#25 Donna Thomas | Researching extraordinary experiences with children

In this episode we welcome Dr. Donna Thomas, co-director of ICreates@UCLan and Perrott-Warrick Senior Researcher administered through Trinity College Cambridge. Donna investigates children’s and adults’ extrasensory experiences within human development, bringing together psychological, social-scientific, and parapsychological perspectives. As she puts it: “Having a wider understanding of what it means to be human will inform how we develop services for people.” We talk with Donna about the kinds of unusual experiences children report, how creative and participatory methods allow them to express what lies beyond language, and why taking these experiences seriously matters for wellbeing. She also shares insights from her research on children’s near-death experiences in paediatric intensive care, and invites us to rethink dominant assumptions about consciousness, reality, and what it means to be human.

00:01:01 – Origins of Donna’s Research Interest

00:05:29 – Personal Extraordinary Experiences

00:11:04 – Children’s Unusual Experiences

00:16:35 – From Research to Services

00:22:59 – Post-Materialist Worldview

00:26:24 – Extrasensory Experiences and Development

00:29:59 – Children’s Epistemic Authority

00:34:01 – Creative Research Methods

00:39:06 – Philosophical Dialogue with Children

00:42:07 – Children’s Intuitive Wisdom

Literature:

• Thomas, D. M. (2025): Towards a natural semiotics for centralizing ‘out of this world’ images in research with children. In: Qualitative Research. Vol. 25(I). DOI: 10.1177/14687941241234284
• Thomas, D. M. & O’Riordan, Z. (2025): “My mind is not my brain”: exploring consciousness with children using creative research methods. In: Qualitative Research in Pychology. 22:2. DOI: 10.1080/14780887.2024.2354338
• Thomas, D. (2023) Children's Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World. Collective Ink Publications.
• Thomas, D. M. (2022): Rethinking Methodologies in Parapsychology Research with Children. In: Journal of Anomalistics, Vol. 22.