmental levels, learning styles, cultural backgrounds, etc. in a safe and balanced way. (More Later.)

Personalities in the Movement: The open-source spirituality movement gladly accepts co-creational assistance and contributions from anyone, but it gives no inappropriate or special attention, honor, position, or consideration to any person or organization involved because they are personalities or organizations of wealth, fame, power, specialized influence, celebrity or pre-existing or current ecclesiastical authority or saint in a religious or spiritual organization. The open-source spirituality movement also gives no inappropriate or special attention, rights, powers, honor, position, consideration, or sacredness to any person who may have been a founder, co-founder,  hero, or "saint" of the open-source religion and open-source spirituality movement itself as well.(More later.)

Diversity: All individuals, organizations, and teachers of spiritual wisdom or science-related knowledge are encouraged to contribute their wisdom to the open-source religion and spirituality collaboration. (More later.)

On the Process Itself: As in open source software, where software development is an unending process of continual upgrades, open-source spirituality processes for expanding the global spiritual commons is also more of an ongoing, evolving, collaborative process than any final result. It too will be constantly upgraded. (More later.)

Copyright Ownership, Commercial Uses, Individual Recognition, Patents and Trademarks applied to Spiritual Wisdom and the Global Spiritual Commons:

Patents and Trademarks, when applied to the collection or specific pieces of this collected spiritual wisdom are misplaced. This is because these materials are intended to be as open-source as possible, and ultimately, only the original author and original creator could lay valid claim to the ultimate original creative source rights. This does not mean that original descriptions of this wisdom cannot be the open CreativeCommons.com type, copyrighted either for personal recognition or as part of a right commercial livelihood.  It also does not mean that some type of flexible suggested donation or fair exchange be requested for their use by their creators for any of the materials, courses, or books used in the global spiritual commons. In a global spiritual commons in which all can participate freely and feel the common heritage ownership and/or open-source co-creation, trying to patent or trademark the spiritual and science-related spiritual wisdom in order to inflexibly lock it down is contrary to the most fundamental principles of open source spirituality. (More later.)

The "Forkability" of the Evolution Spirituality Knowledge Base: Any individual or organization that understands the context, process, and relationships of Evolution Spirituality as a transformational and whole complex system may "fork" the knowledge base in new directions and use that direction as they see fit, provided that they contribute that unique knowledge back to the core Evolution Spirituality Knowledge Base for its ongoing use as well. This forkability principle also allows any member or congregation to fork off should those leaders of their congregation lose sight of the essence of the organization’s mission or should they behave in unethical ways that were resistant to learning and change.

The Improved Integration of Science and Spirituality: Open source spirituality holds that the myths, beliefs, and metaphors of today’s religions need to be actively updated toward congruence with the facts of science and the emergence of the new Universe Evolutionary Worldview. Open-source spirituality forwards discovering and sharing the original Source of the universe.

That Source is like a seed to the universe and the universe can be thought of as its fruit. Since there is always relational congruence between the seed and its fruit, it stands to reason that the current scientific facts of the physical universe, when seen from a whole-universe-system perspective, must reflect the nature of the Seed of the universe and therefore the myths, beliefs, and metaphors of today's religions need to be actively updated, reinterpreted and understood toward congruence with the facts of current science. 

Heard enough? 

Please click the image below and join us!

The Current Master List of Open Source Spirituality Principles: (Explanations further below.) 

• Introduction
• On Its Prime Focus
• On Diversity
• On Personal Spiritual Choice and Authority
• On Organizational Spiritual Authority and Revelation
• On Miracles
• On the Questioning of Faith Beliefs and Practices
• On Personalities in the Movement
• On the Non-Equality of All Spiritual Wisdom
• On the Process Itself
• On Polarization
• On Organization and Distribution
• On Other Open Source Integral Spirituality and Global Collaborative Commons Process Objectives
• On Ownership, Patents and Trademarks applied to Spiritual Wisdom and the Global Collaborative Commons
• On No Requirement of Blind Allegiance
• On Expanding our Common Core of Moral Values
• On the Pathologies and Abuses of Religion
• Other Probable Administrative Principles of an Open Source Spirituality and an Expanding Global Collaborative Commons
• On Free and Open Access
• On Open Source "Forking" as a Natural Method to Manage Religion 2.0 and Evolution Spirituality Independent Organizations and individuals who fail to follow the Recommended Religion 2.0 Evolution Spirituality Member Conduct Codes, Teacher Ethical Guidelines, or Spiritual Safeguards. (Number 20 at Bottom of page.)
• On the Improved Integration of Science and Spirituality. (Number 21 at Bottom of page.)
• On the New Open Source Definition for What Faith Means: (Number 22 at bottom of the page.)
• On the New Open Source Definition for What Healthy Boundary Awareness in Spiritual Development Means: (Number 23 at bottom of the page.)
• On the Policy that Open Source Spirituality holds that No Existing Religion has Absolute Authority in its Message and No Religion has the only Way to Salvation: (Number 24 at bottom of the page.)
• On the Reality that All Religions are Trying to Describe the Great Mystery. (Number 25 at bottom of the page.)
• On Science being an Ideal place to Start Searching for the Great Mystery of Ultimate Reality. (Number 26 at the bottom of the page.)
• On the Self-organizing Nature of Open-Source Spirituality. (Number 27 at the bottom of the page.)

Introduction to the Open Source Principles of Religion 2.0
The emerging Collaborative Commons for humanity's spiritual culture is now expanding at a faster rate than ever before in history. This Collaborative Commons is supported by the evolutionary processes of open source Religion 2.0 and open source spirituality, as described in this document.

"The use of open-source spirituality principles is critical and essential to the ongoing existence and expansion of Evolution Spirituality. These core, indispensable new structural principles allow Evolution Spirituality to function effectively, productively, and peacefully with individuals and groups from vastly different spiritual backgrounds. In addition to helping to create the Collaborative Commons for humanity's spirituality, the open-source principles of Evolution Spirituality are one of the key factors that distinguish Evolution Spirituality from the traditional religions of Religion 1.0." Lawrence Wollersheim

Open-source spirituality is also intended to help facilitate and expand the Collaborative Commons of humanity's spiritual culture where all individuals can be part of a common culture of shared spiritual experience and spiritual wisdom held in balance with and grounded in what we know through science. It is also a place where people can feel a tangible interconnectedness to each other through recognition of their common Origin, the commonalities found in their highest intentions as well as their common inter-religious and humanistic/moral values such as justice, love, mercy, humility, kindness, and compassion.

The Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality is a place for the collection, consolidation, and distribution of all of humanity's spiritual and science-related wisdom that is life-affirming, universal, inclusive, and hopefully also often even empirical (as it relates primarily to the common spiritual experiences of the members of the world's spiritual communities and religions.) It is also a place for the collection, discovery, and sharing of the most universal common denominators of authentic spirituality, new evolutionary disclosures about Ultimate Reality from any and all sources, and yet, --- is still appreciative and respectful of our many denominational diversities. The Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality is created by a self-organizing, dynamic process that has a self-propagating life of its own.

Below are the minimal essential, but flexible values and principles of the open-source spirituality Collaborative Commons collaboration process that will facilitate expanding the healthy space and processes of the Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality. Once an individual or organization understands these basic principles they can effectively contribute to and expand the Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality.

This list will be amended or upgraded as needed, as would be expected of any evolving and yet incomplete new movement.

1.) On Its Prime Focus

The most important focus of open-source spirituality is the increasing knowledge of the common core and essence of all religion as well as the Ultimate Reality of science, religion, and humanism. This focus is to help support individuals and societies that are transforming themselves in congruence with that knowledge in order to live in more life-affirming ways.

Other key open-source spirituality goals are to support one’s continually expanding and deepening direct personal or non-personal experiences with Ultimate Reality, improving one’s balanced practice of the virtues, and aiding in the individual's achievement of spiritual completeness. (Personal spirituality is generally the innermost and most critical essence of all religion, as opposed to religion’s outermost characteristics, such as its social beliefs, doctrines, rituals and organizational structures, authorities, and hierarchies.)

2.) On Diversity

This is an open-source movement! It encourages many individuals, organizations, and teachers of spiritual wisdom to contribute their wisdom to the open-source spirituality Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality.

This diversity is essential to the unending search for additional and broader spiritual truth and is vital for making spiritual wisdom accessible to the great variety of personalities, learning styles, psychological developmental levels, and cultures. Though different in abilities, all are equal in spiritual dignity and can act as co-creators of the global Collaborative Commons.

3.) On Personal Spiritual Choice and Authority
Every mentally sound person already possesses the internal means to be their own highest spiritual authority for discerning spiritual truth for their own spiritual path. This implies that each individual is their own highest spiritual authority and should be allowed full freedom from coercive or deceptive influence in making their own spiritual choices.

4.) On Organizational or Spiritual Authority and Revelation
In both Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality of religion 2.0 and in the open-source spirituality movement, it is necessary that there are no highest Popes, Bishops, Avatars, Gurus, Rabbis, Imams, etc. or any religious hierarchy of final spiritual authority or religious orthodoxy outside the spiritual authority of the individual. No one spiritual source, teacher, founder, leader or organization has the universal or final spiritual authority on what is authentic or appropriate spiritual wisdom, spiritual truth, spiritual process or spiritual law for anyone other than themselves.

From the date of creation of this original Open Source Spirituality manifesto in 2004 onward, the above paragraph naturally infers that there is also no longer a recognition of special, exclusive, ongoing, or final spiritual revelation being presented from or by Ultimate Reality uniquely or solely to one individual or to one organization that is applicable to or for anyone beyond the specific individual or organization that received it. While Open Source Spirituality does accept the possibility of unique personal revelation/guidance in terms of the communication quality possible in the relationship of the individual to Ultimate Reality, Open Source Spirituality does not hold that this unique personal revelation/guidance can or should be held out as authentic or final religious or spiritual truth, law or authority for anyone or any organization except possibly for the individual who received it, and then only if they themselves judge and accept it to be religious or spiritual truth, law or authority for themselves.

Religious revelation intended or decreed as final, authoritative, or religious law for anyone or any group other than for the unique, single individual who received it is an area of religion and spirituality historically fraught with abuse and misuse and the source of much of the current religious strife in the world today. Furthermore, by its very claim to be either an authentic or final religious/spiritual revelation for a group or mankind there is not only any real objective way to disprove it, but there is also no real objective way to prove it, either.

Revelation, because it is subjective and not objective (and can therefore not be proven or unproven), has most often been something that not only divides people but often historically has served as the rationale for violence against disbelievers of some particular subjectively-received-or-decreed revelation.

Revelation that confers special or exclusive privileges, rights, roles, responsibilities, religious laws, authorities, or properties on or over a select few or special group is even further suspect in that the message of the revelation is not inclusive, universal, or just, and therefore not congruent with those prime and potential qualities of an Ultimate Reality.

If you do believe that Ultimate Reality will in fact continue to disclose more of its infinite self and aspects to humanity in revelation as time goes on, then perhaps you believe that it has always, when the time was right, intended to eventually disclose more of itself through a new multi-religious, open-source, co-creative process where the combination of insights and wisdom from all religions and individuals will offer a bigger and broader, clearer and more accurate picture of Ultimate Reality than the revelational perspective of any one religion. Maybe we’ve arrived at this time in history to discover that we have finally now both become and really are --- all vital spiritual and moral partners who are equal-opportunity, (open source) co-revealers of the endless and expanding truths about Ultimate Reality.

Maybe, for our post-postmodern times, the revealing of the endless and expanding truths about Ultimate Reality is now better executed by a continuous and collaborative group effort in Collaborative Commons rather than by only a progressive or exclusive single revelatory effort by any one religion. Maybe continuous group efforts to accelerate the revealing of the expanding new truths about Ultimate Reality is the appropriate evolutionary stepladder now needed for these times for our new revelations where later revelations are no longer viewed as either final or even necessarily superior to earlier revelations, but instead, new revelations are viewed as a just another beautiful pearl to be added to a string of pearls that can grow into endless strands.

