Donna M Thomas | University of Central Lancashire (original) (raw)

Papers by Donna M Thomas

Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2024

The focus on the brain over the last few decades has seen an overclaiming of the human condition ... more The focus on the brain over the last few decades has seen an overclaiming of the human condition through brain-based research. Researching consciousness is an enquiry into who we are, our subjective experiences and our relationality with others and the world. In typical and child development research, materialist orientations dominate the field, assuming brains as the manufacturers of consciousness. Qualitative research has the potential to engage children in consciousness research, while interrogating typical constructionist, realist and materialist orientations. In this article we discuss using creative research methods for exploring aspects of phenomenal consciousness, such as self and mind, with children in a UK primary school. We share findings in relation to how children understand consciousness, how consciousness bears on self for children in the study, and how children experience and perceive the mind/body.

Qualitative Research , 2024

This article discusses using concepts from various fields across general semiotics, to centralise... more This article discusses using concepts from various fields across general semiotics, to centralise children's abstract images in research. The aim is to move towards a natural semioticswhich accommodates the primordial, natural and universal dimensions of experiencethat children connote through their 'out of this world' images. Natural semiotics is a term used to interrogate typical socio-cultural orientations towards meanings generated through signs. It is an approach to the co-interpretation of children's abstract images that appeals to emerging fields in semiotics and philosophical models which suggest the natural world as carrying intrinsic semantic value. Moving towards a natural semiotics carries potentials for co-interpreting children's 'out of this world' signs, in relation to situated and universal systems of meaning. When children cannot narrativise their experiences, symbols and other abstract imagery naturally emerge. A natural semiotics approach can be valuable for trying to figure out meanings behind children's creative, and at times, unknowable-yet-known data.

Explore Journal of Science and Healing , 2023

Near death experiences (NDEs) can occur during life-threatening events. In this article, we prese... more 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.

Journal of Children's Services, 2019

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and yo... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and young people’s research, participation and protection. Design/methodology/approach The paper is co-authored by young people and academics involved in a young researcher group. This paper provides a brief introduction from the young researchers and some academic context to their work, then the young researcher group’s contribution. Their contribution is followed by a brief discussion of the issues they raise in the light of current academic debate. Findings This paper contains our critical reflection on participation and protection. Originality/value The paper presents a unique contribution capturing children and young people’s perspectives on the journal’s theme and other contributions to it

Explore Journal of Science & Healing , 2023

Near death experiences (NDEs) can occur during life-threatening events. In this article, we prese... more 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 from 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.

Journal of Parapsychology, 2023

Children can report experiences such as Imaginary Companions, OBEs, exceptional dreams, mediumshi... more Children can report experiences such as Imaginary Companions, OBEs, exceptional dreams, mediumship abilities, peak experiences, hearing voices and having visions. They experience these phenomena and so-called non-ordinary realities in both formal and informal contexts such as
homes, natural spaces, hospitals and schools. A multi-disciplinary approach –narrative talk, art and play– is necessary when examining children’s extra sensory experiences. Preliminary findings from a program of research with children are examined in this article to consider, a) types of experiences children report; b) children’s activities and extra sensory experiences; and c) medical factors which may influence
their extra sensory experiences. The article details methodology, findings, and considerations for further research with children and legitimizes reports made by children as data which carries an epistemic authority over their subjective living experiences

International Journal of Transformative Research, 2022

In this article, I argue for the value of participatory methodologies, in research with children,... more In this article, I argue for the value of participatory methodologies, in research with children, which aims to privilege their epistemologies and living experiences in relation to the nature of self. Researching self with children raises questions about the mainstream materialist paradigm which holds hegemony over most academic disciplines – and, importantly, over the lifeworlds of everyday people. Children’s experiences of self ,others and the world challenge the dominant materialist paradigm, requiring investigation into other metaphysical models of reality, that may have more explanatory power than materialism. I address this by appealing to a body of scholarship referred to as ‘postmaterialist’. Reau-thoring our nature as human beings carries an increasing importance and urgency in the face of current ecological, economical and health crises. I argue that any research, which seeks to facilitate social transformation people, needs to begin by asking ontological questions about the nature of the self - the subject of experience who holds and reports epistemological authority over their subjective experiences

Special Issues Women in Parapsychology (eds). Zingrone, N. & Leverett, C. Journal of Anomalistik, 22(2), 2022

In contemporary parapsychology research, children are missing. The wealth of literature with adul... more In contemporary parapsychology research, children are missing. The wealth of literature with adults highlights children’s paranormal experiences as an under-researched topic. Through this article, I argue for children’s inclusion in parapsychology research, but with a caveat – as active agents, rather than passive objects. I consider the convergences between missing children and absent women researchers in parapsychology and argue for a rethinking of traditional research methodologies in the field of parapsychology. Traditional methodologies rooted in a patriarchal system could explain the exclusion of children, and the othering of women researchers in the field. I include a discussion around my own research with children, which produces different kinds of meanings and data in the act of knowledge production around paranormal or unexplained experiences.

