How do you handle an indigo child?

In last week’s article I painted a portrait of a new kind of child which has gotten a lot of press attention in the last year. There are several names for these bright mavericks, but the most generally used term to describe them is indigo children.

Psychologists such as Jan Tober call them the hope of the world and characterize them as masters, here to save the planet. The source I channel, Q’uo, explains their characteristics of high intelligence and low tolerance for fools as typical of those who have graduated from our earth at this time of global shift. Upon graduation, however, their first desire has been to return to earth as dual-activated beings, equipped to live in both third density, which is the earth world as we know it, and fourth density, which is the next density or grade of learning.

Let’s look at this a bit more closely, because this point is key in grasping just what the indigo’s situation is. The indigo has incarnated into our consensus reality and is basically a third-density being, with the heavy, chemically active body of our species. That weighty body carries with it a heavy veil which the Confederation sources call the “veil of forgetting”. When we are born, we lose the memory of who we are as a soul. We lose our knowledge of how we fit into the divine plan. We forget that all things are one and that we are hurting ourselves when we hurt another being.

Most of all, we take on the third-density emotional nature that goes with the body. We are highly reactive emotionally, prey to being sucked into the small and trivial world of people saying mean things, people cutting us off in traffic and similar, meaningless happenings.

The indigo child is stuck with the same body and emotions except for one important difference: the veiling is much thinner for indigos. They have an easier time waking up to their true nature within incarnation. Their memories of the density of love and understanding, the density into which they have just graduated, are pretty close to the surface. They remember a better, higher path and they want to take it.

Translated into earth terms, they see earth as a place in need of adjustment. It is what they came here to do. They are mission-oriented. They are not caught by the planetary madness which drives us all, through sheer habit, to make war on each other rather than sitting down to find peaceful and unified solutions that benefit all.

The Q’uo source describes indigos this way in a session dated August 18, 2004: “When a person has a dual-activated body, certain things have changed for this entity. They include a thinner veiling, so that it is easier to remember preincarnative data, the ability to access psychic gifts, largely because of the lighter veiling; he tendency to be impatient with third-density structures, especially those that seem to stand in their way, and difficulty in cooperating with the strictures that make the least sense to them.

It is no wonder, then, that indigo children tend to object to a good deal about the world that meets their eyes. However, this habit of defying the normally expected behaviors of the surrounding culture can drive parents to tears!

The Q’uo, in the same session, stress the point that these indigos are children. They point out that “such children do not come into incarnation equipped with what might be called maturity or common sense. They do not have an instinct for right behavior. They are, as are all of the very young, self-involved, ever-questing, ever impatient and very inquisitive of knowledge, of ideas, of ways to be and masks of all kinds. They are experimenters looking for ways to express what feels right to them.”

School is a difficult environment for many of these indigos. Authority in our schools is generally based upon blind obedience. indigos tend not to follow any order that does not make sense to them. This is highly inconvenient for teachers who are trying to deal with a whole group of children. When a child demands explanations for all orders, the resulting chaos can be considerable. Indigos are frequently considered troublemakers and often disciplined.

Consequently, many parents have chosen to home school their indigo children. However the Q’uo group does not recommend this solution. Neither do mainstream psychologists, for the most part. The reason is that indigos are by nature loners. If they are removed from the public school system in order to avoid immersion in our culture, they become even less able to cope with social skills like making friends and working in groups.

Both sources suggest the same solution for schooling indigos: Montessori or Walden schools. In both of these schools’ theories of education, the young child is given proactive respect and offered a part in forming their own curriculum. This interactivity and the atmosphere of respect for a child’s opinion are both key in creating a better atmosphere for learning.

Naturally not all indigo children’s parents can afford such special schools. However, simply knowing what your child is up against in public schools can make it easier for you to help them cope. Realize that their main confusion is in the incredible volume of incoming data one gets in a school day. The other kids are all buzzing about what’s new. There are very intricate rules for relating to other kids. You remember your school daze! You coped! But it was so confusing sometimes! indigos have a heightened feeling of confusion and chaos because so little in this culture makes really good sense. We have glossed over that as we matured. They have not.

