2012 and the Hundredth Monkey

2012 and the Hundredth Monkey © 2008 Joan M. Newcomb

There are a lot of speculations about what is going to happen in the next few years. Many are founded on the Mayan calendar which reportedly says that 'Time will end in 2012'. This has many people running around thinking that the Apocalypse is coming, and that only the spiritually enlightened will survive. Several times I've heard people say 'not everyone will make it'.

Even Eckhart Tolle seems to have jumped on the doom and gloom wagon as well (please note that I said "seems"). In his most recent book, "A New Earth" he says "Humanity is faced with a stark choice... evolve or die".

Well, I don't believe that's true. I believe that in or by 2012 we will have experience a mass consciousness shift and that "time" as a concept or experience, will end. No one's going to die; everyone will evolve.

Do you remember people fearing "Y2K"? Turns out there have been predictions of the world's end at the close of each millennia. It's pretty common for people's facing change to think they're dying. The physical body only perceived things in terms of life and death - since survival is of the utmost importance to it. When we view change as our Higher/Essential self, that is timeless and immortal, it's actually quite exciting.

Now, I used to say that those who are identified with the ego will feel like they're dying, because that is what will fade away. However, I'm not certain that's going to be the case.

But first let me explain how this mass consciousness shift will come about.

Scientists were studying a breed of monkeys that inhabited multiple islands in the South Pacific. On one of the islands, a monkey started washing its fruit. Monkeys learn by imitation, so other monkeys that say this started washing their fruit as well. When about one hundred monkeys on this island were washing their fruit, suddenly *all* this breed of monkeys, on *all* the islands, began washing their fruit. This spontaneous transmission of information is called the 'Hundredth Monkey Syndrome", and this is what I believe will happen to mankind.

As more and more people become spiritually aware, we will reach our human equivalent of one hundred monkeys and *everyone* will experience a consciousness shift. It's bound to be disorienting at first, but it soon will become a joyous existence.

Perhaps many people will experience the transition the way Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie have. Both Eckhart and Katie went through years of painful depression and each experienced their ego dissolving. Eckhart says that his ego is still gone, which I believe him to mean is that the painful, negative part of his personality is permanently erased, and that Presence is his primary identity now. Both of them live in the present moment, which is how it will feel when there is no time, no past or future. Both of them feel eternally joyful, which is how we all will feel when we're no longer saddled with the baggage of the past or the worries of the future.

So it's not that 'not everyone is going to make it'. People are going to continue to be born, live and die, but the collective unconscious is going to dissolve.

When Oprah decided to offer the on-line class 'A New Earth' with Eckhart, and it drew hundreds of thousands of people from around the world, that was evidence that we're nearing our 'hundredth monkey. I was surprised by the elemental questions people were asking, since I've lived and breathed spiritual growth and awareness for more nearly thirty years. I forget that there are so many people out there still emerging. As the course has progressed, the quality of questions has deepened (along with the course material).

Each person has a ripple effect in the world, so each individual participating in the Oprah/Eckhart course is sending out waves of enlightenment, contributing to the raising awareness of the collective Consciousness.

And the best part about this is that none of us has to *do* anything. It is going to instantaneously happen for everyone. The wave is already happening and we all just have to relax and go with the flow.

Just be in the Now, enjoy the Present Moment, and all the following Present Moments and any moment now you'll be experiencing Presence.