EXPLORE Journal , 2021

Abstract Introduction Children and young people commonly have ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ anomalous... more Abstract
Introduction
Children and young people commonly have ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ anomalous experiences that are silenced, ignored or medicalised by ‘adults-in-authority’. Whether ‘positive’ or ‘negative’, anomalous experiences can catalyse self-healing for children and young people. Through children achieving greater self-awareness and a sense of intra-connectedness between self, others and the world.

Objectives
The study's aim was to explore the nature of self and experience with children and young people. This article focuses on one of the studies objectives: to explore with children and young people any anomalous experiences; and identify any self-reporting of healing and/or positive transformation.

Methods
A participatory, qualitative approach was used to research with children and young people. Using IPA (Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis), and Critical Discourse Analysis, 20 narrative accounts and 10 visual narrative representations, from 16 children and young people who experience anomalous phenomena, were analysed and ‘co-interpreted’ with participants.

Participants
In total, 16 children and young people (aged 4-21 years) participated in the study. Four participants had pre-existing medical conditions (Epilepsy, Narcolepsy, Caterplexy & Autism), while twelve participants had no pre-existing medical conditions.

Results
All self-reported anomalous experiences, were viewed by children and young people as carrying healing and transformational potentials – regardless of whether their experiences were ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ Healing and transformation were reported by children and young people, that included – self-withdrawal from medications; changes in attitudes and behaviours; feeling more connected to self, others and the world; enjoying life and ‘knowing’ self How children and young people's anomalous experiences are responded to by ‘adults-in-authority’ has consequences for children and young people's wellbeing.

Conclusions
Children and young people should be included in studies that consider anomalous experiences, using research methodologies such as participatory approaches, to widen our understanding of these types of experiences. While the results show how anomalous experiences can carry healing and transformational potentials for children and young people, adults-in authority can catalyse suffering in how they understand and respond to these experiences. More research is needed and is continuing in this area.

Keywords
Anomalous experiences, Children, Healing, Qualitative Participatory-research

Who am 'I': Reauthoring self, stories and subjectivity in research with children, 2019

The ‘new’ sociology of childhood sees an emergence of interdisciplinary approaches to understandi... more The ‘new’ sociology of childhood sees an emergence of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding self, experience and subjectivity of children. As debates frame research with children, concerned with ‘ethics’ (Daley, 2015; Gorin et al, 2008) and ‘agency’ (Larkins, 2019; Oswell, 2016), what is meant by the ‘subject’ of experience
is given little attention. In this paper, I ask whether narratives are a true
representation of ‘self’; who is the ‘experiencer’ that stories refer to and what are the implications for claiming subjectivity through narrative structures? I suggest that ‘experience’ is an irreducible quality of reality that transcends personal self, and that a core subjectivity serves as the dative of experience (Kastrup, 2018), ‘as natures sole ontological primitive (2018, p137). Understanding self, experience and
subjectivity in line with an ‘Analytical Idealism’ (Kastrup, 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2018, 2019), offers fresh insight into current sociological debates in Childhood Studies.
Keywords
‘Analytical Idealism'; Children; Consciousness; Narrative; Self; Self-enquiry; 'Second attention epistemology'; Subjectivity

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and yo... more Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and young people's research, participation and protection. Design/methodology/approach-The paper is co-authored by young people and academics involved in a young researcher group. This paper provides a brief introduction from the young researchers and some academic context to their work, then the young researcher group's contribution. Their contribution is followed by a brief discussion of the issues they raise in the light of current academic debate. Findings-This paper contains our critical reflection on participation and protection. Originality/value-The paper presents a unique contribution capturing children and young people's perspectives on the journal's theme and other contributions to it.

Books by Donna M Thomas

Collective Ink Publications, 2023

Historically, children’s inexplicable experiences -- from telepathy and conversing with deceased ... more Historically, children’s inexplicable experiences -- from telepathy and conversing with deceased relatives to out-of-body- or near-death experiences, and more -- have been theorised through traditional scientific lenses that may not have the explanatory power to account for such experiences. In Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World, Donna Thomas shares research that she and other scholars, past and present, have conducted with children and young people across the world. By placing children's unexplained experiences and views about reality in the contexts of culture, consciousness and the nature of self, this book offers a middle way for explaining these childhood experiences within post-materialist science and philosophy. Thomas suggests that children's experiences could greatly contribute to a new paradigm for understanding the mystery of being human and the nature of reality.

Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2024

The focus on the brain over the last few decades has seen an overclaiming of the human condition ... more The focus on the brain over the last few decades has seen an overclaiming of the human condition through brain-based research. Researching consciousness is an enquiry into who we are, our subjective experiences and our relationality with others and the world. In typical and child development research, materialist orientations dominate the field, assuming brains as the manufacturers of consciousness. Qualitative research has the potential to engage children in consciousness research, while interrogating typical constructionist, realist and materialist orientations. In this article we discuss using creative research methods for exploring aspects of phenomenal consciousness, such as self and mind, with children in a UK primary school. We share findings in relation to how children understand consciousness, how consciousness bears on self for children in the study, and how children experience and perceive the mind/body.

Qualitative Research , 2024

This article discusses using concepts from various fields across general semiotics, to centralise... more This article discusses using concepts from various fields across general semiotics, to centralise children's abstract images in research. The aim is to move towards a natural semioticswhich accommodates the primordial, natural and universal dimensions of experiencethat children connote through their 'out of this world' images. Natural semiotics is a term used to interrogate typical socio-cultural orientations towards meanings generated through signs. It is an approach to the co-interpretation of children's abstract images that appeals to emerging fields in semiotics and philosophical models which suggest the natural world as carrying intrinsic semantic value. Moving towards a natural semiotics carries potentials for co-interpreting children's 'out of this world' signs, in relation to situated and universal systems of meaning. When children cannot narrativise their experiences, symbols and other abstract imagery naturally emerge. A natural semiotics approach can be valuable for trying to figure out meanings behind children's creative, and at times, unknowable-yet-known data.

Explore Journal of Science and Healing , 2023

Near death experiences (NDEs) can occur during life-threatening events. In this article, we prese... more 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.

Journal of Children's Services, 2019

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and yo... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and young people’s research, participation and protection. Design/methodology/approach The paper is co-authored by young people and academics involved in a young researcher group. This paper provides a brief introduction from the young researchers and some academic context to their work, then the young researcher group’s contribution. Their contribution is followed by a brief discussion of the issues they raise in the light of current academic debate. Findings This paper contains our critical reflection on participation and protection. Originality/value The paper presents a unique contribution capturing children and young people’s perspectives on the journal’s theme and other contributions to it

Explore Journal of Science & Healing , 2023

Near death experiences (NDEs) can occur during life-threatening events. In this article, we prese... more 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 from 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.

Journal of Parapsychology, 2023

Children can report experiences such as Imaginary Companions, OBEs, exceptional dreams, mediumshi... more Children can report experiences such as Imaginary Companions, OBEs, exceptional dreams, mediumship abilities, peak experiences, hearing voices and having visions. They experience these phenomena and so-called non-ordinary realities in both formal and informal contexts such as
homes, natural spaces, hospitals and schools. A multi-disciplinary approach –narrative talk, art and play– is necessary when examining children’s extra sensory experiences. Preliminary findings from a program of research with children are examined in this article to consider, a) types of experiences children report; b) children’s activities and extra sensory experiences; and c) medical factors which may influence
their extra sensory experiences. The article details methodology, findings, and considerations for further research with children and legitimizes reports made by children as data which carries an epistemic authority over their subjective living experiences

International Journal of Transformative Research, 2022

In this article, I argue for the value of participatory methodologies, in research with children,... more In this article, I argue for the value of participatory methodologies, in research with children, which aims to privilege their epistemologies and living experiences in relation to the nature of self. Researching self with children raises questions about the mainstream materialist paradigm which holds hegemony over most academic disciplines – and, importantly, over the lifeworlds of everyday people. Children’s experiences of self ,others and the world challenge the dominant materialist paradigm, requiring investigation into other metaphysical models of reality, that may have more explanatory power than materialism. I address this by appealing to a body of scholarship referred to as ‘postmaterialist’. Reau-thoring our nature as human beings carries an increasing importance and urgency in the face of current ecological, economical and health crises. I argue that any research, which seeks to facilitate social transformation people, needs to begin by asking ontological questions about the nature of the self - the subject of experience who holds and reports epistemological authority over their subjective experiences

Special Issues Women in Parapsychology (eds). Zingrone, N. & Leverett, C. Journal of Anomalistik, 22(2), 2022

In contemporary parapsychology research, children are missing. The wealth of literature with adul... more In contemporary parapsychology research, children are missing. The wealth of literature with adults highlights children’s paranormal experiences as an under-researched topic. Through this article, I argue for children’s inclusion in parapsychology research, but with a caveat – as active agents, rather than passive objects. I consider the convergences between missing children and absent women researchers in parapsychology and argue for a rethinking of traditional research methodologies in the field of parapsychology. Traditional methodologies rooted in a patriarchal system could explain the exclusion of children, and the othering of women researchers in the field. I include a discussion around my own research with children, which produces different kinds of meanings and data in the act of knowledge production around paranormal or unexplained experiences.

