if you take a look at this site
http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=915&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

you'll see at the bottom it says that the type of rainbow body that is attained at death is due to being in the third vision and the great transfer is from completing the fourth vision any thoughts on this ?

Usually the most profound types of teaching are usually unintelligible, unreachable, (disorienting ?), etc.]

howdy grant,
i can't comment on the accuracy of the text or of the process.  i used to busy myself with tibetan tantric texts and rituals but put them aside for the brass tacks of experience.  the complexities, cultural overlays and frankly unbelievable claims, combined with the prerequisites of the himalyan version of the dharma was too much for my left brain.

i would never try to discredit tantra et. al as unskillful or unhelpful for anyone other than myself.  that said, there are so many logical jumps and intentionally obscured paths and methods required for so much of the tibetan flavors, that i could no longer suspend my disbelief enough to practice well in that framework.

just my confused two cents.

The rainbow body isn't merely about being in the third vision or completing it, but a total grandmastery of it. Likewise with the total transference and the fourth vision.