On Discernment    –    Gifted and Talented  – About Younger Children  –  Labels?  Those Who have Led the Way

Welcome to this site honoring the full range of human capacities

by Nancy K. Baumgarten, M.L.A.

Welcome!   PsyKids was begun as a family project when my daughter, L.E.M.  and I were simply looking for other kids like herself, and those who are interested in growing into their knowing. Now, as a community of families, Profound Awareness Institute is dedicated to serving parents and educators  who have discovered what it is they have in their hands and hearts to either nurture or submerge.

Awed by your own children’s comments?  Wanting to explore?   Let’s do it together.

Want to know how to preserve and encourage your own children’s or students creative-intuitive capacities?           

Trust..

Want to develop a relationship with your unborn, or not-yet-conceived child?
Growing into the Knowing that Universe is even more inclusive than we knew; and that the “children shall lead us”.
A metaphysical study of wonder and wisdom and searching for spiritual truth really helps in raising highly aware, psychic,  and spiritually mystical young people.  

PROFOUND AWARENESS INSITUTE

We have now held our Intuitive Arts Camp for families since 1999 and have gained many friends and new family.  

Many talented parents and educators  have joined us to work on developing our “laboratory” Camp School into a  sustainable appropriate intuitive arts study unit.  Aswell, we now offer our programs to ALL age groups.      Our ongoing endeavor is to build a network for families to create communities in their own areas, and a forum for educators.      Many have asked for a way to have local contacts. Please join us if you feel so inclined.   These old souls must be about their soul missions – much more quickly than we supposed, so we must be there as guardians of their Light – either as parents, guardians, mentors, teachers, or in what ever capacity. Perhaps, by our commitment to holding the space open for them, we become ourselves what we are trying to create – a truly loving, humane society….    With the publication of so many books in the last few of years such as Indigo Children, the Millennium Children, “Children of the New Millennium” by P.M.H. Atwater, and others, it is obvious that these kids are no longer an anomaly – and they need an appropriate curriculum.

META-EDUCATION

Meta-parenting and Meta-Education go hand in hand. We continue to build resources for appropriate educational opportunities for intuitive and psychic young people.  

A few years ago for instance, L.E.M. studied as a 12 grader at the Advanced Academy at the State University of West Georgia, where they have a transpersonal psychology department http://www.westga.edu/~psydept/index.html. See their Related Links page for other consciousness programs throughout the US. We welcome and appreciate any ideas you may wish to share (with credit of course). Please contact Nancy if you are interested in participating.

ABOUT DISCERNMENT

Discernment on the spiritual realm: Discernment is always an issue. And L.E.M. and I have spent these years together: me – allowing what “is”, and yet still, also requesting gently at those moments I intuited, for a discernment check. 

It has always worked for us, especially when offered in a non-threatening way; letting L.E.M. know that there were such things as ‘trickster’ spirits. Having that knowledge was enough to let her learn to discern on her own with no affront to self-esteem or soul-destroying self doubt. That, and also my always listening with deep respect and a ‘research’ attitude, asking L.E.M., even as a small child, to feel fully what she is experiencing and to find out for herself how one spirits’ energy feels as opposed to another frequency or energy. It’s also very important as a parent to learn the art of patience; to wait for your child to listen in where we may not be able to. It’s a good trick as a non-clairaudient parent, to use polite forms of not talking over another person!

DISCERNMENT for PARENTS of CHILDREN using their PSI SENSES

UPDATE FEB. 2003: Now with so much interest in psychic children around the world, discernment takes on another aspect.    

How to guide our children toward a balance in their private vs. public lives. The question is – Is the intense interest in our children directed at the individual level with true care and concern for the well-being of each of our children? Or is what is asked of you the parent, or the child, coming from other people(adults) personal agenda’s?    Even if we can discern that the interest in psychic children is coming from the perspective of honoring the spiritual gifts that they hold in potential, ask yourself: 1. is what is asked of us, in the highest and best interests of my child? 2. Are children who recognize their psychic capabilities more responsible than other children for developing their innate spiritual gifts? Are not ALL children capable of praying for peace for instance, and of learning to touch in with their Inner Core, their Divine nature?

FOR PARENTS OF YOUNGER KIDS

We have felt directed by Juangwa to gather spiritually awakened kids together in a safe, healthy community, joined by their mutual interest in planetary harmony, however that might express itself. 

 

Please join us if you feel so guided, and we will all go from there. I realize, from Juangwa’s comments, that many of the children with similar remembered capabilities to L.E.M.’s will be younger than she is now, and may not even have displayed some of these yet, so – be sure to listen with your heart to those little things like ‘friends’ that you don’t see. So, even if it’s just you and me, and not the kid yet, visiting on the web, please let us know about you both, so we’ll be ready when they are. If you feel guided please join us on our Psychic kids E-mail group list at Yahoo. Check the Message Board section to learn about some experiences of other kids and parents. There are also some earlier letters as well. 

GIFTED & TALENTED EDUCATION

To understand my daughters particular gifts, and generally to see that she gets an education commensurate with her abilities, I have looked where ever I could.  

