Are YOU the 100th Monkey?

©2011 Joan M. Newcomb

The following is from "The 100th Monkey  A story about social change."  by Ken Keyes, jr."

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.  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.
     In 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.
     This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept 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!
     But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the 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.
     Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.
     Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.
     But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

I've used the 100th Monkey as an example of what is happening with human evolution, or the "2012 Consciousness Shift" we're all experiencing. There have been enough of us 'on the leading edge' to create this tipping over into everyone's awareness. Pretty soon, everyone's going to 'get it'.

Like a pebble dropped into a pond, we each create a ripple effect of energy out into our friends, family and community.  When we change, it is shared with others.  When our vibration raises, it gives permission for those around us to evolve as well.

We don't have to go out and make others see our point of view.  We don't even have to engage with them (to show them how "wrong" they are).  We just need to stand in our own Truth, and be in integrity with our values.  In so doing, we're aligned with our Expanded Self/Highest Self, Source or Consciousness.  We're in agreement with what is.

This emits a wave of transformation into the rest of the world.  When enough of us do that, there will be seemingly instantaneous change.  It's already happened before - when the Berlin wall came down, when the Soviet Union dismantled, and it is happening now in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.

Are YOU the 100th Monkey in your world?

Get clear within yourself what is essentially True for you.  You will find it very simple and profound.  It may be a 'but of course' feeling.  When you step into that space, others will react.  There's no need to go back to what may make them comfortable but is out of alignment for you.  The wave will pass through them and is their opportunity to evolve as well.

Come up with five or so core values, that feel essential to you.  Perhaps things such as Compassion, Transparancy, Trust, Reliability, Honesty... and use them as guides to live by and make decisions.  You will see if your workplace or your relationship reflects them - if they don't, it might explain your dissatisfaction in those areas.

Become your own 100th Monkey and you will see others who are doing the same.  New friends and opportunties will open to you.  Even old situations may resolve themselves or become what you've always wanted, simply because *you* have shifted!

Try this for the next 7 days and see what happens!

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.