Children of the New Millennium
and the Concept of Root Races
 

P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.)

No other generation of record matches the children now arriving on the earthplane. Noted historians, William Strauss and Neil Howe, authors of Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (William Morrow, New York City, 1991), put this into perspective for those of us in the U.S. by identifying the children born between 1982 and about 2003 as our nation's fourteenth or "millennial generation" - the most wanted, nurtured, and educated group of individuals we've ever produced, and the most protected by law. Unusually smart and assertive, these youngsters are as creative and intuitive as they are computer literate.

Not confined to the U.S., this emergence of new kids is truly global, as this observation from Mexican pediatrician, Ibarra Chavez, attests: "The new crop of infants are coming in more aware. . . eyes focused and alert, necks strong, lying in bassinets no bigger than chickens, and with a knowing-ness I cannot describe [in Spanish or English]. They are very special babies, this new crop."

Sharon Begley, author of the Newsweek magazine article entitled "The IQ Puzzle" (May 6, 1996), describes the situation this way: "IQ scores throughout the developed world have soared dramatically since the tests were introduced in the early years of this [the 20th] century. . . The rise is so sharp that it implies that the average school child today is as bright as the near-geniuses of yesteryear."

The gene pool cannot change fast enough to account for this leap, so we can't claim genetics as causal. Tests scores rose only slightly in the area of rote schooling, so education isn't the cause either. Trying to make sense of the situation, experts have surmised that young people today are simply better at taking tests - or - maybe it's because they're better nourished, or have larger vocabularies (thanks to permissive parenting), or play a lot of video games (which demand concentration before response).

The scurry to find answers to what is happening to our youth centers around one glaring fact: the extreme jump in intelligence, between 24 to 26 points, concerns "nonverbal intelligence" - the ability to know or intuit information. This means that the new children are natural "creative problem solvers." Yet in the area of genius, once ranked with scores between 134 to 136 points (some say 140), a preponderance of today's youth regularly test out at 150 to 160; many over 184. No precedent exists to explain this.

The anomaly in IQ scores immediately caught my eye because it exactly reflected what I was finding with child experiencers of near-death states. The more sources I studied, the more professionals I interviewed, the more confident I became that humankind's long predicted quantum leap in evolution was happening right now, and on several fronts: kids being born "different," and children "changed" either because of an intensely powerful life event or from an encounter with the "power punch" that best describes the impact of a near-death or otherworldly experience. Although my research of the near-death phenomenon didn't begin until 1978 (the year after my own experiences), I actually began tracking the impact of consciousness transformations, especially with children, back in 1966. Five books cover the findings from my research: Coming Back To Life, Beyond The Light, Future Memory, Children Of The New Millennium, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Near-Death Experiences.

Let's explore this issue, at least to the extent that we can here, by identifying various traits and characteristics being noticed in these newcomers, and then let's discuss the critical issue of timing.

You've had an opportunity in the January/February edition of Venture Inward to learn some of the things authors Lee Carroll and Jan Tober have discovered and detailed in their book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived. Their interview of Nancy Ann Tappe, for instance, highlighted how technologically oriented she has found the new generation to be; how unusually confident, fearless, and strong they are, with quick, active minds and a non-attached, almost objective way of regarding the world around them (which enables them to be innovators or killers with equal ease). She claims they are influenced most by the color vibration of indigo (the sixth frequency in the color spectrum), since that is what she sees around them psychically.

Drunvalo Melchizedek, a self-realized mystic, echoed many of Tappe's observations during an interview he had with Diane Cooper about "Children of the New Dream," held on June 22, 1999. Only he went further by explaining that, in his view, there are three different types of children now emerging: those in China who are super psychics, the indigo children, and kids born with AIDS. He describes the Chinese youngsters as "psychic beyond belief." He says they have scored 100% on every test given to them, no matter what kind of test it was or how difficult. This has puzzled their parents, who often lament, "I have a kid who knows everything - what do I do about this?" He reports that such children are now showing up in Russia and the United States, and that these super psychics are similar to the indigo children.

