A Story About Social Change
By Ken Keyes Jr.
The Japanese monkey, Mascaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.
In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.
An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.
This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by a various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.
Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes – the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.
THEN IT HAPPENED!!
By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eatin ghtem. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow cracked an ideological breakthrough!
But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over sea … colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys on Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.
Thus, when a certain critical number achieves awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.
Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.
But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes in to that new awareness, a field is strengthened to that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!
From the book “The Hundredth Monkey” by Ken Keyes
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This has also been called the “Critical Mass Theory.” Essentially, when a critical mass has reached a certain awareness, that awareness becomes a part of what some have called the “morphogenetic field” and is suddenly transmitted across time and place to become part of the collective consciousness.
Some say this happened thousands of years ago. Most people are unaware that Egypt isn’t the only home to giant pyramids. Some 15,000 pyramids have been found on nearly every continent, all with nearly identical designs. Recently, a giant pyramid was found in the Atlantic that is four times the size of the Great Pyramid at Cheops. All these seem to be built at nearly the same time period by people that would never have contact with one another.
Some say a critical mass was reached at the end of the dark ages that sparked the beginning of the Renaissance, when art, music, architecture, science and medicine all took a remarkable step forward almost simultaneously.
Yet again, it seems another critical mass event at the turn of the 20th Century initiated the Industrial Revolution in America. This coincided with yet another ciritcal mass incident heralding the introduction of Quantum Physics. Scientists from several different countries developed the concept of Quantum Mechanics (physics) at nearly the same time.
While some have tried to discount the truthfulness of the actual experiments and observations of the original scientists on the Koshima Gelapagos near Japan, the concept remains an enigmatic truism of our existence.
Fans of the book and movie “The Secret” may realize that The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon may unravel the mysteries of how to better utilize the nature of the Law of Attraction. If enough people believe strongly enough that new levels of awarenesss and enlightenment are possible, this belief may overcome the vast ocean of negativity so pervasive on our little planet, and true peace and worldwide enlightenment may finally be real for all of us.
Namaste
On metaphysics 