What is the spiritual message of this story?

Question

In an experiment, 10 monkeys were placed in a closed cage with a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling. As soon as the monkeys tried to reach for the bananas, they were hosed down with cold water, so after a couple of attempts, they quit trying.
Later on, one of the monkeys was replaced with a newcomer. Right away, the newcomer jumped for the bananas, but the other monkeys attacked him and prevented him from reaching them.
Next, another monkey was replaced. The new monkey, once again, reached for the bananas, only to be stopped by the others, including the newcomer from the previous stage.

A few more stages down the line, the cage contained 10 monkeys who were never hosed down with cold water, but would aggressively try to stop any monkey from reaching for the bananas.
Why?

BECAUSE THAT'S THE WAY WE DO THINGS AROUND HERE.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

true, the other monkeys never had any experience with being hosed off by cold water, but were too scared to try it for themselves, kinda like believing a 2000 year old account that warns you of things that we've never seen. well i'm going for the banana..

TriCyclic · Answer

Because they associate extreme pain with getting what they want, and secondarily, they want to belong to the main or powerful group.  Even though the new monkeys are not hosed by cold water, they are just as dissuaded by being attacked by the others-- that severe kind of cognitive dissonance can only be resolved by compliance with the main group.

Spiritually speaking, the monkey learns that trying to get what he wants and needs will destroy him.  He belongs to a banana-less group and enforces the rules of bananaless monkeys:  no banana for you!

Rays · Answer

Very nice I liked the story . It's just like we are doing all the stupidity on earth --Playing with religion , trying to convince that ours is the best etc etc.
And when someone else is born we try to include that person in the same game.
As the monkeys are replace it means people die on earth & new ones are born.
People die doing all stupidity

Me Smart, You Dumb, Get Over It · Answer

There is no spiritual message. Only the message that primates (especially humans) tend to enforce hegemony or groupthink among groups for a perceived benefit.

Cassa · Answer

Spiritual message?  Hmm...that a group shares its knowledge for the benefit of the group & later generations don't need to see the original punishment to know the fear?

JohnsHopkins · Answer

I STILL LIKE BANANAS BUT I DON'T THINK THOSE MONKEYS ARE TOO SMART.

Little Red Riding Hood · Answer

That's how animals are trained.Just a guess.

Andrew the second · Answer

There is nothing spiritual there.

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What is the spiritual message of this story?

8 Answers