But what excites Drunvalo the most are the AIDS kids. "About 10 or 11 years ago in the U.S.," he offers as an example, "there was a baby born with AIDS. They tested him at birth and at 6 months and he tested positive for AIDS. They tested him a year later and he still tested positive. Then they didn't test him again until he was 6, and what was amazing is that this test showed that he was completely AIDS free! In fact, there was no trace that he ever had AIDS or HIV whatsoever!" He goes on to reveal that, in close monitoring by medical researchers at University of California/Los Angeles, the discovery has been made that youngsters like this particular boy exhibit a unique DNA patterning no one else has - 24 active codons. (In human DNA the world over, 20 of the 64 different patterns or codons are "turned on" and active, 3 operate like "stop/start" codes similar to a computer, while the rest remain inactive.) The children with 24 active codons, instead of the usual 20, have shown a resistance to disease that is quite remarkable. They seem to be immune to everything. Drunvalo believes this DNA advancement heralds "the end of disease" in that anyone, by choosing to align with unity and interconnectedness as the kids do, can achieve the same result.

Gordon-Michael Scallion, a psychic futurist and prophet, has for several years spoken of the children who resonate to the blue vibration, detailing his insights in Notes From The Cosmos (Matrix Institute, West Chesterfield, NH, 1997). To identify the new ones, he looks for: cat-like eyes that can readily adjust to differences in lighting and colors, vision that is both physical and non-physical, communication and language versatility (with Leo- people/animals/spirits), a bluish tint to the skin or the presence of blue around them, heightened body sensitivity/digestion, increased longevity - maybe up to 200 years of age. He feels the color vibrations of blue, indigo, and violet will take on great importance throughout the third millennium.

Despite some variance in messages about today's children, the traits most commonly mentioned dovetail what I have found in the fieldwork I've con- ducted. Children of the New Millennium (Three Rivers Press, New York City, 1999) examines the near-death phenomenon from the child experiencer's viewpoint and, in so doing, turns upside down some of our pet notions not only about near-death states, but about the power of major transformational events to change individuals both psychologically and physiologically. I have observed, for instance, that the younger the child the greater the effect - perhaps because the "power punch" that is experienced (above and beyond any imagery, visitations, or lights) can happen during critical junctures in brain development. Some characteristics displayed afterward:
 

Faculties enhanced, altered, or experienced in multiples..................77%
Mind works differently - highly creative and inventive....................84%
Significant enhancement of intellect......................................68%
Mind tested at genius level (no genetic markers to account for this) - main group, overall figure (from birth to 15 years of age)..........48%
subgroup, those under the age of 6..................................81%
Drawn to and highly proficient in math/science/history....................93%
Professionally employed in math/science/history careers later on..........25% Unusually gifted with languages...........................................35%
Experience in school - easier after near-death episode.....................................34%
harder afterward or blocked from memory.............................66%

NOTE: I found no statistical difference between males and females as regards enhanced intelligence, spatial, and mathematical abilities. Although percentages shown are based on questionnaire results, they reflect what I have consistently observed with the 277 child experiencers in my study - with one exception. Professional employment in math/science/history rises to 40% if you include those who did not fill out the questionnaire with those who did (which is still substantially below interest level and proficiency).

Whether the child experiencer was still young, a teenager, or in varied stages of adulthood when I interviewed him or her, I noticed that after the near-death episode was over. . . the individual's learning ability reversed; instead of continuing on with the normal developmental curve, from concrete (details) to abstract (concepts), he or she returned immersed in broad conceptual reasoning styles and had to learn how to go from abstract back to concrete. Example: A young boy halfway through the first grade drowned, had a near-death episode, revived, then returned to school once recovered. No longer interested in "See Spot run," he became fascinated with Greek mythology and wanted to know the reason why the book Moby Dick had been written. His shocked teacher was unable to handle his "change." The most oft-repeated phrase child experiencers said to me was, "I felt like an adult in a child's body." Although adult experiencers usually become more child-like afterward, I have noticed that kids are just the opposite - they come back more mature.

Years of discussing my findings with scientists, physicians, educators, and parents, have convinced me that near-death states are evolutionary by nature, and that their evolutionary aspects are the most readily apparent in child experiencers. For the young, shifts of this magnitude constitute what appears to be a "second birth." I offer you the following:

ELEMENTS OF A SECOND BIRTH * Those hardly born can undergo a second birth. * Temporal lobe expansion in the brain can precede or accelerate normal development. * The basic learning curve can reverse itself, placing abstract conceptualizing before foundational understanding. * IQ enhancements and faculty extensions can accompany heightened spatial/nonverbal/sensory-dynamic thinking, giving rise to uniquely creative problem-solving skills. * An awareness of future that emerges can clarify the earth world of time and space by engendering "rehearsals" - that provide for advance preparation in meeting life demands. * Sensing in multiples can open up whole new worlds of possibility and new dimensions of what is real. * Shifts in the brain can jump-start the engine of evolution, enabling the individual to adapt to ever-changing needs and pressures of his or her internal and external environments. * Shifts in spiritual awareness can redirect attitudes/behaviors toward social justice and moral integrity, as compassion replaces the obsessions that drive greed. * The higher mind can surface from the developing higher brain - as structural, chemical, and functional changes in the brain couple with a realignment of the heart to produce a brain shift/spirit shift.