EXPLORE Journal , 2021

Abstract Introduction Children and young people commonly have ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ anomalous... more Abstract
Introduction
Children and young people commonly have ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ anomalous experiences that are silenced, ignored or medicalised by ‘adults-in-authority’. Whether ‘positive’ or ‘negative’, anomalous experiences can catalyse self-healing for children and young people. Through children achieving greater self-awareness and a sense of intra-connectedness between self, others and the world.

Objectives
The study's aim was to explore the nature of self and experience with children and young people. This article focuses on one of the studies objectives: to explore with children and young people any anomalous experiences; and identify any self-reporting of healing and/or positive transformation.

Methods
A participatory, qualitative approach was used to research with children and young people. Using IPA (Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis), and Critical Discourse Analysis, 20 narrative accounts and 10 visual narrative representations, from 16 children and young people who experience anomalous phenomena, were analysed and ‘co-interpreted’ with participants.

Participants
In total, 16 children and young people (aged 4-21 years) participated in the study. Four participants had pre-existing medical conditions (Epilepsy, Narcolepsy, Caterplexy & Autism), while twelve participants had no pre-existing medical conditions.

Results
All self-reported anomalous experiences, were viewed by children and young people as carrying healing and transformational potentials – regardless of whether their experiences were ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ Healing and transformation were reported by children and young people, that included – self-withdrawal from medications; changes in attitudes and behaviours; feeling more connected to self, others and the world; enjoying life and ‘knowing’ self How children and young people's anomalous experiences are responded to by ‘adults-in-authority’ has consequences for children and young people's wellbeing.

Conclusions
Children and young people should be included in studies that consider anomalous experiences, using research methodologies such as participatory approaches, to widen our understanding of these types of experiences. While the results show how anomalous experiences can carry healing and transformational potentials for children and young people, adults-in authority can catalyse suffering in how they understand and respond to these experiences. More research is needed and is continuing in this area.

Keywords
Anomalous experiences, Children, Healing, Qualitative Participatory-research

Who am 'I': Reauthoring self, stories and subjectivity in research with children, 2019

The ‘new’ sociology of childhood sees an emergence of interdisciplinary approaches to understandi... more The ‘new’ sociology of childhood sees an emergence of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding self, experience and subjectivity of children. As debates frame research with children, concerned with ‘ethics’ (Daley, 2015; Gorin et al, 2008) and ‘agency’ (Larkins, 2019; Oswell, 2016), what is meant by the ‘subject’ of experience
is given little attention. In this paper, I ask whether narratives are a true
representation of ‘self’; who is the ‘experiencer’ that stories refer to and what are the implications for claiming subjectivity through narrative structures? I suggest that ‘experience’ is an irreducible quality of reality that transcends personal self, and that a core subjectivity serves as the dative of experience (Kastrup, 2018), ‘as natures sole ontological primitive (2018, p137). Understanding self, experience and
subjectivity in line with an ‘Analytical Idealism’ (Kastrup, 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2018, 2019), offers fresh insight into current sociological debates in Childhood Studies.
Keywords
‘Analytical Idealism'; Children; Consciousness; Narrative; Self; Self-enquiry; 'Second attention epistemology'; Subjectivity

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and yo... more Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore young researchers perspectives on children and young people's research, participation and protection. Design/methodology/approach-The paper is co-authored by young people and academics involved in a young researcher group. This paper provides a brief introduction from the young researchers and some academic context to their work, then the young researcher group's contribution. Their contribution is followed by a brief discussion of the issues they raise in the light of current academic debate. Findings-This paper contains our critical reflection on participation and protection. Originality/value-The paper presents a unique contribution capturing children and young people's perspectives on the journal's theme and other contributions to it.

Collective Ink Publications, 2023

Historically, children’s inexplicable experiences -- from telepathy and conversing with deceased ... more Historically, children’s inexplicable experiences -- from telepathy and conversing with deceased relatives to out-of-body- or near-death experiences, and more -- have been theorised through traditional scientific lenses that may not have the explanatory power to account for such experiences. In Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World, Donna Thomas shares research that she and other scholars, past and present, have conducted with children and young people across the world. By placing children's unexplained experiences and views about reality in the contexts of culture, consciousness and the nature of self, this book offers a middle way for explaining these childhood experiences within post-materialist science and philosophy. Thomas suggests that children's experiences could greatly contribute to a new paradigm for understanding the mystery of being human and the nature of reality.