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The “traveling towards a light in a tunnel” doesn’t make a lot of sense as a birth memory in the context of the usual headfirst delivery. The baby’s eyes, which are closed anyhow, are pressed against the side of the vaginal canal and blocked from light.

Sure, it does. You're in a dark, constricted place undergoing the most trauma you've ever experienced followed by the most brilliant light you've ever seen. It's the later interpretation of a concrete experience that dresses it up as a tunnel or in whatever happens to be the current imagery (now alien abduction versus earlier succubus or demon theory).

These illusions do not tend to be “pop from darkness into light” or “it’s getting brighter and brighter.” A growing bright spot is seen in a dark surrounds. “Near death” visions also share this characteristic. You resort to much hand waving to try to explain how this could happen during birth with closed eyes.