Maybe, from the very beginning of our spiritual history (although we did not know it then,) the endless expanding truth about Ultimate Reality has always been far, far too great for anyone religion to hold. And just maybe, while the absolute truth of Ultimate Reality may always be one, we still may need the many different religious paths to start us out, but then it will be the combined best wisdom from all the religions that will keep us on our way most effectively and efficiently to the greatest spiritual heights possible.

In dealing with all previous spiritual claims by individuals or religious organizations that they have received a special, exclusive, ongoing, authoritative, or final spiritual revelation that does or does not bind or confer special or exclusive privileges, rights, roles, responsibilities, laws, authority or property on or over a select few or special group (other than over only the unique individual receiver of that revelation,) the open-source movement of Evolution Spirituality intentionally does not at this time address the validity of such claims and takes no official position toward such claims of past revelation. The Collaborative Commons for all human spirituality will provide additional insights on this, but we leave this for each individual to work out as an issue of personal faith for themselves.

5.) On Miracles
In open source spirituality, miracles that defy the natural laws are treated as a personal issue of subjective faith. Miracles may not be used as proof of spiritual authority or spiritual truth for anyone other than the individual experiencing the miracle even if the miracle has been subjected to rigorous scientific investigation. This is because even in the most rigorous of scientific investigation, although the fact that an event has occurred might be ascertained with a high degree of certainty, why or what caused that event to occur is far harder to discern, especially when a spiritual cause is being assigned or attributed to that event.

Open source spirituality has been birthed in the 21st century where there is a new emphasis on the reintegration of the values and wisdom of spirituality with the facts and rationality of science. Looking at the deepest cause-and-effect patterns of our 13 billion-year evolution and the beauty and order it has created, it easy to see from a spiritual perspective that "miracles" are found everywhere in the most ordinary of events in our everyday lives. Spectacular or simple personal miracles that supposedly supersede the laws of nature are of minor and tangential interest to the Open Source Religion 2.0 movement compared to what best helps individuals connect directly to Ultimate Reality, grow towards spiritual completion and live lives of balanced virtue.

6.) On the Questioning of Faith Beliefs and Practices 
We have come to a new point in humanity’s spiritual history where if individuals or religious organizations assert to another that their own faith beliefs or practices should be believed or followed as fact and/or that specific behavior is dictated or ordered by those faith beliefs or practices, then those faith beliefs or practices should be open to a gracious public questioning and dialog on their factuality and/or usefulness in directing specific behaviors. Religious pathology, abuse, fundamentalism, and religious terrorism are not just matters of history, but fill the pages of our daily media. The only way many of these issues will heal is by open, candid, and gracious dialog concerning the truthfulness or usefulness of faith beliefs or religious practices that may be instrumental to creating these situations.

This does not imply that private individuals who are not asserting to another that their own faith beliefs or practices should be believed or followed as fact and/or that specific behavior is dictated or ordered by those faith beliefs or practices should be questioned on their faith beliefs or practices. In this situation, the individual is fully entitled to believe whatever they privately choose to believe, much as a person is entitled to speak or hold their opinions and cannot be sued for libel or slander if they are just expressing opinions and not presenting their opinions as facts.

Many religions already encourage their members to sincerely examine and reality test the faith beliefs or practices being presented to them. An open-source spirituality just extends and expands the sanction and healthy practice of a sincere and gracious questioning and reality testing of faith beliefs for the benefit of both society and religion itself.

Additionally, if we do not allow for gracious questioning of faith beliefs and faith practices it closes off the possibilities for addressing behaviors that perpetuate historic unfairness. Tolerance and diversity can be used quite well by the clever to perpetuate all types of injustice and cruelty in the name of religion.

If beliefs or practices from other religions have not been examined for their factual truthfulness or usefulness they should be not be taught within the Religion 2.0 and Evolution Spirituality movement and instead any such dogma, belief, or practices should be respectfully treated as possible metaphors or teaching illustrations used by other faiths and not facts or objective reality.

7.) On Personalities in the Movement
The open-source religion and spirituality movement gladly accepts co-creational assistance and contributions from anyone, but it gives no inappropriate or special attention, honor, position, or consideration to any person or organization involved because they are personalities or organizations of wealth, fame, power, specialized influence, celebrity or pre-existing or current ecclesiastical authority or saint in a religious or spiritual organization. The open-source religion and spirituality movement also gives no inappropriate or special attention, rights, powers, honor, position, consideration, or sacredness to any person who may have been a founder, co-founder,  hero, or "saint" of the open-source religion and open-source spirituality movement itself as well. 

8.) On the Non-Equality of All Spiritual Wisdom
Not all spiritual wisdom is equal in applicability or usefulness. The inclusive collection of all of humanity's spiritual wisdom as part of any synthesis process will naturally involve both general categorization and then some pruning of this wisdom from our combined spiritual heritage.

Some spiritual wisdom will be more widely applicable, inclusive, universal, life-affirming, timely, and even more empirical. Some spiritual wisdom will be more useful than others in that it is more effective or efficient in producing the fruits of authentic spiritual growth in more people with various personality types, psychological developmental levels, learning styles, cultural backgrounds, etc. in a safe and balanced way.

The fruits and the time-proven community validity tests of authentic spirituality and spiritual growth from humankind’s spiritual heritage are held in the open-source movement to be in part the life results of the individual or organization that demonstrate the balanced application of the virtues. These time-proven community validity tests are a principled focus for the movement to use for categorizing and evaluating the effectiveness, truthfulness, or the partial usefulness of various pieces of spiritual wisdom.

Sincere spiritual inquiry, the sharing of all spiritual wisdom (without regard to culture or religious “ism,”) and the search for spiritual wisdom that is more universal, inclusive, timely, and life-affirming inspires the open-source spirituality movement toward the discovery of more useful and applicable spiritual wisdom, more universal statements of the nature and purposes of Ultimate Reality and of the evolving nature of life itself.

The continuous process of cooperation and collaboration for collecting and expanding humanity’s spiritual wisdom in the open-source spirituality movement between the many individual or organizational efforts to know Ultimate Reality holds the promise of expanding humanity’s spiritual knowledge base, assembling spiritual wisdom of a complementary nature and expanding the free and open Collaborative Commons for all of humanity's spirituality. This evolutionary process also does much to reveal a greater vision of Ultimate Reality’s wholeness, truth, beauty, goodness, nature, and purposes, which then has the potential of translating directly into better processes for direct spiritual experience of Ultimate Reality for more individuals, for a better world.

