Hundredth Monkey Effect
This phenomenon was first observed during an experiment on a remote Japanese island where scientists were leaving sweet potatoes on the beach to feed Macaque monkeys (1952-58). These particular monkeys had never eaten sweet potatoes before; they enjoyed them very much but didn’t like eating the beach sand covering them. Soon one intelligent monkey started taking his potatoes to the shoreline and scrubbing them underwater which both removed the sand and gave them a desirable salty taste. Shortly after this more and more monkeys began to copy the potato washing habit until the entire island’s monkey population was doing it. Next, strangely, whole communities of Macaques on many other unconnected islands not part of the experiment, Macaques who already ate sweet potatoes as a staple food, spontaneously began washing their potatoes in the sea as well! There was no possible connection or communication between the islands or various communities of Macaques, so how and why did this behavior spread? [1]
Some say this is an urban legend and upon deeper examination the data does not stand up. There were less than 100 monkeys on the island and the control group on other islands was not scientifically documented sufficiently. Plus there could have been monkeys that swam to the other islands or highjacked boats and took their potato washing knowledge abroad. Sigh… haters are gonna hate. No matter, other scientific teams have developed methods to test this “hundredth monkey effect” and proven sufficiently that there is some credence.
Historical Terminology
Carl Jung called it collective unconscious. On October 19, 1936, Jung delivered a lecture "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious” in which he said, "in addition to our immediate consciousness, ... there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited.” [2] He later goes on to say we can all tap into this “collective unconscious”.
Rupert Sheldrake calls it “morphic resonance”. Morphic resonance is a process whereby self-organising systems inherit a memory from previous similar systems. The hypothesis of morphic resonance also leads to a radically new interpretation of memory storage in the brain and of biological inheritance. Memory need not be stored in material traces inside brains, which are more like TV receivers than video recorders, tuning into influences from the past. And biological inheritance need not all be coded in the genes, or in epigenetic modifications of the genes; much of it depends on morphic resonance from previous members of the species. Thus each individual inherits a collective memory from past members of the species, and also contributes to the collective memory, affecting other members of the species in the future. [3]
The new agers call this cosmic consciousness or Akashic records.
Scientific Studies
Monica England of Nottingham University’s Psychology Department knew about Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and devised an interesting experiment to test for collective consciousness in humans. She reasoned that if morphic resonance is occurring, it should be easier to do today’s newspaper crossword puzzle tomorrow than it would have been yesterday. London’s Evening Standard newspaper provided their crossword in advance for her experiment. First students all completed a control crossword to measure their ability, then half were tested in Nottingham the day before and half the day after the crossword was published in London. Amazingly, the students who did the already published crossword (the puzzle that had already been completed by thousands of Evening Standard readers) improved their scores by an average of 25% [1]
In another similar study, two teams from Australia and Britain did an experiment with face recognition. They created a photo image with over a hundred faces in it, big ones, small ones, faces within faces etc. then asked people to point out as many faces as they could find within an allotted time. Because they were so well hidden a control group of several hundred Australians could only see about six to ten faces total. Then back in England, the other team of researchers showed a group of volunteers the picture on a closed-cable BBC TV station with a narrator pointing out one-by-one every single face. A few minutes later the Australian team repeated the experiment with several hundred more volunteers ready and waiting. Amazingly, this time most people were able to find not just a few, but the majority of faces within the allotted time limit! What could account for this other than some mechanism like Jung’s collective memory or Sheldrake’s morphic resonance? [1]
There’s many more scientific studies with similar results.
Hundredth Subscriber Effect
This weekend I have attracted my 100th subscriber. Now don’t be offended - I’m not saying my subscribers are monkeys. But I am saying there is potential for change on a global level with as few as 100 people. If the scientific studies are true then when 100 people know something it somehow magically enters the cosmic consciousness. If you don’t feel comfortable with that terminology then consider it enters the collective unconscious or becomes part of our morphic resonance. Or consider it becoming an unconcious common knowledge and is hereafter assumed “truth”.
Now obviously this can work to our disadvantage as well as for us. Just look at politics and “alternate facts”. But if we are careful not to follow and “subscribe” to idiots then hopefully the positive knowledge and awareness entering the “cosmic consciousness” will out-weigh the bullshit and hate-speech.
What would I do if I could wield the power of changing the world’s perceptions, knowledge and perchance affect reality itself? Hmmm. It would not be to create rainbow trees and blue bees that make cologne. I would want to make the world a better place. Bring laughter and joy to more people. Make intelligence sought after and rewarded; have closed-mindedness and hate-mongering something that caused impotence and sterility. And make it so “stupid” did not breed so fast!
I’m a wizard and my time is valuable. However I’m very appreciative of those whom have subscribed and I will strive to provide a mixture of enlightened wisdom, a few laughs or chuckles, with a realist’s snarky bluntness. For now I hope that is enough. But when I reach 200 subscribers… muwhahaha. Then my manipulation of the time-space continuum will begin in earnest!
Resources
1. Excellent article on hundredth monkey, Sheldrake’s Morphic resonance, and Jung’s collective unconscious.
http://ericdubay.blogspot.com/2013/03/rupert-sheldrake-and-hundredth-monkey.html
2. Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious
3. Rupert Sheldrake
https://www.sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance
I do not know who the heck manifested rainbow trees and blue bees that make cologne. Was it the “My Little Pony meditation circle and twitter group”?