Indigo children...

[Sarafin]

Not sure if I believe in this or not, but I'm interested in the concept of indigo children - that is, any person born after or around 1982. There is a theory that the new children coming into existence around this time have added DNA, and are more likely to be stigmatized by doctors as having disorders like ADHD or Bipolar. Many are also identifying themselves as having alternative sexualities, such as asexuality. There's more to them than that, but I don't remember much. Has anyone done any reading on this phenomenon? I've heard it mentioned before several times, but don't know enough about it. Sort of like an evolutionary stage for humanity, it sounds like.

-Sarafin

[ThePieMaker]

I have heard about it too and find it quite intriguing. I also am not sure if I really believe in it, but it's a pretty neat idea. They are supposedly much more sensitive than others. As much as I'd like to think it's a real phenomenon, I realize the characteristics could be found in many people from different periods of time.

[reverse_thrust]

The problem with diagnosis is that it is a rather imprecise process, and there are often many cases of misdiagnosis, so I wouldn't use that as a basis for anything (for example "rising" rates of autism, if anything we're just getting better at recognizing it)

Also, I doubt this is a theory. Added DNA, for one, would generally be detrimental to one's health. Faulty DNA, perhaps. Why it would manifest so suddenly is unknown to me, and seems to suggest it might have more to do with changing social conditions, as growing up in an age of distractions I can see why the prevalence of ADHD might be so high. Bear in mind the people making the diagnosis are generally at least the generation before us, thus there is often some lag and the person may or may not factor in the present conditions, relying more on their training in school. At least, that has been my experience with psychologists (my limited experience, mind you).

Interesting, yes, but we're also the most narcissistic bunch to come along, and I have a feeling this is just another attempt to seem special.

[Lordbob]

Holy Shit.

I read it on Wikipedia, and its scary how much that describes me.

self-definition and a strong feeling that they need to make a significant difference in the world.

I constantly state that my moral code is nothing like anyone elses, but it is the guidelines of my life. I also constantly think that I am going to do something great, like I must do something great, because if I don't who will?

They are empathic and can easily detect or are in tune with the thoughts of others

I actually lie about this. I always say I lack empathy skills. I can't tell how someone feels if I have just met them, no matter how obvious it is. But I can tell when someone I know changes. I can sense every slight personality shift, marking anger, sorrow, or happiness.

naturally drawn to matters concerning mysteries, spirituality, the paranormal and the occult, while opposing unquestioned authority and contradictory to convention.

I love mysteries, especially puzzles noone else can solve. I feel like I need to determine what the Bible says, not anyone else. I think that no preacher can tell everyone what the Bible means, that the answer is in us. I hate being controlled, and rebel against anyone controlling me. I beleive that Freedoms and the truth are far more important than the feelings of others. Then again, I can usually tell the truth because I don't care.

that they become unsociable when not around other Indigo Children.

I generally like to be left alone.

They are also believed to be prone to depression and sleep disorders such as insomnia and persistent nightmares.

I have trouble sleeping at night. It takes almost an hour. I however, don't have nightmares.

[Lordbob]

It's not paranormal, just unusual, but I have pretty good control over my brain function. I have taken 10 different tests done, and I am perfectly balanced between my left and right sides of my brain. Art and Logic, Writing and Math, 50-50. So in theory, I can only use 50% of my brain power at once. I am able to shift the sides of my brain much easier than most people. Not only that, but I can mix and match. I even calm my mind, using almost none of either side.

[cait]

It sounds like a lot of new age gobbledeegoop to me.

I thought it was more like 1992, rather than 1982?

Disorders such as ADHD are fairly new concepts aren't they? Doctors are diagnosing them left and right these days. It's not that kids have it more, it's that they are naming it. (Kids don't have ADHD, they just need to eat better, holy crud! Parents feed kids sugar WAAAAY to much, in my opinion).

Children are amazing, always were, always will be. I don't think there are any particular special ones or whatever. Not like this prancy hippy indigo thing.

I think that where the world is becoming so globalized it is only natural people should be wanting to change the world more so than ever before.

Perhaps this "phenomenon" is not so much a spiritual one but a social one.