9.) On the Process Itself
As in open source software, where software development is an unending process of continually evolving upgrades, open-source spirituality processes for expanding the global Collaborative Commons is also more of an ongoing self-organizing evolving, collaborative process than any final result. It too will be constantly upgraded.

As more wisdom is included and synthesized in the expanding global Collaborative Commons new synchronicities and connections within this accumulating wisdom will point to, hint at or disclose additional new wisdom that sometimes will naturally transcend earlier spiritual or scientific wisdom. Co-creators should expect many pleasant and exciting surprises as new transcending spiritual and science-related wisdom is discovered or naturally emerges, disclosing new perspectives and metaphors of Ultimate Reality.

It will always be a continuous, incomplete, and evolving process of expanding the spiritual wisdom knowledge base of humanity’s spiritual commons. One of the prime reasons for this unending quality of the process is that the collaborative assembling and search for new or more universal, inclusive, and life-affirming spiritual and science-related wisdom concerning Ultimate Reality is itself an unending process. And, Ultimate Reality can never be fully knowable in its entire infinite splendor.

All efforts to fully know or disclose the infiniteness of its nature and purposes will at best be partial maps, myths or metaphors. No matter how much we can know about Ultimate Reality it will always be a partial and incomplete representation of its infinite potentials and its infinite realized aspects.

Individuals and organizations within the open-source integral spirituality movement always stand in openness, awe, and humility to new surprises concerning Ultimate Reality’s continual unveiling of itself to each individual personality and successive generation through any and all means, sources, or circumstances regarding its ultimate and complete truth, beauty and goodness. From the above, it is reasonable to deduce that one religion or one religious perspective alone will not have all the answers and all current religions might be partial or complementary views of the infinite wholeness and unfathomable Mysteries, which will forever surround the infiniteness and absoluteness of Ultimate Reality.

10.) On Polarization
Polarization in the global Collaborative Commons and the open-source spirituality and Evolution Spirituality movement is avoided by the recognition that this is primarily a non-deficient learning universe. This primary perspective of itself reduces polarization. (See New Universe Principles Part 2 for more on this appropriate universe "attitude.")

Humanity’s vast heritage of spiritual wisdom is partial, evolving, and has its own appropriate time, way, place, and target audience to emerge for specific applications. In this movement, our combined heritage of spiritual wisdom is appreciated in the context of:

a.      the age and scope of spiritual or social problems this wisdom was intended to solve

b.      the culture it came from and for what types of personalities, learning styles, and psychological developmental levels it was intended to reach and serve

c.      its effectiveness in a specific context and situation

d.      whether or not it causes any consequent harm or conflicts

e.      whether or not it creates non-inclusive, unfair benefits for one individual/group over another group/individual

f.       how congruent it is with the body of other spiritual wisdom found on our "shrinking," globalizing planet and in the global Collaborative Commons.

Our evolving life-affirming heritage of spiritual wisdom can be thought of as existing in an ever-widening and ever-deepening spiral of wisdom. Because of the perspective on wisdom appreciation (a–f above), open-source spirituality participants can discuss, evaluate, classify, categorize and organize this heritage of spiritual wisdom while valuing any particular piece of spiritual wisdom just for what is. Open-source spirituality participants recognize that a particular piece of spiritual wisdom has an inalienable right to be exactly just what it is and to play only the specific role that it has played in humankind’s spiritual history. With the above information, attitudes, and perspectives of appreciation and understanding, the polarization of competing spiritual wisdom or spiritual wisdom systems within the open-source spirituality and Universe Spirit movements and within the global Collaborative Commons should be naturally minimal and easily defused.

11.) On Organization and Distribution 
Humanity’s vast knowledge base of spiritual wisdom will be collected, organized, and distributed through free multi-channel delivery systems. This will help adapt the expanded human spiritual wisdom knowledge base for delivery to each individual’s unique learning style, personality, current psychological development level, culture, or other “isms.” This will increase the ease, speed, and efficiency with which individuals can assimilate this wisdom to improve their lives.

12.) On Other Open Source Spirituality and Global Collaborative Commons Process Objectives
There are many possible objectives and goals that an open-source spirituality could and will engage with. To see just a few of those possible goals, click here.

13). Copyright Ownership, Commercial Uses, Individual Recognition, Patents, and Trademarks applied to Religion 2.0, Spiritual Wisdom and the Global Collaborative Commons

Patents and Trademarks, when applied to the collection or specific pieces of this collected spiritual wisdom, are misplaced. This is because these materials are intended to be as open-source as possible and because ultimately, only the original author and creator (Ultimate Reality,) could lay a valid claim to the ultimate original creative source rights.

This does not mean that original creative descriptions of this wisdom cannot be open and put into CreativeCommons.com-type copyrighted forms either for personal recognition or as part of a right commercial livelihood. It also does not mean that some type of flexible suggested donation or fair exchange should not be requested for their use by their creators for any of the materials, courses, or books used within the global Collaborative Commons. In a global Collaborative Commons in which all can participate freely and all can feel the common heritage ownership and/or participate in the open-source co-creation, trying to patent or trademark the spiritual and science-related spiritual wisdom to inflexibly lock it down is contrary to the most fundamental principles of open source spirituality.

CreativeCommons.com type use of scalable open copyrights that allow at least open access and then possibly various levels of open source co-creativity are recommended to be used by any author who wishes to maintain some personal recognition or some level of open-access future involvement with their work's evolution. (See CreativeCommons.com for the various types of open copyright licenses or the creative commons license used on this site off the Creative Commons license link at the very bottom of this page.)

14.) On No Requirement of Blind Allegiance
There is no denominational or authoritative religious book or authoritative religious personality/ecclesiastic authority blind allegiance required to participate in open source spirituality and to help expand the global Collaborative Commons. In fact, any of the preceding allegiance requirements would be counter to the nature of an open co-creation of a global Collaborative Commons. The only participant allegiance of open source spirituality co-creators should be to including and evaluating all and helping to delineate the most universal spiritual wisdom. One can of course, on their own and at any time choose other deeper allegiances as appropriate.  

