The Children Who Lead

 

~ Reporting from the Frontlines of Evolution ~



 
 Prologue 
 

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
                                                                          Isaiah 11:6 

 


        Nearly twenty years ago, a young boy appeared on TV who caused me to recalibrate the meaning of ‘child.’  His appearance was like a bright neon sign flashing:  ‘Pay attention.  Something new is entering the stream of human evolution.‘  The boy, Craig Kielburger, demonstrated that wisdom and compassion were no longer the province of the elderly, as we once believed.  Such qualities did not accrue only to those who garnered the fruits of long years of life experience. Wisdom and compassion could also be possessed by children with virtually no experience in this lifetime.

Craig Kielburger as a ChildCraig was 13 years old in 1996 when I saw him being interviewed.  At age 12 he had read an article in The Toronto Star that catapulted him into humanitarian service.  A child his age in Pakistan had been sold into bonded labor at age 4 by his family to pay a debt they had incurred.  Iqbal Masih had been chained to a carpet-weaving loom for six years yet had managed to escape twice.  By age 12, he was a prominent leader of the anti-slavery movement in Pakistan that helped to free 3,000 enslaved children. At age 13 he was assasinated. 

The story of Iqbal’s astonishing bravery lit a fire in Craig. He became an activist literally overnight, making Iqbal’s fight his own, traveling to Pakistan with friends to enlist support for ending child labor and other forms of child exploitation.  Within a year or so, “60 Minutes” had discovered him.  When the interviewer asked Craig to recount how it had all come about he replied, quite matter-of-factly, that after reading Iqbal’s story he had gone to school the next day and said to his friends:  “I read this article.  There’s a problem.  Who wants to help?” 

       With a group of eleven seventh-graders sitting on the floor of his family’s living room, having no money or other resources, Craig and his friends formed a charity called Free the Children.  Since that time it has galvanized legions of young people to become activists.  Its mission is "to create a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change." Children from countries throughout the developed world have responded to the call to serve those in desperate need, traveling to the world’s poorest nations to build schools and dig wells, and joining the global movement to shift human consciousness from "me to we”— celebrated on We Days by tens of thousands of young people and celebrities offering their encouragement.

       What struck me most about Craig, as I watched him on TV in 1996, was that he was acting under the authority of his own soul, not in response to the prompting of an elder like a parent, teacher or clergy member as would have been the case in previous generations.  When the late Ed Bradley of “60 Minutes” asked:  “Why you?” Craig looked directly into his eyes and replied, "Why not?  If everyone in the world said why me, nothing would ever be accomplished.  Why me?  Because I’ve met those children.  I’ve seen them.  I read the story of Iqbal Masih.  Why not me?” 

       Gaining the freedom to act under the authority of one’s soul takes lifetimes on the spiritual path, according to the Ageless Wisdom teachings.  It involves a process of liberating oneself completely from the will of others and from the influences of the external world. Through successive stages of self-purification and renunciation, one learns to hear the inner voice of the higher Self, the Soul.  At an advanced stage on the path the individual’s life is guided by that inner voice in service to the greater good.  The fact that a 12-year-old had arrived at that stage was a sign that a radically new level of consciousness was entering our world.    

       In the years following that interview, stories of many other remarkable children began to appear on TV, offsetting the darkening stream of world news.  Some were child prodigies with astonishing talents and abilities in music, art, and science.  Others were budding activists, like Craig, moved from within to help people who had suffered from natural disasters or outbreaks of violence.  There were stories of children as young as 5 or 6 who had enlisted the help of their parents to raise money and collect supplies for strangers in faraway places. 

       And then, in the first decade of this millennium, news of a highly evolved group of young people called Indigo children began to appear in articles, books and videos.  It was reported that these ‘new kids’ were born with remarkably advanced sensitivities and capacities. They were said to be gifted with telepathy and other psychic abilities, and to have extremely high intelligence, emotional sensitivity and spiritual awareness.  Some researchers speculated that as many as 80 to 90 per cent of children born since 1980 were either Indigos or their successors, called Crystal children, who were known to exhibit even greater responsiveness, compassion and love. 

       At around the same time, however, a growing epidemic of bullying and other forms of childhood violence was coming to light.  The fact that estimates of the 'new kids' in the population were highly inflated caused me to wonder about the real scope of the phenomenon.  Members of Craig Kielburger’s generation, born since the early 1980s, were then in their twenties (now in their thirties).  It stood to reason that if even 10 or 20 per cent of that generation had displayed the qualites ascribed to Indigo and Crystal children, we would have seen more evidence of change in our world.  There were signs of a more holistic consciousness in the culture of young people, but the grip of the old order had by no means been weakened. 

      Unable to grasp the reality of this new phenomenon, my interest waned for several years.  And then a child was born in my extended family who exhibited extraordinary awareness and compassion when he was still two years old.  This past summer I decided to learn more about 'the new kids' and what they might signify in terms of the predicted birth of a new era at a higher a higher turn of the evolutionary spiral.  After reading the few books I had collected, my research took an unexpected turn.  Two awakened souls magically appeared on my path. Derrick Quinn and Andrea Stormes (one Indigo and one Crystal child by their own estimation) graciously agreed to be interviewed for an article about the reality of these new paradigm kids. Their stories, insights and perceptions form the substance of this report.

       But first, by way of introduction to Derrick and Andrea, another Indigo ‘child’ named Raury came to light as I began to write this prologue.  Raury is a musician who at 17 produced his first album, titled “Indigo Child.”  It was picked up by a major recording company before he turned 18.  One of the songs on this album, “God’s Whisper,” sounds like an anthem for members of this new breed of human beings.  Its theme echoed throughout my conversation with Andrea and Derrick. 

Raury“God’s Whisper,” Raury explained in an interview with Billboard, is the voice of intuition, the inner voice of the soul that was revealing to him his natural calling in life. Though it was unacknowledged by the school system, by which he felt rejected and looked down upon, he was coming to know his calling through “God’s Whisper.” 

