Research by Donna M. Thomas at the University of Lancashire ... found that children ages 4 to 5 often describe consciousness as something holistic and love-infused"a connective force linking them to family, nature, and even a purposeful universe. Notably, they do not equate consciousness with an individual "me." By ages 10 or 11, however, this shifts. Children begin to define consciousness as "I-ness""an inner presence distinct from roles, relationships, or passing thoughts. In a recent preprint, Donna Thomas and I teamed up to explore the striking parallels between these early exceptional experiences and adults' pursuit of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). While children may slip naturally into states of self-transcendence or extrasensory sensitivity, adults often rely on "gateway tools" to revisit similar territory"meditation, prayer, breathwork, psychedelics, or other consciousness-altering practices. Using the eight core ASC dimensions identified by Larry Fort and colleagues (2025), we found compelling phenomenological overlaps. Children's reports of expanded awareness, boundary dissolution, and timelessness look surprisingly similar to adult descriptions of altered states. Whether we interpret these reports metaphorically or metaphysically, one thing is striking: The altered states many adults work hard to induce may share deep roots with the natural modes of awareness that characterize early childhood.