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Indigo Children
("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. This pattern has singularly unique factors that call for parents and teachers to change their treatment and upbringing of these kids to assist them in achieving balance and harmony in their lives, and to help them avoid frustration." -- Lee Carroll & Jan Tober)
The Indigo Children is a book by Lee Carroll, a channeler for an entity he calls Kryon, and his wife Jan Tober.
Kryon has revealed such important messages as "love is the most powerful force in the entire universe." Carroll and Tober travel the world putting on Kryon seminars. Kryon has many interests, including the Universal Calibration Lattice and EMF Balancing (empowerment through knowledge of your electromagnetic nature, i.e., how to manage your energy field which consist of "fibers of light and energy").
The main thesis of The Indigo Children is that many children diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder (ADD) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are actually very high beings. These children don't need drugs like Ritalin, but special care and training. The book consists of dozens of articles by authors from many walks of life. It is, accordingly, inconsistent and uneven in quality of analysis and advice. One of the authors is Robert Gerard, Ph.D., whose piece is called Emissaries from Heaven. He believes his daughter is an Indigo Child. He also thinks "Most Indigos see angels and other beings in the etheric." He runs Oughten House Foundation, Inc., and sells angel cards. Another contributor is Doreen Virtue, an advocate of angel therapy. Still another is Nancy Ann Tappe who wrote a channeled book called Understanding Your Life through Color. Not all the contributors are on the fringe of New Age metaphysics, however. For example, Dr. Judith Spitler McKee is a former preschool and elementary teacher and retired Eastern Michigan University professor. She spends her time trying to interest children in reading.
As a summary, here are the ten attributes that best describe this new kind of child, the Indigo Child (named by those who predicted it).
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.
Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."
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.
They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.
They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).
They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward; feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").
They are not shy in letting you know what they need.
Excerpt--The Indigo Children
As you begin to read this, you might be thinking, "What now, another 'doom and gloom' book about how society is changing our kids?" No. This is perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented in a society which has the tools to do so. We ask you to discern for yourselves as you read on.
Jan and I are national self-help lecturers and authors. In the last six years we have traveled the world speaking in front of large and small groups alike We have dealt with all ages and many cultures representing many languages. My boys are grown and left the nest. Jan never had children, but somehow felt that someday she would be working with them (she was right). Of the six published books, none are about children because our work does not focus there. How is it, therefore, that we are authoring a book on this very subject?
When you are counselors, and you spend close personal time with people, you cannot help but notice emerging patterns of human behavior, which then become staples of your work. Our work, like that of Louise Hay who published this book, is about self empowerment and the raising of self esteem. It enables people to hope, giving them the power to lift themselves above the level of who they "thought" they were. It also involves spiritual healing (not religion), and encourages self examination for the purpose of finding the "God within" first, before searching for any outside source. It speaks of self-healing, as well as independence from worry, in a changing and worry-prone world. It's tremendously rewarding work - but it makes us notice things.
Some years ago, people started to talk about specific troubles with their kids. So what else is new? Children are often the greatest blessing in a life, and also the greatest challenge. Many books have been written about good parenting and child psychology, but what we noticed was different.
We started hearing more and more about a new kind of child, or at least a new kind of problem for the parent. The difficulties were odd in nature, in that they represented an interchange between adult and child that was unexpected and seemingly atypical of what our generation had experienced. We ignored it until we started hearing it from the professionals who deal specifically with children. They also were reporting similar challenges. Many were exasperated and at their wits’ end. Day-care workers all over the nation, some of whom had worked in their profession for over thirty years, were also telling us the same kind of stories about how things were somehow different with the kids. Then we saw something that was horrifying. When these "new" problems became acute, there was an overwhelming propensity to solve the issue by legally drugging the child!
At first, we assumed that this was a cultural attribute, reflecting a changing America. Part of our great American temperament is that we are flexible and go through remarkable changes, as no other country can, while keeping a stable governmental base. Ask any schoolteacher these days, and they will tell you that our educational system really needs an overhaul. It's probably time, but this isn't revolutionary news and did not inspire us to write this book.
