‘Indigo children’ saviors of world?

Some parents believe their unusually bright children are leaps in human evolution

By JOHN LELAND
NEW YORK TIMES

At a coffee shop in New York one morning two weeks ago, David Minh Wong, age 7, was in constant motion. He played with quarters on the table. He dropped them on the floor. He leaned on his mother and walked away.

“Tell him I’m strong,” he said to his mother, Yolanda Badillo, 50. She sat in a booth with a neighbor, who was there with her goddaughter.

“I woke up at 2:16 this morning, and it wasn’t raining,” he said.

“I’m getting bored,” he said.

At David’s public school, where he is in a program for gifted and talented second graders, a teacher told Badillo that he is arrogant for a boy his age, and teachers since preschool have described him as bright but sometimes disruptive. But Badillo, a homeopath and holistic health counselor, has her own assessment. To her, David’s traits – his intelligence, empathy and impatience – make him an “indigo” child.

“He told me when he was 6 months old that he was going to have trouble in school because they wouldn’t know where to fit him,” she said, adding that he told her this through his energy, not in words. “Our consciousness is changing, it’s expanding, and the indigos are here to show us the way,” Badillo said. “We were much more connected with the creator before, and we’re trying to get back to that connection.”

If you have not been in an alternative bookstore lately, it is possible that you have missed the news about indigo children. They represent “perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented,” Lee Carroll and Jan Tober write in “The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived” (Hay House). The book has sold 250,000 copies since 1999 and has spawned a cottage industry of books about indigo children.

Hay House said it has sold 500,000 books on indigo children. A documentary, “Indigo Evolution,” is scheduled to open on about 200 screens – at churches, yoga centers, college campuses and other places – on Jan. 27 (locations at www.spiritualcinemanetwork.com).

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

In “The Indigo Children,” Carroll and Tober define the phenomenon. Indigos, they write, share traits like high IQ, acute intuition, self-confidence, resistance to authority and disruptive tendencies, which are often diagnosed as attention-deficit disorder, known as ADD, or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Offered as a guide for “the parents of unusually bright and active children,” the book includes common criticisms of today’s child rearing: that children are overmedicated; that schools are not creative environments, especially for bright students; and that children need more time and attention from their parents. But the book seeks answers to mainstream parental concerns in the paranormal.

“To me, these children are the answers to the prayers we all have for peace,” said Doreen Virtue, a former psychotherapist for adolescents who now writes books and lectures on indigo children.

She calls the indigos a leap in human evolution. “They’re vigilant about cleaning the earth of social ills and corruption, and increasing integrity,” Virtue said. “Other generations tried, but then they became apathetic. This generation won’t, unless we drug them into submission with Ritalin.”

To skeptics, the concept of indigo children belongs in the realm of wishful thinking and New Age credulity. “All of us would prefer not to have our kids labeled with a psychiatric disorder, but in this case, it’s a sham diagnosis,” said Dr. Russell Barkley, a research professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. “There’s no science behind it. There are no studies.”

Barkley likened the definition of indigo children to an academic exercise called “Barnum statements,” after P.T. Barnum, in which a person is given a list of generic psychological characteristics and becomes convinced that they apply especially to him or her. The traits attributed to indigo children, he said, are so general that they “could describe most of the people most of the time,” which means that they don’t describe anything.

Parents who attribute their children’s inattention or disruptive behavior to vibrational energy, he said, risk delaying proper diagnosis and treatment that might help them.

Julia Tuchman, a partner in Neshama Healing in New York who works with a lot of indigo children and adults, said it was important for their families not to turn away from traditional psychology and medicine.

“I’m very holistically oriented, but many people who come here I send to doctors,” she said. “I’m not against medication at all. I just think it’s overused.”

When parents take children to her for treatment – she practices electromagnetic field balancing, a touch-free massage that purports to tune a person’s electromagnetic field – she said that just telling the children that they have special gifts is often a healing gesture.

“Can you imagine a child going up to his parents and saying, ‘I’m talking to an angel,’ or ‘I’m talking to someone who’s deceased’?” Tuchman asked. “A lot of them have no one to talk to.” She, like others who see indigos, sees them as a reason for hope.

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,” Marjorie Jackson said.

“The kids may seem like they have ADD or ADHD. 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.”

She said that schools should treat children more like adults, rather than placing them in “fear-based, constrictive, no-choice environments, where they explode.”