Anyone who goes through a transformation of consciousness, no matter how caused or under what condition, displays virtually the same aftereffects as do near-death experiencers. And the same brain shift/spirit shift. That's why I no longer consider near-death states to be a separate phenomenon but, rather, part of that larger genre classified as transformational states.

In making this statement, I want to recognize the research of experts in the field of giftedness, who work with children who are "different." One of these is Michael M. Piechowski, who writes at length in professional journals about the behavior of children who are or who become spiritually attuned. He points out that they display an unusual creative spontaneity, have an inner conviction of other realities, see everything as alive and interconnected, know they are not limited by physical existence, have boundless energy, are joyous, confident, not as easily swayed by adults, and possess non-ordinary consciousness.

Sound familiar?

We're all basically saying the same thing because what is happening is accelerating to such a degree across populations that it is undeniable.

Children are twice as likely to experience a near-death state as an adult when faced with a life-threatening situation. Thanks to high technology, greater numbers of these kids are being resuscitated. . . the vast majority of which return "rewired and reconfigured" for. . . high technology.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

Today's children are either being born this way or becoming this way. Society, quite literally, is being provided with the very citizens it needs to people the emerging global village, and exactly on time. Humankind, as a species, is taking a quantum leap - now!

Edgar Cayce supplied a strong albeit brief indication of this timing in reading 5748-6 (part of Question 17), when he said: "With the storehouse, or record house (where the records are still to be uncovered), there is a chamber or passage from the right forepaw [of the Sphinx] to this entrance of the record chamber, or record tomb. This may not be entered without an understanding, for those that were left as guards may NOT be passed until after a period of their regeneration in the Mount, or the fifth root race begins."

The indication given was that a major evolutionary event had to happen before anyone could be "readied" to find this chamber, and that event, along with earth changes, was the coming of the fifth root race. Timing, as stated previously by Cayce in other readings, covered the years between 1998 and 2010.

Cayce was never queried as to what the term "root races" meant. Still, he did refer to the subject in two other readings:

"How was this begun? Who was given that this should be a record of man's experiences in this root race? for that is the period covered by the prophecies in the pyramid. This was given to Ra and Hermes in that period during the reign of Araaraart when there were many who sought to bring to man a better understanding of the close relationship between the Creative Forces and that created, between man and man, and man and his Maker." (5748-6, para. 4)

"(Q) Any other suggestions, counsel or advice on this project? (A) Do consider it seriously. It is the basis of any undertaking that is worth while. It may not only become a local but a state- wide and a national movement in ways and means as to insure [en- sure] the meeting of the problems when there is peace again in the land, and also insuring [ensuring] the better products for a bet- ter people. You expect a new root race. What are you doing to prepare for it? You must prepare food for their bodies as well as their minds and their spiritual development." (470-35, Q. 26)

Other visionaries and psychics before him did use the phrase, and to describe species-wide mutations or advancements in the human family ("root" referring to "foundational" or "root stock"). Among such esoteric understandings of root races was the one established by the Theosophical Society during the early 1920s. C. W. Leadbeater wrote at length about such changes or leaps in the development and refinement of humankind in his book The Masters and The Path (Theosophical Publishing House, Madras, India, 1925), as did Lieut.-Colonel Arthur E. Powell in The Solar System (same publisher and place, 1930).

The Theosophical material (obtained from channeled sources) focused on the evolution of the human species as part of a scheme of seven great races called root races that would facilitate each global period of adjustment for new growth and change on our planet. Powell added: "Each of these Root-Races, or stages of development, is divided into seven sub-races, or seven sub-stages; and again each sub-race is further divided into seven smaller units, variously known as branch-races, or nations."

