OpEd-The Hundredth Monkey:
Hope for Mankind
STILLNESS IN THE STORM

(Barbara Harris Whitfield) Having voted for Donald Trump twice, I read and listen to everything I can find from “citizen journalists” on the Internet. Network television has become boring and full of lies. Stories on the TV have become (or are) shallow and with hidden messages that seem to be trying to brainwash us. Recently, as my mood and energy level have plummeted, I became aware of the people around me doing a deep dive too.
By Barbara Harris Whitfield / April 5th, 2021
There may be 80 million of us, but public knowledge right now shows our country, once the greatest country in the world, being “transformed” into a third-world mess. And now, my mood and those around me seem to be lifting, lightening up. We are riding on a rollercoaster filled with confusion and darkness. Let’s call it what it is:
This is a worldwide take-over attempt by the evil cabal. Or is it? Do we believe what we hear? How much longer can we take this before we are completely repressed? Or has evil really taken over– or is the mainstream media bombarding us with nothing but lies coming from a faction that won’t identify itself but possibly murders babies while they do Satanic rituals? What the ____ is going on?
In 1981 the most amazing book fell into my hands. It was called The Aquarian Conspiracy by Marilyn Ferguson. It was and still is a positive description of a turnabout in consciousness in critical numbers of individuals, a network powerful enough to bring about a radical change in our culture. This network has already enlisted the minds, hearts, and resources of some of our most advanced thinkers and steadily growing numbers from every corner of American Society. This underground network is working to create a different kind of society based on a vastly enlarged concept of human potential.
Ferguson explains the hearts of us who sense the ripeness of our society for renewal and to those who despair but are willing to look at the evidence for hope.
During the early 80s, there was a story that spread like wildfire and showed us an example of how this pioneering spirit gives us the courage to go forward. It was called “The Hundredth Monkey.” I have heard and told this story many times back then.
In 1993, through a series of synchronicities, I was assisting Ken Keyes (He wrote Handbook to Higher Consciousness a huge bestseller) in a workshop given at a conference by A Course in Miracles in Estes Park, Colorado. Ken Keyes had been a quadriplegic since childhood with only his ability to speak remaining and this is the story he told:
The Hundredth Monkey
by Ken Keyes
The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, has 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 from an airplane. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the sand unpleasant.
An 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 1953 and 1958 all of 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 us 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!
Hearing this story once again by one of the most beautiful souls I have ever met has stayed with me even until today. And what makes it even better is that back in 1986 I spent 4 days at a small meeting at Esalen Institute with Rupert Sheldrake, a professor at a prestigious university in England. He wrote A New Science of Life and in it he discusses this hypothesis of The Hundredth Monkey by describing what he calls “ morphogenetic fields.”
Sheldrake told us that each species has a field. Since that time, many scientists have explored, taught and written about this field. Quantum Physics has proven this field. When enough of one species learns a new task, most (if not all) of the rest of the species know how to do it.
What his research suggests is that holding positive ideas is not sufficient by itself to change the world. We need direct communication between individuals, we need to translate our ideas into action, and we need to recognize the freedom of choice of those who choose alternatives different from our own.
When enough of us know about this and practice it – there can be what is called “a paradigm shift.” I think the story of the Japanese monkeys is a good example of the propagation of a paradigm shift, as in Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It is also an example of the way that simple innovations can lead to extensive cultural change. By using the water in connection with their food, the Koshima monkeys began to exploit the sea as a resource in their environment. Sweet potato washing led to wheat washing, and then to bathing behavior and swimming, and the utilization of sea plants and animals for food. (M Kawai, Primates, Vol 6, #1, 1965).
Conclusion
I hope that when we humans realize we are connected by a Field that some call “Spirit” and/or “God” – or M Fields as Sheldrake and others have described—the cabal will shrink and eventually disappear. Some have suggested there will be a thousand years of world peace. And, we humans will reach our full potential.
Meanwhile, I find that Stillness In The Storm and other “citizen journalists” are my go-to for knowledge and hope. It provides an M Field that connects me to you. Our hearts connect and this is what is being called Hopium.