The Three Types of Death

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With insights from the Kevin Cann Clear Light Death Experience


In Simple Terms
This document discusses the three major types of Death in simple terms, taken from Platonic Surrealism, but also includes traditional yoga references, to demonstrate that Kevin’s Clear Light Death Experience is just a part of the normal human experience,
documented over thousands of years.


Abstract.
Across the yogic and Tibetan traditions, death is not a single event but a spectrum of transitions. This essay outlines three modes—clean death, dirty (samsaric) death, and traumatic death—and then situates them within the non‑linear arc of the Kevin Cann Clear Light Death Experience. The aim is practical and compassionate: to understand how attention, ethics, and preparation shape the threshold, so awareness may move beyond the karmic dream into POTENTIALITY and AWARENESS.

A Condensed Overview of the Non‑Linear Event

The Kevin Cann Clear Light Death Experience unfolded out of ordinary sequence, as a distributed—almost holographic—event across multiple time slices. The most coherent way to present it is by experiential slice, noting the non‑linearity.


Clear Light Passage (Experiential Slice A).
Following an uncompromising push toward nirvikalpa samādhi, body heat drained upward in slow waves; the heartbeat ceased; awareness expanded into vast blackness punctuated by points of light, with 360° perception and no residual body‑image. The sense was simply being ALL, with a sudden return upon the thought “this must be documented,” followed by months of reintegration.

Bardo Interlude (Experiential Slice B).
While standing at a microwave making lunch, an immersion into what Tibetan lore calls the bardo occurred: four monads (long conjoined) parted ways in a touching scene. The parting was not traumatic as ‘soul is purpose’ and their purpose was complete.

 Humans are in reality children of AWARENESS and POTENTIALITY and are not just one form, but in actuality ALL FORMS and NO FORM.

In such a transcendent reality, ‘soul death’ means exactly nothing. Purposes come; purposes go.

Subjective hours collapsed into seconds of clock time—an instance of bardo “time” cutting across linearity.


Kundalinī Eruption (Experiential Slice C).
In an earlier slice, intense burning at the crown with rhythmic loosening of scalp sutures accompanied ejection of the dream substance body (As modified by extensive shiva/shakti meditation. Some call this the ‘Divine Child’ or the diamond body), exiting the fontanelle. The body was dangerously depleted of “dream‑substance,” initiating a near‑fatal exhaustion that appears causally linked to the later slices.

Note on Order. These slices are causally related yet non‑sequential in earth time—what the source document aptly calls a “temporal hyperobject.”

I. Clean Death (Yogic Death): Not Dying into the Dream

A clean death is simply one where AWARENESS, knowing that it is a pure child of POTENTIALITY, and not beholden to ANY DREAM WORLD, including ones which are dreams of physicality simply leaves its current dream and does not of necessity cling to another one. In PS this means that AWARENESS has learned that it is NOT one and the same as Dream Substance (the soul, the subtle bodies, or past ‘karma’ and experience).

This is why it was important for Kevin to experience clearly and unambiguously that AWARENESS is a pure thing unto itself, not requiring a ‘soul’ which is a temporary construct of Monads working together, dreaming their dreams, as well as not requiring to be identified by the core of human sapience, the dream substance portion of the human body, which can in major part, eject separately, leaving AWARENESS still hanging onto the minute threads of dream substance not ejected. (Dream substance is required as a conduit for full human sapience).

This ideal is explained historically in the yoga sutras of India and other premodern, more evolved literature.

A clean death is the yogic ideal: unbroken awareness at the moment the organism dissolves. Classical Yoga renders this as citta‑vṛtti nirodha (stilling the mental modifications) so the seer abides in its own nature (YS 1.2–1.3), culminating in kaivalya (the autonomy of pure awareness, YS 4.34). Patanjali’s asamprajñāta samādhi (YS 1.18) points toward non‑conceptual absorption in which even subtle seeds are stilled.

Vedānta frames the realization as identity with Brahman: Tat Tvam Asi (“Thou art That,” Chāndogya 6.8.7), and the fearless crossing beyond death through knowledge (Kaṭha 2.3.14–15). In Tibetan sources, recognizing the Clear Light (‘od gsal) at the instant of dying is decisive; if the mind recognizes its own nature, liberation is immediate.