The advancements Leadbeater and Powell discussed were identified as: First Root Race - Etheric (spirit first entering matter), Second Root Race - Hyperborean (early physical forms, mostly in the northern climes), Third - Lemurian (movement to southern regions, introduction of darker skins), Fourth - Atlantean (lands now lying beneath the Atlantic Ocean, progenitor of modern people-types), Fifth - Aryan (global leap in our overall refinement as a species), Sixth - Unnamed (the future occupants of a new continent predicted to appear in the Pacific Ocean), and the Seventh Root Race - Unnamed (said to be the last stage of our development in human form on the earthplane).

The esoteric traditions that I have studied emphasized that each advancement of foundational root races was for the purpose of developing a major chakra (energy vortex or energy "generator") in the species at large, with the end goal being a total of seven. As advancements accelerated over the span of ages, certain individuals and select environments stood out as being more receptive or conducive to the process than others (hence our historical progression of masters and paradises). Further claimed is that, eventually, everyone, everywhere, will possess all seven fully open, active, and balanced energy spirals (chakras) that join the head with the heart, heaven with earth, spirit with matter, so that the created can rejoin The Creator. . . as conscious Co-Creators in The Divine Plan.

If you summarize the various esoteric teachings of root races into one chart, acknowledging that each stage of advancement was said to describe the opening up and development of a given chakra or pattern of energy, beginning with the first or primary chakra (base embodiment) and culminating with the refinement of the seventh (spiritual attainment), it would look something like this (colors signify vibrational frequencies):

ESOTERIC TEACHINGS OF SOUL EVOLUTION THROUGH THE AWAKENING OF THE HUMAN MIND

__________________________________________________________

Levels of States of Types of Energy Awareness Consciousness __________________________________________________________
Red Physical Physical: the earthplane; survival issues and individual power.
Orange Astral Astral: invisible "blueprints;" inner guidance and heightened sensitivity.
Yellow Mental Concrete Mental: the intellect; decision making and personal will.
Green Mental Abstract Buddhic: awakening to spirit; initial enlightenment and enlarged worldview.
Blue Higher Intuition Atmic: self as individual; enlightened knowing and wisdom.
Indigo Inspiration Monadic: fully individuated; the indivisible whole.
Violet Spiritual Divine: aligned with soul power; surrender to God's Will. __________________________________________________________________________

According to this chart, the root race Cayce spoke of would come under the purview of the blue vibration. I hasten to add that all of the esoteric teachings about root races cautioned that it took thousands of years for the process of advancing from one stage to the next to unfold, and that numerous stages and steps were necessary before each major shift could occur.

With this in mind, there is every reason to suspect that fifth root race energy may have first entered the earthplane as early as the time of Jesus (when the fourth was gaining in momentum), but did not attain any appreciable numbers until the European Renaissance between the 14th to 17th centuries. From the late 1800s and continuing to the present, however, an outpouring of exceptional magnitude has and still is sweeping the globe - an outpouring of channeled and visionary guidance, coupled with the unprecedented choice we as individuals and as a society must make between war and peace ("power over" or "power to" - the dominant issue for fifth chakra balance).

This growing fervor heralds what I believe to be the ascension of the fifth root race energy pattern - a "birth" in the sense that we can now recognize what is occurring. (The full effect of an energy pattern does not take place until its existence is acknowledged by enough minds to bring it into mass consciousness.) What seems "new" has really been en route for a long time, gathering strength, while fourth chakra energies matured (related to the balance between intellect and emotions). As fifth chakra energy reaches a crescendo, the challenges of discernment and the desire to access a greater wisdom and a higher form of knowing may well become goals of major proportions. I have no doubt that sixth root race types are now entering the earthplane. . . since root races overlap each other during waxing and waning periods. . . but not in the numbers some people claim. Remember, it takes thousands of years for any given root race to spread worldwide.

Cayce's timing, though, for the "entrance" or "birth" of the fifth root race (its true "ascendancy of critical mass" in terms of population) covers a timespan that concludes very close to the end-date of the Mayan calendar, December 21, 2012. Aside from the myriad cycles depicted by the Mayan astronomer-priests, their calendar was based on Sun Cycles - the rotation of our sun around the central sun, which takes about 25,800 years per trip, or twelve solar ages of a little over 2,000 years each (like the Aquarian Age we've just entered). What actually ends near the close of 2012, the Mayans tell us, is the Fourth Sun, followed by the rise of the Fifth Sun. Consider this: the fifth root race will be in ascension in time for the Fifth Sun.

