When I caught up with my girlfriend this week, she told me that all of her friends and relatives had decided to stay the weekend in her home. Each of them made the decision independantly, unbeknownst to the other friends and family members. I said, “It sounds a lot like the 100th Monkey Syndrome – or at least, a hundred monkeys are staying at your home right now". Her face registered nothing; I had lost her.
Why I say stupid things I'll never know, but from this brief conversation about monkeys (well, family and friends really), I realised that not everyone in the world had heard of this phenomenon. I explained to her: The 100th Monkey Syndrome is a description of how collective consciousness works. It’s force is stronger than ever, with collective consciousness constantly dictating to its lackey, the social media.
As it became the undoing of a perfectly good chat, I wanted the 100th Monkey Syndrome to feature as my next blog article. I trawled the internet to check my facts, and what I discovered was a crazy thing: This famous study had suffered from a very serious case of Chinese Whispers. Yes there were monkeys in every story, but that was the only common thread to all of the "studies" retold.
So let me tell you how the 100th monkey syndrome was discovered, internet-style. Because it's fun.
NeoIn Japan a group of scientists were studying a colony of monkeys on an island. What was unique about them? They regularly practiced the original form of Pilates. Until, one autumn day in 1952, playmates of an adolescent monkey called Neo noticed him sitting still, with his eyes almost closed. He appeared to be looking upwards towards the center of his forehead.
Prasarita PadottanasanaAfter some time, he stood up and began to practice a primitive form of yoga. Neo never practiced Pilates again. Between 1952 and 1958, all of the young monkeys had come to emulate Neo’s practice and, like him, did not return to their old Pilates routine. Some of the young ones taught their parents. The adults, who were never shown, kept practicing their Pilates routine until they met their demise, unsatisfied and clueless.
DurvasanaFor the sake of describing this Syndrome, let’s just say that when the sun rose one morning, 99 monkeys had learned to practice yoga. By the end of that morning the hundredth monkey had replaced Pilates with yoga. Then it happened! By that evening, everyone in the colony took on the yoga practice and abandoned Pilates forever. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!
Almost but no, this is not a picture of meA more surprising phenomenon happened after Neo’s colony had adopted yoga: an isolated colony of monkeys, who lived on the other side of the island, started to practice yoga instead of Pilates. Monkey colonies on neighboring islands also abandoned their Pilates for the spiritually transformative yoga practice.
These Japanese scientists observed a cultural innovation, evolution at work. It outlined the mechanisms of collective consciousness.
We should always remember the significance of this phenomenon: It takes 100 monkeys to change the world.
Scientists reenacting their observationsAnd if you want to read about the real study, well I can’t just direct you to a website can I?! It will surely be a version of a version, so better you just stick with my version of events. The study that I quoted from Iceland is as true as the sky is blue; only decorated a little.
And yes, the study is from Japan. Good spotting Padawan.