Well, Best Buy sucks and didn’t have a copy of “El Cielo” but they did have a copy of “Catch Without Arms” which is their latest release. Dredg has an interesting sound. They’re all rock with mellow, soothing vocals. The instrumental backup to the vocals is amazing.

Everything is perfectly aligned with each of the other elements in the equation. Most notably, to me, is the drumming. “El Cielo” is in my opinion their best album yet. It’s mellow enough to listen to first thing in the mornings, or to have on in the background on your iTunes play list. However when you need some searing guitar riffs or persistent drumming, they don’t let you down. Everything is exquisitely wrapped up in a package of audio euphoria. You can listen to a couple of songs from “Catch Without Arms” by going to Dredg’s MySpace profile

Even without hearing very much of their latest album, I knew purchasing it on the spot would e nowhere near a letdown. And best of all, it’s kid-friendly!

The Senate may be the place for some former first ladies, but President Bush on Thursday categorically ruled out a run for office by his wife, Laura Bush.

“She’s not interested in running for office. She’s interested in literacy,” Bush said during an appearance at JK Moving & Storage here.

Source: Bush Rules Out Senate Run for First Lady

This coming from the man, the President of the United States mind you, who said:

“…the illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”

Source: Whitehouse.gov transcript: President Bush Speaks with Nation’s Mayors at Winter Meeting

Perhaps they could BOTH be interested in literacy?

It is my hope that every couple of weeks I’ll have a new charitable link posted. Some days I look around and find it hard to stomach how many needy people there are. They all have their own stories and reasons for being in the situation they’re in. Some can do something about it; some cannot.

But each and every one of them is human. We all share this place together. This idea is a small gesture, but one that is nonetheless filled with the hope that my readers are as generous as I think they are and are willing to put aside a few bucks each month to help those less fortunate. Please remember that each community has its own needy. Even just a few hours each month helping package food at your local food bank can help. Or a donation of any amount can be used in more ways than you could possibly imagine, in the hands of a charity. So, I ask you rhetorically, what are you doing to make the world a better place?

Since my recovery went much smoother than expected, the time I had planned to use to read a couple of books didn’t exactly arrive as I had hoped. So you’ll all have to sit tight a bit longer until I’ve finished reading “Finding Darwin’s God” to know what I thought of it and how well the author did trying to convince the reader that yes, God the Creator and evolution can mingle at the same party.

The weekend also brought the arrival of a book I purchased earlier in the week, “Online Journalism – Principals and Practices of News for the Web.” Found it on Amazon.com for $49.95 + shipping, used Addall.com to find a cheaper brand new copy of it on Half.com and had it delivered to my doorstep in less than a week for $33.55. IN YOUR FACE, AMAZON!

I discovered yesterday that the official “stable release” of WordPress 2.0 has been out for a few days and comes with some pretty nice features. For all you MoveableType users who don’t want to pay for updates or anything, WP 2.0 comes with an integrated function to help you import your MoveableType (as well as a few other blogging CMSs) over to WordPress. Hopefully today I’ll have some time to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress, then I’ll need to update the Kiwi theme I’m using, reinstate the customized things I’ve tweeked and then fix anything I’ve screwed up along the way. Expect crazy error messages and the like during this change.

I’ve been home since around 10 a.m. Keli’s been playing the part of my beautiful nurse so that makes things that much better. I’ve just taken my first dose of Percoset. Apparently it’s a “very fun pill.” I wouldn’t know as this is my first time needing something strong enough to kill this much pain. I hate pills and try to avoid takig them at all costs. So far, I’ve watched “End of the Century,” which is a documentary about the Ramones. If you’re a fan of the Ramones, or even if you haven’t heard much of their music I say run, do not walk, to your local video store and rent it. It does an amazing job of showing you the inner workings of one of the most influencial musical dynasties ever since mankind learned to make music.

For now, Keli and I are off to watch The Constant Gardener and I’m sure the pills will kick in soon.

More from the frontlines of Wisdom Teeth Extraction recovery later…

Basically, I’m trying to learn this stuff the ghetto way. Blind leading the blind here.

First we went to Barnes and Nobles and they had a total lack of writer’s resources other than dictionaries and thesauruses. We then drove across town to Borders and while I despise Borders for their drastically inflated prices on just about everything you look at, I did find they had a decent writers resource section. Which is terrific! If you want to be a poet, or know how to write and market your own screenplay or novel. They had two copies of a single 50 page long book by the Associated Press on news writing which basically consisted of page after page of examples of alternative ways to say something. This, I don’t need as I already have a copy of the 2005 Associated Press Style Guide which handles most of that anyways.