The song begins with a note of defiance:  “I won’t compromise. I won’t live a life on my knees. You think I am nothing. You’ve got something coming.  Because…. (Refrain)  I hear God’s whisper, calling my name.  It’s in the wind.  I am the savior.”  In the second verse, the “I” becomes “We.”  “We are Indigos.  Living lives we choose. Show you’re brave.  Those with faith.  Led by intuition.  You should listen.  Because…  We are the Saviors.”

       Andrea and Derrick also struck a note of defiance of the status quo in our conversation.  They, too, have struggled to live life in response to “God’s Whisper,” mustering the courage to chart a path that goes counter to the will of authority figures and values of the mainstream.  They are also aware of being here to help heal the world.  Like Raury, what gives them hope for the future is that many others will find the faith to do the same—to hear the voice of the Soul and follow its call. 

       Raury made a comment in a New York Times interview of August this year that resonated deeply with one of the impulses behind this article.  He said: “The people like me that are different don’t come out of the house, and if they do they’re wearing a mask because they fear that they would be judged or patronized. But if everybody wears that mask, how the hell are we going to know that we’re not alone?”  In the text that follows you will meet two more old souls in young bodies who refuse to wear a mask.  Since they don’t identify with traditional credentials or outer forms of recognition, I’ll simply say, by means of introduction, that Derrick was 25 and Andrea 29 at the time of our interview in late July 2014. They were living in western Pennsylvania.

Nancy Seifer
September 2014





~ Part One ~

 

Growing Up in a World That Can’t See You 

 

Derrick Quinn & Andrea Stormes


       During a conversation before the interview began, Derrick made reference to a past life.  He said he had been a priest in many lifetimes—“a keeper of knowledge”—and had been beheaded in one of those lives.  To me that was a sign of the degree to which the ground of reality had shifted for these ‘new’ human beings.  The laws of cause and effect, which govern reincarnation and karma, were already central to their understanding of life.  

       “The arrogance of that priest followed through into this lifetime.  I remember acting outlandishly with group of young men in my village so they set me down on my knees and gave me several whacks to the head to sever it.  I’ve always had a deep fear of persecution for speaking the truth, but this is the time and the planet is ready now for certain truths.  Lately I’ve received more karmic permission [through inner guides] to speak about these things.”


 ♦
 

Q:  When did you realize that you knew things that people around you were unaware of? 

Andrea:  I always knew things and that was the difficulty growing up.  There was an intense knowing and not understanding why others didn’t know.  I could see a discrepancy in actions and reactions.  I didn’t understand why there wasn’t a recognition of me by others.  I remember being around my mother’s body before she was pregnant with me, and I remember telling her that as a young girl.  The family giggled and said, “Oh how silly, Andi, there’s no way you could know that.”  But I was so certain of being on an airplane, inside of her, merging with her, going in and out and experiencing her essence as a female, as a mother.  My journey has been about finding a safe place to allow these things to surface.  As a child I was reprimanded for them, not in a violent way but I experienced that non-recognition as violent. 

Derrick:  The kind of experience that Andrea just described is probably more common than most people know.  The Crystal children, or Indigos, or children with the new DNA are all here for a very similar purpose.  We’re all aware of these things to some degree, but I think what is not highlighted enough is the trauma we experience as children.  The world is a very traumatic place to grow up in for all kinds of children, no matter when they came in.  My story is a little different.  I was born about two weeks early and was forced out of another reality that I remember quite clearly.  I was a c-section baby and have very clear memories of being pulled out of my mother’s womb and thrust into this reality.  I was badly scarred by the whole thing so I perceive the world a little differently than most.  A lot of people ask what is the purpose of suffering.  For me it was so that I can now feel intense appreciation for knowing the truth of my soul.  We’re all multi-dimensional beings, existing in many realities all at once and they’re far more interconnected than anyone knows.  We go to these other realities when we dream or meditate, and later we come to the realization of what’s really happening. 

Q:  Did you know many other kids in school who were like you? 

Andrea:  I knew some, but not many.  Within these groupings of special children I often think there are different soul lineages so perhaps the recognition is not as immediate as it might be.  I never really had a lot of friends.  I was very outgoing, very joyous and happy, but those who I resonated with were few.  I had one childhood friend whom I would say was also among these special children but is not yet in a place where that is fully recognized in himself.  Beyond that, I would say it was small.  I grew up in south Jersey and went to a regular elementary school in a small beach community.  In high school I would say there were more children who were perhaps part of this grouping but their awakening was yet to show.  At college in New York City there was a smaller number. 

Derrick I was always aware that other little kids were special.  I saw that in pretty much all the kids when I was younger and in the people I know now regardless of age.  As a kid I’d sit there and say, “Chuckie, why didn’t you tell your mother what you were just feeling?”  And he’d say, “What do you mean?”  He didn’t recognize his feelings.  It’s obvious to me that everybody is That, as in I am That.  Everybody is God.  I’ve always seen that in the children I was around.  But the question of recognition depends on the parents.  Were they able to recognize that inner divinity?  How did they nurture that in the child?  In my case I had an incessant degree of nurturing.  Love was constantly provided for me and that gave me an incredible safety net to express myself creatively.  It laid the foundation for the rest of my life and helped me recognize my purpose, which is to hold that space with that degree of lovingness for others. 

Q:  Did you sense you had anything in common with the other kids? 

Derrick No. I’m out there, even to this day.  I had no interest in the things that other kids did.  It’s hard to come down to earth and make small talk even for an hour.  People say, “Oh it must be neat to have your gifts.”  But in reality it’s an incredible burden.  There is no specialness in it, it just happens to be my given life circumstance, but it’s part of everyone’s ultimate destiny. 

Q:  Was it as though you were living in another reality? 

Derrick  Yes.  I still live there.  And I believe that when we create our own individual realties from within, eventually they will spread forth into the collective consciousness and that will give a nudge to many more people to say, “You can do this too.”  It’s a nudge that says “I see you, and you can do the same, we’re all one.”  I think it will transform the planet when enough people do that, one person at a time, living in their own chosen reality, apart from what the world or anyone else says. 

Andrea I think the transformation will happen like a chain reaction, or like a time-release capsule that has a program for when it releases—for when these special souls are released from the bondage of amnesia.  Perhaps the numbers seem skewed because the moment of activation or awakening hasn’t occurred yet.  Perhaps the children born into the Indigo, Crystal and other classifications are waiting for their moment to come forth.  There are now children who are experiencing these things and speaking about them openly at ages three and four.  A lot depends on the understanding in the environment they are brought up in. 

