CREATURES

When you rise in the morning, form a resolution to make the day a happy one to a fellow-creature. - - - Sydney Smith

A "creature" is normally defined as an animal, as distinct from a human being, however it can be used for either an animal or person, such "as fellow creatures on this planet, animals deserve respect."

It can also mean a fictional or imaginary being, typically a frightening one like a creature from outer space.

There is a possibility that the characters on LOST were a combination of both definitions. The main characters could be human, animal or imaginary beings from another world.

It goes back to the survival of one coming to the island. It is debatable whether anyone of Flight 815 survived the crash. However, if one looks back on how other people got to the island, there is also a clue about what dimension the island truly occupies. Juliet was given a massive overdose of drugs in order to board the submarine which would take her to the island. There is no reason for a person to be sedated in order to travel the Pacific in a submarine. It was a possible ruse to kill her and take her spirit to the island. Likewise, Desmond came to the island after being adrift on the Pacific Ocean for weeks, which could also have led to his own demise before reaching the island.

The island could be the bridge between the human world and the spirit world (and the after life).

This nexus point between real, unreal and surreal does touch on elements of the series that are unexplained, unexplainable and unknown.

Theology aside, what happens to a person when they nearly die? There are ample studies of the "near death" experience where patients get to a euphoric dream state where there is a white light. There body is still alive, but their mind (or soul) has left it to start another conscious passage to another place.  The question is the place, for people who don't come back cannot tell their doctors what was that new place.

So in chart form, one can imagine:

LIFE   - - - - NEAR DEATH - - -  DEATH - - - - AFTER LIFE

If one believes that man has more than just a biochemical body, a soul which differentiates man from other creatures, then a body's demise does not mean actual "death" in the conventional sense. A person's mind can live on, and possibly be re-created with a new "body" or vessel.

I theorized during the series run that if one ties the show to the ancient Egyptian rituals referenced in the series, the premise of the plots could center around near death and death experiences in a supernatural underworld. In the near death phase, the characters like the 815ers do not realize they are dead (or they don't accept it), therefore their spirits continue to "live" their past lives in a different dimension created by their collective memories. It is when these spirit creatures actually realize and accept their mortality, do they become full spirits in the sideways world, ready for their journey into the after life. This multi-stage process helps clarify the apparent conflicts within the plot about who dies and what happens to them (such as Patchy dying several times but somehow came back to life to torment the castaways).

By viewing the main characters not as continuations of their past selves, but as spiritual creatures trying to reel in their fate (death) by masking it with subconscious and dream state emotions would be a complex resolution to the characters' overall development.