Delusional Parenting: Indigo

The New York Times published a "fair and balanced" look at a set of parenting beliefs--"the Indigo Children".

The parents of  "Indigo Children" believe their children are new and special.   The Indigo concept was dreamed up by the "spiritual partners"  Lee Carroll and Jan Tober,  who wrote: "the Indigo Child is a boy or girl who displays a new and unusual set of psychological attributes, revealing a pattern of behavior generally undocumented before."   The first book was published in mid-1999.  The Indigo delusion has turned into a big industry, with books, meetings, and "channellings".

Those of us who think channelling and psychic powers are a load of codswallop describe these children as arrogant,  impatient children who have not been guided to develop self-control.  Or they may have  neurological challenges such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, or bi-polar.  In any case,  their parents are doing them no favors by avoiding the challenges of parenting, and or seeking competent medical care, in favor of new-age worship of the child.

Those who believe in the indigo phenomenon describe them as evolutionarily more advanced than their parents.  They have  an indigo-colored "aura",  the ability to see into the future, the ability to talk to unseenn beings (angels).  They have a special role to play, leading us into a new "world of  compassion and  peace."

Why such coverage now?  Because the Indigo True Believers are clever marketers, that's why.  Over the weekend of January 27, 2006, there will be a nation-wide "World Indigo Weekend", feature the release of a  new  movie, The Indigo Evolution,   ( Indigo: The Movie , a fictional treatment which premiered in 2003, will also be widely shown, even though it seems to be a turkey.  Even New Agers hate this one)

Chris Locke believes "indigo parents" are psychological child abusers.

According to the website Metagifted.org,  Indigo Children have the following traits, 

• Have difficulty with discipline and authority
• Refuse to follow orders or directions
• Find it torture to waiting in lines, lack patience
• Get frustrated by ritual-oriented systems that require little creativity
• Often see better ways of doing thing at home and at school
• Are mostly nonconformists
• Do not respond to guilt trips, want good reasons
• Get bored rather easily with assigned tasks
• Are easily distractible, can do many things at once
• Have strong empathy for others or NO empathy
• Are often identified or suspected of having ADD or ADHD, but can focus when they want to
• Often express anger outwardly rather than inwardly and may have trouble with rage

Their parents believe they can see the future.  Other Indigo enthusiasts believe they have special spiritual gifts:

"Indigo children have access to human experience at a larger level, at a greater depth than most people do," said Donald Walsch, best-selling author of "Conversations With God."

Sploid says,

Know-it-all brat or weirdo moonchild sent to save the world?

That's the question millions of wacky parents are asking these days. And for many suburban families desperate to find some meaning in the cruel drudgery of life, their moody hyperactive kids are really gifted creatures who will lead humanity to a new evolutionary phase.

Autism's Edges has a heart-breaking essay essay on the indigo child delusion, and what the implications are for kids on the autism spectrum:

Of course I can't deny the appeal of the indigo-child thesis. It is certainly very seductive to imagine that Sweet M. is not disabled, but that she is actually special—not as in needing special education, or special services—but as in being gifted. How lovely it is to imagine that she is just as valuable—maybe even more valuable—than a neurotypical child. The aching appeal to one's parental narcissism is obvious.

The danger of the indigo-child thesis, as MOM-NOS points out, or of the certain anti-psychiatric elements of the left, as Toby Miller and Marie Claire Leger point out, is that these versions of reality can cast parents like ourselves as evil drug pushers, rather than as parents who are doing abolutely everything we can to help make a home for our children in this world.

One parent believes that the indigo's disruptive behavior isn't pathological.  It has a purpose:

Even disruptive behavior has a purpose, said Marjorie Jackson, a tai chi and yoga teacher in Altadena, Calif., who said that her son, Andrew, is an indigo. Andrew, now 25, was not disruptive as a child, she said, but in her practice she sees indigos who are.

"The purpose of the disruptive ones is to overload the system so the school will be inspired to change," Ms. Jackson said. "The kids may seem like they have A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. What that is, is that the stimulus given to them, their inner being is not interested in it. But if you give them something that harmonizes with the broad intention that their inner self has for them, they won't be disruptive."

