The Wisdom of Indigo Children: An Emphatic Restatement of the Value of American Children

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah W. Whedon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Young People ◽  
Attention Deficit Disorder ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
New Age ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
American Children ◽  
Twentieth Century America ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

In late twentieth-century America the notion of Indigo children emerged. Said to have indigo-colored auras and unique spiritual abilities, these young people have had difficulty fitting into social institutions and are often diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. This article argues that good children turned bad through psychological illness were reinscribed as good with the aid of New Age beliefs and practices. These New Age components included ideas about auras, millennialism, and personal transformation.

Contact, Encounter, and Exchange at Esalen: A Window onto Late Twentieth-Century American Spirituality

2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Sargent Wood
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Twentieth Century America ◽  
American Spirituality ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
East West

Approximately 20 percent of Americans today resist traditional religious classification and practice a personalized, eclectic faith. California's Esalen Institute reflects this development. Since its inception in 1962, this human potential center, which drew on San Francisco's vibrant East-West scene, has offered a cornucopia of spiritual possibilities. Leaders and participants from around the world shared religious beliefs and scientific theories there. Through these exchanges, Esalen, both a physical and spiritual borderland along the Pacific Rim, served as an experimental hothouse for germinating a variety of religious hybrids and contributed to the changing nature of religion in late twentieth-century America. In the process, it helped revitalize religious notions within a scientific culture. By highlighting this cross-fertilization of ideas and practices, this article adds to our understanding of the dynamic process in which religion is made, remade, and rejuvenated by combining and adding beliefs and practices.

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