Jan and I work with individual issues and stay away from politics or even environmental "causes." It's not that we aren't interested, but rather that our focus as councilors and lecturers is truly about helping men and women personally (even though we often speak to them in large groups). Our premise has always been that each balanced human who has a positive outlook and exudes well-being is able to make whatever changes necessary in a very powerful way. In other words, even vast sweeping social change has to start inside the mind and heart of one person at a time.
Additionally, we assumed that even if there were great changes going on with the kids, professionals and researchers would communicate about this within their industry - that the "pros" would also be observing this event. Years ago we expected to see reports and articles on "attributes of the new kids" in elementary educational and day-care periodicals. It didn't happen - at least not on a scale that would draw much attention, and not in a way for parents to be helped or informed.
Because it didn't happen, we were reinforced in our original notion that our own observations were probably not as wide spread as we had thought, and again, children are not our focus. It took several years for us to change our minds and decide that someone had to at least assemble the information and report it, no matter how strange it seemed. It was there!
As you can see, a number of factors brought about this book, which you should know about before you blindly take our word for something that is going to fall into the category of "happening all around us—but unexplainable."
We have now realized the following:
This is not an American phenomenon. We have now personally seen it on three continents.
It seems to go far beyond cultural barriers (encompassing multiple languages).
It has escaped mainstream attention due to the fact that it is just too "weird" to consider in the paradigm of human psychology, which smugly considers humanity as a static, unchanging model. As a rule, society tends to believe in evolution, but only in the past tense. The thought that we might be seeing a new Human consciousness slowly arriving on the planet now - manifested in our children - goes way beyond established conservative thought.
The phenomenon is increasing - more reports continue to surface.
It has been around long enough that many professionals are beginning to observe it.
There are some emerging answers to the challenges.
For all these reasons, we are stepping out on a limb and giving you the best information we can about what we have observed on a subject that is undoubtedly controversial for many reasons. As far as we know, this is the first book that is entirely dedicated to the Indigo Child. While reading this, many will relate to what is presented, and we fully expect the subject to be explored more fully in the future by those more qualified.
Indigo Children
by Debra Hegerle
I have a seven-year-old Indigo son. I've been working as a teacher's aide in his classrooms through preschool, kindergarten, and now first grade and I've observed his interactions with Indigos and non-Indigos of all ages. It's been interesting! In fact, trying to put it all down in writing has been a challenge because the children do so many subtle things.
Indigos process their emotions differently than non Indigos because they have high self-esteem and strong integrity. They can read you like an open book and quickly notice and neutralize any hidden agendas or attempts to manipulate them, however subtly. In fact, they can see your hidden agendas even if you can't! They have inherently strong determination to work things through for themselves and only want outside guidance if it's presented to them with respect and within a format of true choice. They prefer to work situations out for themselves.
They come in with their intentions and gifts easily identifiable from birth. They can suck up knowledge like a sponge, especially if they like or are drawn to a subject, which makes them very advanced in their areas of interest. Experiencing life helps them learn best, so they create the experiences they need to help them with their current problem or area where they need to grow. They respond best when treated like a respected adult.
Not only are they masters at intuitively picking up on hidden agendas or motives, but they are equally masterful at turning those agendas back onto the people using them, especially their parents. Psychological "button pushing" often causes them to be labeled as nonconformists. If they notice that there is a hidden motive behind your attempt to get them to do something, they will resist strongly and feel perfectly justified in doing so. From their point of view, if you're not doing your work in the relationship, they can challenge you on it.
When I called them good "button pushers" what I really meant is that they're working with us adults to help us recognize where we are holding and using old, subtle patterns to manipulate them, which used to work but will no longer. So if you are constantly getting resistance from an Indigo, check yourself first. They may be holding up a mirror for you, or be asking you, in a nonconformist way, for help in finding new boundaries, fine-tuning their own skills or talents, or going to the next level of growth.
