Closer to the Light
Near-Death Experiences of Children
Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children is a 1991 nonfiction book written by Melvin L. Morse and Paul Perry with foreword written by Raymond Moody. The book documented the near-death experiences (NDEs) of 26 children and became a New York Times bestseller.
Summary
Closer to the Light documents real-life accounts of near-death experiences in children. Morse had previously theorized that near-death experiences came from drugs administered during attempts to save someone's life. He conducted a study to determine which drugs caused such experiences but abandoned it after what he believes were credible reports of near death experiences. The results of the study were first published in 1986 in the American Journal of Disease in Children, with Closer to the Light documenting the study and other accounts of near death experiences in children in 1991.
Reception
The book was reviewed by Stuart W Twemlow in 1991 in the Journal of Near-Death Studies. His view is that a scientifically 'suspect' subject had been well covered and written up in plain language by Morse, whom he praises as 'empathic'.
Others who have referred to the book have examined the overall validity of NDEs as evidence of survival after bodily death. Susan J. Blackmore in her chapter 'Near-death experiences' in The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience discusses various alternative explanations for these experiences, including expectation, administered drugs, endorphins, anoxia (oxygen depletion) or hypercarbia (excess carbon dioxide) and temporal lobe stimulation.
“Closer to the Light” enters the record as near-Death Experiences of Children. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Closer, Light and Near-Death can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Closer to the Light” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Closer, Light and Near-Death provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110588613. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1991 and 1986.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Closer to the Light”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Closer to the Light primary sources, Closer to the Light archive and Closer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Closer to the Light”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Closer to the Light” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.