Maybe we have the 100th monkey at last.

[TankLV]

There was an actual experiment done many years ago.

It seems there were these small islands someplace inhabited by monkeys.

One day, a group of scientists decided to drop some potatoes on the sandy beach for them to eat - on all the islands.

The monkeys would at first go over to the beach to see what it was. Sniff. Poke. Then put the sand-encrusted potatoe up to their mouths and take a bite. They liked it. They ate them.

This went on for awhile until one day, a younger monkey took one of the potatoes to the water and washed the sand off before he ate it - this was better!

A couple other monkeys saw it and did the same thing.

Soon, as the days passed, more more monkeys learned to do the same thing - not all of them, but more and more.

Eventually, at one point, even tho only a very small handfull of monkeys did it - ALL of the monkeys on the island decided to wash the potatoes first before they ate it.

It was about 90 or 110 of the thousands on this island.

Funny thing is, on ALL the other islands, at exactly the same moment, ALL the monkeys on ALL the islands, even the ones where NONE were washing the potatoes, started to wash the potatoes before they ate!

The consciousness of all the monkeys had evolved to the point to where this new behavior became inate - from even the youngest newborn to the oldest.

I pray that we are close to the 100th monkey.

[trotsky]

1. An actual experiment, huh?

Can you provide any sort of link or citation whatsoever? Or is this one of those, "I *swear* it's true, my brother's roommate's cousin's sister-in-law saw it on a TV show!"

[TankLV]

2. Actually is a book on it - I have it here someplace.

It was real.

I'll try to look for it in my stash.

[charlie]

5. Lifetide

I read it long ago. Watson let his imagination run away with him.

[trotsky]

8. I found the truth.

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC09/Myers.htm

In the original reports, there was no mention of the group passing a critical threshold that would impart the idea to the entire troop. The older monkeys remained steadfastly ignorant of the new behavior. Likewise, there was no mention of widespread sweet potato washing in other monkey troops. There was mention of occasional sweet potato washing by individual monkeys in other troops, but I think there are other simpler explanations for such occurrences. If there was an Imo in one troop, there could be other Imo-like monkeys in other troops.

Instead of an example of the spontaneous transmission of ideas, I think the story of the Japanese monkeys is a good example of the propagation of a paradigm shift, as in Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The truly innovative points of view tend to come from those on the edge between youth and adulthood. The older generation continues to cling to the world view they grew up with. The new idea does not become universal until the older generation withdraws from power, and a younger generation matures within the new point of view.

The idea that once a certain number of people think something, that it automatically becomes part of a group consciousness, did not sound scientific to me, and thus my pseudo-science radar went off. Turns out it was for good reason.

[TankLV]

11. Then make it a parable for living.

Some think a giant jelly bean in the sky created everything, too, I guess.

It's called the Catholic Church and all it's offshoots.

At least the message is positive.

So much for dashing hope.

But thanks for sorting out the truth anyhow.

[trotsky]

16. Parables are fine.

Just want to make sure fiction is presented as fiction, not as fact. There's enough pseudo-science and snake-oil salesmen the way it is.

[eleny]

6. link

http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm

http://www.sheldrake.org/faq/answers.html

[oregonjen]

3. Wasn't there a book? I remember having to read it in school

[Radio_Lady]

7. Here's one link I just found:

From:

http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm

The 100th Monkey
A story about social change.

By Ken Keyes Jr.

The Japanese monkey, Macaca 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 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 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 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: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then 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, 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 a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

From the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.
The book is not copyrighted and the material may be reproduced in whole or in part.

[TankLV]

10. That's the book.

[charlie]

4. Lyall Watson

After investigations failed to corroborate his story, in facts details were debunked, he's since admitted he made it up.

"It is a metaphor of my own making, based on very slim evidence and a great deal of hearsay. I have never pretended otherwise."

[trotsky]

9. Thanks, charlie.

Helps show the danger of postulating an idea that people WANT to be true, even if it was intended to be harmless.

[charlie]

12. Watson later wrote a book

touting the "special memories" of water. Much of it was devoted to an unheralded genius who created twisty labyrinthine waterways that endowed water with curative properties. Watson was a fanciful sort.

[hyphenate]

13. It's a good example of

evolution. The monkeys that didn't wash the potatoes would likely suffer deteriously from the sand collected on the potatoes, and eventually that branch of the group would die out, leaving only the ones who could understand the new behavior would continue to evolve. The next generation of monkeys would likely find a way to "heat" the potatoes or something, and like them better, and over time, those who could not move on to another, higher step would begun to breed out.

It's the same pretty much in almost all facets of evolution. The two lions will fight to the death--the one who is strongest will survive, and father the next generations to come, which will be bigger, stronger and more capable of surviving. The same goes for every single animal on earth, with the result that the weak will perish, whether it's a weakness of the mind, spirit or body.

We have to take into account that there was also another race of humans on earth which ran into a far different set of circumstances along their way: even though the neanderthals might have been more intelligent than what eventually became homo sapiens, they probably did not have the brutality which brought the other evolving race through more difficult and nasty times, like the ice ages, for example. Perhaps the neanderthals would have been a far more noble group of humans, but the potential gentility would not have served them as well, because thinking powers were less useful at that time than the power to overcome potential enemies.

You see, it's part of why I hate these mental midgets who don't believe in evolution. They can not and will never understand the phases of life on our planet. To think that mankind emerged full-blown and with all his mental faculties only ten thousand years ago shortshrifts the more incredible tale of our survival through so much of a past. A Catholic friend had a different take on it--she used to say that an all powerful god would have used evolution to create everything that would not deny science. It's the weaker, "Xtian" god that seems to have more limitations and more human failings than even the worst human on the planet. A true god would have no need for petty ideologies, nor would a true god care about blind devotion.



Regardless of whether it is truth or not, the postulation is still a decent one. It might take a 100 years, but the innate behavior does change when changes are verifiable.

[TankLV]

14. Very insightful.

I like to think we can evolve spiritually, too.

We have a long way to go, I'm afraid.

[Me.]

15. True Or False

I'm glad you posted this, for I've been thinking about this story, wondering when the tide would turn, once and for all. I asked myself who will the hundredth monkey be, who the metaphor will apply to, the media who has woken up, the people who gave B*** 38% approval in the latest AP poll? Don't know when exactly the change will be here, but it's coming. Not all things can be seen.