Indigos have innate healing abilities that are usually already active; however, they may not know that they are using them! The most spectacular thing I observed was how they formed groups, adjusting and spacing themselves, especially around another child who might have been sick or upset — sitting and blending their energy field with that child's. Most often, they paired up one on one, but sometimes they formed groups and sat in either a triangular or diamond-shaped pattern. It wasn't done in an obvious way, but very subtly. When finished, they were off to something else.
It was amazing. They just did it, but they didn't want to discuss it; in some cases, they weren't even consciously aware of what they were doing or why! It was so natural to them that if a child needed something from the Indigos, they just went and sat next to them for a while, not even necessarily talking, and then they separated.
Another interesting thing was that, off and on throughout the year, the Indigos went through periods of attracting and repelling each other, or periods of really needing each other's company and then of not needing it. I'm not totally clear on this, but it seems to coincide with individual personal development. The closeness and concern they had for each other was never lost during those periods of separation, but they wouldn't go back together, either, until all was right for them.
I'll give you one little story regarding my Indigo son. Let me give you the background: My husband and his family are Chinese Americans, and I am of German/Finnish heritage. My husband's family places great emphasis on education, and the siblings were brought up with a strong need to succeed. This still sometimes spills over onto their children, in the form of whose are better, smarter, and faster. My husband and I agree about not participating in all this competitiveness, but that doesn't stop it from happening around us. To top it off, consider that out of the five grandchildren, my son is the only boy — that is, the only male heir — and I think you'll get a pretty clear picture of the undercurrents.
We were at my in-laws' house on Christmas day, and my son, who was almost four years old at the time, was showing off his Millennium Falcon™ (a Star Wars™ toy that was meant for a six-year-old) that he had received from us that morning. It was the giant one that opens up, and inside were all kinds of little compartments, similarly but not identically shaped. He wasn't interested in that portion of the toy at that time. He was only interested in pretending to fly it and shoot the rockets — living out his fantasies. One of his uncles asked to play with it and proceeded to take all the little doors off of all the compartments. He handed them to my son in a pile and asked, "Can you put this back together?"
It was a setup! All the doors were the same color, and the differences in shape and size were very subtle. Oh, and the tone of voice he used — like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. This uncle has three daughters and a whole lot of personal agendas, so his actions were not a total surprise, but . . . I absolutely love what happened next.
I started to intervene, and my son turned and looked me, dead in the eye, with a look on his face I'll never forget. He looked at me to see what I was going to do, and in the instant that it took for him to read my intentions, which were of Mommy Lioness — I'm not going to let this happen to my son — he responded just as quickly. He gave me a look that said, Back off, Mom, I'm taking this one on myself, and I felt the energy shift as he took command of the entire room. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look over at him. He calmly said to his uncle, "I don't know. I've never done that before; let me see." Then he proceeded to put that thing back together quickly and accurately!
When he was done, the energy shifted again, and he looked over at me as if to ask, "Was that okay?" I just smiled and said, "Good job." Everyone there caught the double meaning, including his uncle, who has never since done anything like that to my son or to anyone else's child in our presence.
No direct comments were made that night about the situation. We all just knew that we were each going to process it individually and privately, each getting our own lesson — all because this little one decided to learn for himself.
Indigos are born masters — each and every one! We have to understand that they fully expect every one of us to do what they are doing naturally, and if we don't, they keep pushing our buttons until we get it right — that is, until we become the masters of our own lives. So when my son did his thing, he taught everyone there a quiet lesson, including himself.
For me, the lesson was, let him go; despite his age, he is capable. Stay aware and watch the process. The process in this case was very interesting. He quickly and accurately sized up the situation, and determined his response based on what he wanted to experience. After making sure he had backup, he chose to confront the person directly, and at that point, he immediately called up all the energies necessary to complete the task. Afterward, he released it all back just as quickly and went back to his own business.
I've witnessed many similar situations that he or other Indigos handled in the same way. They will size up a situation and then choose their actions based on what they want to experience at the time. The only adjustments to this pattern that I've seen were based on what type of backup they had. In a safe environment, they have consistently used this pattern.