In practice, clean death is inseparable from life: sustained meditation, ethical ballast (yamas–niyamas), and a heart trained to release grasping (Gītā 2.55–72, 6.10–15).[^[9]] It is less about heroic effort at the last breath and more about years of ordinary lucidity—so that at the threshold one simply remains awake.


Echo in the Clear Light Experience.
The Kevin Cann Clear Light Death Experience maps closely to the phenomenology described in the sources: cessation of heartbeat, vanishing of body‑image, expansion without center, and the sense of identity as “ALL.” Whether sustained to full liberation or briefly touched and then returned, the signatures are textbook nondual.

II. Dirty Death (Samsaric Death): Dying into the Dream

A dirty death is simply one where AWARENESS is still confused as to its true nature, and clings to a ‘soul’ (unresolved purpose in the dream lands, including worlds part of the dream of physicality). Technically this is primarily an attachment to the Dream Substance accumulated and modified in life and thought to be ‘a soul’.

By clinging to the substance of the land of dreams (and death) one ‘dies into their dream body’, which eventually fades away. Now sometimes people fiercely cling to a dream, like that of ‘heaven or hell’ other toxic places. Or just a favorite personal fantasy realm or a collaborative fantasy realm, like the land of the Fae folk or the Greys (gray aliens), both of which exist in the dream lands, the land of the dead.

There is NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS.  It’s completely normal and natural. But eventually
AWARENESS gets tired of this mode of expression and withdraws for a moment into its genuine self.

This mode of death is explained historically in the yoga sutras of India and other premodern, more evolved literature.

A dirty death is the default mode for unprepared consciousness: the subtle body falls back into its own dream. Latent tendencies (vāsanā) and residual impressions (saṃskāra) carry forward, shaping the next embodiment. The Bhagavad Gītā stresses that the quality of mind at death directs becoming (Gītā 8.5–6, 8.10–13), and that habitual attachment a binds the jīva to action’s fruits (Gītā 3.9, 18.23–26).

Tibetan teaching describes a descent through Chikhai (moment of death), Chönyid (visions of peaceful/wrathful deities), and Sidpa (becoming/birth) bardos when the Clear Light is not recognized; each stage mirrors one’s habits and fears. Dirty death, then, is momentum without choice—a conveyor belt powered by craving and unexamined narratives.


Echo in the Clear Light Experience.
The bardo tableau in the Kevin Cann case—monads parting across a “stitched” time—demonstrates how transitional states can precede or follow bodily crisis in unusual sequences, as Tibetan accounts allow. For those without training, such states can be overwhelming; for those with practice, they can be navigated toward lucidity.

III. Traumatic Death: The Rupture of Winds

Traumatic death—violent, sudden, saturated with pain—can scatter the prāṇic winds and scramble attention. Haṭha sources emphasize stabilizing prāṇa (HYP 2; Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā 5.53–60) precisely to preserve coherence when conditions are intense. Patanjali notes how seeds of past action ripen differentially (YS 4.8), implying that disturbed winds at death may reinforce confusion.

In Tibetan clinical lore, wind disorders (rlung) and disrupted attention are linked to difficult bardos; remedial instructions often highlight phowa (consciousness transference) and guru‑yoga to steady the mind at the threshold. Traumatic death does not preclude liberation, but it raises the bar for lucidity; preparation and community support become critical.


Case Study: A Non‑Linear Threshold (The Clear Light Experience)

Taken as a whole, the Kevin Cann Clear Light Death Experience reads like a distributed event rather than a single moment. The kundalinī eruption (Slice C) depleted “dream‑substance” and opened the crown; the bardo interlude (Slice B) unfolded in ordinary activities, revealing a deeper geometry of identity beyond the body; the Clear Light passage (Slice A) carried classic signatures of nondual dissolution and return.

After the return, language and motor skills were temporarily disrupted, followed by months of reintegration—an arc consistent with how intense nondual states can temporarily outstrip the nervous system’s ordinary harmonics. From a yogic perspective, this is not failure but information: it shows where practice was strong (attention) and where the organism needed gentler integration (prāṇa balance, soma care).

