Lyall Watson

Jul 4 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

THE fellow with the brilliant if maverick mind, who introduced Fred the tapeworm to his system in the belief it would help combat stomach disorders on his extensive travels, was not easily dismayed by the banality of conventional thinkers.

In fact, his head, shaded by a rather elegant boater, was the first white one spotted by headhunters in Papua New Guinea. But he kept it.

Admirers and critics noted that Lyall Watson didn’t lack confidence in his own brilliance and, happily, that opinion was shared by the thousands who bought his books – making him one of the world’s most read scientists, though his particular appeal was to those who dipped their thoughts in the paranormal.

When his theory on the “hundredth monkey” was challenged and doubted, he retaliated in spirited fashion.

“I find the cavils of self-appointed committees for the suppression of curiosity very tedious,” he wrote.

This was his most famous (infamous?) idea. It was the complicated belief that, if a small group of monkeys carried out a simple but unexpected task – in this case washing sweet potatoes in the sea off a Japanese island – a point would be reached when the practice would be adopted by all their fellow monkeys.

This would happen when the “hundredth monkey” took it up. He later admitted that the research for this had been tenuous and that it had been “a metaphor of my own making”.

But, by the time he had published the theory in his sixth book, Lifetide (1979), Watson’s work was widely known, as a result of the spectacular success of Supernature, which embraced the fringes of scientific discovery with the occult and the mysterious. It sold 750,000 copies, topped the best-seller lists and was translated into eight languages.

Malcolm Lyall-Watson (he dropped the Malcolm) was brought up in a professional family in Johannesburg, mixing freely with Zulus and Bushmen as a child.

His unquenchable curiosity resulted in degrees in geology, chemistry, marine biology, ecology and anthropology. He studied ethology under Desmond (The Naked Ape) Morris at London University.

As the books and adventures rolled on, Watson took a great interest in sumo wrestling, as well as Uri Geller’s fork-bending.

He worked for a while on TV’s Tomorrow’s World.

Marrying twice and travelling enthusiastically, he finally settled in Ireland.

Lyall Watson, writer, adventurer and scientist; born April 12, 1939,died June 25, 2008.