Safety is very important, because all children need to feel safe to fully explore their universe. For Indigos, safety means that it's okay to do things differently! Giving everyone this space is the best thing we can do for children and for ourselves.
One can understand why many parents would not want their child to be labeled as ADD or ADHD. The label means your child is not perfect. Some may even take it to mean the child is "damaged." Specifically, it means your child's behavior is due to a neuro-biological condition. To some, this is the same as having a malfunctioning brain or a mental disorder. Understandably, emotions are going to run high here. Also understandably, there is going to be a lot of hype here, especially from the "alternative" treatment and "natural is good/drugs are bad" lobby. Their claims will be inflated rather than clarified by the mass media.
Furthermore, the mass media, attack lawyers, and talk show hosts are not known for their role in clarifying complicated scientific or medical matters (witness their handling of Prozac, silicone breast implants, cell phones, mental illness, spirituality and health and environmental issues). Why should we expect them to improve our understanding of ADD, ADHD and treatment with drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate)? It is more likely they will take the simpler and safer path: they'll jump on the bandwagon and attack the drug industry, psychiatrists, etc., who are over-drugging our children. Nobody will oppose outrage at "abuse" of children. Fewer still will bother to investigate to see if you know what you are talking about.
The National Institute of Mental Health says that ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed childhood disorder. It affects some 3 to 5 percent of all school-age children. (David Kaiser says 10% of school-age children have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and that in some parts of the country 50% of the children are so diagnosed.) With so many children affected, it should be easy to find cases of misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, adverse drug reaction, etc. Anecdotes of abuse, however, should not substitute for scientific studies or clinical observations by the professionals who treat these children on a daily basis. But we all know that an anecdote told on Oprah or Larry King Live by Arianna Huffington or Hilary Clinton is much more powerful than a controlled scientific study. Yet, those scientific studies must be done. Ritalin has been around since 1950, yet there are no long-term studies I am aware of that show it is safe, effective, or better than any alternative. The support for its prescription comes mostly from those in the trenches, the practitioners who treat the millions of children and adults with AD/HD. Support also comes from Ritalin's manufacturer, New Jersey-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., which says the drug "has been used safely and effectively in the treatment of millions of ADHD patients for over 40 years," attested by the results of 170 studies (Donohue). However, Novartis is hardly a disinterested party.
Just as many women with real medical problems were encouraged by each other and by their lawyers to blame their conditions on breast implants, even though the scientific evidence was heavily against the connection, so too there will be many who have problems or get into trouble who will blame Ritalin. First, I took Ritalin and then this happened. Ergo, Ritalin caused it. Next stop, the talk show circuit. And no matter how many long-term studies are done that find nothing spectacularly wrong with Ritalin, there will always be the possibility that the next one will find something horrible. For example, "researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say their study, tracking ADHD youths into adulthood, has found a connection between Ritalin use and later abuse of tobacco, cocaine and other stimulants (Donohue). Is the connection strong enough to warrant worry? Will further studies be unable to replicate this one? It won't matter to the general public and the enemies of "unnatural" pharmaceuticals. They will continue to promote such "natural" therapies as blue-green algae, even though there are both pros and cons to taking the stuff, and even though there are no long-term studies on what effects algae might have on a developing child's brain. They have anecdotes and that's enough for the media, the lawyers, the talk-show hosts, and their audiences. Anecdotes are sufficient to get the government involved as well. Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois is riding this one. Hyde has heard that kids are using Ritalin for recreation and has asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the illegal use of Ritalin in public schools (Donohue).
It seems that 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. The whole situation reminds me of a poster I once saw on a bulletin board at Sacramento City College. The poster was promoting the Berkeley Psychic Institute and declared in bold letters: YOU MAY NOT BE PSYCHOTIC, YOU MAY BE PSYCHIC. Given the choice, who wouldn't rather believe they are psychic than that they are psychotic? Likewise, 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?
