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I communicated with you, not by normal means.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
Proximity can make me very shy.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
Hint 1
Who is important.
Hint 2
Don't take the lines too literally (except the one about dying).
Hint 3
The title is important too.
Hint 4 (this is a big one).
Think of each line separately, and then answer the riddle.
Hint 5
You are
The Police, who have disbanded, reunited, then disbanded again.
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
"Message in a Bottle"
The illusionist did everything it seems.
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Proximity can make me very shy.
"Don't Stand So Close to Me"
Without a bunch of these you would die.
"Every Breath You Take"
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Band members Sting, Andy Summers, and others
Who am I?
The Police!
All alone, no knock on the door.
This I am unsure about. They have other song titles that sort of fit ("So Lonely", "Hole In My Life"). Maybe there's a particular lyric that fits better?
I'm thinking something like
Quantum particles
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
Quantum entanglement allows two particles to have the same properties when measured, but cannot be used to transmit information.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
They are difficult to see and to measure.
Proximity can make me very shy.
In a closed system, interacting with quantum particles will cause them to disappear/collapse into one state.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
They help to make up much of our universe.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
The seasons can be influenced by tiny quantum fluctuations, a la the butterfly effect.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
A knock on the door would also collapse a system into one state.
The title is also a clue, being a reference to
Schrodinger's cat
I don't expect this to be right but since you said not to take anything but Who and Dying too literally - I have to try it:
The Doctor (Dr. Who)
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
The TARDIS translates all alien languages into English (or whatever someone's native tongue is)
The illusionist did everything it seems.
The name of the Doctor is itself an illusion - hiding his true secret name.
Proximity can make me very shy.
The Doctor (in all his regenerations) is outgoing and charismatic - but he does not let many people get to really know him. He's constantly found to be hiding aspects of his life from his companions when little tidbits slip out - showing he's actually quite private and may use the extrovert actions to keep people from knowing the real him.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
The sick and dying need doctors to survive
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
The 4th Doctor mentions that he likes bees (comparing K-9's greeting to the bee's language) and the 10th Doctor is able to find the Earth because of the bees disappearing.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
David Tennant's time as The Doctor ended by himself after 4 knocks on the door - updated thanks to @theage for the catch
The title (Alive, Dead, Alive, Dead)
"The Doctor is a Time Lord, he can regenerate"
I am new here and don't really understand the rules of the puzzle, but ...
The title to me suggests
Teeth. First growing, then as if dead. Then growing and dead again when the adult teeth come in.
I communicated with you, not by normal means. The illusionist did everything it seems.
The nerves in the teeth are wired strangely. Some of them seem to be miswired and cause you to think the sensation comes from the wrong tooth. You also cannot see them directly, but maybe you see them in a mirror (the illusion?)
Proximity can make me very shy.
A shy person may not smile and show their teeth when someone is too close?
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Obviously teeth are needed for survival.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more, Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
These lines don't seem to fit my line of thought. But I am not familiar with these puzzles, and I don't understand your hint about "Who" giving us the "form" of the answer.
Is it something like
nerves/physical sensations?
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
Your nerve endings communicate with you, but not by speaking to you or answering your questions on Stack Exchange or any other 'normal' means of communication.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
"Pain is an illusion".
Proximity can make me very shy.
The proximity of something too hot or cold or sharp is something your nerve endings hate.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Without sensations, people would die easily. People with leprosy lose the feeling in their fingers and toes - their nerve endings die - rendering them easily susceptible to small injuries there, which can then fester and kill them slowly.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Bee stings, the heat of summer, the cold of winter ... all these are sensations.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
Not quite sure about this line. I suppose a knock on the door is something that's heard and not felt, so it's not relevant to the sense we're considering.
Could it be
our shadow?
"I communicated with you, not by normal means."
Our shadow is there to mimic our moves.
"The illusionist did everything it seems."
Shadows are the result of light.
"Proximity can make me very shy."
If we try to get close to our shadow, it either shrinks, moves away, or disappears.
"Without a bunch of these you would die."
If we cannot cast a shadow, our body does not exist.
"The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,"
No idea. I guess because everything is capable of casting a shadow.
"Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door."
Our shadows have no one to talk to, they're silent, etc.
As for the "alive, dead, alive, now dead,"
our shadows come and go depending on which setting we're in. Sometimes they're there, sometimes they're gone.
