CONCEPT OF TIME

If there was ever a muddy mosh pit in the LOST mythology, the concept of Time would probably be a leading candidate. It is something strange happening on the Island, but not readily explained by anyone.

Linear Time Line. This is the modern, Western approach to the concept of Time. It is a straight line calendar. The second hand on the clock determines the present.

Circular Time. This is more an ancient philosophy that time is a cycle, so time continually repeats itself. The repeating seasons is an agricultural society's vision of Time.

Multiple Time. This is a view that Time is more than one dimensional concept. The ancient Mayan civilization had several methods of keeping time: a 260 day calendar which may have represented the harvest cycle or fertility; a 365-day solar calendar which mirrors our modern viewpoint of a year; and a cosmic calendar with aligns and predicts the position of heavenly bodies in the universe. The Mayans combined their different calendars like gears to create what is called a Long Count calendar, which was believed to have predicted cycles of change and eras in mankind for more than 5,000 years. (Note: the 2012 doomsday pundits state that the Mayans thousands of years ago correctly predicted the unique solar alignment of our Sun being positioned directly in the path of the dark rift (center) of the Milky Way which would occur on 12-21-2012. This event only occurs every 26,000 years. People believe that this a bad omen and significant change in the Earth and mankind.)

Yet, within the LOST mythology, there is growing evidence points that the passage of Time is completely different on the Island as compared to people situated off-Island.

Season 4, Daniel, a physicist, ordered Regina to fire a rocket from the freighter. A digital clock was planted inside the rocket as its payload. The payload arrived at Daniel's position 31 minutes after Regina said it reached the target. Daniel confirmed this by comparing the time on the clock inside the rocket with the time clock he had on the Island. After this episode, I calculated that the Island would be traveling approximately 93 miles per hour away from the anchored freighter at the time the rocket was launched toward it.

Also in Season 4, the helicopter appears to take two days to reach the freighter according to observers on the Island and freighter. However, when seen from the helicopter perspective off the Island, it only takes a matter of minutes to arrive.

Why is one stationary mass (Island) in the same relative location move differently than another mass (freighter or helicopter)?

Explanations of the inconsistencies led to more gray areas.

First, we were told that it was possible for conscious mind time travel. Daniel "taught" his lab rat the solution of the maze in the future, so Eloise could make the transverse during the first attempt in the present. Desmond had these mind flashes after he turned the fail safe key in the Hatch.

Second, in Season 5, people on the Island began physically skipping through time. According to Daniel Time is like a street. People can move forward on that street, they can move in reverse, but they can not ever create a new street. If they try to do anything different, they will fail every time. This began the concept of "whatever happened, happened" (WHH).

The problem with WHH is that at some point, the first time skip into the past will change the present by virtue of going back into the past. Example, when the 815ers were flashed back to 1974 Dharmaville, they could not have been there before (i.e. Kate was born in 1977). So the very presence of the 815ers in the past changes how the 1974 event time line would have unfolded without their presence.

How Time will be explained as a concept and in practice in the final story line may be one of those mysteries TPTB may sweep under the rug.