Mustachioed
and smug in a Las Vegas casino with the blinking lights of slot machines in
soft focus behind him, Geraldo Rivera points into the camera and says “Here’s
what’s coming up next time.”
Wisps of ominous gray smoke twist and mutate around the screen against a black
background as the announcer confides a sinister secret:
“Channeling the dead…Seeing into the future…Predicting
the end of their own lives…”
Rapid fire images flash across the screen. Reverse black and white photos of
children stare at you as if out of the movie, Children of the Corn. A creepy
chanted lullaby of “Go to sleep and goodnight” drones in the background.
“Their parents say they’re psychic…but are these kids’
psychological problems being ignored?”
All hell breaks loose on the screen. Children attack one another. A little
girl jumps up and down in an uncontrollable tantrum. A boy throws a piece of
furniture across the room. One child jumps on another’s back and begins
beating him mercilessly in a kitchen.
“Don’t miss the next Geraldo at Large.”
“What have I done?” I said, as I slumped back against the sofa,
“I knew it would be sleazy, but this is worse than I thought.”
Amidst the flaming car wrecks, graphic bus crashes and grainy surveillance
video, the Geraldo at Large show made time for a story of a spiritual
nature: Indigo Children. With only the purest journalistic intentions, they
had contacted me less than 24 hours earlier to ask me to appear on the show.
“We’re doing a show on Indigo Children. Basically we have a mother
who believes her son is an Indigo and then we have a professor from Lehigh University
who says, ‘science has not proven this.’ We need someone who has
worked with these kids and will say, ‘I’ve seen them and I believe
it.’”
Knowing full well the tabloid-like nature of Geraldo’s program, I agreed
to appear, fresh from the experience of being interviewed for the New York Times
article by John Leland a month earlier.
With the documentary, “Indigo Evolution” coming out, Indigos were
generating some well deserved media attention. No matter what crackpot things
the media would say about it, at least it would open discussion and put these
issues out on the table.
When John Leland contacted my healing practice, Neshama Healing, to interview
my partner Julia Tuchman and myself, we were both about to receive a rude awakening.
John Leland follows cultural trends, and is actually a rock critic. He was
a founding columnist of Spin Magazine and a former editor-in-chief of Details
Magazine. He even wrote a book on the history of being “Hip.”
Is “Indigo Children” the new hip label that parents use to describe
their attention deficit kids? Apparently, this was the pretext for the article.
On January 12th, the New York Times article entitled, “Are They Here
to Save the World?” ran in the Thursday Styles section and was extremely
limited in scope: it focused solely on the ADHD symptoms of these children and
depicted the parents of Indigos as well-meaning but self-deluded.
My feelings about that article are summarized best in the following letter
that I wrote to the editor:
I applaud John Leland for covering a spiritual topic (in the Styles Section?!)
but the article misses the boat just like the darker side of psychiatry: by
only focusing on pathology. Indigos or whatever you want to call them, are
not signified by behavior disruptions but by an effortless spiritual insight.
Being spiritual should not be viewed as a fashion statement but as an intrinsic
part of all of us.
Although both Julia and I explained to him the spiritual nature of being an
Indigo, and even gave him the name of an amazing 19-year-old healer whom I will
discuss later, he stuck with the ADHD angle.
While I was not quoted in the Times article, my partner Julia Tuchman was.
She called me the day the article came out, distraught because she felt she
had been misquoted. The amazing difference that one word makes.
John Leland quoted Julia as saying, “’I’m very holistically
oriented, but many people who come here I send to doctors,’ she said.
‘I’m not against medication at all. I just think it’s overused.’”
The article gave the impression that Julia and I send lots of kids to psychiatrists,
but the word that John Leland left out was “holistic” as in “holistic
doctors.”
When John Leland asked Julia, “Are you against doctors and medication?”
He seemed shocked when her answer was no.
She told him that we often send children to holistic doctors to test them for
environmental and food allergies. And that a lot of these children have sensitivities
that can cause these behavior problems. But this is quite different than the
article stating that, “Julia Tuchman…said it was important for their
families not to turn away from traditional psychology and medicine,” which
she just simply did not say.
Julia and I are not against western medicine at all. Far from it, both of us
believe that medication can be a godsend for many who have serious chemical
imbalances in their brains. Neither of us claim to be doctors, and we feel that
parents should not rule out any option in getting help for their kids, Indigo
or otherwise. If a child does not receive help from alternative therapy we are
not asking them to put on their “Indigo Blindfold” and endanger
their children as some skeptics imply, that’s ridiculous.
While the diagnosis-du-jour of ADD and the over-prescribing of Ritalin and
Adderall is an important issue in and of itself, by not giving the spiritual
context of where these parent’s kooky quotes were coming from, and most
importantly by not talking to any Indigos themselves, many people simply dismiss
Indigos as a figment of their parent’s imaginations.