15.) On Expanding our Common Core of Moral Values 
The world’s major religions already share a common core of moral values such as justice, compassion, mercy, love, and kindness. Expanding the global Collaborative Commons through an open-source spirituality and science collaboration holds the promise of disclosing new common values and finding new ways for individuals and the world’s great religions and other organizations to work together from those common moral values to collectively resolve the greatest problems the world faces today and to build a just, sustainable and equitable environment, particularly a place where people can be safe from the threats of war and injustice. Some of those new moral and ethical values can be found in the new Universe Principles.

16.) On the Pathologies and Abuses of Religion 
An Open Source Religion and Spirituality that will help expand the global Collaborative Commons will need to confront and deal with the issues of the pathologies and abuses of religion in its knowledge base in a forthright and honest way. For many of the estimated 30% of the population that calls itself “spiritual, but not religious,” the word “religion” creates an unpleasant and aversive reaction. One does not have to go back in history very far to see the pathologies, excesses, and abuses of religion that are still occurring in many places today.

The Open-Source Spirituality movement recognizes that much in existing religions is not only factually wrong or no longer useful or applicable but some beliefs and practices are outright mentally or physically coercive and abusive. Doing everything possible to deal with and educate people about the pathologies and abuses of past religions and the critical spiritual safeguards that are necessary to prevent them from occurring in our new religion again is a natural aspect of the global Collaborative Commons work. Some (but by no means all) of the pathologies of institutionalized religion that the global Collaborative Commons will eventually have to address are: fixation of beliefs; establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; religious fundamentalism; tendency to standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of Ultimate Reality to the service of the church; fund-raising focus in place of a humble spiritual service focus; creating discriminatory religious castes; becoming an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; creating an aristocratic "chosen-people" attitude; sexual and financial abuse of members, undue psycho/spiritual influence or coercive influence over members negating or debilitating their ability to exercise spiritual free will; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness; routinizing of religion; accepting religious symbols and ceremonies in place of authentic direct spiritual experience of and with Ultimate Reality, using blind or absolutist faith to override proper faith balanced with rationality or scientific facts; preventing or slowing members from progressing through Fowler’s natural stages of spiritual growth; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; petrification of meditation/worship; venerating the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make up-to-date interpretations of religion’s messages; entanglement with functions of secular institutions; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers; accumulation of vested interests toward increased secularization; failing to hold the interest of adventurous youth and losing the hope-renewing wisdom from ongoing personal direct spiritual experience with Ultimate Reality.

Click here to learn more about possible spiritual safeguards against religious pathologies and abuses.

17.) Other Probable Administrative Principles of an Open Source Spirituality, Evolution Spirituality and an Expanding Global Collaborative Commons
The evolving administrative qualities of the Global Collaborative Commonscommunity are envisioned to be created, achieved, and improved through the process of inclusion, synthesis, and transcendence. They are intended to always spiritually power the expansion of the commons and each step of the adventurous journey and process of getting there.

The Probable Administrative Principles are:

a.      Facilitating Intention and Action: The Global Collaborative Commons community holds the position that all co-creators within it intend to help people of diverse personality types, denominations, developmental or consciousness levels, cultures, ethnicities, or “isms” to work toward achieving expanding, direct spiritual experience of Ultimate Reality as well as the expansion of the Global Collaborative Commons.

b.      Collaborative: The Global Collaborative Commons community is a place of collaboration enhanced by openness, shared spiritual intention and attention, trust, authentic listening, speaking and participating from our experiences, intimacy, vulnerability, knowing, and where one can suspend strongly held ideas and look beyond personal preconceptions to enable the process of true learning and gaining new insights.

c.      Self-Organizing: The Global Collaborative Commons community will naturally operate on many of the principles of systems theory, particularly that of self-organizing systems. For example, those who show up are the "right" persons for the work. The commons promotes bottom-up-created and managed solutions. Volunteers have the self-empowering freedom and autonomy in selecting and managing (self-organizing) their own projects and resources.

d.      Interdependent: The Global Collaborative Commons community fosters interdependence between independent individuals and organizations.

e.      Balanced: The Global Collaborative Commons community seeks to create an enlightened win/win/win balance where individual, community, and (where applicable) environmental interests are mutually forwarded, balanced, and upheld.

f.       Cooperative and Co-Creative: The Global Collaborative Commons community is intended to be cooperative and co-creative with all organizations and individuals with compatible missions. As a non-commercial global commons it does not compete with anyone.

g.      Diversity-Honoring: Because Ultimate Reality appears to love novelty and diversity in evolution, the Global Collaborative Commons community seeks to utilize the life-affirming information from a multiplicity of cultural, ethnic, racial, spiritual, and scientific perspectives to evolve and expand and attract co-creators from all walks of life. To expand the Global Collaborative Commons many spiritual and non-spiritual perspectives are woven into a fabric that still maintains its distinct, diverse individual visible textures and colors. The commons sees diversity as both essential to better more inclusive solutions, complementary strength, and creative opportunity.

h.      Safe: The Global Collaborative Commons community seeks to create and maintain an environment where all people can feel safe spiritually, socially, and physically. The concept of building a safe space also means that only those minimum healthy boundaries and policies necessary to protect the open Global Collaborative Commons from unhealthy, unethical practices of individuals, businesses, or organizations who would unfairly or harmfully exploit it are created.

i.       Appropriate, practical solution-focused: The Global Collaborative Commons community seeks to create solutions that are personalized to specific individuals and groups, integral, sufficient, scalable practical, and non-authoritarian.

j.       Internet-centered: The Global Collaborative Commons community will be facilitated by many free, multi-lingual websites serving a global community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The free-access websites allow all members access to all of spiritual wisdom whenever and wherever it is needed.

k.      Non-Adversarial: The Global Collaborative Commons community has no adversaries. We work toward reducing ignorance and inappropriate or disproportionate fear.

l.       Multi-perspective: The Global Collaborative Commons is being significantly expanded by the multi-perspective worldview. As such it operates from a "both/and" perspective, not an “either/or” view. The paradox is embraced.

