By now, many readers are familiar with the term Indigo children, a term coined by Nancy Ann Tappe, and made popular by Jan Tober and Lee Carroll in The Indigo Children in 1999. Even though Indigo children possess high intelligence, intuitiveness, creativity, and energy, they are also described as having trouble fitting in, appearing highly sensitive to various aspects of their environment, and exhibiting many symptoms that are often identified as ADD or ADHD. So far, most publications have focused on Indigo children in the context of their physical and emotional health. In Spiritually Healing the Indigo Children (And Adult Indigos Too): The Practical Guide and Handbook, rather than working in the cognitive domain, co-authors Wayne Dosick and Ellen Kaufman Dosick address the spiritual health of Indigos for the following reason:

As the subtitle indicates, this publication is intended to serve as a manual with practical exercises for Indigo children and adults that will allow for healing to occur (including the sub-category of Platinum Indigos).

The book consists of three major sections: First, the authors identify, define, and categorize the Indigos. They present three different healing processes for Indigos depending on the age of the individual. What follows is an in-depth outline of the YOUMEE games, an energetic therapeutic technique intended for children between the ages of 7 and 15, called The 17. The title derives from the authors’ thesis that there are 17 “emotional wounds,” which exist “on the spiritual, energetic level.” Therefore, “they are defined differently from the way they would be on the rational cognitive level. Each wounding is sourced in the separation from God, and the bewilderment and pain that results.” (p. 28).

It becomes clear the reader must accept these basic premises by the authors in order to apply the well-described, detailed, illustrated and extremely prescriptive exercises for each of the 17 wounds. Each wound is also “centered in a unique place in the physical body,” an aspect that is carefully crafted into the exercises that are worked out in the form of games between a parent and a child. Healing this wound is believed to bring about life-changing transformation and to affirm the children’s “soul-vision of a perfect world.” (26).

I can see a child participating willingly in this form of YOUMEE games, but I seriously doubt their appeal to teenagers. It seems to me that devising an activity for such a huge age span from 7-17, where development on a cognitive, emotional, mental, and spiritual level undergoes enormous changes, is too ambitious a task to be credible.

The second section focuses on parents of children under seven years of age. The authors have devised a 15-minute sacred ritual, called GraceLight, in which the parents serve as surrogates for their children as a form of “interim” healing. The authors contend that these children are not old enough to “take psychic responsibility for their own spiritual healing” (p. 173).

The third part of this book provides the adult Indigos with The Point of Essence Process, a technique that identifies and offers healing for the seven ways in which this segment of the population spiritually “dis-claimed” their true identity. In this case, each Dis-claimer also manifests itself in one of the seven chakras from the crown chakra down to the root chakra.

All three parts of this book, in which the authors repeat their basic definitions each time, follow the same format. Each exercise is delineated in a clear fashion, including visuals for each intended movement. Considerations are given to the importance of all aspects of the sacred ritual, in which participants engage through these techniques. Testimonials in the form of short statements or lengthier anecdotes support each of the techniques.

Out of the three short segments that follow the main sections of the book, only one appears of direct importance to the subject at hand, which provides the background to the creation of this material. ‘Accompaniment I’ states for the first time that all of these materials come from ‘Spiritual Guidance’ and are actually completely channelled, from the games, exercises, and motions to the exact wording used for invocations, blessings or other phrases. I therefore must assume that most of the remaining portions of the book also convey channelled material, although this is not explicitly clarified.

I strongly disagree with the placement of this vital piece of information towards the end of the book. This ought to be shared with the reader from the outset in order to prevent any possible confusion and misconception. From the start, the authors expect the reader to accept their basic premises, without receiving references to other works in the spiritual healing field or scientific data in support of their claims. Imparting openly and clearly the information regarding the source of the channelled materials would at the very least provide a context for the many sweeping statements and assumptions which are presented throughout the book and unfortunately, stimulate many provoking questions and doubts on the subject of the authors’ knowledge, background, and integrity. For instance, how do these authors know their claim is valid that 80 percent of the children being born are Indigos? As another example, I would like to draw attention to the group of children and adults identified as Platinum Indigos (60 percent of the current Indigo children), who carry a “cellular imprint from his/her most recent previous lifetime” (p. 44). The authors then arrive at the assumption that these individuals’ deaths were drug-related and/or occurred in combat in Vietnam. Given such statements, I find it difficult to give credence to other aspects of the book.

The authors clearly appeal to their audience to engage the right brain and yet, the exercises do not allow for any creative engagement in the process as stated repeatedly and explicitly - a contradiction that is difficult to resolve. “To be effective – to work at all – the YOUMEES must be played exactly according to instructions… By changing even one word or one motion of the YOUMEES, we dilute the purpose and the power of the ritual-games, and they will not work” (p, 36). Nowhere else in the process is there room for the creative intuitive input of participants. How can a target audience comprised of deeply intuitive individuals, as Indigos are understood, not be asked to engage their inner wisdom?

Overall, Spiritually Healing the Indigo Children (And Adult Indigos Too) reflects the complete confidence the authors have in the effectiveness of their channelled materials, which they did offer, unsuccessfully, to the scientific community for research. This manual may indeed provide possible solutions to those parents and other adults who are searching for alternative spiritual approaches to their own healing and that of their children. Even though the actual exercises do not appear to be rooted in any particular tradition, no associations are made to other techniques, and no rationales are provided for claims and exercises, the authors’ program seems to enjoy popularity, which leads me to speculate that at the very least positive results may occur through this process because of the power of intent and suggestion.

Indigo Book review by Martina Steiger, ThD, IJHC Assistant Editor

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Dan