Our true wake-up call to what people really thought about the issue came to
us within hours of the article’s appearance as comments about the article
flooded the Blogosphere:
“Yet another definition for what we used to call brats. I would be willing
to bet that in intact families where there is structure and discipline there
are no ‘indigo’ children with ‘auras’.”
“We can still spank them, right?”
“So when did the New York Times morph into the National Enquirer?”
And my favorite: “Parents With Their Heads Up Their Ass Interviewed By
New York Times.”
These impressions notwithstanding, Julia came off as the rational one in the
article, and as Julia’s more straight-laced sister put it, “You
seemed like the most sane one.”
Although I was not quoted in the article, simply speaking to the New York Times
about my spiritual experiences was a tremendous step for someone who had hidden
that aspect of his life for so long.
Though resistant to labels—just like an Indigo!—I have been called
an Indigo by many. Born in 1978, I was definitely a psychically-aware child.
At night, with the lights out I would see energy and figures parading through
the room. I was very fearful of many of these images.
Walking to school, I would have conversations with my spirit guide. And 20
years ago when I was seven, I spoke to the teacher, Christa McAuliffe, who died
in the Challenger space shuttle explosion. Although I’m sure many students
had spoken to her while she was still alive, what made this conversation different
was that I spoke to her after her death.
Like so many Indigos, I assumed these were experiences that everyone had. I
soon learned that not only were they not the norm; it was not even safe to speak
about them. Like many other Indigos, there came a point when I began to hide
my gifts. In sixth grade, I consciously decided to stop seeing these figures—negotiating
puberty was challenge enough.
But these gifts would always resurface. In high school I became empathic and
was aware of the emotions of everyone around me; just entering the school cafeteria,
filled with teen angst and raging hormones was just too much background noise
for me to bear.
Now, after many years concealing this aspect of myself, not only was I working
with Indigos kids and their parents in my healing practice; I was being asked
to talk about Indigos on national TV.
“This is going to be very easy and conversational,” the production
assistant explained. “They won’t be able to hear what I say, so
you’ll have to repeat the words of the questions in your answers.”
“Start Timecode,” the cameraman said.
“Okay. If you can give me your name and spell it and tell us who you
are.”
Staring past the lights towards the production assistant with the camera over
her right shoulder I began:
“My name is Adam Wolinsky, W-o-l-i-n-s-k-y. And I run a healing practice
called Neshama Healing.”
“What kind of healing?”
“I do energy healing,” I said wincing, as if being an energy healer
might be construed as some kind of punch line in Geraldo’s cruel joke.
“Okay. Can you tell me, what are Indigo Children?”
“I think there are some misperceptions about what they are. I think there’s
too much focus on the pathology of ADHD or behavior disturbances in schools.
I think that Indigo Children are just spiritually advanced children. Spirituality
just comes to them very naturally.”
“Where does the name Indigo Children come from?”
“There’s a woman who claimed that she could see the indigo auras
of these children. But I don’t think it’s really about blue, indigo
or the color purple. It’s really just about the wisdom these kids have.”
“Great. Could you please repeat that incorporating the words of the question?”
And so it went on. This was not an actual interview where the reporter responds
and then tailors their questions to your answers. Instead, it was the same questions
asked again and again in different ways in the hopes that I would give them
something sensational. This was more of a courtroom-style prosecution than journalism.
For example, after I had just defined Indigos as being inherently spiritual
she asked, “Have you ever encountered a child who rejects the Indigo label?
That doesn’t want to have anything to do with the spiritual side of anything?”
It is quite difficult to keep straight the answer in your head, while remembering
the words of the question, and all while trying to avoid falling into their
agenda.
This seemingly nice young production assistant did not actually write any of
these questions, but was actually the producer’s henchman, there in the
hopes that I’d let my guard down and give them something juicy.
My all-time favorite question from the session:
“Are Indigos human?”
The hoped for answer was, of course: “Indigos are actually from the planet
Nebulon and have come to liberate our species.”
So like a practiced politician I had to be on my toes and hammer the point
home again and again while watching that what I said couldn’t be edited
out of context.
“Is Indigo sort of—Can it be looked at like a religious belief?
I mean, is there some form of religious belief behind a belief in Indigo Children?”
“A religious belief, no, I wouldn’t say that. Believing in Indigos
isn’t a religion or a cult or anything like that. I do think it is recognizing
a wisdom that children have.”
“What do they mean for us? What does the presence of Indigo Children
mean for us?
“I think what they’re here to teach us is that being spiritual
is just an innate part of all of us. It’s like in the old days, the Buddhist
monks would study their whole lifetime to become a master, whatever that is.