Though my daughter had been in her elementary school’s gifted program, she barely identified herself with that label, and often wondered what her ‘gifts’ were. For most of her young life she hasn’t felt comfortable to share her particular talents, so they almost became no talents at all. I am aware that my own lifelong search for ‘meaning’ that has led me through years of reading in spirituality and consciousness has been my guide; I hadn’t a clue that it was going to have required every last ounce of it to raise one child. I have taken ‘each day at it comes’ and it has certainly been helpful to have the friendship of those who’ve spent their lives in professional research.   

The following sources have provided a wonderful platform (and please see other links and resources on these pages): TAGFAM and TAGMAX and other Gifted resources: (Families of the Talented and Gifted http://www.tagfam.org/) includes very helpful e-mailing lists.    I’ve come to realize that the issues, personalities, sensitivities etc. of gifted children seem to be the same list of characteristics as I’ve experienced with my highly psychic daughter and other friends’ children who share her experiences   –

There is even some indication from other researchers that Psi ability and academic giftedness do go together, whether it is identified as such or not (often because of the tendency for visual-spatial thinking processes not to test well in our overly sequential schooling methods and tests.)   So regardless of whether a child displays academic giftedness in their school, I would like to recommend that any parent or mentors will find appropriate coping strategies for raising an intuitively gifted child from the academic gifted literature. And the best place we have found is: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org

 

LABELS: or, What do you say when…?

 Well, what do you call your child when she does all these things? How do you talk to the other soccer moms out on the sidelines – “well, yes she plays soccer …and basketball …and studies the violin.”   

But have I really gotten to the heart of my child – the thing that makes her her own unique self? And when your child absolutely forbids you to speak of those …other things? ….but your heart knows that it is in your hands whether she lives to her original design??? (surrounded by a potentially hostile world) …well, you become a mother-tigress – just like any other mother does for any other reason. That still leaves you with how to refer to your child’s special “talents”. I personally don’t quite like the term ‘psychic’, though it seems to be the most universal, so we have acquiesced to it here. But it needs work. Multidimensional, for me personally appears to be the distinguishing factor in my kids life – but boy, is it a mouthful. ‘Artist’ – clean, simple 2 syllables. Wouldn’t it be great if we could come up with a similar, simple to understand word that would convey all the positive images that we know these kids are. Would love anyone’s input into this need to develop new language. Please see the Definitions section for some other words and ideas. And get back to us, thanks! Nancy K. Baumgarten, M.L.A.

   Dr. Catherine (Kay) Bruch, Ed.D. retired from the University of Georgia, taught teachers for the gifted and ddid research on the nature of creativity and consciousness – coming to the conclusion, I believe, that intelligence is positively linked with consciousness. ( I had taken her creative problem-solving course as an elective, out of my area of Landscape Architecture). As she has watched my daughter grow, she occasionally comments on the work of various researchers, suggesting readings in transpersonal psychology and so on.

Dr. Linda Silverman, Ph.D., a practicing psychologist and author, working in research and testing of the highly gifted and most especially on the nature of the visual-spatial learner was introduced to me by Kay.       Dr. Silverman says, “I have had a long-standing interest in the psychic abilities of gifted children. While we have assessed over 2,500 children at the Gifted Development Center (Denver) over the last 18 years, only a small number of families have shared psychic experiences of their children. “I did discover psychic abilities among some highly gifted children and among some gifted children with learning disabilities. I have also noted some psychic abilities in young gifted children under the age of 5 which they seemed to “forget” by the time they were 7. One boy remembered a former life in Egypt in which he wove mats to sleep on. Another remembered looking down on her mother before she was born. Yet another envisioned clearly his parents’ dog getting hit by a car–an event that occurred before he was born. One girl knew that her mother was going to have twins before her mother even realized she was pregnant. And she did, indeed, have twins. An 11-year-old boy asked his father what his ethical responsibility was when he read other people’s minds. “Several children demonstrated telepathic abilities when they were preschoolers, such as responding to their mothers’ unspoken thoughts. For example, a mother was riding in the car with her 4-year-old daughter, wondering what she should make for dinner. Her daughter piped up, “I think you should make hamburgers.”     “By the age of 7, these same children not only seemed to lose these abilities, they didn’t believe they had ever had them. This makes me wonder if many more children have psychic experiences, but do not receive the support for them that L.E.M. has had, and so distrust their own experiences. I hope this website helps other children to receive support for their psychic talents.”          To learn more about Linda’s truly wonderful work, including her discoveries about VISUAL-SPATIAL Learners (the style of most psychics) check her website at: www.gifteddevelopment.com

Dr. Tobin Hart, Transpersonal Psychologist, University of West Georgia, has written several books outlining the spiritual experiences of children.  He lectures internationally.

 Stephanie Tolan, author.   Linda Silverman highly recommended Stephanie Tolan’s work to L.E.M. and me, with suggestions for books that highlight children with these extended abilities such as L.E.M. has. Stephanie Tolan, is the author of many books about & for gifted children, including the truly wonderful fiction, “Welcome to the Ark” . L.E.M. and I couldn’t put it down and read it aloud to each other – it was so captivating. She has a website at: http://www.stephanietolan.com/ Stephanie has also written a brilliant metaphor to understand the qualities of differentness in the short story, “Is it a Cheetah?” It is very heartwarming and encouraging and and though it was written for the general gifted community, I feel it can be particularly helpful for young psychic children. It can be found at: http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm

PMH Atwater,author of many books on after effects of near-death experiences and has brought that knowledge base into the  area of conscious research and the future of our children.  http://pmhatwater.hypermart.net/