Indigo children

Indigo children is a term used to describe children who are believed to possess special, unusual and sometimes supernatural traits or abilities. The term stems from and belongs primarily to the New Age beliefs and lifestyle, but was also criticized as pseudoscientific by its skeptics. The idea is based on New Age concepts developed in the 1970s by Nancy Ann Tappe. As defined by Jan Tober (one of the major proponents of the term and an author of several books on it) "...an Indigo child is one who displays a new and unusual set of psychological attributes, and shows a pattern of behavior generally undocumented before..." The concept of indigo children gained popular interest with the publication of a series of books in the late 1990s and the release of several films in the following decade. A variety of books, conferences and related materials have been created surrounding belief in the idea of indigo children and their nature and abilities. The interpretations of these beliefs range from their being the next stage in human evolution, in some cases possessing paranormal abilities such as telepathy, to the belief that they are simply more empathic and creative than their peers.

Although there are no scientific studies to give credibility to the existence of any indigo children, or their traits, the phenomenon appeals to some parents whose children have been diagnosed with learning disabilities and parents seeking to believe that their children are special. Skeptics view this as a way for parents to avoid proper (and generally pharmaceutical) pediatric treatment or a psychiatric diagnosis. The list of traits used to describe the children has also been criticized for being vague enough to be applied to almost anyone, a form of the Forer effect. The phenomenon has been criticized as a means of making money from credulous parents through the sales of related products and services.

Origins

The term "indigo children" originated with parapsychologist and self-described synesthete and psychic Nancy Ann Tappe, who developed the concept in the 1970s. Tappe published the book Understanding Your Life Through Color in 1982 describing the concept, stating that during the mid 1960s she began noticing that many children were being born with "indigo" auras (in other publications Tappe has said the color indigo came from the "life colors" of the children which she acquired through her synesthesia). The idea was later popularized by the 1998 book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, written by husband and wife self-help lecturers Lee Carroll and Jan Tober. (Carroll and Tober confirmed the "Indigo" auras being solely a peculiarity of Tappe's synesthetic perception; however, they continued to use the already wide-spread term "Indigos" to describe the phenomenon. Their official statement is that "...they were named by a woman (Nancy Tappe) who is a synesthete, and not by a psychic who saw an aura...", "...auras have nothing whatsoever to do with Indigo Children".) They describe the goal of indigo children to be a remaking of the world into one lacking war, trash, and processed food.

One of the main background ideas about the origin of Indigo children, as described by Jan Tober, is that they are spiritually highly mature "old souls", who had usually incarnated on Earth many times before and have lots of sub-conscious experience and deeper intuitive understanding of the nature of life than their current parents and teachers. They are supposed to form an advance wave of harbingers of new world consciousness, purposefully dispatched to the Earth from the higher spiritual dimensions, the task of which is to gradually bring about the change of humanity's collective mind.

The promotion of the concept by Tober and Carroll brought greater publicity to the topic, and soon their book became the primary source on "indigo children".

In 2002, an international conference on indigo children was held in Hawaii, drawing 600 attendees, with subsequent conferences the following years in Florida and Oregon. The concept was popularized and spread further by a feature film and documentary, both released in 2005, and both directed by James Twyman, a New Age writer.

Susan W. Whedon suggests in an 2009 article in Nova Religio that the social construction of Indigo Children is a response to an "apparent crisis of American childhood". Whedon explains that the crisis is evident in the increase in "diagnoses of ADD and ADHD in American children", and that "heightened awareness of youth violence" caused parents to "take matters in their own hands". Parents began medicating and diagnosing their offspring as Indigo Children as a means of "redeeming" them for their improper behavior stemming from ADD and ADHD.

Characteristics

Descriptions of indigo children include:

• the belief that they are empathetic, curious, strong-willed, independent, and often perceived by friends and family as being strange;
• possess a clear sense of self-definition and purpose;
• exhibit a strong innate sub-conscious spirituality from early childhood (which, however, does not necessarily imply a direct interest in spiritual or religious areas).

Indigo children have also been described as having a strong feeling of entitlement, or "deserving to be here."