Ann Althouse said,

I don't like all the Ritalin, but this new age stuff is worse. And it's painful to see the pandering to parents who lack objectivity about the bratty dimension of their own children.

All the Ritalin...it probably is overprescribed, but I invite you to read a memoir from an adult who is finally getting his ADD under control, with medication:

I'm sorrowful that it took so long. And I'm angry - searingly angry – to think of that eight-year-old's enthusiasm as it succumbed to frustration and repeated insult, and to think of the twelve-year-old he became, certain that he was the worst waste of skin in the world.

The Skeptic's Dictionary has an excellent piece on the indigo child phenomenon ADHD and the forming of public opinion around the uses of medications such as Ritalin.

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?

Chris Locke has been following the "special children" story for a couple of years.  He takes no prisoners :

By laying these harebrained expectations on kids, the New Agers are building a whole generation of narcissists. I don't mean stuck-up egotists. We're talking about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), in which the child never develops a genuine sense of self because he or she is too busy attempting to live out the fantasies of a delusional and psychologically abusive parent. This requirement to embody by proxy the parent's own grandiose "spiritual" dreams of power and glory almost invariably results in lasting damage to the child -- and often to the people that child will come into contact with as an adult.

I think the indigo phenomenon has a host of roots

• The modern worship of celebrity: it's not enough just to be a regular person.  You have to be special in some way
• The cult of anti-authority--don't just question it, defy it! 
• The worship of the child, which began with the "youthquake"  of the 1960s.  "Indigo child" traits are very much those of an active 3-year old--these children aren't refusing to grow, their opposition is sacred!

Key players:

• Lee Carroll (co-author of the first Indigo Children books) a former engineer and now channeller for the entity called "Kryon".
• Jan Tober (co-author of the first Indigo Children books) a former jazz singer and and now channeller for the entity called "Kryon".
• James Twyman , who seems to make his living telling people about his visions for peace. He's the star of the fictional treatment of indigo children, Indigo: The Movie.
• Carolyn Kaufman who also makes her living providing "spiritual counselling and healing".
• Doreen Virtue provides "angel therapy"; she believes that indigo children were succeeded by  "crystal children" and now "rainbow children".
• Wendy Chapman, who describes herself as "an indigo adult), makes her living providing   "online counselling"  for parents and caregivers.
• Neale Donald Walsch, author of "Conversations with God" and actor in the "Indigo" fiction movie (read reviews here)

Partial List of Sources:
Michael Coronado's article in the Orange County Register
Lori Anderson's  Indigo: The Color of Money
Sharon Jayson's article in USA Today: Indigo: Does the Science Fly?
Laura at Apt. 11D's post, with excellent commentary.
New York Times article: Are They Here to Save the World?
ABC News Special Report: Nov 2005: Parents Believe Children Have Psychic Powers
Creek Running North: Just Stop Being Lazy
Mom Not Otherwise Specified: Seeing Indigo, Seeing Red

Indigo Children: Delusional Parenting and this New Age Profiteers

 

tags:

indigo children indigo

Comments

[Mothersvox]

Liz, Thanks for your comments at my site . . . and for spreading the word about the problems that the indigo child thesis creates for parents with ASD kids . . .

[Lisa]

I remember leafing through one of those books and being quite disappointed. I have a lot of experience with very bright, "difficult" children, and none of them ever spoke to angels or aliens or engaged in telepathic communication. Most of them were impatient and resistant because they were wired differently than other kids, and therefore had a harder time controlling their impulses, reading social cues, and producing the correct response to expectations due to learning problems or sensory issues. It does these kids no favors to pretend that they have science fiction abilities. I've worked with many hypersensitive kids who can perceive noises, smells, textures, and colors that the average person "tunes out", but in my experience this is a gift that can also be a curse, as it can prevent them from mustering any kind of meaningful response or being able to focus on the sensory input that is actually important in that situation. If they can be taught to work with what biology has given them, then they can move forward. Pretending they're Harry Potter just makes it harder to sort through all that information to do anything useful for them.

