Indigos and Autism

Over the past couple of days, I've been having an email exchange with my parents about the "Indigo child" phenomenon. They apparently saw a film about it, and decided to ask me about it... because I tend to be the one in the family that knows about "all that weird stuff".

Actually, I haven't given it a whole lot of thought. I don't have any children. Have never raised any children either (but I was one once, and I've met a few). I never really felt that my opinion on the matter would have any weight.

I have been 'accused' of being an Indigo, and after thinking about it, I didn't really take it as a compliment.

Here's why:

They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it)

They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others don't share that.

Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."

They have difficulty with absolute authority without explanation or choice).

They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.

They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.

They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).

They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.

They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").

They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

This is one of the most common lists of traits.
To me, it sounds like a child who has been raised by T.V. (hence the "old eyes")and video games. They have the attention span of a gnat. They expect instant gratification.They are poorly socialized and haven't learned to share. They are indulged to the point of truly believing they are the center of the universe, so they haven't learned to cooperate and make the compromises that are part of being in a social "team".

At least those would seem like a reasonable explanation for all the traits on this list.

I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor:

This is often paraphrased as "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest hypothetical entities. (from wikipedia)

I don't think that a 'leap in human evolution' is needed to explain why children being raised in a dramatically different technological, sensory, and social environment from their parents might act a little different than parents did at the same age.

That being said, there is also an electromagnetic environment that may be worth considering in the phenomenon.
Some of the Indigo traits have been compared to Autism Spectrum traits, and it is true that autism rates seem to be rising. A criticism of this has been that the testing is better now, and more traits are recognized....but if this is true, where are all the autistic adults?

As I understand it, autism doesn't tend to clear up spontaneously.

There is a type of Neurofeedback called LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback) that uses very weak electromagnetic pulses to carry the biofeedback signal back to the subject. Most people respond to a couple of seconds of per session. The situation is different with autistic subjects they may require much more feedback before they show a response...as much as several minutes of feedback signal per session.

See:
http://www.neuro-muscular.com/glossary.htm
for a brief description or,
http://ochslabs.com
for more detailed information about LENS

I want to propose a hypothesis for the increase in autism based on this observation.

The background electromagnetic soup that we live in has increased massively, a thousandfold, in a few short years.
Cellphones and wireless networks are now part of our ecology. The current generation of small children were gestated, and probably conceived, within a few feet of a cellphone, and have been immersed in a sea of wireless networks since birth.

LENS has demonstrated how remarkably sensitive our nervous systems can be to tiny radio frequency signals...the feedback signal that LENS emits is a tiny fraction of the output that is produced by that cellphone in your pocket, but can measurably change brainwave amplitudes with only a couple seconds of exposure.

Could it be that the increase in autism is an attempt by a developing nervous system to adapt to the cacophony of background RF that is now part of our environment?

There is something about an autistic brain that makes it resistant to low level LENS type stimulation, Is it also more resistant to the electromagnetic soup that we live in?

Is it physiological response; an attempt at a functional adaptation?

In that sense it could be considered "evolutionary" but more in a Lamarckian sense than in a Darwinian sense.

If this is the case, then perhaps the Autism-like Indigo traits are a step in evolution, but maybe not exactly what the more mystical of the New Agers are looking for.