Little Boy Blue

Their book, The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, went on to sell 250,000 copies. It identified the key characteristics of indigos, who, according to Carroll and Tober, represent "the most exciting, albeit odd change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented." Born with a feeling of royalty, indigos will not respond to authority or any form of discipline based in guilt, fear or manipulation. Most cannot function in traditional school systems, not because they have ADD but because they are smarter than their teachers. Eventually indigos will redeem the world, making it a tropical Eden free of trash, war and processed foods. But if somehow blocked from their purpose, indigos may turn dark, killing their parents, classmates or anyone else who stands in their way.

Other indigos have ended up homeless or in psych wards. One of them quoted in the book, a man named Ryan Maluski, said his breakthrough began shortly after his 18th birthday, which he spent in a psychiatric hospital. Upon his release, he decided not to go to college. Instead, he began studying Wicca and magic. He also learned that if he ate the right foods, like organic fruits and vegetables, he would be filled with energy and light.

"One huge breakthrough came for me when I was introduced to a live essence food called super blue-green algae," Maluski wrote. "After eating this for three days, my whole life started to change. It felt like circuits in my body were connecting."

To anyone schooled in New Age philosophy, the language of the book was familiar. It spoke of reincarnation, natural medicine and the channeling of spirits. To parents open to these ideas, the book's message was seductive. So-called problem children weren't problems at all, if cared for correctly. They were supernaturally gifted.

A 2001 book, The Care and Feeding of Indigos, furthered the idea that children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD are actually indigos. The answer to their problems wasn't Ritalin, author Doreen Virtue wrote, but a back-to-basics lifestyle built around exercise, time in the woods and natural foods.

Today, there are indigos everywhere, and the knowledge of how to care for them is expanding rapidly. There are summer camps for indigo children, annual conferences for their parents, two movies on the phenomenon, with another in the works, and a growing list of indigo-related books.

The indigo theory is even making inroads in the Bible Belt. In the Dallas area, a small group of adult indigos began meeting this month in Bedford. One of them is a single McKinney mom who believes she is indigo, as are her two grown sons. Another group, led by Unity Church members, wants to start a special school for indigos. One of them, a former Unity youth minister named Laura Morgan, believes her 17-year-old daughter is indigo. And finally, there are people like Conrad, New Age newcomers who may not realize exactly what it is they are buying into.

Conrad works at an Uptown salon called Evolution, which occupies the bottom floor of an old gray house on Lemmon and Oak Lawn avenues. The salon, which is decorated with purple pillows and crescent moons, is owned by a self-described gypsy named Theresa Farr, who lives upstairs with her three dogs.

Before he was a massage therapist, Conrad dabbled in acting and made dresses, including wedding gowns, with his wife in a downtown Dallas boutique. The couple divorced five years ago, and Conrad's ex raised their boys until earlier this year, when Conrad decided they weren't getting enough attention (the couple has joint custody). Almost immediately after the boys moved in, Conrad said Dusk started giving him "a bit of a time." "At first I was trying to figure out what was going wrong with him and why," Conrad said. "Because to me he comes off as brilliant, but according to the school he wasn't coming off that way."

Dusk told his father he never had enough space at school. "He said people were always crowding him. I had no idea what he meant. I was flabbergasted." Only later did Conrad learn that what Dusk meant is that his mind was crowded with the thoughts of other children.

When Conrad brought Dusk's problems up at work, Farr said she might be able to help. She referred Conrad to one of her former clients, a woman named Karla Bass, a part-time art broker with a shared interest in the metaphysical. Bass, who has striking blue-gray eyes and often dresses in black, met with the boy and sensed something in him. Like her, the boy had been born with special powers, she told Conrad.

"She explained things that Dusk was carrying with him and the realm he was operating in," Conrad said. "She was the first person to suggest he might be an indigo. My first reaction was, 'What the hell is an indigo?'"