It could be
pollen
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
allergic to many. And shows that spring is here.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
the flower/ the plant created it
Proximity can make me very shy.
Not sure what this could be
Without a bunch of these you would die.
without them the plants cant reproduce and eventually human existence will come to an end.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
the bee are attracted and it is during the spring
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
They are alone stick to the bee s or fly in the air to near by flowers.
I believe the answer is...
Mother Nature
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
Nature "talks" in many ways, from the sounds of crickets and cicadas to the rumble of thunder... but it doesn't actually talk in the sense of explicit messages.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
I believe "the illusionist" is referring to man - we try to structure and build our own environments, but as soon as we stop trying, nature returns and reverts things to their natural state.
Proximity can make me very shy.
Animals generally flee when you get close.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Nature is essential to our survival.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
The bee and the seasons are both part of nature, of course, and those two are particularly fundamental to our survival.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
Mother nature is spoken of as though it is a person, but it's not.
It could be
Cells,
the vast majority of which regenerate, but at different rates, depending on the cell, possibly explaining the title.
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
Cells communicate through their own language of chemical signals, which is extremely complex to the point where we don't fully understand it. See this.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
I think the greatest illusion is that we appear as one body, even though, in reality, each of us is made up of trillions of cells.
Proximity can make me very shy.
A proximity sensor on your cell phone turns off the screen when the phone is held to your ear.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Without a bunch of cells, you'd die. That seems obvious, and is the biggest clue in the riddle, I think.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Bee's have cells, and each hexagon-shaped hole in their honeycombs is called a cell. The change of seasons triggers chemical changes in plant cells.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
You're a cell. If you're all alone with no knock at the door, you could be in a prison cell!
Could it be
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
When touched, it has an abnormal behaviour of shutting its leaves.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
A stretch, but does it imply that the plant gives of an illusion of behaving like an animal.
Proximity can make me very shy.
Come too close and touch, and the leaves shy away.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Refers to plants in general? Life would not be possible without trees and plants.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Bees hover around trees to gather nectar. And trees change colour in seasons.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
Yet another reference to touching. Who am I? Touch-me-not
It is not the right answer, I think, but it fits some of the clues fairly well. Although I guess I have overused one fact too much to make it fit.
Maybe it's
God
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
Many people saw visions of God, such as Moses or Muhammad's vision of the Angel Gabriel.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
God created all.
Proximity can make me very shy.
God is said to be beyond reality, and no one that I know of has ever really "seen" God.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Possibly deities watching over you.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Deities in control of different things.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
Only one god in most religions, God won't interact directly with your life?
With the title possibly being
Jesus's birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and then ascension.
A bit of a guess because I'm not convinced it quite matches everything:
"Organ(s)" in all its definitions: 1) Musical, 2) Biological, 3) Instrument or agency, 4) a means of communication like a newspaper.
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
Music communicates and senses are organs and definition 4 fits.
The illusionist did everything it seems.
Musical meaning here. The organist is the illusionist. Definitions 3 and 4 kind of work too.
Proximity can make me very shy.
Not sure about that. I'm guessing biological organs here: recoiling when touched as most don't like to be. Definition 3 might work too.
Without a bunch of these you would die.
Organic organs obviously.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Doesn't really work here. Organs of nature in the definition 3 sense?
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
Or here. Or does it? Door bell maybe?
Alive, dead, alive, now dead
Err struggling now. Great music, musicians?
Without explaining the whole riddle, I'd like to guess
The Higgs boson. It is difficult to detect because of it's tendency to pop in and out of existence, as the title would suggest. This particle has also been suggested as one of the main reasons for the universe's inflation.
Okay, another stab...
I think it has something to do with vowels. Maybe silent ones, and or the second vowel in a double vowel?
I communicated with you, not by normal means.
I and U ("you") are vowels... And they communicate not by talking by by their effects on each other in words.
The illusionist did everything it seems. Proximity can make me very shy.
A vowel can become silent when next to another, as the "A" in "read".
Without a bunch of these you would die.
"you" has two vowels in it and therefore would die without vowels.
The bee, the seasons, maybe some more,
Bee and season both have a double vowel which is silent, and if we count the y in maybe as a vowel, then it is silent as well.
Who am I? All alone, no knock on the door.
I am a vowel? I is a vowel? In alive, there are no silent double vowels, whereas in dead, we again have the silent ("dead") a. But this is not totally logical, since there is a silent "e" in alive.
