Affecting social change and the 100th monkey effect

I recently chatted with a friend about the 100th monkey effect and how this has the potential to create huge impact and change for us as a society. So what is the 100th monkey effect?

So the story goes, the Japanese Macaca Fuscata monkey 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 monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes but found the dirt unpleasant. An 18 month old female named Imo found that she could solve this problem by washing her potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Then her monkey playmates learned this new way and taught their mothers too.  This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of  the scientists.

Then 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 however learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the sandy sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958 a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes – this exact number was 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 dirty potatoes. Let‟s suppose that later that morning, the 100th monkey learned to wash potatoes. THEN IT HAPPENED! By that evening almost every monkey in the tribe was washing potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this 100th monkey somehow created a critical mass that led to an ideological breakthrough.

But notice: the most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes had somehow crossed the sea. Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama all began washing their potatoes too. Thus when a certain critical number achieves a particular awareness, this new awareness may be communicated directly from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, this 100th monkey phenomenon suggests that when only a limited number of people know about or choose a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people. However, 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.”

Global meditations practiced among participants, both in small groups and numbering in the thousands to the hundreds of thousands, have drawn on the 100th monkey theory to bring about world wide social and consciousness changes. It has become a firm belief that energy always follows thought and that a clearly and energetically focused intention will often result at some future time in its manifestation. We all create our own reality, both on a personal and community level.

The 100th monkey effect demonstrates that a behaviour can spread geographically by thought in motion. So can we surmise that should groups of people choose to think and act compassionately and with love, we shall reach the 100th “monkey” tipping point where this behaviour will be practiced everywhere?

My thoughts are that we can only keep the faith and continue to act in ways that we want to see in our reality. I choose love and I choose compassion. What do you choose?