The 99th Monkey (book review)
Eliezer Sobel doesn’t pretend that he has found any great spiritual truth. But he has certainly learned about many pathways, gurus and followers. Staying firmly rooted in a skeptical, sarcastic viewpoint, he refuses to take any of his spiritual options at face value. What emerges, from his skepticism, pragmatism, and wry wit, is a thoroughly engaging survey of the spiritual pathways available to a self-described cynical seeker.
Sobel’s introduction explains the titular 99th monkey. Scientists gave a tribe of monkeys sweet potatoes covered in sand. One day, instead of settling for a gritty treat, a monkey washed the sand off her potato. Gradually, the trick spread throughout the tribe of monkeys. After 100 monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes, a strange thing happened: monkeys on other islands began washing potatoes too. Many New Age believers embraced that story as an emblem of shared harmony and social change. Meanwhile, Sobel aligns himself with the 99th monkey, still chomping on the grit.
Sobel makes the 99th monkey work hard, highlighting his detached, sarcastic view of various attempts to find spiritual connection or peace. But the metaphor never feels overused. Rather, it is a grounding, returning point in a sometimes bewildering barrage of New Age philosophies, told in longer essays and shorter, pithy asides. From primal scream to Ram Dass to LSD to Esalen, Sobel has tried his hand at every well-known New Age movement of the 60s, 70s and 80s. The happiness and spiritual peace he finds are fleeting. He emerges from each brief glimpse of transcendence with his sarcastic wit intact and ready to tackle the next guru. The novelty and far-reaching scope of Sobel’s searching keeps his asides from sounding too much like Woody Allen’s tremulousness.
Sobel’s prose stays honest, pointing up his own failings while he humanizes and skewers some of the gurus and movements he has known. His cynical humor helps tie together what is often a disjointed narrative. Someone who is unfamiliar with most New Age movements might take this at face value, as a mildly funny spiritual chronicle. A veteran of one or more New Age obsessions, however, will guffaw at Sobel’s satire of familiar scenes. As a lapsed Catholic, I found his tour of Jerusalem particularly irreverent and wonderful. He invokes Ray’s Pizza in a discussion of the Second Coming. It really doesn’t get any funnier. Or perhaps it does. While I found myself mildly curious and vaguely chuckling about some of the unfamiliar New Age theories, someone with greater knowledge of one of the gurus he has followed may get more of Sobel’s jokes.
The self-deprecating wit of Sobel’s comprehensive ramble through New Age philosophies will delight any spiritual seeker who has a sense of humor. It also seems to be a fairly evenhanded representation of unfamiliar aspects of the New Age movement.