But these children come into this life, and they know what their purpose is.
They have a sort of effortlessness…Like ‘come on, get with the program
here. Why isn’t spirituality this obvious to everyone?’ And I think
being spiritual isn’t something we have to try at. I don’t think
it’s like a fashion statement. It’s not a fad. It’s just something
that’s part of all of us.”
“What’s the state of the world today, that there are so many of
them here?”
“I think that they are here to teach us to embrace a different way of
being and get rid of outdated systems like some of the ways that the school
systems are set up and governmental systems and different things like that.
But I don’t think it’s right to put pressure on kids and say, ‘you’re
here to save the world.’ I think kids should decide for themselves what
they’re here to do. And I think for parents to embrace a label that puts
too much pressure on them isn’t useful at all.”
“But the belief is that they are here to save us? That is sort of the
idea behind them?”
“I guess. I mean, I’d be very reluctant to say they’re here
to save us. I would just recommend people listen. Don’t be so quick to
judge or discount something just because scientists have not recognized it yet.
I mean, a hundred years ago, if you were to ask the scientists about technology
that we take for granted today, they would think you’re out of your mind.
I wouldn’t say that they’re here to save us all. I think pay attention
to what they’re saying. And that we all have that component inside of
us.”
“Are Indigos human?”
“Of course they’re humans. You know, in a few generations it’s
not going to be about ‘Are they or aren’t they?’ It’s
just going to be an accepted thing. Because these kids are going to be the ones
producing these shows.”
“How do the traditional schools push down the Indigo trait and discourage
them?”
“Well, I think schools are like factories...that from a really early
age you’re told to be quiet, to sit there and to ask permission to go
to the bathroom, and things like that. And I just think it’s a really
unnatural way to be. What we’re actually teaching children is to numb
themselves, just to pass the hours, and to not listen to their own bodies. Instead,
you have them memorize things and just go through the motions. And that’s
what I did. I was really good at playing the system. I could instantly memorize
things and then it was gone the next minute.
“And I think that both the parents and the schools are guilty of this,
there’s a lot of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. What’s
really missing is individualized attention, where the child is recognized for
what’s unique about them, and encouraged without forcing them to be something
they’re not.
“When parents come to me in my healing practice, it’s like a last
ditch effort after their children are having trouble in school. And it’s
like, ‘Fix my kids. Make them fit the system.’ But I’ve found
that a lot of the time it’s not the kid that needs healing, it’s
the parents. It’s society. It’s the system that really isn’t
meeting the needs of these kids.
“And you know, a lot of these kids feel like there is something wrong
with them. But the most important thing I could say to any of these kids is
that there is nothing wrong with them and that there are others going through
the exact same thing.”
“Is there a test for Indigo?”
“You know, if there was a test for Indigoness, I really wouldn’t
want to have anything to do with it—that’s thinking about it in
a very traditional western medicine kind of way, like, let’s diagnose
the problem. These kids know what they are. They don’t need this word.
They really don’t.”
“Doctors will say that instead of this rise of Indigo Children, it is
just a symptom of the world at large. That it’s really just the medical
community being able to diagnose these kids. That it is an increase in ADHD.”
“Well, I don’t think with ADHD and Indigos that it’s a one
size fits all kind of thing. Some kids get sick from mercury in their immunization.
Some kids get autism and different things. I don’t think it’s like
100 percent of kids that have a mental problem or challenge in school are Indigos.
If there are increases in these diagnoses is there something in our environment
that’s causing that? But, there is no test for spirituality. That’s
actually my point there. How do you quantify spirituality? How do you quantify
God? I think the essential part of it is not testable.”
“What do you say to people that say that these kids are just brats? And
they’re not here to save the world. They’re not, you know, evolved
spiritually or of higher consciousness than anyone else. They’re just
brats.”
“Can an Indigo Child be a brat? Of course, they are human. They are children.
And they should be given the opportunities to do normal childlike things. I
do not recommend that you start bowing before them and worshipping them as higher
beings. Give them a chance to be children.
There’s a wonderful, 19-year-old healer in Canada named Adam
the healer. He’s an everyday kid. He walks down the hallways in high
school with his girlfriend. He plays soccer. And then, after class he does these
amazing healings. But he has his anonymity. There’s a reason why his parents
did not release his last name. His parents completely support him. And I think
that’s really the model.
You know, it’s somewhere in-between—you should not worship them,
but you should take their ideas seriously. And don’t treat them like,
‘Oh, you’re a child, and what you say has no value.’”
“Do you think this whole phenomenon is a result of self-important adults
believing that their offspring has to have some kind of special trait?”
