BREAKTHROUGH CENTRAL NEW YORK

When Cherie Clark became the 100th person enrolled in Breakthrough Central New York she recalled the story of the Hundredth Monkey which reveals the power in critical mass.    Here's the story Cherie sent us: THE HUNDREDTH MONKEY Ken Keyes, Jr. 1982 This book is not copyrighted. You are asked to reproduce it in whole or in part, to distribute it with or without charge, in as many languages as possible, to as many people as possible. There is a phenomenon I’d like to tell you about. In it may lie our only hope of a future for our species! Here is the story of the Hundredth Monkey: The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, has 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 monkeys liked the taste of the 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 it to their mothers, too. This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958, all the 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 Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash sweet potatoes. THEN IT HAPPENED! By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough! But notice. The most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then spontaneously jumped over the sea— Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes! * Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the consciousness property of these people. But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this new awareness reaches almost everyone! The experiments of Dr. J.B. Rhine at Duke University repeatedly demonstrated that individuals can communicate private information to each other even though located in different places. We now know that the strength of this extrasensory communication can be amplified to a powerfully effective level when the consciousness of the “hundredth person” is added. Your awareness is needed in transforming our community conversation. (words in italics were modified) You may be the “Hundredth Monkey”… You may furnish the consciousness energy to create a shared awareness and the transformation. *Lifetide by Lyall Watson, pp. 147-148. Bantam Books, 1980. This book gives other fascinating details. Also, Rupert Sheldrake’s M-Field is another reference about this phenomenon.

Posted 4-4-2005   updated  9-12-2006  (12-3-09)