They are creative and nonconforming, though they easily become frustrated with boring or routine tasks. They are superbly confident and possess a well-developed sense of almost royal entitlement. They are energetic and intelligent, but can seem antisocial when not around others of their own kind. Some even believe they are "old souls" in young bodies, that their spiritual energies are a powerful force placed here on Earth for some higher purpose. They are the Indigo Children, and they are (allegedly) the next stage in human development.
The Birth of the Indigo Movement
Though the phenomenon of the Indigo Children didn't really take off until 1999 with the publication of Lee Carroll and Jan Tober's book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, the roots of the movement go back to the 1970s.
In the 70s, self-proclaimed psychic Nancy Tappe — who claims an ability to see auras — reported that people with auras of a previously unseen hue would soon be forthcoming. Sure enough, in 1982 she published a book called Understanding Your Life Through Color, in which she announced the arrival of the new "Indigo" aura, and explained its meaning for the rest of humanity. Later, in 1999, Tappe claimed that 90% of children then under ten years old bore indigo auras.
Indigo Child Signs and Types
A child classed as Indigo is usually recognized as intelligent, gifted, free-spirited and creative, an "outside-the-box" thinker who has little patience for repetitive tasks or doing things the same old way. An Indigo is reportedly very resistant to authority, has a sense of himself as supremely worthy, and bears an overweening confidence in his own place in the world. When others do not share the child's exalted opinion of himself, the child tends to turn inward, making him seem shy or antisocial.
According to Nancy Tappe, there are four subcategories of Indigo Children:
- the outgoing, opinionated "Humanist;"
- the introverted and task-oriented "Conceptualist;"
- the sensitive and creative "Artist;"
- the bullying but spiritually powerful "Interdimensional."
Experts on Indigos, like Robert Gerard and Cathy Patterson, have written many books and articles about the various attributes of Indigo Children and how parents can best discipline and relate to them.
Indigo Skeptics and ADHD
As with any of these so-called "new age" ideas, the Indigo movement has its fair share of skeptics, and with good reason. Benjamin Witts, in a Skeptical Inquirer article, points out that the descriptions of supposed Indigo Children are so broad and vague that they could easily apply to almost any child at one stage or another.
Additionally, many Indigo supporters claim that the only foolproof ways to determine if a child is really Indigo is by reading his aura or using Kirlian photography; as magician and skeptic James Randi wrote in his 1982 book Flim-Flam, neither of these methods is empirically valid.
There is also the fact that many of the criteria used to denote an Indigo Child can just as easily be used to describe symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as described in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
This similarity has not escaped notice among proponents of the Indigo movement; both Doreen Virtue and Kathy McCloskey have written that Indigos are often "misdiagnosed" with ADHD, and some Indigo proponents have even gone so far as to advise parents to take their children off ADHD medication and replace it with questionable treatments like vitamin regimens, algae diet supplements, and biofeedback, as Witts mentions in his article.
Indigos, Rainbows and Crystals
While it's highly unlikely that Indigo Children are some sort of "super generation" or the next dazzling phase of human evolution, supporters are not swayed by allegations that Indigos are simply ADHD sufferers buoyed up by a fabulous new-age designation.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Indigo Children have spawned even more wonderful, superevolved categories, the Rainbow Children and the Crystal Children, both naturally named for the appearance of their auras. So far the only people benefiting from the movement are the creators of the countless books, websites, films and video games based on the Indigo paradigm; whether it all proves harmful to the children themselves is still an open question.
Sources:
Carroll, Lee and Jan Tober, eds. (2001). Indigo Celebration: More Messages, Stories, and Insights from the Indigo Children. Hay House. ISBN: 1561708593.
Randi, James (1982). Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Prometheus Books. ISBN: 0879751983.
Tappe, N.A. (1999). "Introduction to the Indigos." In The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, edited by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, 6-17. Hay House. ISBN: 1561706086.
Witts, Benjamin. "Seeing the Indigo Children." Skeptical Inquirer. Vol 33 No 4. July/Aug 2009: 43-47.
Jenny Ashford - Jenny Ashford is a writer and graphic artist from central Florida. Her main area of interest in her Suite 101 articles is science, with a ...
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