I am curious indigo

This is a heck of an article to read first thing in the morning:

If you have not been in an alternative bookstore lately, it is possible that you have missed the news about indigo children. They represent "perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented," Lee Carroll and Jan Tober write in "The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived" (Hay House).

[...]

Indigo children were first described in the 1970's by a San Diego parapsychologist, Nancy Ann Tappe, who noticed the emergence of children with an indigo aura, a vibrational color she had never seen before. This color, she reasoned, coincided with a new consciousness.

[...]

Annette Piper, a mother of two in Memphis, said that she had planned to go to medical school until she realized she was an indigo, able to tell what was wrong with people by touching them. ... Her daughter Alexandra, 10, is also an indigo, she said. They play games to cultivate their telepathic powers, but at school Alexandra struggles, Ms. Piper said.

"Are They Here to Save the World?" NYT, Jan 12, 06

Frankly, I think my favorite clause in the entire article is "They play games to cultivate their telepathic powers." Of course they do. Some of us do Sudoku because it keeps the deductive reasoning up, the rest of us work on our telepathic powers.

The Skeptic's dictionary has a good entry documenting the New Age cred that strong indigo children proponents have, and examining why many parents would prefer to think of their headstrong, disruptive children as indigo children instead of, say, having ADHD.

BeliefNet also examined the whole indigo children idea ("Brood Indigo"). Of particular note:

Named for the deep-blue aura they’re said to radiate, Indigo Children make up more than 80 percent of the generation that began "appearing on Earth," in Virtue's phrase, in the 1970s. Virtue believes this special breed of young healers and teachers comes from a variety of "realms"--some are reincarnated priests and wizards, some come from far-off solar systems, while others are simply highly evolved humans. They represent a new form of consciousness that will bring about a leap in human evolution, taking us from thinking in three dimensions to four. Among other things, they can see spirits, levitate, bilocate, communicate telepathically, bend time, and "instantly manifest" any spiritual or material need.

In other words, indigo children = the Justice League. (Except for Batman. He's clearly stuck in some red part of the aura spectrum.)

Another aspect of this indigo children thing that's tremendously amusing is the attitude toward science:

Skeptics point out that there's no scientific research backing up the existence of these children, and James Twyman, 43, knows that's true.

"Certainly in the scientific realm, this is just a bunch of New Age nonsense," says Twyman, a writer and musician known as a "peace troubadour" in his hometown of Ashland, Ore. "But I think anyone with an inquisitive and rational mind can look at many children out there today and say there's something about them."

-- "Indigo Kids: Does the Science Fly?" USAT, May 31, 05

I always like it when New Agers and Christian creationists can find common ground. Maybe these indigo kids are bringing the world together after all!

Comments

[Peggy Nature]

This is possibly the weirdest thing I've ever read. wtf??

[how&ever]

I have a rather crazy aunt, who once tried to convince the family that I was an early-indigo child. And the more I learned the more I laughed, because, really. Let's be rational here. Besides, people who need the world to perceive their child as super-special strike me as insecure. And anyone who thinks their child is so super-special as to represent an actual "evolutionary leap forward"? Insecure nutball.

[hannah]

Oh, I was DYING laughing over that article on the bus today. I loved that girl, Jasmine, who was all about her special powers and ability to save the planet. You go, girl.

[drunken monkey]

Y'all just don't GET IT. They are SPECIAL.

[Kate]

Huh, there was also a reference to this Indigo Children thing in this week's New Yorker, in a very peculiar piece about the suicide of a gifted child. Some people who knew him are trying to explain his suicide with the idea that he was a super-empathetic indigo child who knew his organs were needed to keep others alive. I'd never heard of it until now, but it's all very very weird.

[Lisa]

he was a super-empathetic indigo child who knew his organs were needed to keep others alive

By that logic, we should be killing children routinely so we may harvest their organs to keep a greater number of people alive. I understand the need to explain a suicide, but that explanation ... no.

[Maggie]

It seems like this is yet another outgrowth of the need for today's parents to feel that their offspring are smarter/better/more special than anyone else's, ever. Combine narcissistic upper-middle-class helicopter parenting with New Age hoo-ha, and voila! Indigos. I especially like the angle of "these children are here to save the world!" Like they're Buddha and Jesus wrapped together. No, actually, they're just brats with a fancy name.

(I was a "gifted" child with authority problems who somehow found it in herself to behave and get good grades, because I knew it would get me what I wanted.)

