A metaphor for a way out of our current troubles. For example, looking forward to passing a tough exam and never having to do it again after a session of hellish assignments might be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately, according to Terry Pratchett, the light at the end of the tunnel is frequently an oncoming train.

Can also be used to mean the existence of some possible means of escape from one's present predicament.
For example, when thinking about bankruptcy, people are often advised to consider whether there is a light at the end of the tunnel, that is to say some other possible way to repay their debts without taking such a desperate measure.

On the other hand, people who commit suicide often do precisely due to the percieved lack of a light at the end of the tunnel. They think that it is their only means of escape, and few things are sadder.

I once read in a medial journal, althought I cannot remember which one, that when a person begins to experience death the receptors in the eyes of the individual begin to loose blood and start to die themselves.

This could easily cause random "noise" signals to be generated by the eyes and fed into the visual cortex of the human brain and be percieved as white light - hence - the tunnel and the white light near death.

Seeing the white light could be the brains way of calming itself (your brain) down right at the verge of death by making your way into death a little more relaxing.

Wether the article had any merit or not, it's plausable and a damm good explanation of where the white light comes from in near death. The viewers do not actually die but their brains did see the white light at some point and that is what they remember.





"I see light at the end of the tunnel."









The phrase