("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. This pattern has singularly unique factors that call for parents and teachers to change their treatment and upbringing of these kids to assist them in achieving balance and harmony in their lives, and to help them avoid frustration." -- Lee Carroll & Jan Tober)
The Indigo Children is a book by Lee Carroll, a channeler for an entity he calls Kryon, and his wife Jan Tober.
Kryon has revealed such important messages as "love is the most powerful force in the entire universe." Carroll and Tober travel the world putting on Kryon seminars. Kryon has many interests, including the Universal Calibration Lattice and EMF Balancing (empowerment through knowledge of your electromagnetic nature, i.e., how to manage your energy field which consist of "fibers of light and energy").
The main thesis of The Indigo Children is that many children diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder (ADD) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are actually very high beings. These children don't need drugs like Ritalin, but special care and training. The book consists of dozens of articles by authors from many walks of life. It is, accordingly, inconsistent and uneven in quality of analysis and advice. One of the authors is Robert Gerard, Ph.D., whose piece is called Emissaries from Heaven. He believes his daughter is an Indigo Child. He also thinks "Most Indigos see angels and other beings in the etheric." He runs Oughten House Foundation, Inc., and sells angel cards. Another contributor is Doreen Virtue, an advocate of angel therapy. Still another is Nancy Ann Tappe who wrote a channeled book called Understanding Your Life through Color. Not all the contributors are on the fringe of New Age metaphysics, however. For example, Dr. Judith Spitler McKee is a former preschool and elementary teacher and retired Eastern Michigan University professor. She spends her time trying to interest children in reading.
As a summary, here are the ten attributes that best describe this new kind of child, the Indigo Child (named by those who predicted it).
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.
Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."
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.
They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.
They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).
They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward; feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").
They are not shy in letting you know what they need.
Excerpt--The Indigo Children
As you begin to read this, you might be thinking, "What now, another 'doom and gloom' book about how society is changing our kids?" No. This is perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented in a society which has the tools to do so. We ask you to discern for yourselves as you read on.
Jan and I are national self-help lecturers and authors. In the last six years we have traveled the world speaking in front of large and small groups alike We have dealt with all ages and many cultures representing many languages. My boys are grown and left the nest. Jan never had children, but somehow felt that someday she would be working with them (she was right). Of the six published books, none are about children because our work does not focus there. How is it, therefore, that we are authoring a book on this very subject?
When you are counselors, and you spend close personal time with people, you cannot help but notice emerging patterns of human behavior, which then become staples of your work. Our work, like that of Louise Hay who published this book, is about self empowerment and the raising of self esteem. It enables people to hope, giving them the power to lift themselves above the level of who they "thought" they were. It also involves spiritual healing (not religion), and encourages self examination for the purpose of finding the "God within" first, before searching for any outside source. It speaks of self-healing, as well as independence from worry, in a changing and worry-prone world. It's tremendously rewarding work - but it makes us notice things.
Some years ago, people started to talk about specific troubles with their kids. So what else is new? Children are often the greatest blessing in a life, and also the greatest challenge. Many books have been written about good parenting and child psychology, but what we noticed was different.
We started hearing more and more about a new kind of child, or at least a new kind of problem for the parent. The difficulties were odd in nature, in that they represented an interchange between adult and child that was unexpected and seemingly atypical of what our generation had experienced. We ignored it until we started hearing it from the professionals who deal specifically with children. They also were reporting similar challenges. Many were exasperated and at their wits’ end. Day-care workers all over the nation, some of whom had worked in their profession for over thirty years, were also telling us the same kind of stories about how things were somehow different with the kids. Then we saw something that was horrifying. When these "new" problems became acute, there was an overwhelming propensity to solve the issue by legally drugging the child!
At first, we assumed that this was a cultural attribute, reflecting a changing America. Part of our great American temperament is that we are flexible and go through remarkable changes, as no other country can, while keeping a stable governmental base. Ask any schoolteacher these days, and they will tell you that our educational system really needs an overhaul. It's probably time, but this isn't revolutionary news and did not inspire us to write this book.
