When I first heard about the Hundredth Monkey Theory, it sounded esoteric, like some complicated formula you’d be forced to study in grad school anthropology. Once I got past my hesitancy (science was not my forte), and took the time to hear it explained, it made perfect sense. It expressed in an easy-to-understand, pretty amazing story, that energy connects everything.
The Theory sounds like a fable or even a metaphor, but it’s based on a true event. It goes like this: On a deserted island with a large population of monkeys, one contrary primate decided to stroll over to the river and wash his food before eating it. Suddenly, the entire monkey population on a distant neighboring island started washing their food. Spontaneously.
Meaning: When one gets it, others do; when one shifts, others do; when enough of us evolve, we all evolve.
As you may have noticed, humanity, as a species, is in dire need of evolving. It will take more than one of us monkeys washing our food to bring an end to systemic, fear-based consciousness. It will need a slew of monkeys to change how we’ve been living, believing the notion that war and violence solves things; that our ego is who we are; that external things are what make us happy and secure.
We will need a troop of monkeys, err humans, to pull up the roots of our primal nature in order to shift the world.
Having worked for over four decades helping people do that, I can attest that it’s tricky to change one’s consciousness. It’s the nucleus of our primitive, survival-based nature to react angrily and violently when fear is triggered. We believe we must do that, and nothing will convince us otherwise. After all, our primary purpose is personal survival at all costs.
Having worked for four decades helping people do that, I can attest that it’s tricky to change one’s consciousness. It’s the nucleus of our primitive survival-based nature to react angrily and violently when fear is triggered. We believe we must do that, and nothing will convince us otherwise.
Fear is Hidden
Add to that, often we don’t even realize fear has been triggered. We give it other names: anger, resentment, annoyance, jealousy, etc. Truth is, they are all just fear in different ensembles, providing false ‘justification’ for reactive actions.
We’ve been living with this method to deal with fear since we were hiding out in caves. It runs us subconsciously, like a computer program going on in the background. It’s those open tabs slowing us down or crashing our hard drive.
Back to those wise monkeys.
I believe that when enough of us know that war never has and never will solve anything, war will finally end. When enough of us decide it’s not acceptable to destroy the environment, the planet will again flourish. That when the majority does not support the egos of the world’s tyrants, they will have no power. When we finally realize that joy and security come from within, possessiveness and territoriality will vanish.
Then all us Hundredth Monkeys will join hands and sing Kumbaya along with the others who now accept those truths as well.
Getting There
Getting there requires profound shifts. Trying to change the world from our current, fear-based level of consciousness is like putting a layer of rubber cement hoping to repair a leaking roof. It will take evolving into a completely different kind of human, a radical shift from fear to love.
That will require more than a handful of us trailblazing monkeys choosing to wash our food. Or, more accurately, choosing to recognize the deceptive face of fear and not react in anger.
That sounds nice, very higher consciousness and all, but living from fear is etched on our personal hard drive. Add to that, parental and social conditioning, everything is perceived through a fear-based, reactive lens. We’ve learned ways to cover up our fear, never admit we’re afraid, terrified that if anyone saw us shaking in our boots, we would be vulnerable and then cave-less.
Admitting Fears
Prior to grasping the breadth of the unadmitted fears running my life from behind the scenes, I would loudly proclaim that: I. Am. Not. Afraid. Afterall, I could take trips in airplanes; I could drive the L. A. freeways. I could talk to strangers; I could dye my hair purple.
Me? Afraid? No way.
Rest assured, no one could have convinced me otherwise.
Then, after doing some inner delving, I woke up and realized that it was the more subtle fears that were the bigger ones. Those were well camouflaged hidden entirely under the surface. Like fear of change. Fear of commitment. Fear of expressing the real truth. Fear of loss of control. Fear of being insignificant or living a meaningless life. And equally, fear of doing one’s true purpose.
Those fears were comfortably settled in the back of the auditorium, signaling me, doing their job of keeping me in line.
But once I saw them for who they are, understood what they were doing, heard what they were saying, they started to lose their oomph. Then, I learned another tactic to bust their despotic swagger: They didn’t like to be exposed, so I started talking about them.
It may seem contradictory, but the more I expressed my fears, it was like letting the air out of a helium-filled balloon. The more I discovered and admitted my real fears, the weaker that deflating balloon got. It was no longer bouncing up and down, yanking me along, telling me where to go, what to do and say.
Consider the Alternative
Alright, back to those monkeys, err, humans. Whether we know it consciously or not, we want to evolve. We chose to be here during these challenging times to progress past our primitive, fear-based, survival consciousness.
Remaining firmly rooted in our primal programming is certainly not working. Maybe it worked centuries ago, but it will never work for the world that we want to create, or for the world we are creating.
Being part of this evolutionary process means waking up from a rigid definition of self and transforming our entire internal definition of life. Easy peasy, right?
The most crucial aspect of becoming that hundredth monkey is being willing to face all the ways you are personally participating in what is causing the world’s problems. It means looking within to see how your own behavior and thoughts are being driven by the same fear-based impulses at the ancient core of human cruelty and domination.
Again, Einstein said energy cannot be destroyed only transmuted. In other words, if you are pushing down the energy of fear, it must come up somewhere. Others and life become an accurate reflections of what you are trying to deny and suppress within.
By observing what’s being reflected, recognizing your denial showing up, and digging up its roots, shift happens. In you and in others.
The simple way to do that is noticing whenever a button is pushed, choose to look within and locate the fear that was triggered. Then, determine what is being reflected about yourself. Admittedly, that takes commitment, but it helps alter some of your primitive programing.
Most importantly, it allows you to boldly choose Option Two: Love rather than reacting in fear.
The Goal
It bears repeating: Our planetary goal is to evolve from fear to love. From resistance to acceptance. From victim to responsible. As John Lennon said, it starts by imagining your life like that, a world like that.
You are part of the human condition; we are all in this together. Evolution starts with that one monkey: That be you. Be driven by a different set of motivations, free from the influence of what’s been moving humans since the beginning of time – fear.
Not by resisting it. Rather by looking it straight in the eye and seeing what it’s really about: False Evidence Appearing Real.