Other alleged traits include:

• a high intelligence quotient, an inherent intuitive ability, and
• resistance to rigid, control-based paradigms of authority.

According to Tober and Carroll, indigo children may function poorly in conventional schools due to their rejection of rigid authority, being smarter (or more spiritually mature) than their teachers, and a lack of response to guilt-, fear- or manipulation-based discipline.

According to Lee Carroll's Kryon channelings, indigo children possess a high (increased) inborn awareness of Eternal Now.

They are also described as natural "peacemakers", who strive for the values of tolerance, acceptance and mutual understanding both on the level of close surroundings (family, direct social relationships) and also on the level of relationships between various social groups, countries, nations, and miscellaneous world religions and ideologies. They are expected to bring these values into culture, politics and social standards as they grow up and receive an opportunity to express their inborn qualities.

In his Kryon channeling in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2000, in the context of speaking about paradigm shift from the Immune System-based to the Thymus-based challenge handling in human biology, Carroll announced that Indigo children would be characterized by special "developments in biology as they become adults", "...Already, they [the Indigo Children] are developing some organs in their bodies that are more sophisticated than those you have in yours...". They supposedly also are in the process of developing a higher mastery of "the third language", which will let them "know of the energy of others", so that during communication "...you cannot deceive, cannot lie, and cannot escape your true feelings."

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Many children labeled indigo by their parents are diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Tober and Carroll's book The Indigo Children linked the concept with diagnosis of ADHD. Their book argues that the children are a new stage of evolution rather than children with a medical diagnosis, and that they require special treatment rather than medications. Robert Todd Carroll points out that labeling a child an indigo is an alternative to a diagnosis that implies imperfection, damage or mental illness, which may appeal to many parents, a belief echoed by academic psychologists. He also points out that many of the commentators on the indigo phenomenon are of varying qualifications and expertise. Linking the concept of indigo children with the distaste for the use of Ritalin to control ADHD, Carroll states "The hype and near-hysteria surrounding the use of Ritalin has contributed to an atmosphere that makes it possible for a book like Indigo Children to be taken seriously. Given the choice, who wouldn't rather believe their children are special and chosen for some high mission rather than that they have a brain disorder?"

Stephen Hinshaw, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, states that concerns regarding the overmedicalization of children are legitimate but even gifted children with ADHD learn better with more structure rather than less, even if the structure initially causes difficulties. Many labeled as indigo children are or have been home schooled.

Criticism

According to research psychologist Russell Barkley, the New Age movement has yet to produce empirical evidence of the existence of indigo children, as the 17 traits most commonly attributed to them were akin to the Forer effect (i.e., so vague they could describe nearly anyone). Many critics see the concept of indigo children as made up of extremely general traits, a sham diagnosis that is an alternative to a medical diagnosis, with a complete lack of science or studies to support it. The lack of scientific foundation is acknowledged by some believers, including Doreen Virtue, author of The Care and Feeding of Indigos, and James Twyman, who produced two films on Indigo Children and who offers materials and courses related to the phenomenon. Virtue has been criticized for claiming to have a Ph.D., despite this being awarded by California Coast University, a then-unaccredited institution sometimes accused of being a diploma mill.

Mental health experts are concerned that labeling a disruptive child an "Indigo" may delay proper diagnosis and treatment that could help the child. Others have stated that many of the traits of indigo children could be more prosaically interpreted as simple unruliness and alertness.

Nick Colangelo, a University of Iowa professor specializing in the education of gifted children, stated that the first indigo book should not have been published, and that "...[t]he Indigo Children movement is not about children, and it is not about the color indigo. It is about adults who style themselves as experts and who are making money on books, presentations and videos."

Commercialization

According to Lorie Anderson's article "Indigo: The Color of Money", belief in indigo children has significant commercial value due to sales of book, video, and one-on-one counseling session for children, as well as in donations and speaking engagements. There are now a wide variety of books, films, summer camps and conferences that are aimed at parents who believe their children are indigos. The two films produced on the subject were both by James Twyman, who sells a variety of indigo-themed courses, clothing, books, CDs and movies.

External links

• Indigo children at Curlie