Sunday 3 May 2009

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 53


CRITICAL MASS

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30years. In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

The scientists observed that other monkeys gradually picked up this new behaviour. Over six years all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes. Some adults learned this new skill through their children and others kept on eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes — the exact number is 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 sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that this habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

So, just remember, if we are trying out a new positive ways of being and achieving a new awareness, when our numbers reach critical mass, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

2 comments:

susanna said...

A further indication that there is no separation between us i.e. no two 'things'. One mind, one consciousness, one being. Mind not being a solid 'thing' but a subtle fluid impersonable energy field arising for no-one in particular.

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