Summary
Indigo Children are children with special traits, although the specifics of those traits ranges from "empathetic", "confident" to "mind reader".
Commentary
According to Lee Carol, co-author of "The Indigo Children", the term was never supposed to denote anything paranormal. Rather, Nancy Ann Tappe, who coined the term, had synesthesia and associated these children with the color indigo.
Nonetheless, there is definitely an underlying argument that is completely unsubstantiated: that these children "represent a higher state of human evolution". Of course, if we take evolutionary psychology to its extreme, the children do in fact represent a higher state of human evolution (just not that much higher; probably not what the indigo folks mean).
Meta
Matthew suggests that perhaps a belief in indigo children may be related to the Forer effect and confirmation bias. What do you think?
See Also
- Indigo children at Wikipedia for more information.
- Wikipedia Warning! at the Indigo Children for a response to the Wikipedia article from Lee Carol.
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1 comment:
Actually, I was more suggesting that classifying your child as an Indigo Child is related to confirmation bias. I didn't know about the Forer Effect before your last post (at least not by name).
And while I may not believe in colored auras and such, since I do believe in some things that can be experienced but not empirically proven (e.g., God, chi), I don't begrudge people in believing in other things that they claim can be "felt" but not empirically proven (at least until it's empirically disproven).
The distinction is the CFS argument. Some doctors classify Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as a disorder, and smart doctors classify it as a symptom. Why? Because it doesn't have any empirical tests. You can't test for CFS. You diagnose it based upon patient reported energy levels, duration of sleep, and tiredness levels. It seems intuitive to say that if a patient is reporting that they sleep more than 18 hours a day and have less than half their energy, that it is a symptom of a disorder, not a disorder in and of itself, but many doctors don't quite get that (which is odd, because they can't give you any real treatment for CFS, so why call it a disorder? They tell you to eat better, to try to exercise when you're awake, to force yourself onto a set sleep pattern, and eventually you'll right yourself).
The parallel is that people who call their children Indigo Children are doing so because their kids are acting up and can't sit still in class and get in trouble - so therefore, instead of admitting that their kids have mild ADD or behavioral issues, they say that their children are "more sensitive", "more intuitive", and "smarter than the teachers", so the teachers don't understand them. It smacks of denial, to me.
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