m.     Universal and Inclusive: The Global Collaborative Commons community is an ecumenical, global, and universal spiritual vehicle and movement. It promotes understanding, tolerance, and unity among all religions and individuals.

n.      Flow State: Control and resources flow to where they are natural or needed within the Global Collaborative Commons community. Flow usually exists as a relative dynamic balance created from continuous re-balancing adjustments to exterior evolutionary stress and/or internal tensions.

o.      "Quality of Being" Focused: Unlike commercial entities, the Global Collaborative Commons community intends to make any key internal administrative decisions from both a "quality of spiritual being" and a “quality of physical existence” focus vs. a “solitary physical survival” focus.

p.      Healthy Boundaries: The Global Collaborative Commons community strives to set only the flexible, healthy, and most minimal boundaries on its processes and uses necessary to maintain the quality of our spiritual and science-related space necessary to expand the global Collaborative Commons. These boundaries will be derived or tested by historic spiritual and social "community validity tests" or safeguards that are also relevant to the conditions of the current situation.

q.      Neutral Space: The Global Collaborative Commons is a neutral, nondenominational space and sanctuary where all authentic spiritual expressions from all developmental levels, cultures, or personality styles found within the spiral of life can just be, coexist, and feel comfortable in a global spiritual community. In this spiritual sanctuary for the diversity of spiritual wisdom and expression, no one expression may dominate, claim final authority or attempt to inappropriately diminish another.

r.       Competent, Productive, Responsible, and Ethical: Those who co-create within the Global Collaborative Commons community are stewards of any support the Global Collaborative Commons receives and do so at the highest standards of efficiency. They demonstrate and uphold both personally and with their peers the creation of a meritocracy of the highest standards of work competence, productivity, responsibility, and integrity and view their service to the Global Collaborative Commons community as both an honor and a privilege.

s.       Beauty and Art: Any physical spaces used within the Global Collaborative Commonscommunity are intended to be physically beautiful and filled with all forms of art and creativity. Beauty in art reflects Ultimate Reality.

t.       Appropriate Integrative and Integral Processes: Where appropriate, processes that are integrative and integral and are transcending and including are used to organize and manage the Global Collaborative Commons and the distribution of open source spirituality materials.

18.) On Free and Open Access

All of the courses and materials in this Evolution Spirituality global Collaborative Commons node that were created with the open-source spirituality process and principles are open and freely available to all. This open and free access does not mean that creators or co-creators of the courses and materials cannot ask for some form of fair value exchange or suggest a donation for using the courses or materials. Here the user gets to exclusively determine that final exchange value if any.

19.) On the Open-Source practice of "Forking" as a Natural Method to Manage Open Source Spirituality Independent Organizations or Individuals or Spiritual Facilitators/Teachers Who Fail to Follow the Recommended Member Conduct Codes, Teacher Ethical Guidelines or Spiritual Safeguards

Independent organizations or individuals who are part of the Evolution Spirituality movement or organizational center network who repeatedly fail to follow the Evolution Spirituality member conduct codes ethical guidelines or spiritual safeguards are managed organically because no one owns the Evolution Spirituality's Kernel and "source code" materials and --- we have no final spiritual authority or Pope that can demand compliance in Evolution Spirituality matters due to our belief in free will in spiritual choice and practice matters.

This means that Evolution Spirituality practitioners, members, and congregations who are repeatedly betrayed by an individual, group, or center's leadership are encouraged to simply "fork" off that individual, study group, or center and create their own new Religion 2.0 experiment, group or center.

The implication is only to abandon an individual minister, teacher, or organization if all reasonable and repeated individual and community efforts to inform, correct, or teach those individuals or the center leader(s) has failed. This encouragement to naturally fork off and create a new Evolution Spirituality experiment, group, or center when spiritual services or organizational ethics are compromised is the most powerful part of the evolutionary and naturally self-correcting and self-organizing open-source religion and spirituality mechanism for keeping the Evolution Spirituality movement healthy, growing and self-policing. After repeated attempts to educate and evolve a serious and repeated violation of our commonly held Evolution Spirituality principles and ethics there is no longer any reason to endure individuals or organizations that redirect the Religion 2.0 movement into inappropriate or unethical activities or inappropriate or unfair personal gain.

20.) The Improved Integration of Science and Spirituality: Open-source spirituality holds that the myths, beliefs, and metaphors of today’s religions need to be actively updated toward congruence with the facts of science. Religion forwards an original Source of the universe. That Source is like a seed to the universe and the universe can be thought of as its fruit. Since there is always relational congruence between the seed and its fruit, it stands to reason that the facts of the physical universe must reflect the nature of the Seed of the universe, and therefore the myths, beliefs, and metaphors of today’s religions need to be actively updated toward congruence with the facts of science.

21.) A New Open Source Definition for What Faith Means: Open-source spirituality provides a new and more useful definition of faith. It is a new definition that promotes the principles of reasoning and educated discourse. It holds that you cannot have a legitimate faith without also having intellectual honesty in the search for truth.

The new open-source form of faith in authenticity also aligns itself with truth in all forms! Whatever originating Source there might be in the universe, it is highly doubtful that originating Source would ever want its creations to not have intellectual honesty and alignment with all forms of truth--particularly in the vital matters of faith.

It is not surprising that today's science presents and validates most of the common forms of truth that we know. Carl Sagan, the famous astrophysicist, remarked that the universe and the scientific facts about the truth of its splendor and awe would make a great basis for a universal religion and spirituality and that eventually such a spirituality would be born. Open-source religion and spirituality as defined in the open-source spirituality principles and manifesto and as practiced within Evolution Spirituality may be close to the realization of that dream.

Open-source spirituality in faith matters also assumes that humanity possesses the required intelligence and emotional maturity to respond to rational argument, satire, and even ridicule on the subject of spirituality just as they respond to these discursive pressures on all other subjects and without physically attacking or killing each other. Our new definition of open-source spiritual faith challenges hope mistaken for knowledge, bad ideas protected from good ones, conviction without sufficient reason, wishful thinking elevated to a principle of salvation and good ideas obscured from bad ones.