Living Toward a Clean Death

The traditions converge on a compassionate practicality: we die as we live. Three themes become decisive:

  1. Attention.
    Daily training in stillness—antar mouna, long exhalation, non‑grasping inquiry—cultivates the muscle memory of remaining awake (YS 1.12–1.15).[^[1]]
  2. Ethics.
    The yamas–niyamas are not moralism but prāṇa hygiene: they reduce turbulence, making lucidity at the threshold more likely (YS 2.29).[^[2]]
  3. Surrender.
    The Gītā presents a devotional shorthand: remember the Real at death (Gītā 8.5). In practice, this is a life‑long intimacy with POTENTIALITY and AWARENESS, so the last breath finds us already at home.[^[10]]

For traumatic contingencies, establish community protocols: trusted attendants who can read passages (Gītā 8; Bardo Thödol Clear Light sections), prompt recognition, and reinforce calm. For samsaric drift, maintain lucidity rehearsals: brief “micro‑bardos” at sleep onset and waking, dream yoga, and recurrent reminders that the dream is a training ground.[^[5]][^[17]]


OR you can skip all this Sanskrit, and do a few simple Wholeness Practices, as put forth by Platonic Surrealism, and you can even do them while using the toilet. You might still die into your dream, but things will go so much smoother and eventually it will be YOUR CHOICE if you live or do not live.

Remember that EVERYTHING is ‘divine’.

Conclusion

Death is not the end but a pivot. In the clean death, attention remains whole and the dream dissolves; in the dirty death, attention collapses into the dream and rebounds into form; in traumatic death, attention is challenged by scattered winds yet can be steadied by practice and care. The Kevin Cann Clear Light Death Experience—smeared across time yet singular in essence—offers a living map: prepare in the ordinary; recognize in the extraordinary; return, if you must, with gentleness and resolve.

References & Further Reading

Primary Yogic & Vedāntic Sources

Haṭha Yoga & Tantric Physiology

Tibetan Buddhism

Comparative & Integration

Footnotes

  1. Primary Source (Personal Archive): Raw NDE Data for Alex Gomez‑Marin – the Kevin Cann Case (documented sensations, non‑linear slices, and post‑return integration). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
  2. Bardo Thödol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), Clear Light instructions; Chikhai/Chönyid/Sidpa sections. Recommended: Gyurme Dorje (trans.), Penguin, 2006. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
  3. Dalai Lama, The Mind of Clear Light. Atria Books, 2004 (overview of Clear Light at death). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
  4. Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, ch. 2 (prāṇāyāma) & 4 (samādhi). Recommended: James Mallinson & Mark Singleton, Roots of Yoga, Penguin, 2017. ↩ ↩2
  5. Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā 5.53–60 (nāḍī purification, prāṇa stability). See Mallinson & Singleton. ↩ ↩2
  6. Patañjali, Yoga Sūtras — esp. 1.2–1.3, 1.12–1.18, 1.50, 4.8, 4.34. Recommended: Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. North Point Press, 2009. ↩ ↩2
  7. Yoga Sūtras on yamas–niyamas: 2.29. See Bryant, 2009. ↩
  8. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7 (“Tat Tvam Asi”). Recommended: Patrick Olivelle, The Early Upaniṣads. Oxford University Press. ↩
  9. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.3.14–15 (knowledge beyond death). See S. Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upaniṣads. ↩
  10. Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 2.2.5–6 (realization of Brahman). ↩
  11. Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (nondual turīya) and Gauḍapāda’s Kārikā. ↩
  12. Yoga Sūtras 1.5, 1.50, 4.8 (saṃskāra mechanics and ripening). ↩ ↩2
  13. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.2–6 (knowledge, transmigration). ↩
  14. Bhagavad Gītā 8.5–6, 8.10–13 (remembrance at death; trajectory of becoming). ↩
  15. Bhagavad Gītā 3.9, 18.23–26 (attachment, action, and binding). ↩
  16. Fremantle & Trungpa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Shambhala, 2001 (bardo phenomenology). ↩ ↩2
  17. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. Snow Lion, 1998 (wind imbalances and lucid passage). ↩
  18. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Death and Rebirth. Wisdom Publications (phowa & guru‑yoga practicals). ↩


~Anon
Public Domain
12/1/2025