100th Monkey Syndrome invoked live on TV at 5th Bristol Vegan Festival

Organisers of an international ethical living eco festival at The Eco chic greener than green, 5th Bristol Vegan Fayre plan to broadcast live on international TV channel www.veggievision.co.uk as they search for the hundredth monkey. Viewers will be encouraged to spot the person who will invoke the hundredth monkey principle and provoke spontaneous veganism in millions of people around the world.

Ever since English woodwork teacher Donald Watson first invented veganism in 1944, supporters have been waiting for the point of critical mass when worldwide enlightenment arrives. Organisers of an international vegan festival believe they could be almost there and about to provoke the activation of a legendary phenomenon called the 100th monkey syndrome .

Tony Bishop-Weston author of Vegan by Hamlyn says “The vegan campaigners in the UK are on track to see 1 million people in Britain who follow a ‘mainly vegan diet’ by World Vegan Dayon November the 1st 2007. 200 years ago the slave trade was abolished in the UK - I think it’s now time to also stop the slavery of animals”

In his book The Hundredth Monkey, Ken Keyes, Jr. wrote about scientists who had been observing monkeys in the wild for thirty years. In 1952, on the Japanese island of Koshima, they provided monkeys with sweet potatoes which they had dropped in sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the potatoes but found the sand unpleasant.

One day, an eighteen month old monkey named Imo washed the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught the trick to her mother and her playmates, who taught it to their mothers. Apparently 99 monkeys learned to wash their sweet potato between 1952 and 1958. Once the 100th monkey learnt this suddenly, almost every monkey on the island began to wash their potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this 100th monkey had somehow created a behavioural breakthrough.

More amazing, the scientists observed that the act of washing sweet potatoes had jumped over the sea, because the colonies of monkeys on other islands, as far as 500 miles away, began washing their sweet potatoes.

This phenomenon is considered to be due to critical mass. When a limited number of people know something in a new way, it remains the conscious property of only those people. The Hundredth Monkey Syndrome hypothesises that there is a point at which if only one more person tunes in to a new awareness, a field of energy is strengthened so that new awareness is picked up by almost everyone.

“If we can reach the one millionth person on our island, Britain, who is switched on to the benefits of the vegan lifestyle, I think that will be our equivalent of the hundredth monkey effect on the Island of Koshima in 1958. We could suddenly see millions of people around the world having a mini ‘road to Damascus’ moment and finding themselves enlightened with the full potential of vegan living” says Tim Barford from Yaoh hemp products, founder of The Bristol Vegan Fayre.

Editors Notes

To see the latest line up of ethical and environmentally friendly exhibitors, live bands, speakers, cookery demos, performers, attractions, health foods, alternative health, therapists and sponsors please see

www.bristolveganfayre.co.uk