More importantly, it's insulting to all people with disabilities to have to drum up some sort of mystical holiness, that somehow it's not enough to just be human and worthy of respect, but in order to justify being who you are, you've got to be Gandalf the Wizard. Why can't it be acceptable for them to just be human beings who are outside the typical range of development in some way? Is this movement really saying that there is something wrong with these kids as they really are?

[Bonnie Ventura]

Some people really do see auras. My brother is one of them. I believe it's a form of synesthesia, but I'm not going to spoil his fun by telling him so!

[Miss Dennis]

Love your comments! The Irascible Professor forwarded your email about my Purple Stapler story. I can see from your site that we are completely on the same page! I particularly like this comment:

"Those of us who think channelling and psychic powers are a load of codswallop describe these children as arrogant, impatient children who have not been guided to develop self-control."

So funny and true. I'm new to blogging and just getting the hang of things here. I'll be posting a bunch of links from my site soon and will be sure to list yours!

Miss Dennis

[Jake]

Editor here: this comment has been edited for language I do not allow. See my blogging principles for more information

Hmm...A very crappy analysis if I ever saw one. Speaking as a student with "bi-polar disorder", I can clearly state that your opinion that we are all some kind of freak shows who cant control themselves as if were were animals in a zoo is, infact, bull---, and only proves how arrogant and idiotic you really are. My best freind has ADHD, but guess what? He's the smartest individual I have ever come to know. He makes people like you look retarded. How effing stupid can you people get? Seriously, you go right on the US county school websites and read their pompous definitions of "Emotionally Disabled", "Autistic/Retarded", and "Learning Disabled" and take the bait, hook line and sinker. A good day for me, I must say, is when the feces hits the fan and I have a chance to duck. I've learned the hard way, however, that your bull--- is ballistic, and must be confronted directly. Rather than ignoring the idiotic state of mind which bitter old ladies such as yourself place yourself in, I am forced to argue with you in order to retain my self-esteem. How would you feel if everybody around you thought you were retarded? Well, the joke's on you, ----face. Because under all the heaps of beurocratic, gullible bullshit you throw on innocent children with "disabilities", you really dont realize how STUPID you look, do you? It seems that people like you dont have a very stable connection with the world around you, either. Seriously, dont trust everybody you meet like a trivial sucker. People may tell you that we're stupid, that we're naturally all obnoxious, that we cant achieve anything...But for you to believe it, even though you've never met any of these children (and if you have, your assumptions have taken over your ability to get to know them), makes you the saddest most pathetic type of sucker that I've ever come to know. You people talk about respect, but in the end, you pretend that you know us more than we do; a truly arrogant notion indeed, a notion which renders you a hypocrite. I hate seeing IDIOTS like you who pretend to acknowlage diveristy and yet shun children who are slightly different. You filthy hypocrite! Seriously, shove your beurocratic, filthy hypocritic feminist definitions [deleted]. I'm tired of being nice, tired of trying to reason with people who simply cant understand no matter how much reality you spoon-feed to them.

"Those of us who think channelling and psychic powers are a load of codswallop describe these children as arrogant, impatient children who have not been guided to develop self-control"

No, [insult]. That's you. Describing a group of individuals whom you dont even know as being "arrogant, impatient children"...You dont think that's arrogant? You dont even know who the eff I am or what I'm like and yet you've already set your mind in stone that I'm some kind of psycho. I, for one, have excellent self-control. Otherwise, if I saw filth such as you in public, and I had a heated debate with you in which you described me and my freinds as randomly disoriented psychopaths, instead of calmly and rationally proving you wrong(such as I in fact usually do with idiots such as yourself), I would smash your ugly face in wouldnt I? That would be the appropriate response to the neo-racism that people like you infect our society with. It's just like calling a black person a nigger. Seriously, you wouldnt dare do that, would you? You'd even find it unethical. But if a person is DISABLED, well of course that's different, right? No, of course not. It's the same pompous crap. I even somewhat praise those parents...they're doing the rare and original thing: which is to recognize their own effing children as human beings, rather than zoo animals to be inspected as if they were objects. You have fun making philisophical satirists obsolute by rendering yourself a useless, bitter hypocrite who can admire nobody but herself. I'll just stand by and laugh =).

