No need for the booze cabinet.

The way they phrase it in the book is like an imaginary thing after you die. There's a big ugly guy who is the lord of death, and his whole job is to fuck with you and torture you and scare you to death -- except after you die, you can't die again.

So, the way you get past him is to accept that he is a projection of your own consciousness, and to detach from your attachment to the body.

When you're dead, you still have a body -- but it's more like a dream body, and it's not real. It's just your imagination of who you are, based on your desire to continue to be alive, and cling to an individual identity.

So, by accepting that the terrible boogieman lord of death is just a reflection of your own mind, and that your identity is impermanent, and tied into the greater 'buddha consciousness' you can get through the whole bad trip thing.

Something interesting about the intersection of Mysticism and Traditional Belief Systems -- if you can call tibetan book of the dead a traditional belief system -- is this whole microcosm / macrocosm application of concept from a metaphysical idea, into a 'this life / incarnate now' type experience.

So, what ends up happening here is the metaphor becomes lived in your NOW experience.

So, it's not so much about when you're dead, and hanging out with the lord of death, but more like a "all hellish realities that I percieve and experience in this world are transient reflections of my own subconsciousness." and "All life that I know to be myself is an impermanent condition which is only a persistant illusion of my own self-hood."

So "there is no self".

No Gods.
No Masters.
No Self.
No Hell realm.
No suffering.

Moksha.

The trick is that this places you firmly in the about to die / rice bowl beggar category of humanity.

Which most people are not into.

So, you end up negotiating compromises.

Which gets into basically what is called in its most extreme form, left handed path tantra, and in its most mild form, alan watts.

Left Handed Path Tantra is basically how all things are transmuted into the buddha nature, and it's well it's a good reason to drink.

Coincidentally, Alan Watts was also an alcoholic.

Cheers.