EXCERPT - The Indigo Children
As you begin to read this, you might be thinking, "What now, another 'doom and gloom' book about how society is changing our kids?" No. This is perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented in a society which has the tools to do so. We ask you to discern for yourselves as you read on.
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Jan and I are national self-help lecturers and authors. In the last six years we have traveled the world speaking in front of large and small groups alike We have dealt with all ages and many cultures representing many languages. My boys are grown and left the nest. Jan never had children, but somehow felt that someday she would be working with them (she was right). Of the six published books, none are about children because our work does not focus there. How is it, therefore, that we are authoring a book on this very subject?
When you are counselors, and you spend close personal time with people, you cannot help but notice emerging patterns of human behavior, which then become staples of your work. Our work, like that of Louise Hay who published this book, is about self empowerment and the raising of self esteem. It enables people to hope, giving them the power to lift themselves above the level of who they "thought" they were. It also involves spiritual healing (not religion), and encourages self examination for the purpose of finding the "God within" first, before searching for any outside source. It speaks of self-healing, as well as independence from worry, in a changing and worry-prone world. It's tremendously rewarding work - but it makes us notice things.
Some years ago, people started to talk about specific troubles with their kids. So what else is new? Children are often the greatest blessing in a life, and also the greatest challenge. Many books have been written about good parenting and child psychology, but what we noticed was different.
We started hearing more and more about a new kind of child, or at least a new kind of problem for the parent. The difficulties were odd in nature, in that they represented an interchange between adult and child that was unexpected and seemingly atypical of what our generation had experienced. We ignored it until we started hearing it from the professionals who deal specifically with children. They also were reporting similar challenges. Many were exasperated and at their wit's end. Day-care workers all over the nation, some of whom had worked in their profession for over thirty years, were also telling us the same kind of stories about how things were somehow different with the kids. Then we saw something that was horrifying. When these "new" problems became acute, there was an overwhelming propensity to solve the issue by legally drugging the child!
At first, we assumed that this was a cultural attribute, reflecting a changing America. Part of our great American temperament is that we are flexible and go through remarkable changes, as no other country can, while keeping a stable governmental base. Ask any schoolteacher these days, and they will tell you that our educational system really needs an overhaul. It's probably time, but this isn't revolutionary news and did not inspire us to write this book.
Jan and I work with individual issues and stay away from politics or even environmental "causes." It's not that we aren't interested, but rather that our focus as counselors and lecturers is truly about helping men and women personally (even though we often speak to them in large groups). Our premise has always been that each balanced human who has a positive outlook and exudes well-being is able to make whatever changes necessary in a very powerful way. In other words, even vast sweeping social change has to start inside the mind and heart of one person at a time.
Additionally, we assumed that even if there were great changes going on with the kids, professionals and researchers would communicate about this within their industry - that the "pros" would also be observing this event. Years ago we expected to see reports and articles on "attributes of the new kids" in elementary educational and day-care periodicals. It didn't happen - at least not on a scale that would draw much attention, and not in a way for parents to be helped or informed.
Because it didn't happen, we were reinforced in our original notion that our own observations were probably not as wide spread as we had thought, and again, children are not our focus. It took several years for us to change our minds and decide that someone had to at least assemble the information and report it, no matter how strange it seemed. It was there!
As you can see, a number of factors brought about this book, which you should know about before you blindly take our word for something that is going to fall into the category of "happening all around us - but unexplainable."
We have now realized the following.
- This is not an American phenomenon. We have now personally seen it on three continents.
- It seems to go far beyond cultural barriers (encompassing multiple languages).
- It has escaped mainstream attention due to the fact that it is just too "weird" to consider in the paradigm of human psychology, which smugly considers humanity as a static, unchanging model. As a rule, society tends to believe in evolution, but only in the past tense. The thought that we might be seeing a new Human consciousness slowly arriving on the planet now - manifested in our children - goes way beyond established conservative thought.
- The phenomenon is increasing - more reports continue to surface.
- It has been around long enough that many professionals are beginning to observe it.
- There are some emerging answers to the challenges.
For all these reasons, we are stepping out on a limb and giving you the best information we can about what we have observed on a subject that is undoubtedly controversial for many reasons. As far as we know, this is the first book that is entirely dedicated to the Indigo Child. While reading this, many will relate to what is presented, and we fully expect the subject to be explored more fully in the future by those more qualified.
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