Blue-tinged psychics or just unruly kids?

PHILADELPHIA – Dina Melendez was taken aback when her 4-year-old started talking about his past lives, describing brothers, sisters, two dogs and a cat. "And then he told me he died when he was 6 and that he waited before being born again – waited for me so I could be his mommy," Ms. Melendez recalls. But it's what Matthew says about the future that really rattles this young mother and leads her to conclude that he is one of the so-called Indigo children – believed to be a new generation of high-energy, sometimes difficult youngsters who have psychic abilities and a deep-blue aura. "I'm not going to grow up," Matthew says nonchalantly when he is questioned about the future. "Not everybody grows up." Ms. Melendez is convinced that Matthew is not imitating Peter Pan but calmly predicting his death. "That really frightens me," she says. Mainstream doctors, scientists, psychologists and educators shake their heads at the idea of Indigo children, who are described as "old souls" returning to earth to usher in an era of environmental renewal and political rebirth born of peace and compassion. Still, the movement has gained thousands of believers since it emerged in the 1980s, spawning an array of books, Web sites, services and specialists. Followers are expected to line up to see a new documentary, The Indigo Evolution, premiering next weekend at more than 500 churches and community centers around the globe. James Twyman is the producer-director. "These new humans, this evolution we're seeing, is in answer to the mess we have made of the world," he says. Mr. Twyman was executive producer of an earlier film, called simply Indigo, that grossed nearly $1.4 million on its opening weekend in January 2005. A fictionalized account of one child's experience, that film was written by and starred Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-seller Conversations With God. Hay House, the publishing firm that Louise Hay built with self-help and spiritual titles, reports that sales of Indigo-related books are at the half-million mark. Among them, with 250,000 copies sold, is The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober

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