When children report a near-death experience, they often speak of light, peace, a sense of safety, or the feeling of having arrived home. What is discussed less often, however, is another part of the experience: the moment of returning.
Many children describe this moment as deeply affecting. While the near-death experience itself is often marked by a sense of vastness, freedom, or lightness, returning to the body can feel like a sudden break between two realities. Some children report a powerful jolt, while others describe being pulled or drawn back into their bodies. The transition often occurs abruptly, as if someone had flipped a switch.
While children often report that their return was much faster than their leaving the body, there are also accounts in which the transition between death and life is accompanied by a gentle moment of silence. In this silence, some children report entering a liminal realm between life and death.
They describe being aware of both the other realm of consciousness and their immediate surroundings, such as the hospital room. This was the case for Amina from our book Where the Light Begins, who felt her mother behind a symbolic door made of wind and motion.
The decision to return appears to be made consciously through nonverbal communication. While it is sometimes initiated by a single thought of siblings or parents, other children describe a profound sense that their lives are not finished yet, like Lenn, whose story we also share in our book. By contrast, others remember being told, “It is not your time yet,” or “You must return.”
After returning to their bodies, a lot of children report that their bodies initially feel unfamiliar. Although they recognize them as their own, they simultaneously experience them as something that does not entirely belong to them. Some recall needing a few moments to realize that they are back in their bodies. In addition, the return to the body is usually accompanied by the reappearance of physical sensations.
During a near-death experience, children report a complete absence of pain, even when they had been severely injured or were in a critical medical condition. With the return, this often changes abruptly. Pain becomes noticeable again, sounds seem overwhelmingly loud, and light appears harsh. As a result, some children initially describe the transition from death back to life as uncomfortable, because the contrast between the two states feels so immense.
This may also help explain why some children report that they did not initially want to return, a phenomenon also found in many adults’ accounts. Over time, the disappointment of returning fades for most of the children. The more they integrate the experience into their lives, the more their attention shifts from the loss of what they experienced to the meaning they carried back with them.
Many of the experiences described throughout our book, Where the Light Begins, convey the same impression: the return was not simply an awakening; it was a transition and a step from one reality into another.
Ralph and Daniela Klose are German authors and long-term collaborative partners in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and consciousness research. Their book Where the Light Begins explores near-death experiences in children.
Ralph is a retired neuropsychologist with over three decades of clinical and academic experience, and Daniela is a medical writer and translator specializing in neuropsychology and transpersonal psychology. For many years, they worked as ghostwriters for researchers across Europe. They now write under their own names, connecting scientific expertise with years of hospice and end-of-life care experience to explore near-death-experiences and liminal states of consciousness. https://drklose.com
