God And The Hive Mind

(Aka Thinking Out Loud)

Say you found a way of being that really worked, a way of thinking and relating to others that produced tangible results, yet ran against the grain of popular understanding.

What would you do?

This is the train of thought that the story of the 100th monkey has brought me to, the story that Anne brought to my attention yesterday.

Hive Mind, apart from appearing in old sci-fi, was named after bees. So was Waggle Dance, a rather lovely English beer, but the earlier concept was that there was some sort of telepathic link between bees in a hive and hives in a species (the waggle dance however is the geographical explanation of travels that bees actually give to their siblings when back home, a sort of bumbling game of charades; pun intended.)

For the purpose of these notes, please take hive mind to involve a sharing of information, as in The Midwich Cuckoos (Village Of The Damned), rather than the control of zombies as in the Borg.

Nonetheless hive mind has other recorded examples. Blue tits everywhere (I thought it was starlings or sparrows) all suddenly had the skill to break open the foil seal on an old fashioned glass pint of milk to get to the fatty cream, within two weeks of a solitary bird making the first breakthrough somewhere in the UK back in 1949. There was no way for the message to pass entirely by physical means.

The story of the 100th Monkey (and like the so called Celestine Prophecy it is just that, a concept, a story) is that a single creature learned a task and shared it with the local group. Suddenly, when the group was large enough, when the hundredth monkey learned the trick, it triggered a cascade and overnight the skill was transported to all monkeys everywhere, even overseas; the knowledge absorbed, recognised and shared by the hive mind as soon as the incidence was great enough to register as significant.

This has such huge ramifications for humanity, particularly when compared to Christian philosophy. If God and the Devil were to exist (and I have my personal take on that, but then so do you,) if they were, then applying this theory, you could understand why it has been said that apathy is the Devil's greatest tool. Every time you saw the truth in something but gave up on living it, you could have reduced the numbers needed for critical mass, for a change to occur.

If you can wrap your head round the idea that hive mind is scientific fact and not only that, but also possibly applicable to higher lifeforms such as monkeys or humans; then prayer, attitude and all that DO matter, immensely. They matter even if you are stuck indoors and never see another person, they matter even when the world is telling you to stuff it and re-integrate with a greyer way of thinking.

Faith, hope and charity (aka trust, anticipation of good and caring) are named as the greatest gifts for a reason. You wouldn't have to convince every ape that crosses your path. It doesn't matter that they all think you are nuts and should concentrate on hoarding whats yours, defining the bad guys, looking after number one in fear and insecurity like the masses.

It doesn't matter because you could be needed, because you may just be the hundredth monkey. Hang on in there if things don't change right off the bat because you could also just as well be number 99.

I need to go swim in this concept because it has blown through my mind and scattered things. Its like I started off playing Monopoly and someone dropped a huge sack of what are apparently perfect diamonds, on the board. The game pieces are buried, so are the dice, and the Community Chest and Consequence cards that I was just about to pick from are under there somewhere too. My game-changing lucky dip is on hold.

What would you do? How important is the game? Were the rules there for a finite purpose, or should they have total precedence? Is this just a pretty idea, or more?

Off to think, but if you have sifted this sack before and have discovered gems or just glass, do let me know.