While in the last decade it seems like talk about neurodevelopmental disorders has increased exponentially, their histories are not new. Autism diagnoses, for example, go as far back as the early 20th century, though often children with autism were placed under an umbrella diagnosis of “schizoaffective disorders.” Indeed, many of the historic therapeutic remedies used for autistic children mirrored those used for schizophrenic patients at the time, including administration of LSD and electroshock therapy. As the stigmas against psychiatric illness began to diminish in the 1970s, clinicians began to advocate behavioral modification therapy for autistic children.

Even then, experts had not reached a consensus on a definition for autism, except to agree it is a “spectrum disorder.” This is not surprising given that gold standard for diagnosing mental illness remains the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSMIV), which permits clinicians to assess their patients according to lists of symptoms characteristic of a particular disorder. As the effectiveness of the DSMIV as a diagnostic tool came under fire from skeptical parents of children diagnosed with spectrum disorders and ADHD, so too did the prescriptive methods used by doctors, namely treatment with pharmaceuticals. The uproar over overmedicating children began. Parents wondered how it was possible for such targeted drugs with significant side effects to be confidently administered for disorders that only correlated loosely with lists of symptoms.

In 1977, the journal Psychological Bulletin recorded the prevalence of autism at 4 in 10,000 children. the prevalence of autism was recorded at 4 in 10,000 children. Today 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders , according to the Centers for Disease Control, and 1 in 125 children is diagnosed with ADHD. For Dr. Mark Bertin, a pediatrician specializing in child developmental disorders at New York Medical College, these are the two most common neurodevelopmental diagnoses he makes. Bertin maintains that overdiagnosis is a phenomenon more imagined than real. “When it comes to making an actual diagnosis of ADHD or autistic spectrum disorder or anything else, I think most people would say you need to be clear you’re looking for some degree of impairment in some part of life—something that is holding the child back,” says Dr. Bertin. “Without that there is no reason to make the diagnosis. The diagnosis can be very helpful on a practical level for guiding therapy and intervention.”

Larsen sees Indigo as a comforting retreat from the accepted certainty of science. He argues that parents of children who have apparent psychological and behavioral problems are more susceptible to believing in mystical origins for the conditions. “Superstitious beliefs prey on the weak and the vulnerable,” says Larsen. “A parent with a child with psychological problems can easily be convinced that it is not due to any fault of her’s or the child’s, but is instead because the child has supernatural powers. It is much more comforting to know that you have a gifted child instead of having a child with problems.”

James Randi, a magician better known as The Amaz!ng Randi, runs the James Randi Educational Foundation, which has, in an effort to debunk superstition and out bogusness, for the last ten years offered one million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate supernatural abilities to Randi and his panel of skeptics. “As a magician I see people being swindled all the time by opportunists, psychics, astrologers, and all other kind of strange things,” says Randi. “Things that have no validity and no basis in reality. I recognize what these things are and I’m trying to do something about them to inform people of how they’ve been swindled.” Many have tried, but thus far, no one has won. Like Larsen, Randi wholeheartedly dismisses the concept of Indigo children. “People tend to believe things that are pleasant. People like fairy stories. They will accept them if they’re agreeable,” says Randi.

It isn’t a coincidence that the Indigo concept sounds like science fiction. Lee Carroll reports that since 1989 he has been able to channel communications from a spiritual entity he calls Kryon. Located in a higher dimension, “Kryon is a consciousness that pervades all universes,” and “is everything that is, and everything that is not,” states the Kryon International website. Indigo children are supposed to originate from this deistic being, according to Tober and Carroll. The two authors maintain a commercial emporium of seminars, books, and other teachings based on this supposed out-of-this-world existence, and report having been invited to the United Nations several times to speak on their channelings to a subcommittee called the Society for Enlightenment and Transformation.

Like Tober and Carroll, Rosenshein introduces her lectures with some of the cosmic aspects of the Indigo child. But Rosenshein also represents well-rounded Indigo devotees who, grounded in the mainstream, see science as an essential part of the practice. For the majority of her two-hour Manhattan seminar, Rosenshein presents a biochemical model for therapy, based in practical approaches to reduce environmental toxicity allegedly resulting from poor nutrition and pollutants around the home and work spaces. Her recommendations include changing fluorescent lighting in schools, to which prolonged exposure is frequently cited as a major cause of health problems including fatigue and headaches, and altering dietary intake. Rosenshein believes Indigo mind powers exist, but that the children can’t yet control them or cope with them because of an imbalance in the other sensitivities. She stresses the importance of “biochemical sensitivity.”

“See if there are biochemical imbalances,” says Rosenshein. “I talk to the pediatrician for an hour or two to get them checked out. If the child has problems in the medical arena we get those problems addressed, and in the meantime we get to the psychosocialspiritual aspects that we have and work on what is most important.” Rosenshein’s physical interventions include chelation therapies used to remove heavy metals from the body, naturopathic remedies, and kinesthesiology. While not uncommon in the world of alternative medicine, they are not considered standard medical practice.