Additionally, of the child experiencers I interviewed from 1978 to the present time, roughly 15% spoke of being here "for the changes." They were explicit in their descriptions of a time when the earth and the earth's people would need them - a time when they themselves would be parents or grandparents (depending on age when interviewed). Twice that many adult experiencers said the same thing, but most of them indicated the years from 1980 through 1999 - a span when incredible changes did indeed happen, yet not on the order of what they predicted. Right along, the kids disagreed with their adult peers. Finally I did some calculations, the difference between their age at interview and the descriptions they offered of that future time of great need. I was surprised to discover that a single timeframe was revealed - the years between 2013 and 2029 - the first "light" of the Fifth Sun!

I was even more surprised when I read the last chapters of Strauss and Howe's book where they made futuristic projections based on the statistics of historical cycles. And they highlighted the period between 2013 and 2029 as a time when America would face the greatest challenge in its history!

To understand the significance of this period, Strauss and Howe ask us to recall the parallel eras of the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. "How will this crisis end?" they wonder. This comment is their reply: "Three of the four antecedents ended in triumph, the fourth (the Civil War) in a mixture of moral fatigue, vast human tragedy, and a weak and vengeful sense of victory. We can foresee a full range of possible outcomes, from stirring achievement to apocalyptic tragedy."

The dominant issue for fifth chakra balance is "power over" or "power to" plus the development of wisdom. Do we learn to discern wisely and incorporate higher intuition into our daily lives? Or, do we continue to assert our rights and desires out of context with that which honors the greater good?

Based on my own research, I project that 90% of the world's population will be fifth root race types, in place and ready, by the early years of the Fifth Sun. The indigo children, already "spicing the mix," will provide needed encouragement and inspiration. But the balancing agent, the muscle, will come from us "blues." We need to finish what we started many years ago. And I think we will.

Not only my faith tells me this, but the results from a recent survey. Sociologist Paul Ray, vice president of the San Francisco-based market research firm American Lives, Inc., labels a growing faction of society as Creative Intuitives. These people, as a group, support and engage in: community-based economics and regional trade, revitalized main streets, amateur theater, open workspaces, small-scale sustainable developments with Internet capacity, the uniqueness of place and history and the importance of neighborhoods, handmade objects over mechanical or plastic ones, homes that fit into natural landscapes complete with herb gardens, restoration and recycling, pilgrimages to sacred and holy places in place of commercial resort vacations, gender equality, lifelong commitment to growth and learning and the exchange of ideas, loving and committed relationships, citizenship that is global as well as national, community volunteerism, civic responsibility, spiritual development as an essential component to a healthy life, and personal awakenings to spirit realms and the power of Source.

If ever there was a meaningful description of ascended fifth root race energy patterning, it is this one that emerges from this survey - a description that exactly matches the average near-death experiencer, anyone who has undergone or who is in the process of undergoing a transformation of consciousness, and those who by intention and choice - choose the holistic approach to living and lifestyles. Ray categorizes the Cultural Creatives as a renaissance culture that blends modernism with traditionalism, East with West, and is about 44 million strong or 25% of the population. He notes that this group of people are almost angry in their demand for that which is authentic and genuine. At the current rate Cultural Creatives are becoming politically active, and to the degree that sixth root race newcomers get involved with a similar agenda, a tipping point or "threshold of change" could be reached in as little as five to ten years. Tipping points are endemic to history, always unpredictable as to exact timing, but ever fateful in collapsing that which has grown inefficient, top heavy, or "out of touch" with the citizenry (e.g., the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and every dictatorship that has ever existed. There is a time when sheer numbers alone are enough to trigger a massive shift in the prevailing order.

The New Thought Movement is poised to become the majority mindset.

If it happens in our country, might it happen elsewhere? Could this be the event that launches the Fifth Sun on a spiritual trajectory the likes of visionary dreams?

It is not my intention with this article to minimize the work and the sacrifices which lie ahead, or the losses many of us will shoulder. But, as a child who grew up watching Hitler's elite goose-step from blaring headlines to newsreel footage, while I joined in spirit with the energy guardians of Idaho's deserts and canyons, I know for a fact that God's Will is primary and that God's Plan for our world will complete itself. Our job, at least as I see it, is to live this truth - and we do so by developing and operating from that wellspring of wisdom which is within us.