Donna Thomas – “My Mind is NOT in my Brain”! Exploring Consciousness with Children
Children are often excluded from explorations of what it means to be human. As we enter an exciting age of exploration into consciousness interrogating the mainstream narrative that assumes we are individual, biological machines, never has it been more important to involve children. Children may experience self, mind, others and the world in ways that adults have lost touch with – and in ways which resonate with post-materialist ideas of the world. “My mind is not in my brain” and “being everything is the real me” are children’s insights in research which challenge mainstream ideas. Children are often viewed as unformed adults, incapable, and always becoming rather than beings-in-their-own-right, but they may hold clues about the nature of reality and our relations with it. In this talk, Donna will discuss exploring consciousness with children, covering children and self, extrasensory experiences, mind and time. Taking examples from her new book, Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World, Donna argues for the importance of involving children in explorations of consciousness.
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About the speaker:
Donna Thomas is Co-Director of the ICreateS International Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire UK. Donna leads on a programme of research that explores the nature of self and experience with children and young people. Examining living experience as a source of epistemic authority has been a focus of research with children over the last 20 years. Donna has published several academic papers on the topics of children and self, extra sensory experiences and participatory research methodologies. Donna has authored Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World July, 2023 (John Hunt Publishing) and co-authored Self and Subjectivity in Social Research (Sage, forthcoming) with Deborah Crook.
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Speaker
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Donna ThomasCo-director, AuthorDonna Thomas is Co-director of the ICreateS International Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire UK. Donna leads on a programme of research that explores the nature of self and experience with children and young people. Examining living experience as a source of epistemic authority has been a focus of research with children over the last 20 years. Donna has published several academic papers on the topics of children and self, extra sensory experiences and participatory research methodologies. Donna has authored Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World July, 2023 (John Hunt Publishing) and co-authored Self and Subjectivity in Social Research (Sage, forthcoming) with Deborah Crook.
