Sydney
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 fed monkeys with sweet potatoes
dropped in the dirt first. The monkeys enjoyed eating the raw sweet potatoes,
but what the scientists observed is how unpleasant the monkeys appeared, as
they also tasted the dirt.
An 18-month- old clever female named Imo solved this problem by washing the
potatoes in a nearby stream first. She taught this trick to the other monkeys
including her own mother. In turn these monkeys also taught others in the group
how to clean the potatoes first before eating them.
What was observed between 1952 and 1958 was that all the young monkeys
learned to wash the dirty sweet potatoes to make them more edible. But it was
only the adults, who imitated their children, learned new method. Other adult
monkeys kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.
Then something amazing occurred. In the autumn of 1958, a number of Koshima
monkeys were all washing sweet potatoes but the exact number is not known.
So this is what it all looks like. When the sun rose one morning there were 99
monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Then
later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes. But it
doesn’t end there because when evening came almost everyone in the tribe was
washing sweet potatoes before eating them.
The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an innovative
breakthrough that affected all the monkeys for the better. But then a most
surprising thing that was observed by these scientists was that the habit of
washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea to the other islands.
Colonies of monkeys on other islands and on the mainland Takasakiyama began
washing their sweet potatoes!
The mysterious breakthrough of this experiment is when a certain critical
number developes an awareness of something, this new awareness can possibly
be communicated from mind to mind.
Although numbers may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that
when only a limited number of people practice doing something in a better way,
it can remain the conscious property of these people. But even when one more
person tunes into a new awareness, a mysterious field is therefore strengthened
so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!
I wish I could tell you this story is true but regrettably it’s an urban legend.
However, I still believe in the principle of this story. If you want to make the world a better place then, as Mahatma Gandhi has said, “be the change you want
to see in the world” then watch it rub off on others.
(Source: The Hundredth Monkey by Ken Keyes, Jr).