MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO

On the Japanese island of Koshima in the 1950s, Lyall Watson observed a group of macaque monkeys learning to wash the sweet potatoes he left for them in the sand. Once a single monkey had learned to wash his sweet potato, many other monkeys began doing the same, and the knowledge of how to do it proliferated quickly throughout the species on the island.

As you would expect, monkeys are similar to humans in how they learn from one another. However, there's something stranger still about Watson's observation. He reported that monkeys from other islands, unrelated to the Koshima group, were beginning to wash their sweet potatoes in a similar fashion soon after. It's as if the concept of washing sweet potatoes didn't exist until that first monkey attempted it.

Then, the idea somehow gained a life of its own and found itself in the minds of other monkeys without needing to be transmitted. We can see this phenomenon happening amongst humans all the time. It could be why spiritual practices have so many similarities despite their origins being from different parts of the world.

We are all part of a collective consciousness, an intricate web that connects every individual. Our ideas, our beliefs, our learned behaviors - they all resonate on this web, influencing not just our individual reality, but the shared reality we all partake in.

This suggests an astonishing truth: we are all co-creators, manifesting our collective reality through beliefs, behaviors, and ideas, much like those monkeys washing sweet potatoes.

Every thought we share, every idea we spread, and every action we take has the potential to ripple out, inspiring change and transformation in unseen, profound ways. It's a beautiful testament to our interconnectedness, painting a picture of unity rather than isolation, collaboration rather than a solitary existence. Thus, each one of us holds the power to influence the course of humanity - we are the alchemists of our shared reality.