Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id EAA02606 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 28 Jan 2002 04:34:02 GMT From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 22:37:29 -0600 Subject: Re: virus: Fw: Memetics in our time Message-ID: <3C548129.9281.1DAB68@localhost> In-reply-to: <F6574YMMGnpqRYzayZW00011ac2@hotmail.com> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v4.01) Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable Content-description: Mail message body Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 27 Jan 2002 at 15:30, L' Ermit wrote:
> As it is mentioned on the site referenced by David
> [url=www.soli.com/jhardy/memetics.txt][/url], it is perhaps worth noting
> that the "100th monkey effect" is a fabrication that has taken on a life of
> its own - but remains invalid. The following is an old post with some minor
> changes.
>
> Regards
>
> Hermit
>
> ["virus: Critical Mass of Enlightenment", Hermit, Sun 1999-04-11 23:43]
>
> The "Critical Mass of Enlightenment", sometimes known as the "Hundredth
> Monkey" phenomenon, and also sometimes known by the more scientific
> sounding, but equally bunkum term "morphic resonance" invented by Rupert
> Sheldrake, is far from being a new idea. The following article with a few
> additions by me was lifted from the Skeptik's Dictionary [url=
> http://skepdic.com/monkey.html][/url], a site worth consulting whenever your
> bullshit detectors begin to twitch! If the "Critical Mass of Enlightenment"
> ravings expressed recently on this list have not caused your bullshit
> detector to slam into the overload range, it is time to have it serviced...
>
> This snake-oil concept has been exploited by shamans and other con-artists
> for years (e.g. the TM movement), to say nothing of wishful thinkers and the
> simply deluded. Deciding which of the categories a particular exponent of
> ridiculous concepts belongs to, is left as a task for those who have more
> time than sense. Why people choose to transmit memes like this is less
> important than the obvious lack of rational skepticism applied to
> "paranormal" phenomena, which leads to people publishing bunk like this
> based upon unfounded or indeed refuted (as this one is) research and
> hypothesis.
>
> The hundredth monkey phenomenon refers to a sudden spontaneous and
> mysterious leap of consciousness achieved when an allegedly "critical mass"
> point is reached. For example, people start thinking about ending world
> hunger. One person gets another to start thinking about it who gets another
> who gets another not ad nauseam or ad infinitum but until suddenly a
> breakthrough is achieved when the "critical mass" point is reached. Then,
> spontaneously and mysteriously, everybody starts thinking about ending world
> hunger.
>
> The expression "hundredth monkey" comes from an experiment on monkeys done
> in the 1950's. It was alleged by Lyall Watson in his book Lifetide that one
> monkey taught another to wash potatoes who taught another who taught another
> and soon all the monkeys on the island were washing potatoes where no monkey
> had ever washed potatoes before. When the hundredth monkey learned to wash
> potatoes, suddenly and spontaneously and mysteriously monkeys on other
> islands, with no physical contact with the potato-washing cult, started
> washing potatoes! Was this monkey telepathy at work or just monkey business
> on Watson's part?
>
> It makes for a cute story, but it isn't true. At least, the part about
> spontaneous transmission of a cultural trait across space without contact is
> not true. There really were some monkeys who washed their potatoes. One
> monkey started it and soon others joined in. But even after six years not
> all the monkeys saw the benefit of washing the grit off of their potatoes by
> dipping them into the sea. Lyall made up the part about the mysterious
> transmission. The claim that monkeys on other islands had their
> consciousness raised to the high level of the potato-washing cult was a lie.
>
> The origin of the tale is the 1979 Lyall Watson book, Lifetide. Watson has
> since confirmed he made the story up. In 1989, Watson said "It is a metaphor
> of my own making, based on very slim evidence and a great deal of hearsay. I
> have never pretended otherwise."
>
> The notion of raising consciousness through reaching critical mass is being
> promoted by a number of New Age spiritualists, including Ken Keyes, Jr. Mr
> Keyes has published a book on the WWW which calls for an end to the nuclear
> menace and the mass destruction which, he claims, surely awaits us all if we
> do not make a global breakthrough soon. The title of his treatise is The
> Hundredth Monkey [url=http://www.worldtrans.org/pos/monkey.html][/url]... In
> his book
> he writes such things as "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!" Well, it seems to be working for spreading
> the word about the hundredth monkey phenomenon! In fact, there seems to be
> no end to those seeking spiritual transformation of themselves and the
> universe. Witness the M100 or Hundredth Monkeying! project
> [url=http://www.newage.com.au/home/M100.html][/url]. "Our prayer is to bring
> benefit to all of world society without prejudice or bias." Who could
> complain about such a goal? Well the age of unreason excemplified by some
> list members might be upon us, but the CoV is theoretically a rational
> organization. To claim any kind of "scientific" validity for this concept
> requires that it meet the requirement of repeatability, predictability and
> falsifiability. So far I have not even seen a demonstration of "collective
> consciousness" never mind a suggested method of falsifying its supposed
> existence.
>
> If you want more information on hundredth monkeying, you should read
> Morphogenetics and Monkeys [url=
> http://www.isleofavalon.co.uk/edu/monkey/olds/m05-morf.html][/url]. It has
> all the latest stuff on building up your inner-energy field , doors of
> perception, healing and the millennium. It must be very exciting to part of
> a global fellowship of soul nourishers. As the Monkey Man says: "...healing
> the human heart is central to all other necessary changes in the
> twenty-first century." Amen nutter.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> further reading
>
> Follow-Up Senior Researcher Comments on the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon in
> Japan by Markus Pössel and Ron Amundson
> [url=http://www.csicop.org/si/9605/monkey.html][/url]
> The Theory of the Hundredth Monkey Debunked
> [url=http://www.livelinks.com/sumeria/cosmo/bunk.html][/url]
> "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.
> [url=http://www.worldtrans.org/pos/monkey.html][/url]
> Amundsom, Ron. "The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon," Skeptical Inquirer, Summer
> 1985. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey and Other Paradigms of the
> Paranormal, ed. Kendrick Frazier (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1991)...
> $18.36
> Amundsom, Ron. "Watson and the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon," Skeptical
> Inquirer, Spring 1987.
> Possel, Markus and Ron Amundson. "Senior Researcher Coments on the Hundredth
> Monkey Phenomenon in Japan," Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 1996.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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