The 100th Monkey

A story about social change.

By Ken Keyes Jr. The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild or a period o over !" years. #n $%&', on the island o Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste o the raw sweet potatoes, but they ound the dirt unpleasant. An $()month)old emale named #mo ound she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. *he taught this trick to her mother. +er playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too. This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys be ore the eyes o the scientists. Between $%&' and $%&( all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. ,nly the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. ,ther adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes. Then something startling took place. #n the autumn o $%&(, a certain number o Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes )) the e-act number is not known. .et us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were %% monkeys on Koshima #sland who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. .et/s urther suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes. T+01 #T +A2201034 By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes be ore eating them. The added energy o this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough4 But notice5 A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit o washing sweet potatoes then 6umped over the sea...7olonies o monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop o monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes. Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated rom mind to mind. Although the e-act number may vary, this +undredth Monkey 2henomenon means that when only a limited number o people know o a new way, it may remain the conscious property o these people. But there is a point at which i only one more person tunes)in to a new awareness, a ield is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone4 From the book 8The +undredth Monkey8 by Ken Keyes, Jr. The book is not copyrighted and the material may be reproduced in whole or in part. 9ead the whole book.

2lease 1ote5
The $""th Monkey Theory has been on the :,: site since $%%;, and we occasionally receive letters claiming that it was a hoa- or ake.

:e contacted 2enny <illespie, who was married to Ken Keyes and participated in his work and writing. +ere is her response5 #/m not sure what you mean by 8 ake.8 The +undredth Monkey is a real book and hundreds o thousands o copies were printed and circulated, o ten through university courses. 2eople bought them by the case and gave them away. The story o the hundredth monkey came rom a writing by 9upert *heldrake. A ter our book was printed, there was some =uestion about whether the study was authentic. Ken presented the story as a legend, or phenomenon> the concepts o morphogenetic ields and critical mass are very true and the story serves to illustrate them. +ope that answers your =uestion. All the best, 2enny <illespie2resident/s 7lub, 2latinum :ellness 7onsultant www.&2illars.com?pennygillespie

:e were also orwarded the ollowing article that 8puts a new light on this popular story8

The +undredth Monkey 9evisited

by 0laine Myers <oing back to the original sourcesputs a new light on this popular story #s there some magic key that provides a short cut to cultural trans ormation@ T+0 *T,9A ,F 8The +undredth Monkey8 has recently become popular in our culture as a strategy or social change. .yall :atson irst told it in .i etide Bpp$CD) $C(E, but its most widely known version is the opening to the book The +undredth Monkey, by Ken Keyes. B*ee below.E The story is based on research with monkeys on a northern Japanese #sland, and its central idea is that when enough individuals in a population adopt a new idea or behavior, there occurs an ideological breakthrough that allows this new awareness to be communicated directly rom mind to mind without the connection o e-ternal e-perience and then all individuals in the population spontaneously adopt it. 8#t may be that when enough o us hold something to be true, it becomes true or everyone.8 B:atson, p$C(E # ound this to be a very appealing and believable idea. The concept o Jung/s collective unconscious, and the biologists/ morphogenetic ields B#1 7,1T0FT G;H o er parallel stories that help strengthen this strand o our imaginations. Archetypes, patterns, or ields that are themselves without mass or energy, could shape the individual mani estations o mass and energy. The more widespread these ields are, the greater their in luence on the physical level o reality. :e sometimes mention the +undredth Monkey 2henomenon when we need supporting evidence o the possibility o an optimistic scenario or the uture, especially a uture based on peace instead o war. # enough o us will 6ust think the right thoughts, then suddenly, almost magically, such ideas will become reality. +owever, when # went back to the original research reports cited by :atson, # did not ind the same story that he tells. :here he claims to have had to improvise details, the research reports are =uite precise, and they do not support the 8ideological breakthrough8 phenomenon. At irst # was disappointed> but as # delved deeper into the research # ound a growing appreciation or the lessons the real story o these monkeys has or us. Based on what # have learned rom the Japan Monkey 7enter reports in 2rimates, vol. ', vol. & and vol. ;, here is how the real story seems to have gone. Ip until $%&(, Keyes/ description ollows the research =uite closely, although not all the young

monkeys in the troop learned to wash the potatoes. By March, $%&(, $& o the $% young monkeys Baged two to seven yearsH and ' o the $$ adults were washing sweet potatoes. Ip to this time, the propagation o the innovative behavior was on an individual basis, along amily lines and playmate relationships. Most o the young monkeys began to wash the potatoes when they were one to two and a hal years old. Males older than C years, who had little contact with the young monkeys, did not ac=uire the behavior. By $%&%, the sweet potato washing was no longer a new behavior to the group. Monkeys that had ac=uired the behavior as 6uveniles were growing up and having their own babies. This new generation o babies learned sweet potato washing behavior through the normal cultural pattern o the young imitating their mothers. By January, $%;', almost all the monkeys in the Koshima troop, e-cepting those adults born be ore $%&", were observed to be washing their sweet potatoes. # an individual monkey had not started to wash sweet potatoes by the time he was an adult, he was unlikely to learn it later, regardless o how widespread it became among the younger members o the troop. #n the original reports, there was no mention o the group passing a critical threshold that would impart the idea to the entire troop. The older monkeys remained stead astly ignorant o the new behavior. .ikewise, there was no mention o widespread sweet potato washing in other monkey troops. There was mention o occasional sweet potato washing by individual monkeys in other troops, but # think there are other simpler e-planations or such occurrences. # there was an #mo in one troop, there could be other #mo)like monkeys in other troops. #nstead o an e-ample o the spontaneous transmission o ideas, # think the story o the Japanese monkeys is a good e-ample o the propagation o a paradigm shi t, as in Thomas Kuhn/s The *tructure o *cienti ic 9evolutions. The truly innovative points o view tend to come rom those on the edge between youth and adulthood. The older generation continues to cling to the world view they grew up with. The new idea does not become universal until the older generation withdraws rom power, and a younger generation matures within the new point o view. #t is also an e-ample o the way that simple innovations can lead to e-tensive cultural change. By using the water in connection with their ood, the Koshima monkeys began to e-ploit the sea as a resource in their environment. *weet potato washing led to wheat washing, and then to bathing behavior and swimming, and the utiliJation o sea plants and animals or ood. 8There ore, provisioned monkeys su ered changes in their attitude and value system and were given oundations on which pre)cultural phenomena developed.8 BM Kawai, 2rimates, Kol ;, G$, $%;&E. :hat does this say about morphogenetic ields, and the collective unconscious@ 1ot very much, but the 8ideological breakthrough8 idea is not what *heldrake/s theory o morphogenetic ields would predict anyway. That theory would recogniJe that the behavior o the older monkeys Bnot washingE also is a well)established pattern. There may well be a 8critical mass8 re=uired to shi t a new behavior rom being a ragile personal idiosyncrasy to being a well)established alternative, but creating a new alternative does not automatically displace older alternatives. #t 6ust provides more choices. #t is possible that the washing alternative established by the monkeys on Koshima #sland did create a morphogenetic ield that made it easier or monkeys on other islands to 8discover8 the same techni=ue, but the actual research neither supports nor denies that idea. #t remains or other cultural e-periments and e-periences to illuminate this =uestion. :hat the research does suggest, however, is that holding positive ideas Bas important a step as this isE is not su icient by itsel to change the world. :e still need direct communication between individuals, we need to translate our ideas into action, and we need to recogniJe the reedom o choice o those who choose alternatives di erent rom our own. rom5 http5??www.conte-t.org?#7.#B?#7"%?Myers.htm