[ratatosk_lemur]

Not sure if I believe in this or not, but I'm interested in the concept of indigo children - that is, any person born after or around 1982. There is a theory that the new children coming into existence around this time have added DNA, and are more likely to be stigmatized by doctors as having disorders like ADHD or Bipolar. Many are also identifying themselves as having alternative sexualities, such as asexuality. There's more to them than that, but I don't remember much. Has anyone done any reading on this phenomenon? I've heard it mentioned before several times, but don't know enough about it. Sort of like an evolutionary stage for humanity, it sounds like.

-Sarafin

This seems like something that would break biology very thoroughly. It's hard to come up with any reasonable mechanism that would cause kids after a certain time range to start having additional DNA, other than possibly a very high dose of radiation or mutagens, which would just do a lot of damage to everyone's genome and have caused a major increase in infant mortality.

[Sarafin]

Yeah, I checked out the Wikipedia on it too, and it didn't seem like anything that carried any substantial evidence with it. It was something I heard about from a very spiritual woman I lost contact with, and it sounded kind of interesting. Also, I eyed a book on it in the World's Biggest Bookstore, but I didn't read up much on it. Does sound a wee bit too crystal chick syndrome-ish.

Incidentally - I'm possessed right now. Has anyone here ever had any weird experiences with the occult?

-Sarafin

[natsume]

i don't believe there's anything positive different in us.

[roddy9uk]

A load of psychobabble.

Anything other than admit that "nurture" has been sidetracked in the post war years away from bringing children up to fit into society. Now the only explanation left is that society doesn't fit in with the children!

ADHD diagnoses increasing? I am not very surprised. It takes the blame away from the parents. Blame fat children on McDonalds, don't even think of suggesting that the parents have anythiong to do with it.

I am personally quite sure that food additives DO contribute a great deal to disruptive behaviour but the answer is to stop feeding children prepared foods, go back to cooking normal meals and not to simply push MORE chemicals into them.

roddy

[Næt.]

Heh; Indigo children, and purple asexuality.

Coincidence? I think not!

Oh, and also this highly professional looking website.

[cait]

Are you always searching for your greater purpose in life but feel like the world isn't set up for your kind?

Do you sometimes feel wise beyond your years?

Do you have trouble conforming to the ways of society?

Do you feel out of place in today's world?

Do you perceive the world very differently than most people around you?

Do you have strong intuition about certain things that most others do not?

Do you often feel misunderstood when you try to talk to people about what's real?

Are you a truth seeker?

Do you feel like you were born to accomplish a special mission in life?

Do you feel isolated and alone in your beliefs?

Misunderstood by family?

Do you feel anti-social unless you are with people of like mind?

Are you emotionally sensitive?

Did you have a difficult childhood?

Do you often feel disempowered by too much authority?

Hmmm, that's funny because I'm pretty sure this describes about ninety percent of all North American teenagers.

It basically seems like people want a reason why they feel alienated.

I'll tell you why. Because public education is bullshit, and only like maybe 10 percent of kids actually fit into it's ridiculous mold.

[cait]

Oh wow, that website makes it sound like a cult. Are they trying to recruit or something?

[Charlieee]

Are you always searching for your greater purpose in life but feel like the world isn't set up for your kind?

Do you sometimes feel wise beyond your years?

Do you have trouble conforming to the ways of society?

Do you feel out of place in today's world?

Do you perceive the world very differently than most people around you?

Do you have strong intuition about certain things that most others do not?

Do you often feel misunderstood when you try to talk to people about what's real?

Are you a truth seeker?

Do you feel like you were born to accomplish a special mission in life?

Do you feel isolated and alone in your beliefs?

Misunderstood by family?

Do you feel anti-social unless you are with people of like mind?

Are you emotionally sensitive?

Did you have a difficult childhood?

Do you often feel disempowered by too much authority?

Hmmm, that's funny because I'm pretty sure this describes about ninety percent of all North American teenagers.

It basically seems like people want a reason why they feel alienated.

Exactly, exactly.

[BaronTheCat]

Oh, and also this highly professional looking website.

Scary :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: I wonder how many innocent youths they trap.

[OwlSaint]

Djwhal Khul Speaks to the Children

Well, blessings to you, Beloved Ones!

RRUUUUUNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!42!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!eleven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nerrin]

Hrm. A lot of those answers could be accounted for by known social phenomena like the "generation gap"... Or just the well-known, well-documented arrogance of youth.