As you parent an indigo child, try to relate to that child as a collaborator in forming an environment as well as a parent. It is important that you give the child solid, heartfelt values. They need limits just as much as any other child. So going in to parenthood, make up your mind as to what your core values really are. Decide how you wish to create your home environment. And as your indigo baby becomes a toddler and then a child, stay steadily on your course.

Realize that giving an indigo child blind orders is not a good idea. When you ask the child to do something, say not only what he should do but why. It does not have to be a complex, intellectual reason. indigos want to be helpful. Your reason can be as simple as, “Because I am very tired right now and it would help me out a whole lot if you would do this for me.”

Always keep in mind that an indigo is naturally progressive. Let’s face it! A good bit of how we act in this culture is in need of ethical repair. We know better than to disrespect other people, but we as a nation and culture do it anyway.

Here is one easily chosen example: New Orleans. A whole year after Hurricane Katrina blew through, only one in twenty of those in the poorest district of that fair city has been able to return to his home. The reason is that the governmental forces of that city, that state and the nation are all quite uninterested in helping poor people return to New Orleans.

The cronyism of corporations given the job of rebuilding has resulted in precious little rebuilding of any kind being done. There is no water, electricity or telephone service in the lower ninth ward. Those fortunate enough to receive trailers from FEMA had to take them where they were placed, which is too far from the city to find work in New Orleans. They cannot return to that city or they will lose what little they have.

With a year in which to normalize, this is almost unbelievable. We should be outraged! And this is only one of many ways in which our culture has not risen to act out the principles to which we give lip service: equality, justice, fairness, compassion and an open heart.

Why should children not object to such shenanigans? Is it not a good thing that the indigos want to start the job of moving society forward into the practice of these principles?

The heart of parenting indigos, then, is to have your own principles and ethics in place. Walk your talk. However you relate to the search for truth, find time daily to further your practice of spiritual seeking. Don’t be content with going to church once a week. Offer some sort of remembrance of the divine daily. Don’t make a big deal of it. Just do it, quite matter-of-factly. With that solid value system backing him up, your indigo will feel supported. This child IS spiritually oriented.

Many indigos are diagnosed with some form of attention deficit disorder. The normal treatment for a child who cannot keep his mind on anything is a harsh chemical substance called Ritalin. It has no curative value at all. It works only to deaden the symptoms of distraction and acting out. Therefore neither the Q’uo group nor the psychologists working with indigos feel that using that medication is a good idea.

What the mainstream psychologists suggest is a return to natural foods. The indigo’s body chemistry, they suggest, is especially sensitive to the intake of foods. We as a culture have gone down a dangerous path in choosing how we eat. Dale Figtree, a psychologist writing about indigos, feels indigos are allergic to the empty-calorie junk food our culture so loves.

He suggests simple changes, like offering your child an apple instead of apple juice. An apple, whole and fresh from the tree, is hard to ruin. Scrub its skin and it is a whole and perfect food. Take the same apple, he says, and make it into apple juice and you have removed all of the fruit’s fiber; you have taken out almost all of the vitamins by heat-processing it and you have loaded it with preservatives to increase its shelf life.

He suggests other straightforward coping mechanisms for choosing better food for your child. He suggests reading the labels. If there are preservatives, sugars and dyes added, move on to another, healthier brand. He suggests looking for whole foods, like brown rice, whole-wheat bread and whole-wheat pasta. He suggests a large intake of raw foods such as salads and fresh fruit.

Your indigo child may well grow up to be a master. If so, your guidance will be the most important training he will receive to prepare him for growing into his shoes. And you are definitely up to the task. Remember two things: be as truthful as you know how to be at all times, for indigos know and crave truth. And be ready to negotiate, for indigos expect to be a part of decisions made about them.

Above all, love them. Just love them. That’s the most important thing for them. They are fresh from being in the density of love. When they are loved unconditionally, they feel at home in this world. Let your love be their home!

I open my arms and embrace your spirit. If you are an indigo yourself, try for patience with your surroundings! You are here to love the world, not just to judge it. If you are the parent of an indigo, know that you do not have to be smart, clever or hip to be a good parent. You only need to love your indigo child and let him love you back!