Editor here. This man has reason to be angry. Read his account of his educational history.

[liz]

More parents who believe their children have super powers:

Posted on Thu, Jan. 19, 2006 Believers say Indigo children have come to save us BY DIANNA MARDER Knight Ridder Newspapers

[snip]

Mainstream doctors, scientists, psychologists and educators shake their heads at the very idea of Indigo children, who are described as "old souls" returning to earth to usher in an era of environmental renewal and political rebirth born of peace and compassion.
[snip]

James Twyman is the producer/director of the new movie: "These new humans, this evolution we're seeing, is in answer to the mess we have made of the world," he says.

[snip]
Carroll and Tober recommend that Indigo children attend private schools that focus on individual needs, such as Montessori or Waldorf schools. But educator Paula Moraine, faculty director at the Kimberton Waldorf School, says she's not sure there is such a thing as an Indigo. It is just as likely, she says, that parents are raising their children with more freedom of expression - certainly with more permissiveness. Carroll and Tober's descriptors, she says, are "so vague that they encompass being human." "You can find almost every child in those definitions."

She outlined four types of Indigos - humanist, conceptual, artist and interdimensional - who will become tomorrow's doctors, engineers, artists and religious leaders. But Tappe, along with retired psychotherapist Doreen Virtue, says many Indigos also exhibit other, more troublesome traits: impatience, a sense of entitlement that borders on boorishness, and uncontrollable rage.

These children are so smart that they're bored and distracted easily, says [Doreen] Virtue, [and]...painted a darker picture. She says conventional teachers - and parents - are ill-equipped to deal with these youngsters. As a result, many Indigos are wrongly identified as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Instead of having their positive traits encouraged, Virtue says, the children are inappropriately treated with such drugs as Ritalin.

George J. DuPaul, a Lehigh University professor of school psychology who has extensively researched ADHD and its treatment, is aghast at the suggestion. "It's amazing to me that people would believe it," DuPaul says. "There's no scientific basis at all." ADHD is a quantifiable, medically recognized diagnosis, he says, but Indigo is a dream. "This Indigo-child thing," DuPaul says, "has no basis in fact or research. There is no diagnostic nomenclature, no test for it." He says our ability to diagnose and treat ADHD children has grown, not the number of youngsters with the disorder.

Undaunted, Indigo believers say medicine and science have always been slow to embrace change. Twenty years ago, for example, the medical profession scoffed at meditation.

But parents who insist on downplaying or rejecting an ADHD diagnosis may be setting up their youngsters for a lifetime of difficulty, says Ronald Brown, professor of public health and a dean at Temple University. "Several longitudinal studies show these undiagnosed children don't fare as well as adults," Brown says. "They get stuck in low-paying jobs and experience difficult marriages."

Dina Melendez was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was only 28. Her belief that everything in life happens for a reason was part of her survival strategy - reinforced by her surgeon, Beth DuPree, at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa. It was DuPree who introduced Melendez to the Indigo phenomenon.

"She came to my house," Melendez recalls, "and she looked at Matthew and said, 'You know, he's Indigo.'" DuPree says she recognized in Matthew some of the traits of her own Indigo child, Tommy, now 15. "I see Indigo as that color of the spectrum of light that has to do with spirituality," DuPree says. "To me it means your soul has an eternal nature." After that, Melendez read all she could on the subject, and struggled to be patient with her whirling dervish of a child.

Other parents of Indigos say they have become more spiritual as a result of having such remarkable, loving children. Janice Girgenti is convinced that her son Daniel is an Indigo who somehow healed the family cat after a veterinarian said its condition was hopeless. Joy Day Stevens, a marketing professional, says her Indigo child, 3-year-old Steele, often gives her messages from her deceased sister, whom he never met. "Even at 3," she says, "he has a real clear idea of what he wants and what would make things better." And Nancy Jean Walton, a Reiki practitioner, says her son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in fourth grade. "But I knew better," she says. "They suggested drugs, but we wouldn't allow it." She says he's Indigo.

