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From the monthly archives:
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Yesterday we received a beautiful photograph from John Saba, an attendee of the Primal Purpose Workshop. Here’s the note he sent with the photo:
“Spring is here, and our yard in full flowers, Kris is a bulb addict. I’ve attached a picture that I took yesterday.”
- Happy Spring, John
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The myth of the “hundredth monkey” first surfaced in the late 1970s in Lifetide (Simon & Schuster, 1979), by New Age scientist Lyall Watson. The book is on Amazon here: Book On Amazon
In 1982, Ken Keyes Jr. popularized the parable in The Hundredth Monkey (Vision Books), an anti-nuclear-war treatise that sold more than 1 million copies.
Book on Amazon
The monkey myth, as recounted by Keyes, goes like this:
On an island near Japan, scientists distributed sandy sweet potatoes to a colony of monkeys. Soon one young monkey learned how to wash the sand off the potatoes before eating them. She taught the trick first to her mother and then to other young monkeys. More and more young monkeys started teaching their parents how to wash sweet potatoes. One day, the 100th monkey learned how to wash the sandy spuds — and at that moment, miraculously, all of the monkeys started washing their potatoes. Even more amazing, the potato-washing practice leapt over land and sea: Monkeys on other islands were suddenly washing their food too.
According to Keyes, the story demonstrates the power of a critical mental mass: “When a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.”
For those who want scientific information about organizational transformation, this is a compelling story. Is it true? No.
In 1985, Ron Amundson, a professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii, published “The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon” (Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1985). Part of the article is located here: Book on Amazon
Amundson documented that there had been a colony of monkeys — on an island called Koshima. And many of those monkeys did learn how to wash sweet potatoes. But the number of monkeys never exceeded 59. And there was no evidence of a leap of consciousness from monkey to monkey.
Confronted with this information, myth creator Watson responded in the Whole Earth Review, Fall 1986 with this quote,
“It is a metaphor of my own making, based . . . on very slim evidence and a great deal of hearsay.”
Watson’s admission did not stem the tide of the use of this story.
Whole Earth Review Magazine can be found online here: http://www.wholeearth.com
In 2005, Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Emory University’s Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta (http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/dewaal.html) was contacted by a group of doctors to find out if there was proof the story was true.
De Waal, who has been studying primates for 28 years, had recently returned from Koshima (in 2005) with an update on the potato-washing monkeys. This is what he said during the interview,
“There are now about 100 monkeys in the colony”, de Waal says, “but there is still no mind-meld miracle. And the percentage of monkeys that wash their potatoes has declined to about 25%: The monkeys may see, but the monkeys no do. It’s clearly a made-up story.
An idea to investigate:
Until that which you find most challenging, most upsetting, most disturbing, most painful, stressful and disconcerting is “what you want as it is”… your work is not done.
Bring up any questions or comments?
Is there any value in taking charge of your inner state of being? That question only you can answer.
What do you have to say about this “monkey business”? We’re interested.
Lovingly,
Andi & Jag
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It was 1954. Ray Kroc mortgaged his home and invested his entire life savings to become the exclusive distributor of a five-spindled milk shake maker called the Multimixer. Hearing about the McDonald’s hamburger stand in California running eight Multimixers at a time, he packed up his car and headed West. He was 52 years old.He pulled up in front of Dick and Mac McDonald’s hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California and never saw so many people being served hamburgers…
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There’s always a surprise or two that comes up in every adventure. You know what that is… those surprises? It’s called “second force”. Second force is the second of four forces that exist in EVERYTHING that happens. Everything. You cannot do anything without meeting up with second force.
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