I realize that I’ve been mighty hard on Jenny McCarthy these last several months. I’ve made fun of her for her idiocy, her arrogance of ignorance, and her antivaccination lunacy, not to mention her utter ignorance of science, and, yes, I’ve been rather vicious at times. However, she richly deserved it. Indeed, I argue that in fact my reaction was actually mild in comparison to the sheer lunacy that she regularly spews and the threat to public health her ignorant antivaccinationist activism represents.
But it’s Friday, and that means it’s fun day. That means it’s time for an excursion into camp woo, and one area of woo that I’ve meant to look into for a while is the woo that apparently formed McCarthy’s views of science. You see, before she discovered antivaccinationism last year, there was a gentler Jenny, a less angry Jenny, a Jenny who was into gentle, New Age woo, rather than into toxic, ranting antivaccinationism in which she followed a vision of a greater world, where special children with special powers would bring about a golden age. Wait, you say. What are you talking about? Surely you remember Indigo Children, don’t you? You don’t? Well, perhaps you should. After all, if you do, you might come to realize, as I have, that perhaps we should all be nice to Jenny. After all, she means well, and she is a special woman. She has a special son, a son who is a “crystal child.”
This woo, it is good.
Of course if you go looking for Jenny McCarthy’s IndigoMoms.com website, you won’t find it. It disappeared around July 3, 2007 as demonstrated by The Wayback Machine. After all, that was about the time that Jenny McCarthy’s autism woo book was about to be released, and it just wouldn’t do to have a website up that shows just what a flake Jenny was. Oh, no, she was about to be reborn as the “warrior mom” and crusader for “safe vaccines.” However, also due to the glory of the Wayback Machine, you can still see a lot of it right here, which was last updated on November 12, 2006. It begins thusly:
The mission of Indigo Moms is to create a community where moms can meet to have fun, share stories, make new friends, join a support group, and hopefully learn and laugh on this adventure called life.
Your host is Jenny McCarthy. Jenny has a 4-year-old son, Evan, who is a Crystal child. Being blessed with Evan led Jenny to have the inspiring vision to create this meeting place.
But what is the whole “Indigo Child” phenomenon? Apparently this:
The term “Indigo Child” originated from Nancy Ann Tappe, who classified people’s personalities according to the hue of their auras. According to Tappe, Indigos are extremely bright, precocious children with an amazing memory and a strong desire to live instinctively. These children of the next millennium are sensitive, gifted souls with an evolved consciousness who have come here to help change the vibrations of our lives and create one land, one globe and one species. They are our bridge to the future (Understanding Your Life Through Color, 1982).
Just to give you a flavor of what was on the old, defunct website, I’ll also point out that there are articles there on Generational Healing with the Indigo Children, a column by an “angel therapist” (why do angels need therapy, I wonder?), among lots of other serious, serious woo. Indeed, this phenomenon even made it to the pages of the New York Times a couple of years ago.
Because Jenny’s old website is only partially archived, I decided I wanted to really know what the whole “indigo” thing was about. Fortunately, I found the Indigo site to end all Indigo sites, the woo site to end all woo sites (well, maybe not really; nothing can top the DNA Activation site). Welcome to Generation Indigo (gee, I wonder if Generation Rescue was inspired by this site or whether it was the other way around):
The term indigo generation is somewhat of a blanket term that refers to the increased amount of the color indigo present in new babies Auras. Around 30 years ago some babies were exhibiting this phenomena and the number has steadily increased until now where every new baby is an Indigo. Although all indigo babies have this increased amount of indigo in their auras they can vary widely in other ways. The majority of Indigo’s are simply reincarnations of the same group of beings who have always made up the human race. For instance you may be 35 years old and you are not classified as being an Indigo and you may give birth to a child who is an Indigo. The being incarnating as this child could be someone who you had been with in another life who was at that time not an indigo but just a normal incarnation just like you are now. If you were to die tomorrow and reincarnate next week you would then be an Indigo. It is not that the Indigo’s are different beings but simply that they are incarnating some energies which were not being incarnated in normal people 30 years ago or more.
This being said it is also true that some indigo children are incarnating more than an increased amount of Indigo energy or light and that they may actually be incarnating parts of other beings along with themselves. Another possibility is that they are in fact a being who has not incarnated on earth before and who may have had incarnations on other planets. Another possibility is that a being who is a part of the human race, who has had many incarnations on earth may have had a recent incarnation on another planet and may now incarnate on Earth again with a very strong connection to this other planet or group of beings. In this way energies and consciousness from other areas and beings throughout the universe are being grounded on earth now.
Yes! This is some seriously, rip-roaringly good woo! It has it all: auras, past lives and reincarnation, beings from another planet, and “energies” and “consciousness” from other beings throughout the universe! What more do you want from good woo? (No cracks about the “ten etheric strands” of DNA that need to be activated or anything about a quantum homeopathic gyroscope.)
