The Hundredth Monkey Effect
“The tipping point: that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
The Hundredth Monkey Effect:
The idea that once a critical number of members copy a behaviour or follow an idea, it will be taken on by all en-masse, automatically.
1952 — Koshima Island, Japan.
Japanese scientists started a study on native Macaque monkeys. Providing food in open places, the monkeys began to develop new behaviours in response:
During 1952 and 1953 the primatologists began “provisioning” the troops — providing them with such foods as sweet potatoes and wheat. The food was left in open areas, often on beaches. As a result of this new economy, the monkeys developed several innovative forms of behaviour.
One of these was invented in 1953 by an 18-month-old female that the observers named “Imo.” Imo was a member of the troop on Koshima island. She discovered that sand and grit could be removed from the sweet potatoes by washing them in a stream or in the ocean. Imo’s playmates and her mother learned this trick from Imo, and it soon spread to other members of the troop. Unlike most food customs, this innovation was learned by older monkeys from younger ones. In most other matters the children learn from their parents.
The potato-washing habit spread gradually, according to Watson, up until 1958. but in the fall on 1958 a remarkable event occurred on Koshima. This event formed the basis of the “Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon.” — Ron Amundson; Skeptical Inquirer vol. 9, 1985, 348–356.
This particular study has been refuted many times, but I feel it is a tool we can learn something from.
I feel it says to us, that the best way for us to effect the wider community, and global consciousness, is to continually seek to upgrade our own consciousness. The most common thing a student or fellow meditator mentions to me is now that they are meditating, they are noticing habits or ways of thinking from those they live with, which no longer align with what they are experiencing. They ask, "what can I do to help them see a different way?".
My answer is always this: to continue to do the work you are doing. Kind of like the old saying, "lead by example". You might be like Imo in the story above, although instead of treating your sweet potatoes a certain way, you notice how a way of being has a positive outcome on how you experience life.
This is soon noticed by others...who also want the 'sand and grit' removed from their way of being.
Let's spread pure awareness in being, like wildfire.
Written with love,
Natasha