“I think that the world already tells you what’s wrong with you
and puts you down enough. I mean, if a parent is boosting their kids up in a
positive way, I don’t think there’s really a negative side to that.
But it’s really what the children feel that’s important. You know,
it’s really not so much about the parental views, or the scientist’s
views, or anyone else’s, because these children know who they are. They
know that they’re part of God.”
“The idea that my child is gifted is so much more appealing than the
diagnosis of a defect which ADHD is sort of looked at as. Do you think that
these parents are just sort of fooling themselves?”
“First of all, all children are special and should be encouraged for
their gifts, whether you want to call that Indigo or not. But even children
with ADHD who are not spiritually advanced have gifts that parents should be
encouraging. Because all children are special. All children have gifts.”
I looked up at the production assistant for some kind of reaction after I spoke,
but was just confronted with silence.
“Okay—I think that’s good.”
I asked the production assistant when the piece would air and she said 6:30pm
the next day.
“So, we talked for about what, an hour and a half? You’ll probably
use what—30 seconds? 10 seconds?”
“We’ll use the best bits,” she said.
Leaning against the window during my bus ride home, I thought about just how
heavy and dense this planet can be and how it is not always so easy to be here.
I thought about 19-year-old Adam the Healer in Canada and how he is planning
on attending med school.
He will be an amazing balance of Eastern and Western philosophy. He hopes to
one day save up money and open a center where other kids will be able understand
the strange occurrences that he himself went through.
I wonder what it would have been like if something like that had existed when
I was growing up.
Once I saw the promo for the segment later that night I started to freak out.
I had been an assistant editor for television shows in Chicago, so I knew very
well the power that an editor holds.
“They’re going to make a fool of me,” my hysterics exploded
as I analyzed my words from earlier in the day through an editor’s eyes.
A voice in my head said, “Who do you think is in charge, God or Geraldo?”
Despite this sentiment, I continued to worry. The Simpsons was on directly
after the promo for the Geraldo show, and I could hear it blaring from the other
room. I paused my worrying rampage for a moment and became engrossed in the
show.
“Everyone’s happier with the lie,” said Bart.
“Wait just a minute,” Lisa snapped, as she emerged out of a crowd.
“Love the Lie!” said Homer, shaking a fist menacingly.
“The way I was raised, by Mom, I learned the truth can’t be swept
under the rug.” said Lisa.
Twenty-four hours later, I was beginning to believe her words myself as we
nervously watched Oprah ripping James Frey to shreds.
“That’s a lie. It’s not an idea, James, that’s a lie.”
“Well no matter what happens,” Julia said to me, “at least
you’re not that guy.”
This time Geraldo was standing on a dock in the San Francisco bay, with a row
of light posts trailing into the background.
“The hidden dangers lurking on the internet, and the Indigo kids
minutes away. But first…”
As soon as the segment began, with clips of the movie “Indigo Evolution”
and the young painter Akiane’s eyes featured prominently on the screen,
I knew it had changed. It seemed like a completely different piece than the
promo I had seen the night before.
The reporter interviewed the mother of an Indigo. The requisite white Buddha
statue and the Peter Max-style LOVE letters could be seen in the background.
“You’d say he’s psychic?” the reporter asked raising
an eyebrow.
“Uh-uh.”
“For example?”
“Well, I’ll be sitting there going, ‘Eh…I don’t
feel like cooking dinner. Let’s have pizza.’ And he’ll go,
‘Mom, can we have pizza for dinner?’
I mean why pizza? Couldn’t it have been tuna fish…well it wouldn’t
be with him but…”
Next up was the footage of the skeptic who was featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer
article, but even his comments seemed tame by Geraldo’s standards. His
scene ended abruptly, and then a soft focus image of a young girl’s face
faded up as ominous music played in the background.
And then…
There was just Geraldo and the reporter smugly shaking hands and laughing on
the San Francisco Pier?
That’s it?
I don’t know if the editor was tired that night and wanted to go home,
or if it was because I just didn’t give them the kind of sensationalistic
footage they required, but the feel of the piece had definitely changed from
the promo to the finished product.
So, I wasn’t quoted in the New York Times piece or on Geraldo at
Large either, but as Lisa says, “The truth can’t be swept under
the rug.”
And I have to keep speaking it.
© 2006, Adam Wolinsky
Photography by Julia Tuchman www.chakralatte.com
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Adam
Wolinsky is
an energy healer in New York City. He works alongside Julia Tuchman to form
Neshama Healing which is not a modality at all but just a name for working
with clients and letting God through. http://www.neshamahealing.com.
Adam
also runs a design company called Chakralatte Design where he creates websites
and print materials for healers and the holistic community on both an energetic
and aesthetic level. http://www.chakralatte.com
