from LDS-HEA Notes
August 16, 2006

Indigos - Children of Light
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Our LDS-HEA Conference is one month from today! We hope to see many of you there. Every year things seem to get better, and this year we’ve taken a giant step forward. Good things are happening at breathtaking speed.

When we announced our program a couple of weeks ago, we received some comments about our session on Indigo Children. Some wondered if we understood that this is a New Age term. It can be, and certainly some of the information on the internet is pretty scary; but it is also possible that there really are special children being sent to earth today. Prophets have certainly said so, over and over. Personally, I would rather call them the Children of Light; but however we label them, they are here and we need to know about them.

The fact that the information available so far is not all acceptable to us does not mean that there isn’t truth beneath it. The homeschool movement itself had the same questionable beginnings. Early homeschoolers tended to be hippies in communes. Those of us who were homeschooling in the late 70’s and were members of the church were suspected of apostasy and often had our memberships questioned. Nevertheless, the hippies who “joined up” with homeschooling early on, and the New Agers and the Evolutionists (many of whom are also Christians) who are giving their attention to the Indigo children, did so out of love and respect their children and did understand some fundamental truths of the gospel that we in the church tend to ignore.

Homeschool took a giant step toward legitimacy when President Benson’s son Reed wrote his dissertation at BYU on homeschooling. His was the first dissertation in the country on the subject. Now we have Rebecca Rocque who has studied the Indigo children in person, has researched the literature about them, and is just finishing a dissertation at BYU that will include helps for classroom teachers in teaching them. Her classes at BYU and UVSC are well accepted. Rebecca’s study of the Indigo children and her LDS perspective will give us the insights and the motivation we need to move forward, and it will be a faith-promoting experience.

Following are my thoughts on the Indigo children.

Joyce

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When we look at the course of history and the events that have happened and will yet happen on the earth, we need to take a wide view. History is influenced very much by which spirits Heavenly Father sends to earth at which time, in which circumstances. That very thought presupposes an orderly process among the preexistent spirits. Are pre-existent spirits organized in groups of some kind? Do those groups receive special training for the circumstances of the earth in the time of their coming?

Pockets of patriots have been planted on the earth in various times and places. The Founding Fathers were the most phenomenal group of leaders ever sent to earth at the same time. Was this just happenstance? Of course not. These men, and the women they would marry, were prepared beforehand and sent to their stations right on time, prepared. Many others were sent as supporting lovers of liberty. Foreign visitors in early America often commented on the unique characteristics and spirits of the citizens. When Joseph Smith was sent, he was sent to Joseph Sr. and Lucy. Hyrum was also sent, and Parley, and Brigham, and Emma, and many others who gathered around and helped establish the church.

History is also influenced at any given moment by those on the other side of the veil. In the April 2006 Conference, President Faust said, “We do not consciously realize the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives.” Everything that happens on earth is connected to the surrounding realms.

History is also influenced by what we bring with us -- our talents, our drives, our knowledge. Some of that might have been with us even before our Heavenly parents found us; much of it was undoubtedly developed under their guidance in the pre-existence. That process repeats on earth as our parents prepare us for our life work. As Jack Monnett puts it, our “interests may have developed here on Earth, but the seeds came with us, and we internally accept these propensities as our ‘mission.’ In a broad sense--what a mission it is to be a parent to a special spirit sent to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Savior!”

Men like Martin Luther and John Wesley and Christopher Columbus laid a foundation for the American Revolution. That Revolution was a restoration of freedom in preparation for the Restoration of the true gospel which, in turn, was in preparation for the Second Coming and the Millennium. Surely with such preparation there ought to be a whole army of the most valiant of spirits specially readied to enter the battlefield now. When they start coming, would they be noticed?

The scientific community has documented a generation of young children, many teens, and some young adults with a new depth of spirituality, creativity, and commitment to truth. This is a world-wide occurrence. Most people are evolutionists, so we see them putting this phenomenon into the framework of their belief system and declaring that man has made a forward leap in evolution. Some New Agers celebrate these children as reincarnates. Others may have other ways of classifying them, but at least all these good folks are celebrating and respecting the Indigos. We Saints, meanwhile, don’t really seem to have noticed them at all except to say that the best spirits were reserved for the last days. We need to ask questions: How are they different? How do we raise them and teach them?

Those in the world who are watching are calling for a new way of parenting for Indigo children. We already have it! The Lord gave it to us back in 1839. We find it on the last page of the 121st Section, a page of scripture for which Joseph paid a very dear price in Liberty Jail. For the most part, we Saints have stubbornly refused to apply this standard of human relationships to the raising of our children. My belief is that families who do understand the principles of the 121st Section will (a) more likely homeschool, and (b) will more likely find their Indigo children sliding comfortably into their last-days roles.

To educate a last days child and to help him accomplish his mission requires something more of parents than just buying books and scheduling the day. These children are smarter than we are, more refined than we are, and more sensitive to hypocrisy and disrespect. Thrown to the wolves in pubic schools, Indigos have little chance of survival. They can also be lost in our homes if we try to educate them through methods of force, coercion, and manipulation intertwined with indulgence and permissiveness. Somehow, we have got to learn gospel leadership, to walk our gospel talk and set an example of discipleship. Our child must obey out of love and a desire to be good. There is no other way. Nothing else works.

The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter
an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion
shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it
shall flow unto thee forever and ever” (D&C 121).

The veil may be thin for our Indigo children in some ways, but it is nevertheless there. They don’t come with full understanding. Until we teach them the Plan of Happiness and help them find their place in it they may be confused and disoriented, and we can expect to see self-destructive behavior.

When I look around and see the number of hurt and damaged children -- physically and emotionally and spiritually -- I know that something has to happen. Something has to heal. Hyrum Smith said the Word of Wisdom was “one of the engines to . . . restore his body to health, and vigour.” On our website and in our bookstore we have put out much information over the years about the Word of Wisdom, but I still keep looking for the other “engines.” If Indigo Children are here to teach and heal, hooray!

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When God first made man upon the earth, he was a different being
entirely to what he now is; his body was strong, athletic, robust, and
healthy; his days were prolonged upon the earth; he lived nearly one
thousand years, his mind was vigorous and active, and his intellectual
faculties clear and comprehensive, but he has become degenerated....
Man is not now that dignified, noble, majestic, honorable and mighty
being that he was when he first proceeded from the hands of his Maker....
(the Lord) has appointed the word of wisdom as one of the engines to....
remove the beastly appetites, the murderous disposition and the vitiated
taste of man; to restore his body to health, and vigour, promote peace
between him and the brute creation....
Hyrum Smith, Times and Season, 6-1-1842, pp.799-800