Jan and I work with individual issues and stay away from politics or even environmental "causes." It's not that we aren't interested, but rather that our focus as councilors and lecturers is truly about helping men and women personally (even though we often speak to them in large groups). Our premise has always been that each balanced human who has a positive outlook and exudes well-being is able to make whatever changes necessary in a very powerful way. In other words, even vast sweeping social change has to start inside the mind and heart of one person at a time.
Additionally, we assumed that even if there were great changes going on with the kids, professionals and researchers would communicate about this within their industry - that the "pros" would also be observing this event. Years ago we expected to see reports and articles on "attributes of the new kids" in elementary educational and day-care periodicals. It didn't happen - at least not on a scale that would draw much attention, and not in a way for parents to be helped or informed.
Because it didn't happen, we were reinforced in our original notion that our own observations were probably not as wide spread as we had thought, and again, children are not our focus. It took several years for us to change our minds and decide that someone had to at least assemble the information and report it, no matter how strange it seemed. It was there!
As you can see, a number of factors brought about this book, which you should know about before you blindly take our word for something that is going to fall into the category of "happening all around us—but unexplainable."
We have now realized the following:
This is not an American phenomenon. We have now personally seen it on three continents.
It seems to go far beyond cultural barriers (encompassing multiple languages).
It has escaped mainstream attention due to the fact that it is just too "weird" to consider in the paradigm of human psychology, which smugly considers humanity as a static, unchanging model. As a rule, society tends to believe in evolution, but only in the past tense. The thought that we might be seeing a new Human consciousness slowly arriving on the planet now - manifested in our children - goes way beyond established conservative thought.
The phenomenon is increasing - more reports continue to surface.
It has been around long enough that many professionals are beginning to observe it.
There are some emerging answers to the challenges.
For all these reasons, we are stepping out on a limb and giving you the best information we can about what we have observed on a subject that is undoubtedly controversial for many reasons. As far as we know, this is the first book that is entirely dedicated to the Indigo Child. While reading this, many will relate to what is presented, and we fully expect the subject to be explored more fully in the future by those more qualified.
Indigo Children
by Debra Hegerle
I have a seven-year-old Indigo son. I've been working as a teacher's aide in his classrooms through preschool, kindergarten, and now first grade and I've observed his interactions with Indigos and non-Indigos of all ages. It's been interesting! In fact, trying to put it all down in writing has been a challenge because the children do so many subtle things.
Indigos process their emotions differently than non Indigos because they have high self-esteem and strong integrity. They can read you like an open book and quickly notice and neutralize any hidden agendas or attempts to manipulate them, however subtly. In fact, they can see your hidden agendas even if you can't! They have inherently strong determination to work things through for themselves and only want outside guidance if it's presented to them with respect and within a format of true choice. They prefer to work situations out for themselves.
They come in with their intentions and gifts easily identifiable from birth. They can suck up knowledge like a sponge, especially if they like or are drawn to a subject, which makes them very advanced in their areas of interest. Experiencing life helps them learn best, so they create the experiences they need to help them with their current problem or area where they need to grow. They respond best when treated like a respected adult.
Not only are they masters at intuitively picking up on hidden agendas or motives, but they are equally masterful at turning those agendas back onto the people using them, especially their parents. Psychological "button pushing" often causes them to be labeled as nonconformists. If they notice that there is a hidden motive behind your attempt to get them to do something, they will resist strongly and feel perfectly justified in doing so. From their point of view, if you're not doing your work in the relationship, they can challenge you on it.
When I called them good "button pushers" what I really meant is that they're working with us adults to help us recognize where we are holding and using old, subtle patterns to manipulate them, which used to work but will no longer. So if you are constantly getting resistance from an Indigo, check yourself first. They may be holding up a mirror for you, or be asking you, in a nonconformist way, for help in finding new boundaries, fine-tuning their own skills or talents, or going to the next level of growth.
