Creating A New World (And The Hundredth Monkey)

I’ve spent part of the day perusing a website a friend shared with me.  While normally, I would post a link to any site I’m looking over, this time I don’t think I will.  Although some of the thoughts of the person who runs this website are fascinating, and I have respect for all opinions, there is an undercurrent to the site which really disturbs me and goes against the grain of what I have been learning, and attempting to absorb.

That undercurrent, loosely, is one that speaks of irreversible negatives.  (Or, apparent negatives, if you will.)

I, personally, do not believe there are such things as irreversible negatives.  While I will continue to read through the site with an open mind, I will do so cautiously.

What follows is sparked by, but not directly referring to the aforementioned website.  It is a gathering of thought that has been building for quite some time, and reading through this site simply prompted me to put it into words.

We will always have those who prophesy doom.  Some of them claim to channel wisdom from beyond, others wisdom from within.  They all sincerely believe what they say, of course, and many of them gather followers in vast numbers.

The latter is what worries me.

Have you heard the story of the Hundredth Monkey?

There was, the story goes, a group of biologists who studied the behavior of two groups of monkeys which lived on a pair of islands.  The islands were far enough apart that the monkeys, though of the same species, had absolutely no means of physical contact with one another.  They could not see or hear each other, nor were they aware, as far as anyone could ascertain, of the existence of the monkeys on the other island.  While studying these monkeys, in order to ensure that the animals remained close enough to be  observed, the scientists would pour a sack of sweet potatoes near the monkeys’ water source.  These potatoes were fresh from the field, covered with dirt, but the monkeys ate them anyway.

One day, one of the monkeys chose to dip her sweet potato in the water.  She discovered that her breakfast tasted better when not coated with dirt, so she continued the practice.  Soon, the other monkeys in her group followed suit and, one by one, more and more of the monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes.

Monkey see monkey do … not so strange.  What was strange, however, was that after a good number of the original island’s monkeys were washing their potatoes, for no apparent reason, all at once, large numbers of monkeys on the other island began doing the same thing.

The “Hundredth Monkey Theory” proponents observe that when an idea reaches some level of critical mass in a population, it will catch on and spread like wildfire, and quickly become the norm for the species (or the larger community), even without direct communication intervening.

This theory speaks to how so many human cultures, the world over, have various  archetypes in common, despite having had no direct contact with one another.

This brings me back to my original point.  I strongly (as those who’ve visited this site for a while will confirm, often rolling their eyes with that “here we go again” look) believe in what has recently come to be called the Law of Attraction  (the power to form our own realities through Creative Thought).  I also can accept the logic that ideas, whether positive or negative, have the capacity to reach critical mass and “overflow” just like the potato-washing did for the monkeys.  If a prophet who is speaking negatives, such as damage to the planet that is beyond our capacity to repair, gathers enough believers, and that spills forth and becomes a common belief, so that vast numbers of people are holding that image in their minds, it’s going to give that possible future the impetus to become reality.

If one believes that the damage is irreversible, one will only shield themselves against it, and cease trying to make things better.  If the Hundredth Monkey believes this, and it is true that this may cause the idea to spill over to the norm … we’ve sealed our fate.

(…) Not to mention that it makes things a heck of a lot harder for those of us who, despite the apparent circumstances, hold on to a vision of a bright tomorrow.

For some time, now, I’ve been wondering about “apparent circumstances”, as my visitors know.  I’ve been asking “why”.  What am I supposed to learn?  What’s the bigger picture?

Perhaps the bigger picture is one of hundreds of monkeys washing sweet potatoes … of which I’m one.  (A monkey, not a sweet potato.)   Or maybe I’m number 99, or even number 100.  Perhaps the bigger picture is those of us who, despite appearances, hold on to that hope, that vision, that globally positive image, that we can paint a future where the Earth is healing, people are getting along, wars are ended, wolves and whales roam and swim in health and abundance.  Perhaps, if enough of us learn that “apparent circumstances” are just the dreamtime, and the reality is what we hold true in spirit, then that reality will begin to manifest in our physical world.  … Our collective physical world.

Perhaps we are all in this together, after all … and even though we may never meet, or never know one anothers’ names, like hopeful monkeys we continue to wash our sweet potatoes until the whole Earth is clean and shiny new.

I look back at just the past year, and can’t help but wonder.  Just one illustrative example?

The appearance:

A bizarre, rare autoimmune disease which for no reason anyone could find decided to destroy my right leg down to the muscle layers, crippling me and persisting so that, a year later, I’m still struggling to return to health.

The reality:

I’m walking again, my leg is healed, and if I bear an ugly scar it is a badge of honor, reminding me of what I’ve overcome.

What appears to be is pretty nasty.  It leads so many people to ask me how I manage to keep my hopes up.  I keep my hopes up because I believe in my heart that the reasons will appear, and my vision will manifest, and my reality will be a healthy one.

They say that the macrocosm is reflected in the microcosm.  Is my leg just one person’s reflection of the entire Universe? Can we extend the same positive imagery to our planet, to our species? Can we who believe in Creative Thought not only repair our own apparent wounds, but add to the collective consciousness that will eventually create a beautiful, healthy future for our entire world?

I certainly will hold on to that vision.  How about you?  Shall we wash our ‘taters together?