For now, Matthew Melendez is in a half-day preschool where he is doing well, and Dina Melendez says the Indigo/ADHD debate is irrelevant. Matthew, she says, has been a gift to her, and it won't matter if teachers don't see him as Indigo.

Meanwhile, Virtue predicts that no new Indigos will be born. Instead, she says, she's already beginning to see Crystal children, born with exceptional healing powers and the ability to communicate telepathically.

Their challenge, she says, "is that they may be misdiagnosed with autism."

---

Where to See 'Indigo' Movie

The Indigo Evolution will be shown for the first time nationwide on Jan. 27, 28 and 29. A full list of locations is at www.theindigoevolution.com.

[Skeptico]

Jake:

Do you have any evidence that “indigo children” actually do have indigo “auras”, are “evolutionarily more advanced”, have psychic powers etc etc? If so, please present it.

[Skeptico]

Lee Carroll (channeling Kryon) writes in this book (page 99) that Indigo Children have the following identifying characteristics:

* A higher vibration.

* An imprint that voids certain astrological attributes that usually affect all humans.

* Specific biological equipment to enable them to better handle the human manufactured impurities of the planet that are now part of the human way of life.

All this begs the following questions:

1 What is the minimum vibrational frequency of an Indigo?

2 Which specific astrological attributes are voided in an Indigo?

3 Which "biological equipment" does an Indigo have that ordinary people do not have?

4 How will these things be measured or determined for certification purposes?

[Diana]

I wonder if perhaps there is a good argument to be made that arguing about labels such as "indigo children", vs. labels such as ADHD, Borderline Prsonality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, etc., is quite possibly just pitting one type of pseudoscience against another type of pseudoscience.

But, being not nearly familiar enough with either the spiritual/paranormal field, or the field of mainstream pill-pushing psychiatry, I'm not the person to make that argument. :-)

However, I am rather intrigued by the theory that the pathologizing of certain kinds of socially undesirable behavior often serves merely as a convenient method of social control - as well as serving as a good method of lazily avoiding really solving some of the problems which might lead to the undesired behavior in the first place.

(E.g., it's much less work to slap a diagnostic label on a bored, restless kid, than to work at making school more fun and interesting).

I recommend checking out the writings of Thomas Szasz - very interesting stuff. http://www.szasz.com

[Lisa]

OK, I'm going to get on my soapbox again for a fraction of a second, because it really bugs me when people assume that ADHD is just a kid being bored and restless because school isn't interesting. I've been in the special education field for a few years and have worked with lots of kids who have attention issues of one sort or another. These are kids who can't:

-sit through a whole movie, even if they really want to see the movie
-get the fork with food on it into their mouth because they get distracted in the time it takes to pick up a piece of food and bring it to their lips
-get interested in even a hands on science or art project because it doesn't involve running and jumping around at high speeds
-participate in sports because they can't attend long enough to learn the rules or remember which direction the goal is in

And I could go on. These kids are not bored. They are attention-impaired. They often get terribly frustrated with themselves and receive a lot of frustration directed at them from angry parents, classmates, coaches, teammates, and so on. They want to do well, but end up doing or saying things they don't mean, or walking away from a project they were really interested in but can't sustain the attention long enough to finish.

I invite anyone who thinks that ADHD doesn't exist to work with kids who actually have it. Try teaching them a skill that has more than two parts or that requires forethought and planning. Try getting them to remember all the supplies and safety precautions they need for that fantastic project they're imagining. Try taking them to a zoo, museum, restaurant, farm, or hotel that they want to visit without them getting lost or impulsively touching something or losing track of the goal of going in the first place. It's not as simple as "making school more interesting". You have to pay attention long enough, and process deeply enough, to figure out what is going on in the room before you can decide whether you're interested or not. And you have to be able to sustain attention long enough to see your work through to satisfaction, or you won't walk away with a positive experience.

