Children’s near-death experiences (NDEs) have received little direct study compared with adult reports. Recent UK research by Donna Thomas and Graeme O’Connor uses creative, participatory methods with children after intensive care, reporting core NDE features and highlighting methodological questions for future paediatric studies.
- Children’s near-death experiences remain underrepresented in research, which has mainly been conducted with adults.
- Recent UK studies have used creative, participatory methods to explore children’s reports after paediatric intensive care.
- Initial findings include core NDE features such as out-of-body experiences, bright light, peaceful darkness, bedside visions and celestial places.
Contents
Introduction
The field of near-death studies has a rich history, filled with discovery, challenges and controversies.1Holden et al. (2009). Results from several notable studies2Greyson (2003); Parnia et al. (2001); Sartori et al. (2006); van Lommel et al. (2001). show people reporting deep peace, unconditional love, sensations of leaving the body and moving through tunnels towards a bright light when near death. These phenomena are defined as core features of near-death experiences (NDEs), first identified by Raymond Moody3Moody (1978). and subsequently explored by Bruce Greyson4Greyson (1983). through the development of a well-used NDE scale.
Most claims made about NDEs are based on extensive research with adults, with children left on the margins of the field. In the early 1980s, Melvin Morse sought to address the absence of children in NDE research, conducting several studies with children. Since that time, little NDE research has been conducted with children. In 2022, Donna Thomas and Graeme O’Connor5Thomas & O’Connor (2024, 2026). began exploring NDEs with children in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the United Kingdom, recognising the scarcity of data directly from children. NDE research with children, argue Thomas and O’Connor6Thomas & O’Connor (2023, 2024). can inform the field of NDE studies, consciousness studies and clinicians who care for children in hospital contexts.
Background
In 2022, Parnia et al published a valuable set of guidelines and standards for the study of NDEs.7Parnia et al. (2022). References to children’s NDEs is minimal in the standards, however, with children appearing as a footnote in the recommendations.
Thomas and O’Connor argue for children to be included in NDE research, especially inasmuch as children, being less conditioned than adults, may be a reliable research population. NDE research has been dominated by adults, with claims made that the NDEs adults and children are fundamentally the same. However, although children may report experiences similar to those of adults, Thomas and O’Connor suggest that we do not have enough data directly from children to confirm that they are the same.8Thomas & O’Connor (2026).
The earliest clinical NDE studies directly involving children can be traced back to the 1980s, with the pioneering work of Morse and colleagues.9Morse et al. (1986). Morse10Morse (1983). began with a simple case study of a seven-year-old child who had nearly drowned. Through this case study, Morse highlighted the core features of NDEs as euphoric states, out-of-body states, darkness, tunnels and light, building on the earlier work of Moody.11Moody (1978). While Moody focused on adult NDEs, Morse12Morse (1983). argued for more awareness of children’s NDEs in paediatrics, and how counselling may be needed for children who have survived near fatal events.
Morse’s early NDE research with children catalysed an appetite for children’s NDEs across the 1980s and 1990s, with subsequent researchers using the data to compare differences and similarities between child and adult NDEs.13Bush (1983); Serdahely (1991). Rather than conducting clinical studies with larger numbers of children, however, researchers generally reviewed written accounts by parents or adults reflecting on their childhood experiences. Single case studies were also investigated. Bush14Bush (1983). examined written letters that document childhood NDEs and concluded that cultural conditioning is not a primary determinant of the content of children’s NDEs.
In ‘Trailing Clouds of Glory: The near-death experiences of Western children and teenagers’, Cherie Sutherland15Sutherland (2009). highlights that by 2006, several hundred child NDErs were mentioned in the literature, yet the lack of recorded research renders them of little use to inform further research.
In 2026, Thomas and O’Connor published a literature review of the sparse research conducted with children.16Thomas & O’Connor (2026). The review shows how many articles on children’s NDEs do not clearly detail recording processes, systematic cases, numbers of children directly involved, the children’s ages, or consistently employ the same pseudonyms for cases across different articles and reports. Thomas and O’Connor highlight PMH Atwater’s observations17Atwater (2003). that research with children requires different methodological approaches than with adults.
Pilot Study of Thomas and O’Connor
Method
In 2023, Thomas and O’Connor conducted a pilot study with seven children ages four to sixteen years on a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the UK. The initial aim of the study was to explore children’s general experiences on PICU. Following a rigorous ethics process, children were screened to identify participants. The total number of children who were initially screened as potential recruits was fourteen. However, during further assessment seven children were excluded due to significant brain damage which made the child unable to comprehend the study aim.18Thomas & O’Connor (2024).
The remaining seven children and their families consented to participate, meaning all eligible children agreed to take part. All participants had experienced cardiac arrest and the commonest cause for admission to intensive care were complications of an underlying heart defect, which accounted for three participants (43%). The median age was twelve years, the average length of stay in intensive care was nineteen days (± 10 SD), the median number of interview episodes per participant was two, and the median length of interviews was twenty-four minutes.19Thomas & O’Connor (2024).
To involve children effectively in the study, a bedside play area was assembled, providing participants with choices over research instruments, including paints and crayons, and small world play. There was also a camera that could function as a camcorder. The time of the research session was prebooked with the family and nursing team, with its duration depending on the child (for instance, level of tiredness, willingness to participate, etc.).