But the key aspect of Indigo Children is apparently–what else?–Indigo Energy:
Basically what is described as Indigo energy is a certain frequency of light which is a part of everyone’s lightbody but which has been previously left behind during incarnation. As we are all vast beings of consciousness we all have much more to us than meets the eye during earthly life. In the past only mystics, monks and spiritual seekers succeeded in incarnating their indigo energy after a tremendous effort. Now all babies naturally incarnate this part of themselves and for spiritual seekers it is infinitely easier to do so.
Damn! I wish I was born into Generation Indigo. Of course, if I were, I’d be no older than eight years old right now, and you wouldn’t be reading this. What do I mean? Well, apparently the Indigo Children didn’t start showing up until the year 2000. But of course! Of course they had to appear around the turn of the millennium! When else? But reading all this I was a bit confused. I saw mentions of “Indigo” Children and “Crystal” Children, but I didn’t know the difference. Actually, my reaction was more like, “What the hell are they talking about?” Did not knowing what a certain woo was ever stop me? Of course not! Like Geraldo Rivera diving into Al Capone’s vault, I dug deeper and found something about as valuable as Rivera did:
The Indigo Children have been incarnating on the Earth for the last 100 years. The early Indigos were pioneers and wayshowers. After World War II, a significant number were born, and these are the Indigo adults of today. However, in the 1970s a major wave of Indigos was born, and so we have a whole generation of Indigos who are now in their late twenties and early thirties who are about to take their place as leaders in the world. Indigos continued to born up to about 2000, with increasing abilities and degrees of technological and creative sophistication.
The Crystal Children began to appear on the planet from about 2000, although some date them slightly earlier. These are extremely powerful children, whose main purpose is to take us to the next level in our evolution, and reveal to us our inner power and divinity. They function as a group consciousness rather than as individuals, and they live by the” Law of One” or Unity Consciousness. They are a powerful force for love and peace on the planet.
The Indigo and Crystal Adults are composed of two groups. Firstly, there are those who were born as Indigos and are now making the transition to Crystal. This means they undergo a spiritual and physical transformation that awakens their “Christ” or “Crystal” consciousness and links them with the Crystal children as part of the evolutionary wave of change. The second group is those who were born without these qualities, but have aquired or are in the process of aquiring them through their own hard work and the diligent following of a spiritual path. Yes, this means that all of us have the potential to be part of the emerging group of “human angels”.
It figures. I had it wrong. It was the Crystal Children that started showing up around 2000. So strike my previous remark or alter it to say that if I were a Crystal child I could be no older than 8, and I wouldn’t be blogging and, more importantly, you wouldn’t be reading every scintillating word that emerges from the keyboard of my MacBook. But I suppose I could be an Indigo Adult who is now making the transition to Crystal. I doubt it though. I don’t seem to meet the prerequisite of being an Indigo Child–I mean a former Indigo Child and now an Indigo Adult. For one thing, I sure don’t feel any sort of spiritual transformation going on. True, I do feel a physical transformation occuring, but that’s because I’m getting old. My hair’s getting grayer by the month, and I’m starting to get wrinkles and hair where I never had them before. Does that count? Somehow I doubt it. Maybe that’s why I’m a nasty skeptic who writes a weekly feature about woo.
Of course, if I were an Indigo, I wonder what sort of Indigo I’d be. Supposedly there are four types:
- Normal Indigo’s: A normal Indigo is a recent incarnation of a normal person who has been incarnating on Earth for some time. The only difference between this incarnation and the ones of the past 10,000 years is that this time they are incarnating more of their Indigo energy. These people are typically full of samskara’s just like everyone else and have a lot of work to do on clearing their astral body. (Hmmm. I probably do have a lot of work to do to clear my astral body.)
- Dual Indigo’s: There is another type of Indigo who has along with their own light body agreed to incarnate some forces of consciousness from another being. This is always done in agreement and the two beings usually have a relationship already. The main incarnating being will be a member of the human race just like the normal Indigo’s who have many samskara’s and who has lived many lives on earth. They have likely done spiritual work in past lives which has brought them to a level where they can safely help another being to incarnate with them. Indeed they may have been preparing for this incarnation for quite some time and will have become close to the other being. (Wow! Too beings in one brain! Wasn’t there a Star Trek episode about that? Come to think of it there were more than one. I had no idea that these episodes were apparently documentaries.)
