Travel by Death

According to my last post, if the Oceanic Six do not return to the island inside of 70 hours, the Earth will stop turning. We have several parties who are in the know about this catastrophe and taking action to stop it. They are: Richard Alpert (via John Locke), Mrs. Hawkings (via Ben Linus), and possibly Daniel Faraday.

Faraday, unlike Alpert and Hawkings, has jumped into the fray because of the nosebleed effect and most likely does not know the world may end. The nosebleed effect being: If you have the bad fortune to get unstuck in time and do not have a constant, you brain will start bleeding out your nose until it scrambles and you die. Sad but true.

Now Alpert and Hawkings, who could be the same person, and who could (either of them) have four toes, know this goes way beyond brain-scrambling. Of course, we don't know how they know. I'd like to discuss Team A, Alpert-Locke, and their interaction at the crashed Nigerian plane, because I believe it has given us one major insight:

To escape the island, you have to die.

I think the converse is also true. To return to the island, you have to die. Here's the evidence. Jack's father decides to drink himself to death in Australia. He dies. He is able to return to the island and walk around with his body back.

Alpert tells Locke, to leave the island, he has to die.

Hurley's imaginary friend from the loony bin, Dave, tells Hurley that to be free he must jump off the cliff. That this is all an illusion and he needs to kill himself. Libby "saves" him at the last minute. Maybe Dave was right.

Coincidentally (or not) Locke, Hurley and Christian are among the few who have seen Jacob's cabin. It may be Jacob who facilitates this travel by death, but only for those who know him.

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say the "purge" may have been an act of mercy by Ben and the hostiles, to free the Dharma Initiative workers from the island's grasp (and from inevitable death by nosebleed). This would explain why Ben persists in calling himself and his people "the good guys," and why I'm justified in believing that.

But what are the rules governing travel by death? Do you have to know and have seen Jacob? Is this why he knows his daughter is dead and not just transported. Are these the same "rules" Ben mentions to Widmore? We'll see.