Indigos have innate healing abilities that are usually already active; however, they may not know that they are using them! The most spectacular thing I observed was how they formed groups, adjusting and spacing themselves, especially around another child who might have been sick or upset — sitting and blending their energy field with that child's. Most often, they paired up one on one, but sometimes they formed groups and sat in either a triangular or diamond-shaped pattern. It wasn't done in an obvious way, but very subtly. When finished, they were off to something else.
It was amazing. They just did it, but they didn't want to discuss it; in some cases, they weren't even consciously aware of what they were doing or why! It was so natural to them that if a child needed something from the Indigos, they just went and sat next to them for a while, not even necessarily talking, and then they separated.
Another interesting thing was that, off and on throughout the year, the Indigos went through periods of attracting and repelling each other, or periods of really needing each other's company and then of not needing it. I'm not totally clear on this, but it seems to coincide with individual personal development. The closeness and concern they had for each other was never lost during those periods of separation, but they wouldn't go back together, either, until all was right for them.
I'll give you one little story regarding my Indigo son. Let me give you the background: My husband and his family are Chinese Americans, and I am of German/Finnish heritage. My husband's family places great emphasis on education, and the siblings were brought up with a strong need to succeed. This still sometimes spills over onto their children, in the form of whose are better, smarter, and faster. My husband and I agree about not participating in all this competitiveness, but that doesn't stop it from happening around us. To top it off, consider that out of the five grandchildren, my son is the only boy — that is, the only male heir — and I think you'll get a pretty clear picture of the undercurrents.
We were at my in-laws' house on Christmas day, and my son, who was almost four years old at the time, was showing off his Millennium Falcon™ (a Star Wars™ toy that was meant for a six-year-old) that he had received from us that morning. It was the giant one that opens up, and inside were all kinds of little compartments, similarly but not identically shaped. He wasn't interested in that portion of the toy at that time. He was only interested in pretending to fly it and shoot the rockets — living out his fantasies. One of his uncles asked to play with it and proceeded to take all the little doors off of all the compartments. He handed them to my son in a pile and asked, "Can you put this back together?"
It was a setup! All the doors were the same color, and the differences in shape and size were very subtle. Oh, and the tone of voice he used — like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. This uncle has three daughters and a whole lot of personal agendas, so his actions were not a total surprise, but . . . I absolutely love what happened next.
I started to intervene, and my son turned and looked me, dead in the eye, with a look on his face I'll never forget. He looked at me to see what I was going to do, and in the instant that it took for him to read my intentions, which were of Mommy Lioness — I'm not going to let this happen to my son — he responded just as quickly. He gave me a look that said, Back off, Mom, I'm taking this one on myself, and I felt the energy shift as he took command of the entire room. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look over at him. He calmly said to his uncle, "I don't know. I've never done that before; let me see." Then he proceeded to put that thing back together quickly and accurately!
When he was done, the energy shifted again, and he looked over at me as if to ask, "Was that okay?" I just smiled and said, "Good job." Everyone there caught the double meaning, including his uncle, who has never since done anything like that to my son or to anyone else's child in our presence.
No direct comments were made that night about the situation. We all just knew that we were each going to process it individually and privately, each getting our own lesson — all because this little one decided to learn for himself.
Indigos are born masters — each and every one! We have to understand that they fully expect every one of us to do what they are doing naturally, and if we don't, they keep pushing our buttons until we get it right — that is, until we become the masters of our own lives. So when my son did his thing, he taught everyone there a quiet lesson, including himself.
For me, the lesson was, let him go; despite his age, he is capable. Stay aware and watch the process. The process in this case was very interesting. He quickly and accurately sized up the situation, and determined his response based on what he wanted to experience. After making sure he had backup, he chose to confront the person directly, and at that point, he immediately called up all the energies necessary to complete the task. Afterward, he released it all back just as quickly and went back to his own business.
I've witnessed many similar situations that he or other Indigos handled in the same way. They will size up a situation and then choose their actions based on what they want to experience at the time. The only adjustments to this pattern that I've seen were based on what type of backup they had. In a safe environment, they have consistently used this pattern.