Heck, there's a whole class of novels whose main characters define most of these traits, the Bildungsroman. Stuff like "Great Expectations" by Dickens, and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Twain.

These people grossly abuse the theory of evolution, too. Argh. There is no "level" to which we evolve towards. Evolution moves away from a selective pressure, not towards. What's the selective pressure making "magical" people breed more successfully than "non-magical," eh?

Honestly, this whole thing only interests me to the extent the idea informed the game Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, or could be adopted for some other urban fantasy.

[Shooting Star]

Now the only explanation left is that society doesn't fit in with the children!

Blame the PTAs and psychiatrists who forgot that kids are not naturally inclined to sit though a boring, poorly executed lesson. They have boundless energy and a propensity for mischief that needs to be channeled constructively. Instead of allowing children to be children, they are subdued with regiments of powerful drugs if they even look out of the window the wrong way. It's the same principle behind so many parents giving their children pure unfiltered heroin to keep them quiet in the turn of the last century. If anything, it reflects a failure on the part of parents and the society they belong to, not "attention deficit disorder."

[CrazyCatLover]

I read the wikipedia article and it stated that this was a New Age idea. I haven't heard anything about added DNA in any of my genetics courses. Personally, I think there might be a spiritual or sociological explanation, but certainly not a scientific one.

[BaronTheCat]

Blame the PTAs and psychiatrists who forgot that kids are not naturally inclined to sit though a boring, poorly executed lesson. They have boundless energy and a propensity for mischief that needs to be channeled constructively. Instead of allowing children to be children, they are subdued with regiments of powerful drugs if they even look out of the window the wrong way. It's the same principle behind so many parents giving their children pure unfiltered heroin to keep them quiet in the turn of the last century. If anything, it reflects a failure on the part of parents and the society they belong to, not "attention deficit disorder."

It's not just children who have trouble fitting into this society. Adults have too! Trying to survive in this soul-killing environment makes me feel exhausted and empty, and makes me wanna start screaming in the middle of the street or killing people :evil: :evil: :cry: :cry: And I don't have ADHD.

Edit: ...Not all the time of course. Only when it gets too boring.

[alucard]

A load psychobabble.

And what There'sABadGirlComin'Thru said. (Except I'm fairly certain PTAs and psychiatrists forgot no such thing. They simply don't care as long as they can stuff people with drugs, and in case of children, they do so largely to help parents with whatever crazy idea they have their children need to be like)

As for fitting in, "people taking medication to fit in" is self explanatory to all but the people taking medication to fit in...

[cait]

Now the only explanation left is that society doesn't fit in with the children!

As much as I think the whole thing is BS, I think no truer words have been spoken here. That's why I absolutely hate public schooling so so much, and will never send my kids there if I ever have any. I would encourage my children to think differently and learn to accept themselves and most importantly BE themselves, unlike most people these days.

I hate heavily written new-agey stuff. It makes me want to gag all over the lack of skill with words and smart...ness... I consider myself (secretly) very spiritual, and I'm into all that palmistry and astrology and tarot nonsense. But it's not just new age, that stuff has been around forever. It's when people turn it into this fad and it's all icky stupid babble. I have a couple books on some stuff that are just terrrrrrible and give it all a bad name. Anyway, I don't think this indigo children is really grounded in anything. Maybe they got the idea from somewhere, but it's just turned into nonsense in my opinion.

[Parth]

I've read my fair share of "Indigo Children" (and Crystal children) writings. I think that they do exist, but they are far too tied up in new age concepts, so that it becomes too airy fairy for the average person to access it. New age stuff is really one of the fluffiest escapisms within the realm of belief. And it gives spiritualism a bad name.

So basically, I believe in the Indigo and crystal phenomenon to a point. I believe that the age of aquarius is beginning and that recent generations aren't quite fitting in with the current paradigm put it place by the baby boomers and previous generations. And I think that when my generation takes control, things could change for the better, so long as the right people take positions of power. It is this far that I believe in the concept of indigo children.

And I'm pretty sure that I can be included, considering how very... unconventional I am. I have a tendency to challenge the status quo whether I'm conscious of it or not.

[monpetitpetaq]

That description of "Indigo Children" to me sounds like every single alienated middle school kid trying desperately to be "different".