It further recognizes that people can reason poorly and be very, very certain of their conclusions, and have a completely clear conscience. It also recognizes that people can be wrong and not know it (commonly called ignorance,) that it is possible to be wrong and know that, but not want to incur the social cost of admitting this publicly (commonly called hypocrisy,) and even that it is possible to be wrong and to be aware of this, but then to actually allow the fear of being wrong to increase one's commitment to one's erroneous beliefs (commonly called self-deception.)

Any honest open-source religion and spirituality faith search for truth is made even more difficult because most new scientific truths are not self-evident with commonly available instrumentation and are often themselves facts that are deeply counterintuitive. Common sense is just not the way that new scientific truths are emerging. By honestly recognizing that intellectual honesty is the core of open-source spirituality faith, the open-source spirituality movement sets itself on an expansion and integration course that few other spiritual movements currently honor or could duplicate. (The above is derived in part from ideas originally presented in The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris.)

22.) For Online Students and Those who want to Understand the Principles Of Open Source Spirituality at the Level of Organizational Implementation

For more detailed information about the spiritual working principles of our organization and how they naturally relate to and support the open-source part of an open-source religion and spirituality, click here. For more detailed information about the administrative working principles of our organization and how they naturally relate to and support the open-source part of an open-source spirituality and open source religion, click here.

23.) What Healthy Boundary Awareness in Spiritual Development and for Spiritual Safeguards Means in the Open Source Spirituality Movement

Humanity has thousands of years of experience of both healthy and unhealthy spirituality and religion. From this cross-denominational experience, it has developed lists of items that indicate that healthy boundaries have been violated and that spiritual practices and spiritual development have gone off track in potentially dangerous and destructive ways. This historic collection of cross-denominational spiritual wisdom on healthy and unhealthy spiritual practices is found in the spiritual safeguards section. Having all members of an open-source spiritual group know and practice these spiritual safeguards is essential to both their success and safety. Click here to review the spiritual safeguards.

24.) On the Policy that Open Source Spirituality holds that No Existing Religion has Absolute Authority in its Message and No Religion has the only Way to Salvation

Above it mentions that the Open Source Spirituality and Evolution Spirituality movement does not recognize a spiritual authority for these movements. It also does not recognize the absolute authority of the message or officials of any existing religion over any other religion. Nor do the Open Source Spirituality and Evolution Spirituality movements recognize that any existing religion has the only exclusive way to salvation.

25.) On the Reality that All Religions are Trying to Describe the Great Mystery

All religions to a greater or lesser degree are trying to explain and or mediate relations between the individual and group and the Great Mystery. Because when you take into account all of the principles of Open Source Spirituality, what remains is a Great Mystery, it is then essential to know the definition of Great Mystery used in the Open Source Spirituality Movements. Click here to see the definition of the Great Mystery that we use. Seen from the light of understanding the simple definition of the Great Mystery, the teachings of existing religions are not as filled with dogmatic conflicts They can now also be seen in the greater light of the search and teaching of practical life wisdom for their members.

26.) On Science being an Ideal place to Start Searching for the Great Mystery of Ultimate Reality.

Objective Scientific reality may be the best first place to start searching for the Great Mystery of Ultimate Reality. When you study Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Evolutionary history starting with the big bang you get a unique over-viewing meta-perspective of reality. If you consider physical reality the fruit of the originating seed of that which initiated the universe, you would have a great place to see in the meta-patterns of physical reality at universe evolutionary scales. These physical meta-patterns could also be seen as the most likely laws and purposes of that Great Mystery and Ultimate reality which initiated the universe. 

27.) On the Self-Organizing Nature of Open Spirituality Spirituality.

The New Open Source Spirituality is intrinsically self-organizing. Self-Organization will be the main way in which it spreads and grows. Click here for more information on some of the principles of self-organization.

Conclusion:

Balanced and healthy spiritual communities can be established and expanded within the network of practitioners and communities by following the Open Source Spirituality Principles. The Open Source Spirituality Principles also are vital to the Personal Spirituality movement and the Evolution Spirituality basic principle that members personalize their own spirituality.

Once you understand the preceding Open Source Spirituality Principles, you can immediately begin contributing your wisdom to the open-source religion and spirituality Collaborative Commons and Evolution Spirituality as found on this website at the Universe Spirit non-profit organization. You can also serve as a Collaborative Commons community facilitator aware of the open-source principles that we need to hold dear in a rich and diverse spiritual community in order to keep un-resolvable theological conflicts and other problems from harming cooperation or our growing Evolution Spirituality movement. If you think about these open source spirituality materials with the same central importance of a core operating system "kernel" in traditional open-source software, you would have a good idea of their critical importance and how they should be used. (If you do not know what a "kernel" is in software programming, click this kernel link and read more about what it is and how it holds the core principles of the new open-source spirituality found on this website.)

(Special Reminder: Please feel free to take any of the ideas on spirituality or science that you find on this website to create or expand your evolving personal spirituality or local spiritual community. Evolution Spirituality (as found on this website) is an open-source, personalized, and self-created process. You can always self-select, sequence, and use the processes, wisdom, and tools that you find in whatever way will work best for your current conditions, stage of development, and understanding.)

 

1.) Open source spirituality is a natural evolutionary emergence and also is an essential aspect of the personal spirituality movement. Open source spirituality is also due to the revolution in open-source software and theory and the reality of the Internet of Things (IOT) bringing together all human knowledge. (If you have not yet reviewed the ideas of the personal spirituality movement, we strongly recommend it now.)

2.) Open source spirituality is a new means of open, co-creation to co-evolve the Collaborative Commons in the area of all the spiritual wisdom of humanity. This collaborative Commons of spiritual can then better assist each individual in expanding their personal growth, success, and personal spirituality to create a better world and to improve understanding and tolerance between the religions of the world. It is the next natural evolutionary step beyond (that both includes and transcends) the work and goals of the Interfaith Movement.

3.) The open-source principles and processes can inform any new spiritual movement (like Evolution Spirituality, for example). Open-source principles and processes also can inform and qualify the progressive Religion 1.5 movements of evolutionary spirituality, integral spirituality, and peer-to-peer spirituality movement principles and processes.

