Note: The following letters are reprinted with permission.

On the Forbidden Letters - by Onno de Bie

'But we can perhaps agree that even in intellectual history the cranks and the fools are important too; that those whose cleverness is unimpeachable and invulnerable to every test do not always carry the most important ideas; and that the truth sometimes is to be grasped from some very odd angles.'

-- Martin Green

Andrew Jackson Davis

In part 1 of his response article on the Forbidden Letters at World Mysteries Heinz Lichtenberg posits that Near Death Experiences or NDE's are not related to death at all. According to Lichtenberg they are merely caused by trauma and stress.

Dr. Sam Parnia in his 2006 book: 'What happens when we die' informs us that NDE's even occur in people who are not even severely ill. And another phenomenon often accompanying NDE's, the so called Out of Body Experiences, or OBE's, can even be artificially induced, as they indeed were in September 2002 by Swiss scientists. [ see 2006:135]

So if it is not death mediating NDE's and OBE's, does this mean that death is the end?

In the fourth Forbidden Letter the Paris 4 say that, in the first phase of the Great Work, the alchemist suffers some kind of decapitation:

'For you will remember too that in certain grail-lore heads are taken of and replaced by other heads. Now, we are not talking about the head of flesh to be taken of. That would be lethal ofcourse. It is the microcosmic, subtle head, interwoven in the head of flesh that is taken of and replaced after the fire by a new subtle head (the Christ).'  [verbatim ac litteratim]

In section 12 then of part 2 of the Letters they write:

'Our man is on the floor on his back. He had his eyes closed during the whole resurrection. A 'thread' (very thin) is closing around his neck. The head is decapitated by that 'thread'.'   [verbatim ac litteratim]

These amazing details reminded me of what is believed to be a description of the soul's departure from the body at physical death by Andrew Jackson Davis, the Seer of Poughkeepsie [ see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson_Davis ]. 
That description is also given in chapter IX  of Manly P. Hall's 1932 book 'Man, Grand Symbol of the Mysteries.' A description that appears to contradict the alchemical assumption that nothing survives death. Davis allegedly observed subtle phenomena in a body entering death. Phenomena I find quite worth mentioning in the light of the fourth Forbidden Letter.

The seer first describes how, upon death, 'the various internal organs of the body appear to resist the withdrawal of the animating soul. Next the head became enveloped in a mellow, luminous atmosphere. The cerebrum and the cerebellum expanded their interior portions and discontinued their appropriate galvanic functions. Then the brain became highly charged with vital electricity and vital magnetism, "that is to say, the brain as a whole suddenly declared itself to be tenfold more positive over the lesser portions of the body than it ever was during periods of health. This phenomenon invariably precedes physical dissolution." [ Davis ]

The brain next began to attract the elements of electricity, magnetism, motion, life, and sensation into its various departments.' [Hall]

After that, Hall says, the 'head became intensely brilliant to the same proportion that the extremities of the body grew darker. Gradually in the mellow, spiritual atmosphere which surrounded the head the distinct outlines of another head appeared. [emphasis added]

 This was "eliminated and organized from out of and above the material head." 
 [ Davis ]

As this new spiritual head appeared, the brilliant atmosphere that had surrounded the brain of the old body contributed its light to the new organ and gradually faded out of the corporeal brain. This process of progressive development continued until a complete body had been exuded, more radiant and more beautiful than the physical organism, but similar in general appearance. "The spirit rose at right angles from the head or brain of the deserted body." [ Davis ]

But at the final dissolution of the relationship between the two constitutions, Andrew Jackson Davis saw "playing energetically between the feet of the elevated spiritual body -  a bright stream or current of vital electricity." [ Davis ]

This current he termed an umbilical thread capable of being drawn out "into the finest possible medium of sympathetic connection (...)." [Davis] 

At death the physical umbilical thread is broken however, and a certain amount of the electrical element which moves through it flows back into the physical body, where, diffusing itself, it prevents immediate decomposition. In the case under analysis, the time required for the complete release was approximately two and one-half hours, but this is not advanced as a rule.'  [Hall/emphasis added]

According to Hall Davis watched 'a subtle body separating itself from a grosser one.' [emphasis added]  For man's subtle body, Hall continues, 'corresponds atom for atom with his dense form. Davis noted that that body had organs for instance. And it is known to the sages that man's subtle body is in every respect as completely organized as the physical one (which might be crucial to physical immortality/de Bie). However, it exists in a more attenuated sphere, breathing a subtler atmosphere (...). But, when the physical form is discarded, the subtle body serves as a bridge between the two distinct states of being: substantial and transubstantial.' [Hall]

If, ladies and gentlemen, we can trust this astounding report by the Seer of Poughkeepsie, then this does not prove of course something can or is surviving death in man. After all, the subtle body could be gone after 'two and one-half hours' too. But his report might imply that the alchemist somehow approaches or even enters the realm of death upon alchemical decapitation. When, in the words of Davis, a 'new spiritual head appears' on the dying body. A head with possibly no future at all, except in the Great Work.

'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.'  [John 12]

John 12 seems to suggest that the alchemical sacrificer sacrificing himself in Kundalini-fire the moment he becomes the Living Stone, i.e. a Christ, is indeed entering the sphere of death. Unless somebody would like to propose that the Solar Sacrifice is made through some form of direct or indirect suicide in a grave.