Some of my students are on medications, others aren't. It has not been my experience that doctors "push pills". If anything, pediatricians often tell our parents that the kid is just a bit "immature" for his age. Maintaining a child on medication is a huge amount of work and involves lots of checklists, phone calls to parents and doctors, and recalibrating doses or medicine types as the kid's eating and sleeping and growth spurts and hormones change. It is so completely NOT a quick and easy fix. You also have to deal with a child who is focused in the world for the first time, and who doesn't have much idea of what she's missed up to that point. Kids who were spacey and disconnected before suddenly notice that the other kids aren't really nice to them, or that they're way behind academically. They stick with things long enough to get frustrated, but have to start developing frustration tolerance for the first time. It's often a very rocky and emotional experience for the child, parents and teachers. But I've also seen kids jump two grade levels in reading and math within a few months, since they're using all of their energy to attain the academic goals and are finally connecting with the material. And then I've had kids who didn't respond at all, or just got irritable, and ended up not staying on medication at all. It just depends on the situation.

Point being, it's not simple, and I really dislike when people pretend it is.

OK, getting off the soapbox now.

[dzd]

I liked the "special children" theory better when it was the backstory for X-Men.

[Julia]

How sad your comments are- talking about children who you dont even know . The truth is that thankfully these children are compassionate and non judgemental unlike you. That is why they are the hope.

[bcpmoon]

Err, as I see it, the post is not really about the children, so all the comments about being unfair to them are completely besides the point. Also kids with ADD/ADHD are not denigrated. The opposite is true, labeling them as "Indigo" gives parents a great excuse for denying reality and put their own delusions before the welfare of their child. It is the parents who are attacked, for being selfish and only interested in their own self-image instead of accepting their children as they are.
Also, the notion that "Indigos" are evolutionary more advanced is ridiculous. There is no "advancement" in evolution and as far as I can see, we will actually only know when natural selection will have had its say.
A last point: This "Indigo" thing reminds me of "City of the Damned".

[Brooke]

I have a chemical imblance in my brain that causes me to be clinically depressed/suicidal. My parents tried almost everything, when I was first diagnosed, to make me better without giving me medicine. Nothing worked. When I was finally given a prescription, guess what? Symptons almost completely gone within a month. I'd like to see you tell me or my extremely conservative parents to our faces that they're just drug-pushers, and I don't really need any medicine. Thank God they didn't decide I was an "indigo child," or I can garantee you I wouldn't be here today.

[stephnaie]

Whoever believes that these children aren't real and have some sort of problems or their parents have problems is not so because i have many stories of my gifted child that people wouldn't believe.

[stephnaie]

indigo children brook arent usually depressed they are all different kids i use to call my child gifted i never even knew the word indigo i was gifted and my child was even more .You can't jump into someone's shoes if there not yours.

[Dianne Welsh]

perhaps we need a more objective, middle-of-the-road view.
I'd like to know how many independent studies have been done; I personally think the whole phenomena has become a bit 'religious' However, I do feel that there may be a good deal of credibility in many of these.
In hindsight, I wish I had have been more aware raising my own very'full-on' 22 year old daughter. I feel if I had have followed some of the suggestions of the new-age 'gurus' and had treated her with more respect, she wouldn't be as troubled as she is now.

[Dianne Welsh]

perhaps we need a more objective, middle-of-the-road view.
I'd like to know how many independent studies have been done; I personally think the whole phenomena has become a bit 'religious' However, I do feel that there may be a good deal of credibility in many of these.
In hindsight, I wish I had have been more aware raising my own very'full-on' 22 year old daughter. I feel if I had have followed some of the suggestions of the new-age 'gurus' and had treated her with more respect, she wouldn't be as troubled as she is now.

[gmm]

I now know why I hate waiting in lines, why I think I am right all the time, and have troubles with authority, and why I have ADHD symptoms. I am an Early Indigo- and my parents tried to make me be normal....Unbelievably good news for me. I need to call a lawyer, find someone to read my aura and basically go make a shrine to myself.

Wow- Some people are screwed up!!

