Exploring near death experiences with children post intensive care: A case series.
Explore (New York, N.Y.) – January 01, 2024
Source: PubMed
Summary
Children undergoing life-threatening events frequently describe profound near death experiences, reporting unsolicited visions like out-of-body sensations, bright lights, and visits to celestial places. A preliminary case study series reveals these experiences, often simple yet transcendental, include peaceful darkness and altered perceptions of time. Recognizing children's unique insights into near death experiences, the work emphasizes their importance as a research population. It advocates for creative research methods to capture these deeply subjective accounts, which children assign a distinct reality.
Abstract
Near death experiences (NDEs) can occur during life-threatening events. In this article, we present preliminary findings from a case study series. We highlight experiences of children that are synchronous with the basic elements of near death experiences (NDEs) and discuss how children describe their own experiences. Children reported unsolicited NDE type experiences that included out of body experiences, bright lights, bedside visions, bi-location and visiting celestial places. The aim of the article is to show that children are an important research population for the study of near-death experiences. Children's near-death experiences are simple and carry transcendental features such as a peaceful darkness, a knowing awareness and time alterations. Children assign a subjective reality to their near-death experiences. Younger children may demonstrate a visual NDE semiosis which warrants further investigation. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the value for involving children in NDE research through participatory and creative research methods.