Some may accept this hypothesis as adequately explaining the origins of Dr. Moody's encounter sequence, but it will appear bizarre and improbable to those who do not believe that one's birth experiences are encoded in the brain and can be retrieved under certain conditions. However, I believe that a tentative scientific explanation to explain an unknown phenomena is more reasonable than one based on mysticism or metaphysics. They feel that the birth model cannot explain the phenomena of near-death experiences. Those critics believe that newborn babies cannot perceive well enough or even remember well enough to re-experience their birth. The question is not whether one remembers one's birth, since re-living birth traumas does not involve memory as it is usually understood.
Critics seem to ignore the most recent studies of investigators of neuroscience.
They, however, do admit that the NDEs are not projections of the individual's religious beliefs, since believers as well as non-believers have the experiences. They feel that the essence of the birth experience is being in one place and then being expulsed outside of that place. In this opinion birth trauma is not considered an essential part of the experience. The feeling is not one of being in the womb and then being on the outside of the mother's body. The birth experience can be better described by using the canal analogy because, for many there is much happening between leaving the uterus and having finally arrived outside of the mother.