[ThePieMaker]

Many of my friends and I fit the description of indigo children, so I find it hard to believe. I honestly think it's just people wanting to feel like they are different. Yes, the characteristics exist, but aren't they bound to?

[BaronTheCat]

New age stuff is really one of the fluffiest escapisms within the realm of belief. And it gives spiritualism a bad name.

Indeed it does. They thrive on people's uncertainty and emotional problems, and paint way too simple pictures of reality.

[endplusone]

I saw a program on TV about this. I thought Indigo children had "powers"... as in they could read minds and see things and stuff? I thought it was not just feeling different, but more of the capabilities you can do because of whatever characteristics you have.

[oneofthesun]

IMO, this is just a bunch of people who are different looking for an explanation or something to make them feel better. It's just like how ancient people explained thunderstorms by saying the gods were angry. People don't like uncertainty so if they can't find an explanation for something they make one up.

[Parth]

I saw a program on TV about this. I thought Indigo children had "powers"... as in they could read minds and see things and stuff? I thought it was not just feeling different, but more of the capabilities you can do because of whatever characteristics you have.

Hmm, I haven't read that, I've only read that indigos tend to be more spiritually sensitive. Crystal children, however, (born after 1990 or so) are supposed to be highly sensitive and have certain abilities that may or may not be easy to tell.

[machinecult]

Actually, I have read that "Indigo Children" book. I think it's in a box somewhere. I was 27 or so when it was given to me as a present from a friend of the family. Perhaps I can offer a unique perspective on this topic.

While The sequencing of our DNA has changed to some degree over time as a result of being a sexually reproducing species, it certainly doesn't have "added" DNA. Each of us has roughly 60 million mutations in our DNA on average, on top of which maybe one of those mutations in a hundred people will actually change a protein encoding (estimates vary slightly on this since we're still looking around). On the other hand, changes in instruction length typically have drastic side effects on human development. Still, every once in a while the right mistake is made and we get something new and useful. A lot of these changes are so slight that they go unnoticed, since there seems to be an overall lack of people lining up to have their cellular secrets discovered.

It is certainly true that ADHD is an over diagnosed, though very real, disorder. Misdiagnoses of bipolar disorder have reduced drastically as better biological classification has arisen. The media hype over these diseases created a feeding frenzy of research grants which, thanks to human error, forgot that in some cases the symptoms don't fit the disorder when combined with additional information! A fair portion of researchers are kicking themselves over having getting caught in the stream, since if they had realized that something else was wrong there would be an entirely new study and bigger grants to be had.

Since part of my job is sometimes comparing recovered DNA and modern DNA, I can say that I have seen with my own eyes that the phenomena described in the book is pure hype. Worse, some of the paranoia regarding vaccination can be traced back to an incident in Stockholm where a particular religious organization organized an anti-vaccination campaign. Utilizing the sorts of misinformation any self-respecting fanatical group might disseminate, many of the initial pseudo-scientific arguments against vaccination are merely evolutions of the same ones used before.

True, there are risks to vaccination. However, the benefits outweigh them by magnitudes. Several cases exist in the historical record where dangerous outbreaks occurred when social vaccination dropped by as little as 10%. The reason for this is when a highly virulent, but poorly replicating disease is caught mutation occurs too fast for the human immune system to compensate. Every time an outbreak occurs we have to reevaluate current vaccines (example: seasonal flu vaccines) to compare the mutations that have occurred while the given strain was fighting its environmental selective pressures. In this case, the selective pressures are our own immune system.

So while you may have been vaccinated against the known strain of polio, it is possible that your immune system will be ill equipped to handle the mutant strains created by your peers! This is why vaccination is SO very important. We simply aren't biologically equipped to handle virulence on this order.

As for sexual preference, my own research suggests that asexuality has existed for quite a while. The earliest known observation of asexuality I have found is in Alfred Charles Kinsey's work Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. It's hard to gauge his accuracy in measuring the percentage of people who are asexual from his methodology, though, given what we know now about sociology, biological testing, and psychology. Of course, sociology and psychology are far out of my field.

"Indigo Children," in all its purple bound and printed glory, is still just another crack at the thinking person's psyche. In some ways a dangerous one when it reaches into medical concerns without citing any reliable sources.