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The hundredth monkey phenomenon
EducationWorld January 04 | EducationWorld
a d k 6
Once when my son threw a chocolate wrapper into the street, I yelled at him. “But mom,
everyone does it. What difference will one more wrapper make?” he asked. Indeed, what
difference? Although this happened several years ago, the emotions I experienced then are still
strong in me because every time I see people discard their debris into the street out of a train or
car, I experience the same anger. Luckily my son has mended his ways. After the usual rebellious
teenage interregnum, he is now a conscious citizen of the world, eager to catalyse social change
via his chosen field, beginning first with himself.
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And so this month I feel it incumbent upon me to recount the story of the hundredth monkey.
Perhaps it will help you realise how every change you make, every step you take is more
important than you imagine. And it may actually persuade you to strive to make a difference.
The Japanese monkey, macaca fuscata has been observed in the wild for over 45 years. In 1952,
on the island of Koshima scientists were feeding monkeys with raw sweet potatoes which they
dropped in the sand. Naturally though monkeys liked the taste of sweet potatoes, they weren’t
as enamoured of the sandy dirt. Shortly, an 18-month-old female named Imo got around this
problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her
playmates also learned this new way and taught their mothers too. This cultural innovation was
gradually assimilated by several monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and
1958 all young monkeys learned to wash sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.
Only the adults who were initiated by their children learned this social improvement. Others
continued to eat sandy potatoes. By the autumn of 1958, a large number of Koshima monkeys
were washing their potatoes — the exact number is not known — before ingesting them.
Let’s suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on the island who
had learned to wash their potatoes. Let’s further assume that later that morning, the
hundredth monkey also learned to do so. The participation of the hundredth monkey proved
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critical. By that evening every simian in the troop was washing its potatoes before eating them.
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The added energy of the hundredth monkey mysteriously catalysed a behaviourial breakthrough.
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The conclusion derived by the behavioural scientists studying the monkeys of Koshima was that
when a critical number of primates achieve a certain awareness, it is absorbed into the collective
cultural memory and communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary
from situation to situation, the hundredth monkey phenomenon signifies that when only a limited
number of people know of a new practice, it remains confined to its practitioners.
But there is a break-even point at which if only one additional person adopts a new lifestyle or
practice, it becomes generally tolerated, even if not wholly accepted, communal property.
Therefore your awareness of socially beneficial behaviour is critical because you could be the
hundredth monkey. Your decision or action may provide the critical energy required to catalyse
some major lifestyle and behaviour changes which would make planet earth a better place for all
mankind.
The impact of individual action on entire societies is spelt out in Lifetide, a book written by Lyall
Watson and The Hundredth Monkey authored by Ken Keyes Jr. The latter urges us to reproduce
his book in any manner possible because he feels it communicates a very important message.
He advises us to begin thinking about and then acting on every issue.
During the 20 years that I have been active in my field of eco-nutrition, I have seen the
manifestation of the hundredth monkey phenomenon. The first was when I was given wrong
advice about breastfeeding my infant son. Until I put two and two together thanks to information
that fortuitously fell into my hands, I was advised by some of the most prominent doctors in the
country to stop nursing and give him soya milk instead. Lucky for me, my son refused the bottle
or the switch would have happened.
Basically i had to stop drinking animal milk myself so that my lactose wouldn’t bother my
child. I did this and went on to nurse him for three years. The universal truth that no child can be
allergic to mother’s milk (but only to what a mother may be ingesting) is now commonly
accepted. I believe that the pioneering work of La Leche League (an international voluntary
organisation which promotes breastfeeding) proved to be the critical factor in making all
mothers aware of the truth that every infant is entitled to nature’s most perfect food.
The other related area in which I have witnessed a similar leap in consciousness/ awareness is in
hospitals where newborn infants were as a rule separated from their mothers at birth. This was
my experience as well. Only later did I learn from the La Leche manual how important it was for
the child to be constantly near the mother and that the first hour after birth is absolutely crucial
to ‘bonding’ between mother and child. Following this awareness I stood on the rooftops
to tell mothers to demand that their babies are with them immediately after birth. Today most
hospital managements have accepted the critical importance of the bonding hour.
The hundredth monkey syndrome is also beginning to impact organic foods. Suddenly
awareness is building and once people’s priorities in price consciousness alter (wherein food
pricing is given more importance than clothes, shoes, jewellery), we will see the hundredth
monkey principle being applied in the choice of safe, clean, pure and chemical-free foods.
(Kavita Mukhi is a Mumbai-based eco-nutritionist and CEO of Conscious Food)
a d k 6
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