In a 2006 issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, a study by pediatrician John Harrington determined that 95 percent of parents with autistic children will attempt alternate and complementary therapies to those prescribed by physicians. Some of the alternatives included no therapy (37 percent), chelation agents (13 percent), and “other” (also 13 percent), which included energy healing and various methods of occupational therapy.

Alternate therapies and medical treatment are not mutually exclusive. Forty-four percent of the alternate therapies Harrington noted came at the recommendation of a physician. In his practice, Bertin has seen similar proportions of his patients trying different remedies. “I understand that people are going to want to look at things,” Bertin says. “The most important thing is they understand if there is science behind it and that they make choices that are safe, that aren’t destructive to the family, and that are affordable. And as long as those three conditions are there I think most families try things here and there until the research evolves.”

Current literature on Indigos recommends a variety of eccentric remedies in addition to what Rosenshein prescribes. In an essay for Tober and Carroll, holistic health practitioner Keith Smith suggests chronic reversed polarity, which he defines as the manipulation of the body’s electrical charges with the use of a magnet to reduce chronic fatigue. Donna King, a certified neurotherapist, contributes her experience with a biofeedback, in which she records brain waves from a child with an EEG and instructs him or her on how to change the wave patterns by varying behavioral responses.

The efficacy of these strategies remains dubious. Clinical studies to evaluate some of these alternative medicine options have shown no statistically significant improvements to a person’s health. Larsen of Skeptic Report takes a cynical view of Rosenshein’s dual approach. “In science, we see many theories, but over time, they converge into a coherent theory,” Larsen says. “This happens because scientists are willing to let the evidence decide what theory is the correct one.” Larsen argues that without legitimate evidence, proponents of superstitious theories such as Indigo invent it “by referring to phony studies, misinterpreting otherwise valid studies, or gleaning information from various astral planes or divine inspiration.” Charismatic leaders such as Rosenshein or Carroll and Tober can attract followers regardless of how preposterous their ideas might be and recruit them to pay for therapeutic services and seminars. “The word of the leader is accepted as stronger evidence than anything science can offer,” says Larsen. “If science contradicts the belief, it must be science that is wrong.”

To skeptics the best way to raise children considered Indigo is the most rational, or medically mainstream, one. “A colossal lie is a colossal lie and it isn’t a positive element,” says Randi. “You can tell the parents of the children and the child, ‘You’re perfectly all right and you have superpowers.’ What good does that do the child or the family?”

But Sue maintains if it hadn’t been for her venture into Indigo, Kevin would still be unwell. “I’ve had the time and intelligence to research and do what was needed to be done. There are probably so many parents out there dealing with what we’ve experienced who will not stumble onto their answer and if they do will be discouraged by mainstream physicians in pursuing it,” she says. I was told not to waste my time or money, it’s not science and doesn’t work. It was the best investment I’ve ever made.” It has been four months since Kevin began the nutritional regimen recommended by Rosenshein, following tests that reportedly showed he had metabolic problems including mercury and lead poisoning and sluggish adrenals. He has learned to control his emotional sensitivities in a way he was never capable of doing before. According to his mother, prior to the start of this therapy he could not go for a week “without showing signs of mental illness.” He currently does not take any prescription medications and maintains only his diet, which consists of high protein and low sugar. According to Sue, the difference in behavior has been drastic. “His mind no longer races,” she says. “He is no longer paranoid. The anxiety is lessening every day. It’s like slowly waking up from a long, long nightmare.” After having taken some time off from college, he expects to resume full time in the fall. In the meantime, he preoccupies himself with starting an online business.

Sue and her husband had never before engaged in any alternative therapies or ideologies until meeting with Rosenshein. If Sue represents the mainstream parent gone New Age in a desperate attempt to find a cure for her child, Christine is at the other end of the spectrum. Christine, a mother of two children, is a crystal and energy healer who recalls seeing spirits at an early age. Her son, Jeremy, and her youngest daughter, Jackie, seemed to inherit this ability, according to Christine, to the dismay of her neighbors and colleagues in New Jersey. “He went to school the other day and was on the bus talking about spirits, saying that they’re really all a part of our world. I got a call from our principal saying, ‘You can’t do that.’”

Christine’s daughter Jackie had problems similar to Kevin’s. At liberty in her home, she would be very creative and involved in her academic work, but at school, Jackie failed to perform. Christine treated her children with energy sessions at home, encouraging them to tap into their spirituality to achieve balance in their lives. Yet Christine does not tell her children they have special intuitive abilities and grand purposes in life, though she does believe her children identify as Indigo and Crystal. At home, she supports the children in cultivating their sensitivities without telling them their sensitivities define them. Wanting her to feel as “normal” as possible, she nevertheless enrolled Jackie in a special education program at school, lobbying strongly for an individualized education plan catered to a visual learning style. Like Rosenshein, Christine believes the traditional educational model stifles children in a way that harms them.