Q:  In books and articles on ‘the new children’ it is said that they often feel unpopular even though in actuality they are tremendously well-liked by their peers.  Did you experience that? 

Andrea:  I remember when they were announcing the nominations for home-coming queen in high school.  I heard my name and I said what?  A majority of the people nominated me and it was shocking.  There was a moment when I thought how nice, the recognition.  But it wasn’t the kind of recognition that I wanted.  It was confusing, actually.  I definitely traversed the waters of seeking recognition from external things in lots of ways.  But then the problems began of mingling with whatever it was—a boyfriend, a hobby, a sport.  I would experience a degree of entanglement and realize that it wasn’t going anywhere, or that that wasn’t the recognition that I really wanted, which was to be loved and to be seen. 

Q:  When did you begin to feel you were being seen?

Andrea:  I’m still in that process to a degree, although the context has changed. Before I was seeking to be seen externally but now it’s about shining forth from within.  The real question is do I see myself?  Will I love myself?  Will I honor myself?  In the past year and a half since Derrick and I have been together, I’ve done a lot of really deep work to clear things up but there are still times when I slip and say, “Oh, I wish my family had seen me for who I was.  And if my family doesn’t see me who else will?”  But the attachment to that has loosened as I’ve realized that my family is greater than the family that I was born into and share a genetic identity with.

Your family isn't always born under the same roof as you are, especially when you move into higher states of awareness like unity consciousness, where the reality of oneness is viscerally experienced. The sharing of soul love and essence is in no way limited to a genetic mother, father, sister, brother, aunt or other relative.  We can, for example, give and receive the motherly energy of love to a friend or a stranger in need of that energy.  It's possible to honor the man and woman who birthed us into this reality and the genetic lineage that runs through our veins without being in bondage to it, and we can do it without causing pain and suffering to those involved.  But it does require moving into heart centeredness and the elevation of consciousness to a higher level.

Q:  What was your experience of being in school?  Did your sensitivities interfere with what you were being taught? 

Derrick:  A lot of kids are diagnosed with ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] because they can’t absorb information while sitting still.  They have to move.  I didn’t necessarily have ADD, but a lot of times I would sit there in class having telepathic communications, communicating with guides, whatever you want to call it, and the teacher would come over to my face and say, “Derrick, Snap back to reality.”  There was a kind of spacey-ness and there wasn’t a whole lot of compassion in the school system.  There’s not much understanding about it and there’s a lot of negative reinforcement from adults which can create a kind of schizophrenia.  You have these abilities showing up, you know inside that it’s amazing, but people are punishing you for it.  It’s very conflicting and can be traumatizing for children.  It can actually change the neuro-physiology of the brain.  I’ve found that not many people are aware of how traumatic that kind of ignorance can be for the children. 

In high school I began to develop siddhis, the divine powers that Patanjali refers to.  They begin to demonstrate in a person when the heart opens, when the level of love is integrated in the individual.  Around the age of 17 they developed in me as high mental and emotional telepathy.  I thought it was very cool and probably abused it a bit because of the  newness.  Over the years it’s become stronger and more refined, but I also learned that these divine powers can become a hindrance as it was for me relative to school. 

Andrea:  I excelled in school.  I had a really good memory, good visual recall, so I pretty much aced all my schooling since testing seemed to be the predominant influence.  I didn’t enjoy school as a social organization but the capacity of my mental body was allowed to shine forth as far as regurgitating information goes, which was mostly my experience of the school system.  My real interests were in music, sound and physical movement.  As a young child I loved dancing and singing.  I felt very free, expressive and creative, and then there was a long period of time when I felt very stifled, not really able to express myself. 

Q:  Experts say that the energies of Indigo and other special children are noticeably different and that their presence has a positive effect on others.  Did you experience that? 

Andrea:  Any time I visited a relative’s house the reaction was always joy and laughter.  “Oh, Andi.”  I was always aware of energy and energy fields, before knowing what they were.  A lot of times I would skirt around the outside of energyAndrea Stormes as a child fields.  I was very aware of the boundaries and played with them, but never enjoyed fully stepping in because I could sense the force that was there.  It was very clear to me when I walked into a room or was en route to a place that things were shifting, and because I didn’t know what it was all about and there was no one to explain it to me, I would withdraw.  I developed a kind of a wallflower personality, stepping back and observing, because I felt the energy influences and the play of energy. 

I use the word ‘play’ because energy is malleable.  Sometimes there was a feeling of being sucked into an energy field and that is always uncomfortable, even if unconsciously.   Sometimes I would be drawn in because I chose to follow and that was the play, experimenting with what happens when I’m drawn into a particular situation or energy exchange.  Things would surface that I either wanted to continue to be exposed to or didn’t want to.  Sometimes there was a withdrawal, sometimes a deeper engagement.  Everything is one giant experiment, only the elements change. 

Q:  What was the nature of your friendships with other kids? 

Andrea:  I had a best friend in elementary school.  He and I were pretty inseparable.  Then I had friends who would come and go, lasting a couple of years and then dropping off.  There was always a circle.  People were always attracted to me.  In high school I had a few close friends and as a group we would interact with other close friends.  But those I really let in were very, very few—even to this day.   I didn’t feel so different from others but there was just a general disinterest in things that interested them. There was no one to say, “I see you, I know who you are,” until Derrick and I met. 

Derrick:  My friends were usually my parents’ friends, spiritual comrades.  Our fondest activity was to spend time meditating together and reaching samadhi, which comes from combining contemplation with sensory withdrawal.  Now it’s so natural that it happens on its own with my eyes open.  Right now I’m in a very deep state of meditation.  I don’t know how these words are being created and I don’t know what I’m going to say a minute from now. 

I think my parents, God bless them, have always, realistically and understandably, been concerned that I would become a social hermit.  I used to beg my mother to home-school me because the trauma of school was intense.  She would set up Derrick Quinn and Andrea Stormesplay-dates with little friends.  They would come over and I don’t know what we did.  I still don’t really know what kids do, though I have an almost a telepathic relationship with children.  These kids would come over to my house and apparently, after a 2 or 3 day visit, their parents would tell my mother that they were feeling more peaceful.  But I would be asking my mom, “When’s this dude going to go home?”  I spent the majority of my time by myself and still prefer to be alone most of the time doing introspective things. 

