by S.S. Sundaram

The humongous popularity of Harry Potter books and movies couldn't have come out of a vacuum. Some part in the children worldwide must have identified with the psychic powers of Harry Potter and company. Now a trend that has come to notice in the West is that many children in our midst are indeed spiritually advanced or psychic. Called Indigo children, they are the subject of a dozen major books, scores of websites and even a feature film. They are called Indigo children because of the predominance of indigo (a dark shade of blue) color in their auras, which clairvoyants can see. Indigo is the color of the third eye chakra, which regulates clairvoyance, or the ability to see energy, visions and spirits.

Observers and analysts of the New Age are even arguing that Indigos have a special role in the evolution of humanity. They are here to fulfill the various prophecies of a coming New Age, said to dawn around the year 2012. Says Dr Sunny Satin, California-based NRI hypnotherapist who has been training therapists in India and has conducted seminars in Delhi and Mumbai recently on the Indigos, "Their mission on earth is to change established systems once they grow up."

The Indigo phenomenon was first brought to light by Lee Carroll, the channel for Kryon, and his wife Jan Tober (both also work as a team of self-help professionals in the US) in their 1999 book, The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived. The book carried essays by counselors, paediatricians and educationists. As more and more parents started identifying their children's traits with those of Indigos, more books and websites cropped up on the subject. The small budget Indigo, a film produced and directed by Hollywood's Stephen Simon, starring Neale Donald Walsch, author of the bestselling Conversations with God series of books, became an underground hit using the unconventional distribution strategy of screening at churches, etc. The story of the film revolves around an Indigo girl who uses her ingenuity and special powers such as foreseeing events to reunite her dysfunctional family. The film was followed by a documentary on the Indigo phenomenon. Finally, the mainstream media woke up to the phenomenon. Last year, CNN, ABC and New York Times carried stories on the subject.

By now educational institutions like the Waldorf, set up by Rudolf Steiner, the anthroposophy founder, and Montessori schools, have developed programmes to cater to the special talents of these children. Support groups have come up to help Indigos' unsuspecting parents cope with their precocious progeny. A debate is also raging that some of the hundreds of thousands of children diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder) and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder), may in fact be Indigos. Advocacy groups are offering a fierce opposition to the ADD drug Ritalan (Lee Carrol estimates that 20 per cent of pre-schoolers in the US are on Ritalin).

By now the question you will be asking is, how can I identify whether my child is an Indigo. According to Lee and Jan's book, these are the 10 common behaviour traits of Indigos:
o They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it).
o They have a feeling of 'deserving to be here', and are surprised when others don't share that.
o Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell parents 'who they are'.
o They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
o They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
o They get frustrated with systems that are ritual-oriented and don't require creative thought.
o 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).
o 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.
o They will not respond to 'guilt' discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").
o They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

Dr Deepak Vaide, a physician who writes a weekly Tarot column in The Times of India, claims that he is a clairvoyant and can identify Indigos. He says the percentage of Indigos being born is increasing each year. And since he practices in old Delhi, he notices that Indigos are not restricted to the upper or elite classes. Also, that the Indigo percentage of total children born is going up with each passing year. Closer home, he says, his step-daughter, Vidhi, 21, and nephew, Rohan, 9, are Indigos. Vidhi, who is doing her Master's in advertising and marketing from Amity, says she is hyperactive, good with gadgets, has an urge for knowledge, wants to do things her way and knows what she wants to do in life - impact lots of people.

In Mumbai, Prem Nirmal, an electronics engineer-turned-spiritual guide, hasn't heard of Indigo children, but feels his daughter, Kalyani, 14, is a spiritual child. "She carries a sense of calm around her and displays a rare maturity."

Kalyani, who studies in standard IX in Singhania School, Thane, finds her thought patterns to be different from her peers, some of whom she finds silly. She pays attention in school, not needing to study at home. She has learnt to play the synthesizer, is learning Bharatanatyam and has had her arangetram already.

Delving into the material on begetting spiritual children in Indian scriptures, Dr Geetanjali Shah, a paediatrician, and her gynecologist husband, Dr Vikram Shah, have added this component in their three maternity and nursing homes, named Ashwini, in central Mumbai. The rituals and procedures extend from pre-conception to pregnancy and postpartum period.

Manoj Lekhi, a follower of the Bangalore-based guru Rishi Prabhakar, also worked with similar material to guide parents, and has started MET Rishikul Vidyalaya in Bandra, where 150 children of such parents and others are studying. He claims many of the four-year-olds are able to read books like adults, play the tabla, and stay for extended periods away from their parents.

Not everybody agrees that a new generation has dawned. Lina Asher, who founded the Kangaroo Kids-Billabong High chain of schools, refuses to comment. Yet she recounts how her son Drish, now 14 and studying in Melbourne, at age two-plus "once held a plate of chicken, and suddenly asked me, 'How will you feel if somebody killed your son and cooked him?' 'I will cry,' I replied. 'I hear the mummy of this chicken crying,' he said, putting away his plate. He has never touched meat since. What impressed me most was the ingenious way he pre-empted any opposition from me."Asher also says that in her schools they strive to mobilize multiple intelligences - including spiritual and moral - as brought to light by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner.

Dr Lina Kashyap, head of the department of family and child welfare at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, actually sees a trend opposite to that described in this article, "Parents these days follow rituals and are far removed from religion or spirituality." She agrees that today's children have high self-belief, but ascribes it to the socialization process. She accepts that today's parents are aware of the need to pay better attention to their growing children, but are not able to, mainly because both parents may be working.

Now that you have read about Indigos, brace yourself for the next generation of spiritual children. They are called Crystals, said to be even more evolved. What is the difference, you ask. Indigos have one negative trait, they exhibit a lot of anger with the way things are. Crystal children, says Dr Satin, "are pure love - they cannot stand violence, even as entertainment, and they remember their past lives."

The Crystal children have opalescent auras, with beautiful multi-colors in pastel hues, show a fascination for crystals and rocks and are telepathic, writes Doreen Virtue, author of The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children and The Crystal Children. Her comment on the role of the Crystals, "They are the generation who benefit from the Indigos' trailblazing. First, the Indigo children lead with a machete, cutting down anything that lacks integrity. Then the Crystal children follow the cleared path, into a safer and more secure world."

Well, even if you do not think that your child is an Indigo or Crystal, there is certainly a case for more enlightened parenting, so that we help rather than hinder the holistic growth of our children. After all, as the new generation, the choice of what kind of a world they want to usher in and leave for the generations following them, rightly belongs to them alone.