82. CHANGE THE WORLD

The world can change because single individuals like you and me decide to do it. It doesn't have to mean running for office or organizing protests. Just doing whatever small thing you can in your own life can make a difference. If it is a good idea, it may catch on without even telling a soul.
 
In biology there is a recently discovered phenomenon called morphic resonance. It is the instantaneous transmission of ideas, beliefs, skills, and even physical characteristics to others far distant and not connected in any material way.1 For example, after monkeys on one island decided to wash their food, monkeys on other distant islands began doing the same. In controlled studies people and animals that learned how to solve puzzles somehow transmitted the skill to new test groups who were able to arrive at solutions more rapidly.
 
Inventors run into this phenomenon all the time. No matter how novel an invention may be, it is usually under development by someone else at the same time. Examples include the atomic bomb, printing press, rockets, the first airplane, electricity, and countless others. Businesses experience it in naming new products. Lo and behold, when a trademark search is done another company has come up with the same name. Morphic resonance helps explain cycles of fashion, product trends, new ideas, and argot. There is more at work here than advertising.
 
An example I have recently noted is children saying "I love you" to parents. It is done in the hearing of friends without the slightest embarrassment. If I had done that as a child, my buddies would have ridiculed me into nerd oblivion. With our youngest children, frequent "I love you" expressions seemed special and unique to our family. Neither my wife nor I had heard it being done in other families. Then, as the kids got older and we started mixing with their friends and their parents, to our astonishment they were all doing it. We didn't learn it from them, nor did they learn it from us—directly.
 
Much of the change we see in the world may be the result of the 'contagion' of morphic resonance. The zeitgeist of a society originates with one and can spread like wildfire, unseen, unspoken, unheard, unprinted, and without electronic transmission into the consciousness of the whole.
 
Pay attention and notice how trends spread beyond the means of any physical mechanism. It's as though thought itself instantly transmits throughout society. No, this is not hocus-pocus. Modern quantum physics argues this to be a scientifically plausible idea. (More on this fascinating topic in the companion book.)
 
So do not underestimate the power of your thoughts and actions beyond the immediate circumstance. As Gandhi exhorted, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Do what is right in your own little domain regardless of how insignificant it may seem. You will most certainly impact those around you and may even instantly transmit to the whole of humanity creating the seed for a better world.
 
You are only one, but still you are one. You cannot do everything, but you can do something. Because you cannot do everything you should not shrink from doing that which you can do.2