It’s always been very easy to attract people who are interested in hanging around the energy field.  It has nothing to do with my ego, it’s just an energy field.  Depending upon whom I’m around, I’ll either make it bigger or smaller.  From a very young age I learned that it never really mattered what I said or what I did, it’s about the energy.  I’m constantly discerning—like a lighthouse—how much light to shine right now.  How much energy do I have to give.  How much energy do these people need right now.  I feel that it’s to be given away constantly and I do not expect it back, though the more I give it away and share it, the more I get back.

My heart is My Father’s heart.  Andrea is the only person who shares that heart. There’s a high responsibility when you let people into your heart, even though that is the purpose of living—sharing and experiencing love.  But you’re creating things with every emotion and thought that you share.  I would say we’re very devoted to each other because we’re very clear in our commitment to what we create.   I believe the heart is like a temple.  You wouldn’t let anybody in your temple.  They might have dog poop on their shoes.  Some would say that love is the all-ness of everything.  The manifestation of that love is the light, and the light is shared with everyone, all the time, without exception.  But the love is between you and your Creator. 

Q:  Do you have an intuitive sense of how past lifetimes might have impacted this one? 

Derrick I’ve found that the automatic remembering of past lives begins with the opening of the ‘third eye.’  But first you have to have opened the heart.  Without that, the things that one would see through the third eye would be terrifying.  People wouldn’t know what to make of it and some memories would be traumatic. But this is where we are going next as a planet: to a collective level of being connected at the heart.  As a child I did some past-life regression.  Now it just happens on its own.  I pay attention to dreams.  Certain things attract our attention and if we just pull the cord we can unravel many things.  The logical mind says that’s not possible but it is. 

Andrea I told you the story of being around my mother when I was in the womb, and as a child there was an automatic knowing of how things were.  But because of the confusion in the external environment there was a kind of rewiring that led me to think that that wasn’t really the way things were.  It was as if the conscious flow of energy and understanding about spiritual realities had not been there all the time.  But I did a past-life regression when I was 24 or 25, a journey to Lemuria, and that was a huge catalyst for me in unraveling the ambiguous nature of existence that began in my childhood.  (Andrea's account of this experience appears at the end of the interview.) 

The forgetting of what I once knew was almost like a defense mechanism—a necessary means for interacting and coping with the world.  You know how it is when you turn the dial of a radio and you hit static or interference?  From a very young age my memories are of me singing and dancing and expressing my true nature.  At that time there was just a knowingness of this greater reality, an existence that pervaded everything. That sense of reality lasted until there was such a build-up of external interference, abrasion, that a kind of sheathing occurred to protect my movement through the world.  An encapsulation, a sense of separation took place because of the loss of innocence.  Much later an unsheathing began to happen, perhaps at the point when enough subtle faculties were developed or enough karmic things had played out or whatever it was.  That’s still in process. 

Q:  I've read that ‘the new kids’ rarely experience guilt, shame or fear.  Was that your experience? 

Andrea:  Perhaps that’s true for children who are coming into a completely supportive environment.  A lot of what I was doing this past year was getting rid of guilt, shame, fear, unworthiness. 

Derrick The light children are here as a karmic clean-up crew to take us unto the golden age.  Their main priorities, consciously or unconsciously, are harmony and love.  So if they see a parent is suffering with grief, or guilt, even before they understand what that is, they’ll say to themselves, "I don’t want to see them suffering.  I’ll take it on for them.  I’ll own it for them.  I can process it better than they can."  I’ve taken on things for people, and Andrea has.  Then the people we’re close to are free of it and we’ll go play in the water for an hour and burn it up.  Perhaps it’s true to some extent that these children don’t feel these things themselves, but they’re very aware that the world feels these things and if they have to be involved with the world, they’ll take it on to create harmony. 

You have these children who are very sensitive and then you have ordinary people living in the world.  Rarely will the person who lives in the world have the capacity to rise to the energy field of these children.  It’s usually the responsibility of the person with the higher consciousness to create harmony by lowering their consciousness.  Rarely will they be able to pull up the other person.  Sometimes there’s too much difference between the energy fields and they don’t want that person to respond negatively, so they’ll do everything in their power to harmonize.  They usually have to mold the situation by descending, lowering their consciousness temporarily.  The most powerful energies in nature are the ones that lie the lowest, or are the most silent and humble.  The ocean lies low enough so that all the rivers can flow into it. 

Andrea:   It’s not even personal.  It’s an impersonal reaction, though sometimes it can be a personal choice to do this.  It can be harmful to the one who takes on the negative energy if they are not aware of how to release it.  It can attach itself to the empathic person like those spirits who pass over and linger around the earth because they need some form of sustenance.  If the one of higher consciousness is not equipped with methods of transmuting that energy it can definitely be harmful to their physical health and their mental, emotional and spiritual capacities. 

Derrick A lot of children being born these days struggle with being heard and have outbreaks of yelling or temper tantrums.  But eventually the light children begin to see that they cannot interfere with the karma of others, so they tend to tune out or become very quiet to avoid interacting with an energy field that’s too harsh.  They intuitively know they do not want to get tangled up in that.  They have no need to prove their dominance over others, they simply want no part of it.  Children with autism can be very high beings.  They will simply pretend to be asleep when in a very low energy field, or will completely ignore some individuals, only to then be punished by their parents. 

Sometimes you see these children who just walk into an environment and are a sponge for everything.  It’s crucial that they develop awareness.  When you have that kind of sensitivity without conscious awareness, or wisdom about how to act, it can be very detrimental to them and others involved.  It’s like giving a small child an incredibly advanced technology without teaching them how to use it and saying, “Run with it.”  I’ll see light children walking down the street, not paying attention, and how people are attracted to them, how vulnerable they can be, and how willing other people are to take advantage of that vulnerability in cruel ways.  It’s critical that these children begin cultivating awareness and finding mentors they can relate to.  The feeling of being alone combined with that vulnerability can cause irreversible damage. 

