Children’s near-death experiences: A narrative review and future directions for investigating near-death experiences with children.

Children's near-death experiences (NDEs) are far less studied than those of adults. A review of the literature reveals very few studies that directly involve children and no clear research direction for this area. This scarcity poses challenges for researchers aiming to develop studies with children and generate more knowledge about NDEs. From a phenomenological perspective, children may be a crucial group for investigating consciousness at the time of death and should be included more in fields such as NDE and consciousness studies. This article addresses the lack of evidence by reviewing existing studies on children's NDEs and proposes future directions for involving children in near-death research.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In comparison to adults, little is known about children's near-death experiences (NDEs).A review of the literature shows a scarcity of studies that directly involve children and an absence of direction for this area of work.This presents challenges for researchers who want to develop studies with children and generate more knowledge around the NDE.From a phenomenological perspective, children may be a crucial cohort for the investigation of consciousness at the time of death and they should be included more in fields such as NDE and Consciousness studies.This article aims to address this paucity in evidence by performing a literature review of studies on children's NDEs and proposes some future directions for involving children in near-death research.