- Extra Terrestrial’s: Another possibility is that a being who has been incarnating on other planets and in other dimensions may incarnate on Earth. They are not a part of the human reincarnational cycle and although they may have incarnated here at some point in the past they can still be seen as Extra Terrestrials. Their make up is different to ours and they will not have the same type of samskara’s as normal humans. There are a huge number of Extra Terrestrial races in our universe and they differ very widely. For this reason it is hard to describe what an extra terrestrial might be like. They could be extremely intelligent such as mathematical geniuses, they could be musical geniuses or extremely psychic. They will nearly always have an extreme talent which sets them apart from normal people and their heart may seem to be incorruptible. Just their energy alone will be different enough that people will notice that they are somehow different. If you meet one of these beings you get a feeling that they are different even if they look totally normal. If you are one of these beings you probably already know because they have such a strong connection with their home planet and the race of beings they belong to. They usually remember where they come from at a very early age and know that they are different. As they don’t have the same sort of samskaras as normal humans their consciousness remains very clear even after going through childhood. (So that explains it. I’m E.T.!)
- Recent Off Planet Incarnates: Another group of Indigo’s are those who are a part of the human race but who have had recent incarnations on other planets. Like the Extra Terrestrials these beings have a strong connection to the planet that they were on, they help to ground these new forces and hold a channel for these other races to see what is happening here. This has been used as a method instead of ET’s actually coming here because this can be very hard for them. It is much easier for a human to go to other planets because the energy there is so clear. Many of them have little or no negativity at all so it is extremely hard for ET’s to incarnate here because they lack the defenses against our extreme negativity. Only the most adventurous of Extra Terrestrials have volunteered to come here. (I’m guessing my attitude towards the whole Indigo concept is part of that “extreme negativity” that these incarnates don’t like.)
One of the best parts of the whole Indigo thing are the testimonials. (It’s woo; there must be testimonials. You know that.) For example, meet Jeff:
One night when I was 21 years old as I was falling asleep I suddenly became paralyzed. I became frightened as I tried with all of my might to move but could not. Then suddenly I heard a loud wooshing sound like wind was blowing in my ears and suddenly felt myself being pulled out of my body, out the top of my head. After being pulled out I felt like someone was holding me as it pulled me way up into space. As we flew at tremendous speed though space I saw space ships that seemed to be conscious. There were many of them and they were maybe twice the size of our cars. They were being flown by people but the actual ships themselves seemed to be alive.
[…]
After this night I started to remember being on the ship before and knowing the people on it. I remembered being treated as very special and being taught what they knew about healing. It was in a higher dimension than here on Earth and I remember how happy and care free I was while I was there. I remember being loved there like I have never felt before and they all seemed to look up to me as though I was soooo special. It was because these people knew where I had come from and knew that I was going back there, to Earth. They knew how hard it was to be here and none of them would ever do what we do. They would never incarnate here on Earth… I lived there only until the age of 16 and I loved that girl so much. I was forced to leave her as I was to incarnate on earth again. They told me that they would be with me always and that they would send their love and energy to me. They said they could watch me on earth and that they would come to see me to remind me of them.
Yep, nothing like a little alien abduction to round out the complete Circle of Woo.
So there you have it, the Indigo and Crystal Child movement. Supposedly it’s to be the next stage in human evolution, and before she discovered vaccines Jenny McCarthy was in to Indigo woo in a big way. Indeed, she went so far as to sell something called a Quantum Prayer Wheel while citing Deepak Chopra! Heck, she even cited Dr. William Nelson, creator of one of the best bits of woo ever featured on a Friday right here at the ol’ Respectful Insolence⢠blog, the EPFX-SCIO interface! But the best thing of all, the most hilarious thing of all is this: Jenny McCarthy charged $365 a year for a subscription to the Quantum Prayer Wheel, and this is where the proceeds were to go:
A portion of the Quantum Prayer Wheel proceeds will be donated to Jenny McCarthy’s fund for building schools for Indigo and Crystal children.
Gee, I wonder where the money went from Jenny McCarthy’s Quantum Prayer Wheel. On the other hand, this has perhaps the best disclaimer I’ve ever read (note “best”= “most entertaining”):
The Quantum Prayer Wheel is not a Medical Treatment.
This program does not provide subscribers with any form of Therapy, Counseling, Medical Treatment or Diagnosis. If you think you have a medical condition, please see your doctor.
The QPW is a spiritual technology using advanced mathematics, fractals and prayers.
Of course it does, and of course it’s not a “Medical Treatment.” (The capitalization was a nice touch!)
One final note. Given her involvement in the Indigo movement, I can’t understand McCarthy’s hatred of vaccines. Remember, one of the tenets of the Indigo movement is that ADHD and the milder forms of autism, like Asperger’s syndrome, are in reality manifestations of Crystal children. I think you can see where I’m going with this. If Jenny McCarthy really, really thinks that vaccines cause autism, ADHD, and other neurodevelopmental disorders, she should be happy.
In Jenny McCarthy’s fantasy world, vaccines are creating Crystal children. What’s not for her to like?