Safety is very important, because all children need to feel safe to fully explore their universe. For Indigos, safety means that it's okay to do things differently! Giving everyone this space is the best thing we can do for children and for ourselves.
One can understand why many parents would not want their child to be labeled as ADD or ADHD. The label means your child is not perfect. Some may even take it to mean the child is "damaged." Specifically, it means your child's behavior is due to a neuro-biological condition. To some, this is the same as having a malfunctioning brain or a mental disorder. Understandably, emotions are going to run high here. Also understandably, there is going to be a lot of hype here, especially from the "alternative" treatment and "natural is good/drugs are bad" lobby. Their claims will be inflated rather than clarified by the mass media.
Furthermore, the mass media, attack lawyers, and talk show hosts are not known for their role in clarifying complicated scientific or medical matters (witness their handling of Prozac, silicone breast implants, cell phones, mental illness, spirituality and health and environmental issues). Why should we expect them to improve our understanding of ADD, ADHD and treatment with drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate)? It is more likely they will take the simpler and safer path: they'll jump on the bandwagon and attack the drug industry, psychiatrists, etc., who are over-drugging our children. Nobody will oppose outrage at "abuse" of children. Fewer still will bother to investigate to see if you know what you are talking about.
The National Institute of Mental Health says that ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed childhood disorder. It affects some 3 to 5 percent of all school-age children. (David Kaiser says 10% of school-age children have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and that in some parts of the country 50% of the children are so diagnosed.) With so many children affected, it should be easy to find cases of misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, adverse drug reaction, etc. Anecdotes of abuse, however, should not substitute for scientific studies or clinical observations by the professionals who treat these children on a daily basis. But we all know that an anecdote told on Oprah or Larry King Live by Arianna Huffington or Hilary Clinton is much more powerful than a controlled scientific study. Yet, those scientific studies must be done. Ritalin has been around since 1950, yet there are no long-term studies I am aware of that show it is safe, effective, or better than any alternative. The support for its prescription comes mostly from those in the trenches, the practitioners who treat the millions of children and adults with AD/HD. Support also comes from Ritalin's manufacturer, New Jersey-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., which says the drug "has been used safely and effectively in the treatment of millions of ADHD patients for over 40 years," attested by the results of 170 studies (Donohue). However, Novartis is hardly a disinterested party.
Just as many women with real medical problems were encouraged by each other and by their lawyers to blame their conditions on breast implants, even though the scientific evidence was heavily against the connection, so too there will be many who have problems or get into trouble who will blame Ritalin. First, I took Ritalin and then this happened. Ergo, Ritalin caused it. Next stop, the talk show circuit. And no matter how many long-term studies are done that find nothing spectacularly wrong with Ritalin, there will always be the possibility that the next one will find something horrible. For example, "researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say their study, tracking ADHD youths into adulthood, has found a connection between Ritalin use and later abuse of tobacco, cocaine and other stimulants (Donohue). Is the connection strong enough to warrant worry? Will further studies be unable to replicate this one? It won't matter to the general public and the enemies of "unnatural" pharmaceuticals. They will continue to promote such "natural" therapies as blue-green algae, even though there are both pros and cons to taking the stuff, and even though there are no long-term studies on what effects algae might have on a developing child's brain. They have anecdotes and that's enough for the media, the lawyers, the talk-show hosts, and their audiences. Anecdotes are sufficient to get the government involved as well. Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois is riding this one. Hyde has heard that kids are using Ritalin for recreation and has asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the illegal use of Ritalin in public schools (Donohue).
It seems that 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. The whole situation reminds me of a poster I once saw on a bulletin board at Sacramento City College. The poster was promoting the Berkeley Psychic Institute and declared in bold letters: YOU MAY NOT BE PSYCHOTIC, YOU MAY BE PSYCHIC. Given the choice, who wouldn't rather believe they are psychic than that they are psychotic? Likewise, 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?
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