Indigo is the new green

By Carl Munson

For anyone who's been endeavouring to "go green" for a few years, the current political-point-scoring frenzy and media obsession with environmental friendliness must surely be a little irritating. Some dyed-in-the-organic-wool eco-warriors have been at it since the seventies and eighties, and then there's the "make do and mend" brigade who - thanks to war-time pragmatism - learned to 'live lightly' decades before it was seen as fashionable.

Sure the green imperative appears to have gone beyond fashion now and many agree that the human race's very survival depends on us changing our ways and taking better care of our mother Earth. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" expos of what he sees as the real deal on global warming continues to chill audiences around the world and certainly offers high-fibre food for thought. The call to environmental arms, with "how to be green" tips facing us at every turn, is ringing in our collective ears.

Quite frankly - and whilst I do agree we should pay more respect to our planetary home - I'm sick of it. Not because I've got a bad case of information overload with green guides coming out of my ears. Or even because I'm a hardened eco-freak who's been re-using, reducing and recycling since I first clapped eyes on Rachel Carson's eco-lit classic "Silent Spring." No. it's because I think the eco-trend is, in the long term, such a dismal vision for Mankind.

Let me expand on what may seem a heretical view in these unquestionably green-tinged times. Or to put it another way, let me ask you this: what happens when you feel guilty, badly behaved or that you might be responsible for a looming catastrophe? It's not very fulfilling or inspiring - is it? You get all the dysfunctional thrills of being a naughty child or failed disciple - thereby easily controlled and manipulated.

And that's my beef - or if you prefer, nut cutlet - with the green movement. Where's the joy? Where's the awe? Where's the reason to get up and go each day - with a song in your heart and a zest for life - if you're living under an environmental death sentence or at least facing the green finger of blame?

Now I'm not just peddling my own version of gloom and doom here. There is - in my view - a brighter option for humanity dawning on the horizon. The future is not orange, and I reckon it's not green. If we want to raise our game and enjoy life in a more wholesome and pleasing way - free from green guilt - the future's Indigo.

I say the "green" movement has done its job and is now grinding to a halt. I'm grateful to the pioneers who have alerted us as a society, to the error of our environmental ways. But now I'm looking for that extra something that takes the old green awareness to a new level; a point of view that takes caring for our Earth as a given; one that extends respect to all living things. But most of all, a new era of human consciousness where the rational "save the planet" mindset, underpinned by feeling bad about ourselves, gives way to a heart-driven and natural desire to love the planet, love thy neighbour, and love and live life - to the fullest.

But why Indigo?
Indigo is the colour associated with deepening intuition and expanded consciousness and... it's the spiritual colour. You may have heard of "Indigo Children," the kids who are thought to have an empathic connection to the Earth and others' thoughts and feelings. It's claimed that these guys have been showing up for a few decades. And blessed with their extraordinary abilities, to me, they and their awareness are the future.

According to Wikipedia, Indigo kids are involved with "bringing peace, toppling corrupt institutions and a shift from allopathic medicine to a greater understanding of more natural alternatives. Indigo children are said by proponents to be more in touch with something called the "Universal Truth," and do not tolerate or understand behaviors or systems that are not in harmony with it."

I'd add that you don't need to be a child to be indigo. If you sense that there's more to life than the oft-peddled picture of man as a brutish destroyer; if you agree that green is just a phase we're going through on our way to a brighter tomorrow, you're probably an Indigo Adult. Pleased to meet you. The future's bright; the future's Indigo...