Q:  You've both referred to suffering in childhood.  Andrea, you said that the greatest trauma for you had been losing touch with the reality of your true Self because it was delegitimized by adults in your environment.  Derrick, you've said that your parents were tremendously loving and nurturing. Can you talk about the cause of your suffering?  

Derrick I suffered tremendously.  Not by comparison with children who are abused, but in my own experience, yes.  People would look at me and say “You’ve had a tremendously privileged life.”  But not if you were me.  There was a very extreme sense of separation any time I was forced to interact socially.  It was social suffering that had to do primarily with going to public school.  My parents were concerned that I would have no social life if I didn’t attend public school but I used to cry to my mother, “Please don’t send me back to school tomorrow.”  There was terror at having to go back to this place with all these little monsters who kicked and screamed and farted and smelled.  I didn’t understand how to interact with them.  Many times as a little kid I would just leave school and walk home.  

I was a classic underachiever all throughout school and took great pride in getting C–'s and D’s.  Basically I got through school by wit and instinct, guessing on tests, being able to do as well or as poorly as I wanted.  I got off on having that kind of control.  There was suffering until I realized that I had the power to manipulate the situation.  I acted somewhat rebelliously, not for the sake of being a rebel or wanting to do harm to others.  I found the whole system of education nonsensical and repulsive.  I’ll say that sometimes to educators and they’ll be offended by my words, but I know the Indigo children will understand. 

Also I had a feminine side so I was bullied in high school.  I almost had to become softer to interact with males in my life.  Being in a public high school where a majority of men are overly masculine, with too much testosterone, I would counterbalance that by exuding more softness and I think that softness was viewed as homosexuality.  Actually, being in touch with your feminine aspect is the most masculine thing you can do as a man.  It’s the source of love of the female.  These men don’t love the female, they want to abuse it.  I think it’s the trauma of circumcision [which Derrick did not experience] that causes their mistrust and pain and results in aggressiveness.  And the whole planet is dominated by this energy. 

I was bullied and hit many times but I never hit back.  Even as the pain of being hit was experienced, the love for the person who was hitting me was stronger than wanting to hit back.  Even as they were hitting me, I could see the pain in their eyes.  I was in situations subsequently where I had very aggressive energy directed at me and there was nothing I could do but exude love.  That dissolves the aggression almost instantly because the other person feels the love in themselves, unless they’re a psychopath who wants to torture you.  I had a dream about a dog that I loved and had the realization that hurting another individual isn’t possible because you’re hurting yourself. 

 


Part Two:  

 Creating a New World From Within

Derrick Quinn and Andrea Stormes



Q:
 Experts say that many Indigo children are aware of receiving inner guidance.  Was this true for you? 

Derrick:  At a very young age I knew this to be so but then the world convinced me that it couldn’t be possible.  I forgot about it for awhile, probably around puberty when I became interested in things that pubescent boys are interested in.  But it reemerged later as something obvious.  For awhile I probably gave up my power to those I thought had more power than me and allowed them to influence my consciousness.  I’d ask, “What do you think I should do?”  “Well, go talk to this person or that person.”  But I never found it helpful.  I instinctually knew that that wasn’t something I needed to do.  It was very important for me, like it is for all these children, to learn to not give away decision-making power to others and to learn to trust the information they’re receiving inwardly and develop the communication skills to convey that when it’s necessary. 

Andrea:  There was that time of encapsulation I mentioned, almost a turning against this instinct, not trusting it.  Now what I experience is a direct connection, though not necessarily with specific spirit guides.  I was preoccupied with that for some time because it’s very popular in the new age community to hear:  “Connect with your spirit guides” and I wondered, why don’t I have any spirit guides?  I’m meditating and praying and doing all the things that are supposed to bring helpers and not having results.  What I found, and what feels so good, is that everything is in communication.  I don’t need to call on a being like an angel or a tribal chieftain for an answer, that answer can come through any source.  I can just remind myself to center and receive an answer from a hawk flying by or a breeze or a cat.  It’s less about a visual concept of the divine or what it means to connect with the divine through a spirit guide, and more a recognition that I am a clear channel.  I am That.  And a turning inward. 

Derrick:  The voice that is constantly guiding things—this impersonal consciousness that is my higher Self—has just recently gone through a large transformation and a change in perception.  It’s like I’m seeing things from a different altitude.  In this moment there’s this dance of energy, this new identity, and an intense contrast with the way that voice has been used to speaking.  I bring it up because the voice within that guides you changes constantly and the way in which you perceive it changes constantly.  That’s why it’s very valuable for people to know thyself.  All wisdom comes from knowing yourself.  Intelligence is knowing others and that teaches you how to work in the world, but spiritual evolution is involved with knowing yourself. 

Q:  Do you see yourselves as following a particular spiritual path? 

Andrea:  It’s a very straight and narrow path.  However, its truths are cloaked in many forms and disseminated throughout the entire world, so this path is not necessarily confined to a particular practice or discipline or religion.  There’s an understanding that certain things will resonate at one point in the process of evolving and that perhaps their importance or relevance will not be there later on.  But they’re appreciated for what they brought forth at the time they were introduced into the path.  It’s like a nautilus shell coiling with all of its facets.  I was very interested in travel and experiencing different cultures so that became a part of my process—a real immersion in different ways of doing things, seeing things.  It was like the process of trying on a hat.  I never reached the point of complete devotion to Buddhism, Christianity or any one thing.  But I am on a devotional path— to the heart, to love, to freedom. 

Derrick:  One of the Buddha’s teachings was the pathway of negation—to surrender the idea that anything happening in physicality is part of the true reality.  Toward the end of his life that took him into the void, that space of nothingness, and Buddha thought this must be the ultimate state.  Our path (called devotional non-duality) is similar to the pathway of negation but the one thing you do surrender to is lovingness because lovingness is all.  Love is the essence of creation which light comes out of.  Devotional non-duality means that everything is surrendered to God, to Love, without exception, all of the time.  I’ve been following that path and it’s led to tremendous inner growth.  Some would say that humans will only evolve so far until they realize that love is vital and necessary to move forward.  Love is everything, so anything without it is limited.