“They don’t fit into the mainstream structure in this world. They don’t want structured environment,” says Christine. Parents like Christine argue that the traditional public school system structures education around standardized tests rather than natural intellectual development. Children she would describe as Indigo or Crystal have a specific contract when they arrive on this earth to do something creative and humanitarian with their lives and need a nurturing environment to do so. “I think this is why I see a lot of children that get so stifled. When anything other than love and truth [is shown to them], they do not buy it. It causes disruption to their energy systems ,” says Christine. “They have a very well defined sense of right and wrong. They are much more defined as far as their purpose, and they need to be in a dynamic and creative state to find it.”

Randi argues that what parents such as Christine are saying is nothing out of the ordinary when considering the parent-child relationship. “When children are treated sympathetically, they like it. And they react better to it. That’s very true. But anybody being sympathetic doesn’t have to have mystical powers that these children supposedly have. Children thrive under attention. Anybody, whether they’re Indigo children or whatever children, likes this kind of attention. It’s not surprising at all.”

Perhaps that is the point—a warm and encouraging environment would help a child thrive more so than the current cold, mainstream one. A website run by parents of Indigos seems to agree, listing schools Indigo children have succeeded in, including the Montessori and Waldorf systems, famous for considerable liberty in the structure of a child’s education. A child’s curriculum is structured less around his or her diagnosis or negative traits, and emphasis is placed more on the positive aspects of the child’s personality. Steve Imber, a special education consultant in New England, has never encountered Indigos in his career but says he understands the parents’ logic. “These children are innovative and creative and that needs to be fostered, respected, and encouraged rather than stifled,” he suggests.

In his consultations, Imber encounters two types of parents. The first willingly accepts the mainstream diagnosis and works with the school to construct a specialized curriculum based on it. But a growing number are “parents that have very serious concerns about having their children be labeled,” continues Imber. “Yes, they want their children to have an education but they’re going to oppose schools conducting evaluations and any person that would imply the child should be taking medications.” The impact of accepting or rejecting a diagnosis is critical to the quality of education a child will receive. Because the education system in general is rigid in the way it deals with different populations of students, Imber says, “Having a disability or not is all part of a fabric of special education in our society.”

It’s clear that parents who embrace Indigo genuinely wish to help their children, and believe they have discovered the means by which they can best do so. In Dr. Bertin’s experience, approximately 50 percent of parents try alternative therapies and diagnoses but many resort back to mainstream medical treatments. “I would say that that happens more often than not,” says Bertin. Just within my practice, there aren’t that many people who choose to stick with the alternative interventions.”

A visit to the IndigoMoms website McCarthy so enthusiastically touted at its inception reveals all the content has been removed without explanation. A notice posted states the website will not return. The site has been like this since 2007. “I had to take that down,” McCarthy told Sandie Sedgbeer, host of the podcast “CosmiKids’ Inspired Parenting,” this past June. The show airs on the World Puja Network, an Internet broadcast network for the so-called “New Earth,” or followers of New Age practices. McCarthy indicated it saddened her to take the website down, but that she has plans to revive it. “People got really confused because I was coming out with Evan’s autism at the same time,” said McCarthy. “They thought I was healing Evan through Tarot cards instead of biomedical treatment. I realized I had to separate my messages. I thought the world is getting confused with these two different paths. I consider them to be one but people aren’t quite there yet.”

Recently CNN devoted several hours of programming to discussing autism. On Larry King Live, McCarthy spoke vehemently against vaccinations and other environmental factors implicated in causing autism. With no mention of the Indigo movement of which she was once a proud member, McCarthy deferred her son’s current autism “cure” to a group called Defeat Autism Now. The group advocates alternative therapies like the kind Rosenshein instructs on, but also refers to methods that have scientific validity. (McCarthy’s publicist did not respond to an interview request.)

Rosenshein is nevertheless holding fast. She is aware that in a culture where science and spirituality continue to be at war, embracing both may be the way to reach the largest possible audience of parents desperate to help their children. Admitting that Tober and Carroll’s emphasis on storybook tales of deities in outer space has been a detriment to the greater cause, Rosenshein defends her practice.

“I think I come from a more grounded approach that has to do with a lot of different aspects of the child and not just the spiritual aspects,” says Rosenshein. “Spiritual parents understand how to raise their kids in a spiritual way. The problem comes when you have parents who have no idea what’s happening to their children because they’re never experienced it themselves. It’s more important that we help the widest parts of people understanding this, not just people who are spiritual,” she emphasizes. “Otherwise, we’re preaching to the choir.”