[Diane]

I was surfing the web and came accross this Indigo subject. I was really taken aback with the anger and attack on those people who have a very different view of life than you do. It is no wonder there is no world peace when people feel the need to defend their opinons the way you do. When there is no inner peace, there can be no outer peace. What makes our world interesting and enjoyable to live in is the diversity of its people. The parents of indigo's love their children as does any other good parent and who is to judge that they are causing more harm to their children than you do to your own? I have no problem letting you have your own view on life. It is yours to have and it is your life to live, however you choose to do so. I just hope that one day your heart will open enough to accept the light of truth to shine within it. You could of never writen such things if you were writing from the heart. We all are powerful beings of light if we choose to be. It is our choice. Many people believe that it is our darkness that most frightens us, but in truth, it is our light, our inner power and greatness that scares us. It is not arrogance to see yourself in such a way like some would believe because if you can see your own greatness, you are able to see the greatness in others as well. The fear of our own "light" or greatness is why so many choose to walk alone in their darkness, lashing out at the world in their pain. They put people in a box and slap a label on it and say "that is who you are, and what I think about you" because they are too frightened themself to break out of their own box that was placed on them by others. The box is safe. You know what to expect from yourself and others and never have to worry about change or mystery creeping in unexpectedly and creating a life filled with the unknown! It is not honerable to dismiss yourself as ordinary and to ignore that there is a higher purpose for you to be here. Accepting others who know who they are and letting them be who they are will only come when you accept yourself and let yourself be who you truely are. Open your mind and your heart. Look behind your anger and defenses, and your cynicism. There is a whole world out there filled with ancient mystery for you too. There is nothing "new age" about it.

[Sofia]

There are those who would use the indigo concept to their own benefit, but there is also the ones who are true to their heart.
ADHD is not a scientific diganosis, no matter what people say, it's just a name for a description of signs. No one really knows for sure what this is about.
So, ADHD concept is not science, Indigo is not science. If you want to argue about the existance of indigo children, you better come up with a better arguments.

[Craig]

# Have difficulty with discipline and authority
# Refuse to follow orders or directions
# Find it torture to waiting in lines, lack patience
# Get frustrated by ritual-oriented systems that require little creativity
# Often see better ways of doing thing at home and at school
# Are mostly nonconformists
# Do not respond to guilt trips, want good reasons
# Get bored rather easily with assigned tasks
# Are easily distractible, can do many things at once
# Have strong empathy for others or NO empathy
# Are often identified or suspected of having ADD or ADHD, but can focus when they want to
# Often express anger outwardly rather than inwardly and may have trouble with rage

This is a description of Bart Simpson, underachiever and proud of it. "The Simpsons" should do an episode where a gullible Homer finds out about Indigo Children and forces a cynical Bart into daffy expensive New Age workshops, while the responsible student Lisa seethes that Bart is getting all the attention for being a brat. Then Homer corrects Lisa and tells her she should worship her brother, and she goes "mmmmmmm" like Marge does, while Bart plays the system with sass-mouth at school, and his New Age guru befuddling Principal Skinner in conference. With all this absurd material available nowadays about Indigo Children, this episode will practially write itself. Maybe it's already in production.

[victoria pearson]

hello..i was breezing past some addresses when i thought i should check out what the sceptics have to say..these glorified self confessed experts on the indigo children debunkers.,and well if this wasnt enough to get me hot under the collar,i myself went through the western public education system and it really is educationing children into shame,to live under the illusion of a solar masculine orientated society,that drives us to become nothing more than materalistic slaves,consumers that are so spiritually stunted we spend our lives filling a void with materialism never to reach a state of complete happiness,contentment or joy..we are taught even in christianity complete subserviancy to the hierachy of the church,that our soul is to be filled with shame to keep us from breaking through the illusion,to become more than figments of societys illusion,yes ,we even the non indigos are taught to become mere slaves to this mentality,as if we cant see what christianity has done to our children in the past,the british that came to the shores of america and australia disrespected the people that were previously exsisting in peace and harmony ,ripped of their culture,their land stolen from them,thier children stolen from family and placed in missions to try reeducate them into christian culture,what a load of crap have your forefathers placed on us as children of the new earth,i feel we are no more than mere janators,here to clean up the horrific mess you have placed on this planet,then to live with your ignorance that we are just adhd and should be filled with mind altering drugs,so that we fit in with your ridgid,guilt and competitive driven society..tis you that has adhd,you cant seem to break out of your illusion that you have created and your terrified of admitting your mistakes so you keep creating conflict ,brother against brother,sister against sister,divide and conquer mentality..turning us into blind consumers that believe the authority thrown to us,like hungry mangy dogs with a bone..perhaps you should be pleased that we have come here to get you out of this mess youve dug for yourself,and remember it is what is inside that becomes ones reality,and by the sound of it your reality seems hostile,cold,ignorant and spiritually stunted..and to think we are here for people like you,so you can see how much work you have cut out for yourself..you are just a mere figment of your imagination and yet you project that idea on all of us...how sad,how very sad...