Q:  Can you say more about the straight and narrow path? 

Andrea:  This is something that our teacher, Dr. David Hawkins, talks about.   There is a straight and narrow path to the Source of creation.  The path may take you here, or there, but you follow it wherever it takes you with the understanding that there is a Higher Power and that all things can ultimately be surrendered to that Higher Power.  And there is a willingness to do that.  Part of my challenge recently has been recognizing that, accepting that, and coming back to that place of truth and deep faith where I was, and exuding that.  It’s recognizing that I can trust myself, I am That.  That connection is so clear.  There are no other words. 

It wasn’t easy for me at first to surrender everything because so much of my experience this far in this world, this lifetime, has been an intense desire to create and experience love.  The way the world expresses what they call love is so messed up.  As a young child you want that unconditional love—to the depth that I experienced and knew it from within. You want it with others and for others, all the time.  But then within this crumbling paradigm the understanding comes that that’s not how it is and that’s heartbreaking.  I felt completely alone, even amidst friends and family who had real love for me.

Sometimes people comment, “You’re so young, you have the whole world in front of you and you’re on this path.”  But those years of continual confusion felt like an eternity—that discrepancy between what I knew was possible and what I was observing and experiencing in the world.  But I was so fearful of losing the love I knew, even if the caliber of that love was low, that it was painful at first to turn toward higher expressions of love—unconditional Divine Love.  Could I trust these emerging feelings?  Would they last?  Are they real?  What is real?  It can be both scary and delightful to let go of one's story, of all the suffering one has experienced, to forgive oneself and others, and surrender all the details of one's life.

It’s so tragic that the world is the way it is.  But the design is beyond our comprehension and we know that everything is unfolding as it must.  There’s a dichotomy between wanting people to experience something better and then recognizing they’re experiencing what they’re experiencing, and that itself is perfection, and then coming to that place where there is ease with that, peace with that, while upholding the greater values.  Integrity is a word that resonates with me a lot.  By upholding the greatest integrity for oneself and others you are an example, and that allows for the greater embrace to happen. 

Q:  How do you relate to people you meet at this stage in your lives? 

Derrick:  I like to take a moment to sit with them, connect with them, touch them, whether it’s physical touch or just to be in their energy field.  I used to teach 12-Steps Yoga and I think a lot of spiritual teachers would agree that one of the most difficult challenges is breaking down the field of resistance.  That’s why a lot of public speakers start with a joke—to break the ice.  I’ll do whatever I have to do to break down barriers, tickle out defenses, to feel the person’s heart, for some sort of connection to happen.  Then based on intuition I’ll find a good place to reach them.  I try to really hear them.  I’m fond of nudging others and almost saying, “Hey, you’ll do all right out there,” being encouraging and supportive.  That might not sound very profound, but it’s intrinsically satisfying to step back and with authentic humility support them, because I’ve had that support in my life.  So with the people I get around who I love, it’s more about encouraging them.  And when you see their divinity shine forth, that’s the most satisfying thing in the world—to see their joy because their divinity is being recognized and they’re being seen. 

Q:  What do you notice first in another person? 

Derrick:  I notice myself.  I see very clearly as if in a mirror everything reflected back to me that we share.  It’s taken years and years of progress to discern that.  I found that in the process of taking responsibility for everything in life, that whatever I see in others is intrinsically within myself.  Before I may have seen things in others that I didn’t like and thought, “That’s their problem.”  But quickly you begin to see that what you don’t like in them is what you don’t like in yourself.  That’s part of recognizing the oneness.  But also I tend to instantly see things that they’re not—the mask that they’re wearing, the things they’re presenting to me, a version of their self.  I may see them first as the world is used to seeing them, but then I tend to pierce through that and give them encouragement to allow more of themselves to shine through and when that happens, that’s when I feel a connection, and joy and love is shared. 

Q:  Is it always possible for you to find a way to get in touch with someone’s higher self? 

Derrick:  Sometimes it can be detrimental to break down a barrier too quickly.  It could be like releasing a dam prematurely.  I don’t actually experience it as a barrier but as static, like something is not going through.  But then there is a spontaneous pouring forth of compassion and the realization that perhaps this person is hurting very badly or perhaps that barrier is there for a reason and in such cases there’s only one thing you can do for the person, in my opinion, you just pray and pour energy into the person and hold space for them. 

Andrea:  And along with that recognition, there’s the honoring of where a person is at that time in their process.  I don’t think that I know better than anyone else.  Whatever I may experience in relation to an interaction with someone is always taken for reflection internally—for me to reflect upon what I was feeling or what I observed, what it means, and why the interaction occurred at this time of my life.  And with that, the recognition and compassion for the individual and, if it was a difficult interaction, for myself. 

Q:  Have you ever thought about the purpose of your life?

Derrick:  The purpose is what you make it.  Part of the beauty of being a human at this time is free will—being able to fulfill your own divine potentiality.  For the past year and a half, during the introspective work that I and we have done, finishing my art has been living up to and fulfilling my potentiality.  I think one’s purpose in the world will constantly change and be re-prioritized throughout life.  Art by Derrick QuinnBut there are other purposes.  If you grew up in poverty and became very wealthy later in life, and you have a heart connection with others who grew up in poverty, you want to teach them what you've learned.  I think because of my upbringing, being heard and listened to and feeling supported to embrace my creativity, a big part of my purpose is to help other people feel supported.  I think purpose has a lot to do with what we’ve experienced in life and what our values are, what we stand for.  When you fulfill that purpose you’re fulfilling your divine contract with yourself, because it’s your pleasure to do so.  It’s the joy of living to fulfill your purpose, which is constantly changing.  

Andrea:  A part of my suffering in life, which is intrinsic to where I am now and what I experience now, was the pressure of having to choose a career, to know what you’re supposed to be doing.  There was so much pressure to define oneself and fit into some mission statement.  I’ve had resistance to that.  By contrast I just want to be, I just want to live and feel free to express, and to love, and to play and to create.  Now, there’s a knowing that life will unfold and opportunities will come, that one is to go down a certain path and exchange one’s energy with someone or something. 