While looking for my desired section, I stumbled across the Science reading section. Remembering mine and Ian’s winded debate on evolution vs. “intelligent design”, two books caught my eye: Finding Darwin’s God and The Origin of Species. Odd books to come home with when you go searching for a book about news writing and journalism for the internet.

So far they’re good. The Origin of Species is interesting although Darwin was apparently a painfully wordy man. Some sentences were so long I had forgotten how they began when I had come to the end. I’ve read bits and pieces of The Origin before but never actually read it word-for-word which I intend to hopefully do very soon. I figure it’s inappropriate of me to form an opinion on something when I have never actually read the original (or as close as we can get to it) book that generated the turbulence to begin with.

The second book, Finding Darwin’s God stood out to me because it’s written by a biologist who believes evolution took place and is still taking place, but also acknowledges the existence of the God of the Christian bible. This makes me curious. Because it seems to me that you cannot believe in both, without one contradicting the other. With the little time I’ve had to read (maybe an hour all day yesterday) the author of Finding Darwin’s God claims to answer some interesting questions, and if he does, it could be a very good book. However, for example, he spent about 6 pages talking about all the scientists over time that helped us learn what we know of the sun. The point he was trying to drive home was that it is possible to learn about something when we can’t actually experience it, such as evolution of centuries past. He also spends some time talking about the evolution of the beer can. Beginning with the early days of needing a “Church key” to puncture two holes into the top – one for air, the other for drinking out of – all the way to the modern day “Wide mouth” opening. Why? I don’t know. I just hope he cuts out the erroneous crap and gets down to the subject matter he claims to discuss – can God and evolution coexist and is it possible for them to share a common ground?

Seems to me it’s not possible, but maybe this mans book will prove myself, and millions of others, wrong. Depending on the severity of the pain killers, I may post my thoughts as I crank through these books over the next few days while I try to not think about all the food i can’t eat while I rebound from having my wisdom teeth pulled out.

NOTICE!! – No animals were harmed during the events that transpire in the following news article…

Mouse thrown into fire sets home ablaze
January 8, 2006

FORT SUMNER, N.M. –A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man’s house and set it on fire.

Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.

“I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house,” Mares said from a motel room Saturday.

Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window, and the flames spread up from there and throughout the house.

No was hurt inside, but the home and everything in it was destroyed.

Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.

“I’ve seen numerous house fires,” village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, “but nothing as unique as this one.”

Source: Boston.com

1. Lose weight - Now, I’m not obese by any means. However, while working 5 years at a desk job, and mostly when I was working three jobs at once, I packed on some extra baggage. I currently weight about 190 pounds and am 5’9”. I could probably stand to lose about 15 pounds of chub and, hell, if that was replaced by lean muscle, I’d be a happy camper.
2. Better opponent - What’s worse than getting winded chasing your 5-year-old around the park playground? When she calls you “old” because you are writhing in cramping unhappiness like a sissy. That will end after I’ve built up my endurance again like I used to have when I ran regularly.
3. Strive for perfection -I’ve been internally inspired by an interview I read in some magazine (I was sitting in the doctors office reading it) of Brad Pitt when he was preparing for his role as Achilles in Troy. In it, he was asked about his workout regimen to beef himself up to play the god-like ancient warrior. He said he took a year and strived for physical perfection. He wanted to see how far he could take his physique. Anyone whose ever seen him in a movie such as Snatch, Fight Club or Troy, knows just about every part of him is chiseled and lean. I realize he is probably one of those people I loathe who is gifted with good genetics, but what’s stopping the rest of us guys from striving for physical perfection ourselves?
4. Malibu Triathlon - In September, I want to participare in my very first triathlon. The one I’ve set my sights on is the Malibu Triathlon. Head over to my Triathlon page (currently dusty and unloved) which I hope to get much more use out of.
5. 2006 and beyond – I don’t think I’d be ready for it this year, but in the next couple of years I’d love to participate in this bike ride benefiting AIDS/Lifecycle

Those are some of my goals for this year. Why have I chosen to make public? Because I’m one of those people that needs support of friends and family to stay motivated. I can justify anything to myself. But I’m hoping, if I have some sort of support, I’ll stick with it.