[Tonja]

I'm troubled by the comment about New Agers and Christian creationists finding common ground. I'm a Christian creationist who believes in the Bible as the inerrant word of God (did you know there's more scientific evidence supporting intelligent creation than there is supporting evolution? Or that there is plenty of scientific evidence actually refuting evolution? Probably not. Society is too enamored with a faulty theory that Darwin designed specifically for the purpose of explaining God out of existence.) I can't see anything in the New Age explanation of so-called Indigo children that I can agree with. I agree, rather, with everyone else that these are troubled children that need help, and if they're allowed to grow up with practically no boundaries as their delusional parents seem inclined to do, we're going to end up with an even more messed up society than we have already.

[marion]

Ugh, I've seen references to this before, but not this extensively. I went to the Skeptic's Dictionary entry and found these traits, among others, listed for the "indigos":

*They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it)
*They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others don't share that.
*They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
*They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.

This describes every two-year-old I have ever met. However, many parents actually manage to get their children beyond this stage rather than allowing them to wallow in it forever.

Sheesh, maybe I need to apologize to the "CSI" writers for disbelieving their constant portrayal of teenagers from relatively loving homes and non-horrific backgrounds casually turning to murder to deal with their problems. If real-life teenagers have parents who buy into this "indigo" thing, then I can see how they'd turn into entitled little murderers before they could drive.

[Lisa]

Oh, Tonja, you can't come to a weblog that's been pretty open about its belief in the scientific process, make your little comments about "there's more scientific evidence supporting intelligent creation than there is supporting evolution" and not be expected to back up your statements with documented proof by credible, peer-reviewed third parties?

Moreover, you can't really have expected to post here using a faulty definition of evolution -- I believe I had recently posted on the rhetorical strategy creationists use to confuse readers/listeners between actual scientific process and the work of one scientist as an effort to discredit science as a philosophical argument -- without either supporting your contention that Darwin's main point was to promote atheism or proving that evolutionary theory hasn't progressed beyond what Darwin put forth?

Because honestly? As your comment stands now, you really seem miffed that I've equated the "indigo children" nonsense -- based largely on concepts that haven't been rigorously tested and peer-reviewed -- with creationism -- also based largely on concepts that aren't rigorously tested and peer-reviewed. And from where I'm standing, I don't see much difference in the intellectual origins of either.

[Roger]

Get 'er, Lisa!

Shoot, now I'm hearing "The Ride of the Valkyries!"

[De'Jenae']

I don't see what is so bad about these indigos. I personally feel they are interesting gifts to humanity, and many of them have something important to say. What's so funny about the idea of indigos? It's very true and very okay. And promise you won't be afraid of them or be envious of them, because a lot of skeptics harbor hate, and it's a very sad situation. So believe in them and trust them and their mentalities and their logic, because they're here to help move the world one step closer to a higher plane. And if you watch the news or read the papers, then you can agree with me when I say that this world DOES have a problem.

22

[Indigo Markaba]

If you post a reply out of love than it is obvious that the truth is in you, whether you believe in Indigo Children or not is not as important as is the state of your heart. The condition of your hearts is revealed through the humility of your comments.

[L K Tucker]

Those children believed to be Indigos have strange belief systems. They may believe they can talk to the dead or know of events before they happen.

VisionAndPsychosis.Net has published a much simpler solution to the phenomenon of Indigo Children.

Similar belief systems happen to long term users of Qi Gong and Kundalini Yoga. Users begin to believe they can levitate, walk through solid objects, dematerialize or disappear through the will of their minds. Qi Gong users sometimes believe they can throw Chee (Qi) energy from their finger tips to strike others. This has been demonstrated on a National Geographic program "Is It Real" Superhuman Powers(?).

A conflict of the physiology of sight related to the vision startle reflex was discovered when it caused mental breaks for office workers in the 1960's. The office cubicle was created to prevent those mental events. Cubicles block peripheral vision for a concentrating worker.

Too-close side-by-side seating in class rooms is the same design problems but the exposure to Subliminal Distraction is very low. There is rarely someone walking beside a concentrating student. Classroom students usually do the same things at the same times preventing a level of exposure that would cause the expected mental break.

Indigo Children are those sensitive to this low exposure. They eventually have the same thinking problems that Qi Gong Masters and Kundalini Yoga Gurus do. If you search on line you will find cases of these children developing mental illness.