4.) Any individual of any denomination or organization who understands the open-source spirituality kernel and principles of peer-to-peer open source spirituality and the materials that they would like to work on can contribute their spiritual wisdom, processes, ideas, and principles to help co-evolve the open source kernel and the applications of Religion 2.0 and thereby help expand the scope and usefulness of the rapidly-expanding global spiritual Collaborative Commons.

5.) The open-source spirituality movement marks a true theological, structural and organizational revolution like none before in the history of religion and spirituality. It has already changed and evolved the very definitions of what religion and spirituality can currently be and will commonly be in the future. It will not just naturally evolve current religious and spiritual organizations toward creating more open source future denominations, it will also naturally evolve current religious and spiritual organizations toward creating more open source forms of churches, temples, and mosques for those sections of their communities ready now or soon to be ready for this new evolutionary face of religion and spirituality birthed from and for the 21st-century internet information age. This theological, structural and organizational revolution in religion and spirituality is so empowering and appropriate to our globalizing world that any denomination that fails to take note of its evolutionary emergence and make appropriate internal adjustments will steadily watch their members leave to go to Evolution Spirituality like spiritual organizations that have incorporated the open source spirituality principles.

6.) Implied in the idea of open source spirituality using a common operating kernel --- is the fact that there always will be many different harmonics of spiritual messages and types of spiritual individuals/teachers presenting spiritual wisdom from many different evolutionary, developmental, personal, and cultural perspectives. This is exactly as it should be, because spiritual wisdom needs to be organized and presented in a digestible manner that is tailored to the differences in individual abilities, learning styles, gender, ethnicity, and personality types as well as differences in religious or cultural backgrounds and psychological developmental perspectives.

(Please Note: The open source spirituality principles are an essential core part of the kernel of Evolution Spirituality found on this website. For more information on the kernel of Evolution Spirituality, click here.)

 

"All of us together are smarter than just a few of us."  "Bring a brick get a house." Two of the traditional slogans of the open-source movement.

Open Source is a revolutionary idea born recently in the software development world. It means that the underlying software source code is accessible, open, transparent, forkable and free for all to see, share, use and improve! (Software source code is the internal programming code that has been assembled by a programmer in order to make the software work, usefully and effectively, for a specific task.)

What is unique about open-source software code (as opposed to the original form of closed proprietary software code) is that its core "kernel" can be used to create new applications or can simply be improved upon by any person who understands the kernel's source code and knows what to do to improve or change it, providing only that they too make their new software source code improvements accessible, open, transparent and free for all to see, use and improve as well.

The new idea and practices of open-source software code in accessibility, transparency, and free sharing of innovation has created a veritable revolution in new software capacities and knowledge, distribution, and services of all kinds on and off the internet.

The result is that the open-source software revolution also has been one of the great facilitators for the democratization and empowerment of the flow of vital information around the world via the internet since the invention of the printing press. Open-source software and the open-source sharing concepts have also been a vital resource-leveraging mega-aid for the empowerment of nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporations, and governments everywhere to share vital information for social and life betterment.

Open source has now come to religion and spirituality in the ideas of this Open Source Manifesto.

 

"Open-Source Spirituality is the future's evolutionary next step beyond today's global interfaith movement. The principles of these movements will significantly help to create a true meta-religion, meta-spirituality and global spiritual commons for all of humanity."---Lawrence Wollersheim

A Global Spiritual Commons is defined as a common and free access spiritual wisdom resource (database,) cyber hub and collaborative network created and expanded by any and all individuals or organizations who wish to share the spiritual wisdom and experience of Evolution Spirituality in an open-source, collaboration, and co-creation. The Open Source Spirituality process and spiritual and administrative principles on this website facilitate the expansion, maintenance and the free and open use of the Global Spiritual Commons.

What is most exciting about the results of these online and offline open-source religion and spirituality collaborations is that they not only expand the Global Spiritual Commons, but they also create a place where you will find both a place and process where everyone can share in both the spiritual and scientific wisdom from humanity’s vast heritage (or add and share the wisdom from their own spirituality or personal experience,) to help emerge new visions and perspectives of Ultimate Reality and for creating a better world of meaning, sustainable prosperity and justice for all of humanity.

A networked open-source spirituality global spiritual commons holds the promise of becoming humanity’s vast central knowledge base of all spiritual and science-related wisdom, which can be more fully collected, organized, and freely distributed through multiple-system and multiple-channel delivery systems. The multiple-delivery systems and channels will specifically adapt this continuously expanding knowledge base for more effective and easier user assimilation by tailoring the presentation of this spiritual wisdom specifically to an individual’s unique learning style, personality, current psychological development level, gender, age, culture or other important “isms”.

In the dynamic, evolutionary synthesis process of the co-creative assembly and inclusion of all of humankind’s spiritual and science-related wisdom in this global commons, there is a natural pruning that occurs resulting in the emergence of more useful and/or appropriate spiritual or scientific wisdom. In some cases, this newly emerged wisdom will transcend earlier wisdom in its universality, inclusiveness, meanings, values, adaptiveness to current conditions or, in the way that it better integrates all spiritual and physical life wisdom into more useful maps and metaphors for not only the co-creators and participants in the global commons but for all of humankind. In the principles for building an Open Source Spirituality found on this website much more will be said to help define the specifics about what the Global Spiritual Commons is, what it specifically does and, what the Open Source Spirituality processes and principles are.

Currently, the Universe Spirit website is serving as a host node and host networking center for open-source spirituality process and the expanding global spiritual commons. It is our hope that soon other open-source spirituality nodes, networks, and communities will begin operating all over the world.

You Can Begin Participating in and Contributing to this Open-Source Spirituality Movement and Help to Expand the Global Spiritual Commons Right Now!

Here is how:

Let us know if you think anything is missing from the above co-creational, open-source religion, and open-source spirituality process principles. Let us know specifically what things you think need to be refined, edited, or added to the lists above. Finally, let us know about any ideas, additions, or edits that you have for any of the open-source materials found on this website.

Heard Enough?

Then click this What's Next link to begin immediately exploring more of this revolution in expanding spiritual living and personal growth in our open-source Evolution Spirituality.