THE JOURNEY

Like a true television serial, LOST is in itself a journey.
From the beginning, gut level assumptions were made as the story unfolded in the jungles of the mysterious island. A summary of the progression of personal theories of LOST follows:

1. PURGATORY

While watching the pilot, my first reaction was that the plane broke a part at altitude: there would be no survivors. So the show had to be about purgatory, with most of the characters
unaware of their plight, thinking that they had survived the crash. The themes of good-evil, character tests and personal redemption are strong plot lines.

Yes, I am aware that TPTB have dismissed purgatory as a premise for the show, but they also said in Season 1 interview that there was no time travel in the show.

2. INTERACTIVE DREAM

If purgatory was dismissed, what would be the other possible explanation for the characters sensing they crashed on a tropical island? The concept of powerful electromagnetic energy, and clues from what the passengers had on the plane (Hurley's polar bear comic book and Walt's game) lead me to theorize that tired passengers fall asleep during the long flight, and the turbulence and EM caused the sleepers to connect brain wave activity into a form of a
networked interactive game.

Other theorists have proposed that LOST itself is one, long interactive game where the characters are not people but game avatars.

3. DUPLICATES IN ALT DIMENSION

Another prospect of the mysterious EM powers: the plane travels through a high energy electromagnetic field and like an office copy machine, scans everyone to create copies in an alternative universe. Since the duplicates retain all their memories and personality traits, they believe themselves to be their original selves. The show is about duplicates or twins in a different realm, but may or may not have a continual connection with their original selves (causing mental issues).

4. ALIEN EXPERIMENT

Under the file folder that nothing is ever really new, was the prospect that the passengers were taken off the doomed plane and transported to an island (ship) for aliens to run experiments on humans ( i.e. Star Trek episode The Cage.) The various stations or hatches were mere experiments or puzzles constructed to see how humans could adapt, solve problems or crack under the pressure.

5. MENTAL INSTITUTION

The first cast member hired by TPTB was Hurley. It seems like an odd choice, but he always appears to be around the center of action. Hurley believes that he has been cursed by the Numbers, that he has imaginary friends, and that he can interact with dead people. Coupled with the factors that most of the cast has criminal behavior, daddy issues, alcohol, drug and psychotic problems, the fact that the island is a free form Mental Institution, a Santa Rosa
Club Med for the criminally insane, could explain a lot of the story line. Many believe that it would be a disappointing finale if this was merely one large Hurley mental meltdown.

6. EGYPTIAN PORTAL

One of the great mysteries of mankind is how the ancient civilizations, including the Egyptians, built the pyramids. Even with modern engineering equipment, we cannot build those grand buildings in the same time frame of their original construction.

If the Egyptians were an advanced technological society, they would have used any and all technology to get closer to their gods, or to guarantee their pharoahs place in the heavens.

In order to do so, ancient Egyptians built a temple for the specific purpose of opening a gateway into the Egyptian underworld. The island is that portal and the frozen donkey wheel the door.

7. NEXUS BUFFER THEORY

The island is the dimensional space between heaven and hell. The island Others are demons who cannot reproduce or create life in hell. Ben's manic desire for women to have children on the island by capturing Juliet was his solution to create his own army of demons who along with Satan would attempt to recapture Heaven for themselves. Angels have been summoned to stop the War before it begins, and the souls of the 815ers have been caught in the middle of this pending epic struggle.

As one can tell, I am in the minority camp that the LOST characters are Dead, and the hidden Big Picture is their conflicts in the underworld.