A big part of moving from where I was and the pressure I felt to where I am now has been a diving deep into love and compassion for self and being able to provide for self—for the little girl—the things she really, really wants, and to allow them to be given and received.  Things then just flow more easily.  Rather than finding some external area of interest, studying for that, needing to be accepted in a work place, you’re actually fulfilling your purpose because you’re infusing everything you do with love.  I believe that everyone’s purpose is to exhibit their essence in a place of love and recognition, in a place where there is the freedom to do so and where there is an understanding of that soul’s essence.  Perhaps that which that soul enjoys the most is of greatest benefit to this gynormous, undulating, breathing organism that is the Earth and the beings who inhabit it. 

Q:  What brings you the most joy in life? 

Andrea:  I like to dance, to paint.  And I love animals.  Joy is in the pure exchange with animals, experiencing the essence of that.  The beauty of that one being emanating its essence is in itself joyful.  I love flowers.  We have a garden and it brings me joy to hear life and experience life.  Sitting on the porch, closing my eyes and listening to the birds, I can almost imagine their conversation and I feel aware of everything co-existing. 

Derrick:   My sovereignty brings me joy.  Being free.  Sometimes we can actually be free, but like the bird in a cage with the cage door open we tend to keep ourselves trapped because certain restrictions are perhaps more comfortable.  There’s all kinds of freedom:  physical, mental, emotional.  It constantly takes on new perspectives.  Eventually you come to realize that you’ve always been free but sometimes it’s just more comfortable to be trapped, or to suffer, because it’s more familiar.  So, joy is the growing experience of my sovereignty and freedom and I think that links to the purpose of life.  I believe the purpose of life is for each individual to become sovereign unto themselves and for all the people on the planet to unite as one. 

The glimpses I’ve gotten of true freedom is that unboundedness—the freedom for the soul to travel out of body, whatever it may be—the freedom of knowing that at any moment you can go in any direction you like.  And the freedom to evolve as much as you like or to devolve.  It’s the knowing that one can go in any direction, even if one never does a lot.  I like to just sit and enjoy beingness, to know that I have the freedom to be myself, to create what I want to create, and share love in the way I want to, and to share that with other people and allow them to experience freedom as well.  When such experiences are shared they’re all the more wonderful. 

Q:  Although the changes in consciousness of the Indigo and Crystal children are not quite visible externally, in our world, do you see things changing because of your presence? 

Andrea:  Absolutely.  It’s one breath at a time.  There are things that I have envisioned creating for a long time.  The term ‘refuge’ has been with me for awhile—a place for people who are awakening to come, where they can have the freedom to do this self-exploration in a place intended for that, a place which provides the safety and security, comfort and compassion.  Like an incubator for individual souls.  That is something I’ve almost seen myself doing, like being a mother hen in a nest for individuals.  I think places like that need to exist and it would be my great pleasure to step into that.  Throughout my life, even when I wasn’t consciously on a search, I always wished I could be like a monk—let go of all these external things and devote my life to this.  Then I realized that this kind of life choice, which used to be upheld by the society, doesn’t really exist anymore, to our detriment. 

If society were to recognize such a choice as valid at various stages of life, and valued as something to be upheld and be nurtured, I think it would be amazing.  I realize that people have different roles in life, but I think there’s a need for people to recognize within themselves and to have others recognize that which their soul has been coded for.  It involves a complete reframing of the world and the way it’s structured.  Could it start so small as to have one center, one unit?  How does it begin?  Sometimes perhaps with the courage of an individual or a group to be willing to follow their inspiration, to follow the dream.  It’s challenging because I have this inspiration, I have this vision, but there’s a need to somehow be able to share it with others whose soul essence is more attuned to the grounded, practical work.  There are different soul purposes. 

Money is only a concept to me.  It’s ridiculous but it runs this world.  So there’s finding the balance of having one foot in this paradigm and one foot in another, that yin and yang.  It’s about what feels appropriate or in alignment at a given time, and it constantly changes.  I don’t have an answer right now about how to do this.  But that’s what I’ve always craved—a sense of community, that soul recognition and love.  It’s still there but it’s different now because I’m feeling full inside—the heart, the channel of connection, is so full that the need for anything else kind of falls aside.  But then things start to get re-contextualized.  Maybe recognizing that there’s no need for me personally for this kind of a refuge would actually allow me to create it for those who would come there.  There will always be a need. 

Derrick:  I’ve always taken pride in my ability to get by in the world and evenArt by Derrick Quick 2 thrive in a way that nobody else has done it.  I can manifest what I need and don’t care if I don’t have the things that the world considers important.  Whenever I’ve been in a situation where I’ve had nothing, I manifested ways to get out of it and even thrived, like teaching yoga.  Miraculous events have occurred.  I enjoy the challenge and I enjoy shaking things up, bringing people out of their comfort zones.  It’s a kind of rebellion against a system that no longer works and is falling apart.  It’s a willingness to just say ‘f--- it’ and burn it down, then we’ll rebuild.  I think a big part of my destiny is shaking up what we think of as normal and giving an example of what normal can be.  Maybe others can mold themselves from that. 

Q:  How do you view the world right now and how do you envision the future? 

Derrick:  I believe the greatest wisdom is the wisdom to discern what is true from what is not true.  The senses don’t tell us about what’s real and we can’t always discern what’s real just by looking at it.  We’re in a transitional period as a planet where a lot of the old stuff that isn’t working anymore is falling apart and driving a lot of people crazy.  There has to be some sort of mechanism to know what is true and real and that mechanism can be simple kinesiology.  We use the method taught by David Hawkins.  He created a chart that calibrates the levels of human consciousness and within the chart you can pretty much discern anything. 

We’ve been using this practical kinesiology to measure things.  This year, since the start of 2014, everyone we know and everything we see is evolving, going from one stage all of sudden into the next stage.  The planet as a whole planet is evolving.  As a result of the whole planet beginning to vibrate at a much higher frequency, everything on the Mother’s planet has to evolve with her.  We are part of her so as she evolves, we evolve.  We are finding that the energy field of the planet is finally in a place where we can start working together.  From the looks of things, the planetary consciousness may continue to steadily evolve. 