[victtoria pearson]

i would place a bet that lisa was the indigo,considering all her enviormental issues she has trouble getting across to the adults,you can tell shes the non conformist cause she excells in everything..they had an epiosode on bart taking ritalin and then putting worried marge on valium..if you missed it ,perhaps hunt it down and watch it..its an eye opener to say the least...

Reading through this, I came across the article in the "sceptics" dictionary, and I was forcibly reminded of some sketch I saw where this guy was planning some sort of hoax, and explained that he was going to give an accurate personality profile to people based on the the lessons they had learned from a past life which was "determined" through a series of questions. While he is laughing away at this idea, his partner asks confusedly how is it going to work, and he explains that one of the questions is the exact date of birth, so he just gets it all from the star chart!

While the article starts off trying to discredit one psuedoscientific belief, it smoothly merges into an explanation of this through a description of another, ridiculous, psuedoscientific concept, with not a TRACE of irony! Being unfimiliar with this website, I automatically assumed that it was a (lame) spoof item. I was disappointed. Whereas the concept of indigo children is a psuedoscience, and a respected branch at that, it speaks within the realms of psuedoscience, and doesn't pretend to be otherwise, fiercely supporting it's legitimacy nonetheless. adhd, on the other hand, is an indescribably pathetic piece of irrational nonsense sadly masquerading as a legitimate medical science. http://www.adhd-report.com/adhd-exist.html illustrates this point wonderfully (it has a reference to indigo children as well), the whole website [ADHD-report.com] does, The "ADHD Summary" part especially. The skeptics dictionary is a nonsense which exists to make a virtue of closed-mindedness, which has NOTHING to do with critical thinking. At all. These guys seem to have sadly missed the point. The way they were babbling about adhd was as if the diagnoseses had all been confirmed via a blood test, and it was truly pathetic the way they took seriously that website about an adhd EPIDEMIC, these alleged proponents of critical thinking taking with such blatant bullcrap. Now, as to that person who was talking all that crap about those kids who couldn't sit through a movie or something, these kids sounded like-probably-RETARDS! Either that or you're lying, or misinterpreting them. I know a lot of kids who could be twisted into such a description. Quite cruel. But they're probably retards. That there are many kids who are bored and restless in an un-interesting school is a claim needing no justification. We live in a society that forbids under-18's from seeing PSYCHICS of their own free will, yet helps kids be FORCED to go to a psychiatrist. On the one hand a psychic could PROBABLY instill in youngsters a negative sense of fatallism, and, there is the presupposed notion that they haven't the maturity to handle an assesssment of their self. WHAT, pray tell, does that say about psychiatry? Let's have a look shall we. A psychiatrist is, like a psychic, a pseudoscientist. A psychiatrist, through reasons unrelated to credibility, is taken more seriously than a psychcic.It is taken, in fact, as a science, as a fact, as- HARD LOGIC. It is then, FIRSTLY, ALL the negative implications of a psychic multiplied a-hundredfold. SECONDLY, as already stated, the child is often forced- he has NO CHOICE. THIRDLY, and again, often FORCED, psychiatrists have the power to prescribe mind-disabling drugs, and, because of the first reason, STIGMATISE them for life. I could go on, but I'll leave it there. As to this person who is saying poor ASD kids, let me tell you, you dumb, wierd feminist b**** stuck in the stagnant world of ASD culture, I had to live through an asperger's diagnosis when I was young, and it is something I don't wish on anyone. If I EVER meet you in person..... well, you'll just have to hope there's a crystal child there to calm me down.

PS, nice comments in "a crappy analysis if I ever saw one"..... spoon feeding them reality, that's a good one!