I admit that I have tunnel vision when it comes to the topic of "awakening." It's been a theme in my life that has increased as I've aged. However, it hasn't always been the case.
After all, life is challenging, overwhelming, invasive, and, with so many distractions, it's hard to stay centered. But I find myself coming full circle. With every news clip or conversation I'm involved with, my intake is filtered with questions like, "how can we as humans fix the ills that consume our daily lives? How does this very topic of conversation that I'm engaging in now relate to our conscience awakening?" When I ask myself these questions or when someone asks me questions of this nature... I find myself answering them by stating, "it's just the 100 monkeys." Then I get a blank stare.
Apparently, many of you have never heard the true story of the 100th Monkey and the theory behind it. This prompted me to want to share the story and show how it can apply to so many problems we face as a species. We have the potential to heal ourselves and our planet simply by understanding its principles.
But, before I dive into the story, I'd like to pose a question: "how can one person change the world? We're not that powerful!" This is in response to being told that the answer to the world's problems is to go within. Heal ourselves first, then we you can heal the world.
Healing the world starts with healing yourself. It couldn't possibly be that simple; could it?
Hence the story of the 100th Monkey Effect.
The abridged version goes like this: In 1952, a group of scientists conducted a study on the behavior of macaque monkeys on the Island of Kojima in Japan. They observed that some of the monkeys learned to wash their sweet potatoes in water before eating them. Once a critical number of monkeys did this. i.e. the 100th monkey, this learned behavior spread quickly to a group of neighboring islands were other monkeys adopted this new practice... without being introduced to or without them learning by observation from the original troupe of monkeys. This experiment shows that once a new belief or behavior reaches critical mass, a tipping point occurs, thus change.
Welcome to the quantum world.
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