Wonderful things are happening.  What I think will gradually and consistently happen, though it may take 200 years, is that ultimately a real golden age will be anchored on this planet.  That will happen when the collective consciousness is calibrating at the level where love is expressed.  That would answer the question about the purpose of living.  I believe it is for each individual to become sovereign unto themselves and for humanity to unite through the heart center, which connects us to all humans.  It will take time, breaking down, building up, but that would anchor us in the Golden Age.  And that is where we are going.  We’re in the process of getting to know ourselves as God, as a direct extension of God.  One and the same  essence. 

This is just one perspective, keeping in mind that everybody’s path is so unique.  There are a thousand ways to God and everybody’s path has to be honored equally.  There’s no one answer.  Reality is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted.  It is more subjective than the linear answer I just gave and subjective, experiential reality is now becoming more validated.  Below a certain level of consciousness,  life is experienced in a very linear way—A causes B.  A large portion of the world is built upon the causality principle of Newtonian physics.  What I’m talking about is beyond duality.  The ego hates this because it wants to identify with either this or that.  I, Derrick Quinn, like this, I don’t like that.  We’re experiencing a re-contextualization of identity from “I am Derrick, and I do these things, and this is my favorite movie,” to understanding a whole new identity that’s not built from my character or persona.  I don’t identify with my character because I am That. The ego hates it and says ‘You are what?’  I am That.  We change reality by changing our own inner reality first.
 

In the weeks after our conversation I had some follow-up questions. One of those questions led to a written response from Andrea that sheds more light on the consciousness that these ‘new humans’ are bringing into our world.  It offers a glimpse of the coming era when, the wisdom teachings tell us, the soul—aware of past, present and future—will enter the foreground of human consciousness.
 

Andrea:  The relationship I have with Derrick is a very powerful and unique one, the most unique so far in this incarnation and it continues to reveal its true nature.  As I think about this more, it comes to mind that perhaps Derrick is the first individual with 'karmic permission' to see me so deeply and speak of it to me.  As a channel, Derrick is connected to my higher Self—that which exists beyond this physical realm.  This became clear through various avenues, one of them being a comparison of our Mayan Astrological charts... It’s as if the merging of our energy fields, our reunion of souls, our linking up at this time, has acted as a catalyst that set off a chain reaction of processes beyond my full comprehension at this time. It has opened thousands of doorways and one of them is to my soul's history, its lineage.

Derrick in a sense had been holding a key for me directly linked to the unfoldment of the purpose of my soul in this lifetime.  ‘Soul lineage’ means to me the multidimensional Self, essence beyond form, I AM—that which illuminates and animates this physical vessel, that which dwells beyond, below, within....beyond the physical constraints of social, familial, genetic, cosmic programming.  Our merging of energies/essences has assisted me in 'remembering,' shaking off the layer of sediment and dust to shine and recognize my lineage, my True Self...the path and journey of this Soul and its unfoldment and the ultimate expression of Beingness in this lifetime.

The past-life regression I mentioned earlier was my soul’s journey through two Lemurian lifetimes/incarnations. It proved beneficial in so many ways.  It fulfilled a desire I had to enter an altered state and retrieve information of past lives, something which had held my curiosity.  More importantly it allowed me to gather wisdom from beyond the confines of mental or sensory perceptions/experiences. It was a springboard from this realm of time into a subjective experiential reality.  It created a huge shift and answered my prayers and deep, deep knowing that there is something more than what we experience through the faculties of the body or the intellect alone.  There is more to this world, more going on behind the scenes. That was a validation I needed quite badly at that time.

In the first vision, I experienced myself as a frequency-holder.  I shape-shifted between a tall fiery-colored bird and a luminescent light body of female orientation. I first noticed a huge boulder in an arid type of landscape, then I noticed I was standing on the boulder, then I noticed I was this huge winged bird with long legs and a huge wingspan.  There were women who climbed a trail, touched the boulder as they passed one by one, and we acknowledged one another with great reverence.  The women were headed to a temple carved in the side of a mountain. As the last Sister passed me, I stepped down from the boulder and took a female form—not of dense physiology but of a subtle luminescent sparkling.  I walked into the temple.  The women formed a circle and I again shifted into pure energy and circled around and around them.  They collected portions of the energy into small vases with cork-like lids which they then brought back to their homes and placed on their mantles/altars.  I, Andrea, then became aware of the whole world/planet and visually saw and viscerally experienced the grand lighthouse/beacon effect those vases had.  Imagine an image of the Earth from space and seeing bright light signals shining from various points on the globe.

The second lifetime was at the time of the destruction of Lemuria.  Everything was dark, muted colors, grays and slates.  I was an old woman with gray hair sitting in a chair, feeling the depths of the 'destruction.'  I was a mother, awaiting my children to return, to come to me to say goodbye.  I sent them off on their next journey and I remained behind, knowing it was part of my path to remain there.  I experienced this as a heaviness, the weight of knowing this was the 'end.'  I experienced no grief or extreme emotionality because while it was the end of the time with the children, the end of a civilization/time period/legacy, there was also the knowing of the infiniteness of life.  My path was to remain, to go 'down' with the city, and the path of the children was to go on, to begin seeding a new world.

Taking this Lemurian Journey, the regression into those lifetimes, is a part of a series of events, too many to recount or even consciously bring into the forefront in any given moment.  But they are events that have led/assisted/and guided Andrea to the presence in which she writes from NOW, where she knows who she IS.  It is CLEAR.  Sometimes I wonder about what is real, and the reality of events experienced earlier in this lifetime in the lower energy fields of emotions called guilt, shame and fear. There is constant growth and change and perhaps, as the second lifetime of Lemuria demonstrates, all things are simultaneously happening within a Divine Orchestration.  To attempt to tether the unfoldment of Divine Creation to linear understanding would be like turning away from the sun for fear of getting burned without realizing that I AM the Sun itself and have merely been gazing into the reflection.


§

 

One should not deny the statements of children about their past lives. Essentially they know what has taken place around them.  Especially nowadays there often will be rapid reincarnations.  Many dwellers of the Subtle World are hastening to return, and herein is expressed the growth and acceleration of evolution.  And in such quickening may be seen a rapprochement between the worlds...

AUM (one of the Agni Yoga series of books), 1936

 

See also Meet Giselle


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