Ever heard of Indigo children?
One of the themes of this weblog and of my web site is that lots of people believe lots of strange things and we have to have a rational means of identifying truth based on evidence. I’m currently working up a short essay on this subject for my web site. Meanwhile today let’s look at another of these esoteric ideas for which there is little or no credible evidence.
I refer to the notion of Indigo children. I quote: “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.”
The concept was originally explored in a 1999 book but has grown so that the idea has its own web site. The Wikipedia entry states that: “Another tenet of the Indigo child movement is the belief that these children are born with an empathic connection to Earth and others’ thoughts. However, due to natural limits in infant communication, Indigo childrens’ supposed abilities (empathy, telepathy, extra-sensory perception and extra-normal perception) are often suppressed by negative parental or societal influence.”
According to a recent “Guardian” article, believers in Indigo children are convinced that these children are super evolved and have special psychic powers. Of course, an alternative – and much more likely – explanation is that these children have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or something similar.
If you’re interested in knowing more, a television programme called “Cutting Edge: My Kid’s Psychic” is on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight.