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  1. #1

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    Do you think this applies to Jiu Jitsu schools?

    Hundredth monkey effect
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
    Not to be confused with Infinite monkey theorem.
    This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations.
    Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (December 2010)

    The hundredth monkey effect is a supposed phenomenon in which a learned behavior spreads instantaneously from one group of monkeys to all related monkeys once a critical number is reached. By generalization it means the instantaneous, paranormal spreading of an idea or ability to the remainder of a population once a certain portion of that population has heard of the new idea or learned the new ability. The story behind this supposed phenomenon originated with Lawrence Blair and Lyall Watson in the mid-to-late 1970s, who claimed that it was the observation of Japanese scientists. One of the primary factors in the promulgation of the myth is that many authors quote secondary, tertiary or post-tertiary sources who have themselves misrepresented the original observations.[citation needed]

    Contents [hide]
    1 Popularization of the claim
    2 The original research
    3 The effect discredited
    4 Sources
    5 See also
    6 External links
    7 References

    [edit] Popularization of the claim
    The story of the hundredth monkey effect was published in the foreword to Lawrence Blair's Rhythms of Vision in 1975.[1] The claim spread with the appearance of Lifetide, a 1979 book by Lyall Watson. In it, Watson repeats Blair's claim. The authors describe similar scenarios. They state that unidentified scientists were conducting a study of macaques monkeys on the Japanese island of Koshima in 1952.[2] These scientists purportedly observed that some of these monkeys learned to wash sweet potatoes, and gradually this new behavior spread through the younger generation of monkeys—in the usual fashion, through observation and repetition. Watson then claimed that the researchers observed that once a critical number of monkeys was reached—the so-called hundredth monkey—this previously learned behavior instantly spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands.

    This story was further popularized by Ken Keyes, Jr. with the publication of his book The Hundredth Monkey. Keyes' book was about the devastating effects of nuclear war on the planet. Keyes presented the hundredth monkey effect story as an inspirational parable, applying it to human society and the effecting of positive change. Since then, the story has become widely accepted as fact and even appears in books written by some educators.

    [edit] The original research
    In 1985, Elaine Myers re-examined the original published research in “The Hundredth Monkey Revisited” in the journal In Context. In her review she found that the original research reports by the Japan Monkey Center in Vol. 2, 5, and 6 of the journal Primates are insufficient to support Watson’s story. In short, she is suspicious of the existence of a hundredth monkey phenomenon; the published articles describe how the sweet potato washing behavior gradually spread through the monkey troupe and became part of the set of learned behaviors of young monkeys, but she doesn’t agree that it can serve as an evidence for the existence of a critical number at which the idea suddenly spread to other islands.

    However, the story as told by Watson and Keyes is popular among New Age authors and personal growth gurus and has become an urban legend and part of New Age mythology. Also, Rupert Sheldrake has cited that a phenomenon like the hundredth monkey effect would be an evidence of Morphic fields bringing about non-local effects in consciousness and learning. As a result, the story has also become a favorite target of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and was used as the title essay in The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal published by them in 1990.

    In his book Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer explains how the urban legend started, was popularised, and has been discredited.

    [edit] The effect discredited
    An analysis of the appropriate literature by Ron Amundson, published by the Skeptics Society, revealed several key points that demystified the supposed effect.

    Unsubstantiated claims that there was a sudden and remarkable increase in the proportion of washers in the first population were exaggerations of a much slower, more mundane effect. Rather than all monkeys mysteriously learning the skill it was noted that it was predominantly younger monkeys that learned the skill from the older monkeys through the usual means of imitation; older monkeys who did not know how to wash tended not to learn. As the older monkeys died and younger monkeys were born the proportion of washers naturally increased. The time span between observations was in the order of years.

    Claims that the practice spread suddenly to other isolated populations of monkeys may be dis-proven given the fact that at least one washing monkey swam to another population and spent about four years there. It is also to be noted that the sweet potato was not available to the monkeys prior to human intervention.[citation needed]

    [edit] Sources
    Robert Todd Carroll (2005). “The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon.” Skeptic’s Dictionary.
    Elaine Myers (Spring 1985). “The Hundredth Monkey Revisited.” In Context.
    Markus Pössel & Ron Amundson (May/June 1996). “Senior Researcher Comments on the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon in Japan.” Skeptical Inquirer.
    Ron Amundson, “The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon,” Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1985, 348-356. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey—And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, 1991, ISBN 0-87975-655-1 (see online version under External links).
    Ron Amundson, Watson and the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon, Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1987, 303-4. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey—And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, 1991, ISBN 0-87975-655-1.

  2. #2

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    Like once an instructor shows 100 people his new technique, it's just learned behavior among other grapplers of the same species.

    :S

  3. #3

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    But the theory is disproved in your article, it's just imitation. I like the idea of mass consciousness but it's silly to think they learned something from anything other than experience. You don't just learn shit magically, life's about the journey, it's how you get to a specific skill or place

  4. #4

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    It's silly maybe, but just because somebody tried to debunk it doesn't leave the possibility of something out of question in my mind. This 100th Monkey Effect reminds me of when I'm trying to roll with my right brain consciousness and just make things up as I go along, I wonder how I'm just naturally hitting a position somebody else might have hit when they were just screwing around. And pop! I heard someone talking about it and looked it up and decided to share to spread the consideration on to you and whoever else is watching.

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