The researchers framed creative interviews with a set of general questions related to the child’s stay in intensive care. A second set of questions were used with children to explore any experiences which may have occurred during cardiac arrest, coma or medical procedures. These questions included: What happened before you fell asleep/lost consciousness? What happened when you woke up? What happened in between falling asleep/losing consciousness and waking up?
Interviews with participants were recorded on video, enabling information from research methods, such as play, to be documented, while allowing researchers to focus on activity with the child. Co-interpretation with children formed part of the analysis, affording Thomas and O’Connor the opportunity to test their own interpretations against children’s reports, meanings and insights about their NDEs. Children’s drawings were centralised in co-interpretation, circumventing the initial need for language to spontaneously capture the texture of an experience.20Boden et al. (2019). Thematic analysis was applied to the data set to identify any significant experiences. Thomas & O’Connor reviewed children’s medical data and hospital notes to establish children’s status at the time of their reported experiences and their hospital journeys.
Results
Thomas and O’Connor found that four out of seven children reported NDEs during cardiac arrest.21Thomas & O’Connor (2024, 2026). Children ages four to sixteen years reported unsolicited NDE-type experiences that included out-of-body experiences (OBEs), bright lights, bedside entity visions, bilocation and visiting celestial places.
One child of twelve years reported being above his body in the operating theatre during a heart operation. Another twelve-year-old child, who had three cardiac arrest and resuscitation incidents plus a double lung transplant, reported a bedside visitation by a female entity. During the bedside vision, the entity reassured the child that he would heal and have a successful life. The child states that this visitation supported his healing (many children do not recover well from double lung transplants).
Children reported a loving darkness as part of their NDE experiences, with no associated fear. One younger child, aged five years, had no memories of their cardiac arrest and resuscitation event. However, when asked to draw something to represent time spent in PICU, this child sketched out a spiral similar to a spiral drawn by an older child to represent moving through a tunnel towards a light.
Three children reported an OBE, a prototypical feature of NDEs. One child of fourteen described how she could leave her body at any time, a frightening experience, because she worried that if she did leave her body, she might not be able to return to it: ‘I had to fight to keep within my body to stop floating away’.
Jacob, sixteen, reported two NDE-type experiences. One was a retrospective account of an OBE experience that occurred when he was twelve in the same hospital, during a heart bypass operation. Jacob described the feeling of being above his body during the operation, with ‘a bird’s eye view’. His mother reported how he had accurately described many aspects of the operation and what the doctors discussed, despite being under anaesthetic. What is unusual about Jacob’s OBE is that he could not see. Jacob described knowing he was above his body in the operating theatre and could hear the doctors (and knew what procedures they were performing), but had no vision. It was difficult for Jacob to describe the experience of being above the operation verbally. He described a sense of objective attention, what Albahari22Albahari (2012). notes as ‘aperspectival witness consciousness’. Similarly, Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper23Ring & Cooper (1997). refer to a similar state of consciousness as ‘transcendental awareness’ in their NDE studies with blind participants.
Children in the pilot study reported their experiences as ‘real’, with one young person stating that she felt as though she had ‘gone home’. Children seem to report simple and core NDE experiences but may show some differences from adults. For example, children in Thomas and O’Connor’s study and Melvin Morse’s study never seem to report a life review. Children also report a loving dark space that carries womb-like qualities (safe, warm, peaceful). More research is needed to understand these potential differences.
Phase 2
This pilot study produced interesting results and highlighted the need for more research on NDEs with children.
Experiences considered extrasensory, or delusional in clinical terms, feature largely in children with PICS-p (paediatric post intensive care syndrome) and are often attributed to opiate-based medications.24Colville et al. (2008). A review of children’s medical data showed two patients in Thomas and O’Connor’s pilot study were administered ketamine. Classical etiologies ascribed to NDEs in the literature, such as cerebral anoxia, hypoglycemia, use of ketamine and psychological reactions are examined in the NDE literature. Pim van Lommel25van Lommel (2011). notes how small quantities of ketamine causes frightful and bizarre images, rather than typical features of NDEs.
Thomas and O’Connor observe that children’s experiences in PICU can be viewed as delirium and more research is needed to demarcate children’s NDE-type experiences from delirium. Building on these findings, Thomas and O’Connor started phase 2 of their study in 2026. In this second phase, they are involving a larger number of children and including a prospective dimension which will see the same children interviewed again, twelve months after their discharge. Thomas and O’Connor have developed an NDE scale for children and young people called CANDIES (Child & Adolescent Near Death Experience Scale). CANDIES will be tested and validated through this second phase of the research.
Media Attention
Thomas and O’Connor’s studies have attracted media attention. In April 2026, the American magazine Popular Mechanics covered their research in an article on children and NDEs.26Orf (2026). Thomas has also featured in podcast interviews about children’s NDEs, including Children, Consciousness & Near-Death Experiences.27Anon. (2025).
Donna M Thomas
Works Cited
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Anon. (2025). Children, consciousness & near-death experiences (podcast interview with D. Thomas). [ Summary.]
Atwater, P.M.H. (2003). Our tiniest near-death experiencers: Startling evidence suggestive of a brain shift. [Full text.] Paper presented at the International Conference on Near-Death States, Honolulu, Hawaii, by the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), 10 January 2003. Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 26/2, 86-97.
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Orf, D. (2026, 10 April). Scientists think children may hold the key to understanding death. [Full text.] Popular Mechanics.
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Ring, K., & Cooper, S. (1997). Near-death and out-of-body experiences in the blind: A study of apparent eyeless vision. [Full text.] Journal of Near-Death Studies 16/2, 101-47.
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