LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 73-76 (Days 91-94)
In these 4 episodes, we begin Season 4.
In The Beginning of the End, Ben’s prophecy to Jack at the radio tower, with their rescue is close at hand, the survivors don't know whether to believe Charlie’'s final message that the people on the boat are not who they claim to be.
In Confirmed Dead, The survivors begin to question the intentions of their supposed rescuers when four strangers arrive on the Island.
In The Economist, Locke’s hostage may be the key to getting off the Island so Sayid and Kate go in search of their fellow survivors in an attempt to negotiate a peaceful deal.
In Eggtown, possibly the worst episode of the series, Kate's need to get information from the hostage may jeopardize her standing with Locke—as well as with Sawyer.
Science:
The human ability to make mental images; to see “things” in one’s own mind has been called “the mind’s eye.”
The biological foundation of the mind's eye is not fully understood. MRI studies have shown that the areas of the visual cortex are activated during mental imagery tasks. Wikipedia notes:
The visual pathway is not a one-way street. Higher areas of the brain can also send visual input back to neurons in lower areas of the visual cortex. Humans have the ability to see with the mind's eye - to have a perceptual experience in the absence of visual input. For example, PET scans have shown that when subjects, seated in a room, imagine they are at their front door starting to walk either to the left or right, activation begins in the visual association cortex, the parietal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex - all higher cognitive processing centers of the brain.
The rudiments of a biological basis for the mind's eye is found in the deeper portions of the brain below the neocortex, or where the center of perception exists. The thalamus has been found to be discrete to other components in that it processes all forms of perceptional data relayed from both lower and higher components of the brain. Damage to this component can produce permanent perceptual damage, however when damage is inflicted upon the cerebral cortex, the brain adapts to neuroplasticity to amend any occlusions for perception. It can be thought that the neocortex is a sophisticated memory storage warehouse in which data received as an input from sensory systems are compartmentalized via the cerebral cortex. This would essentially allow for shapes to be identified, although given the lack of filtering input produced internally, one may as a consequence, hallucinate - essentially seeing something that isn't received as an input externally but rather internal (i.e. an error in the filtering of segmented sensory data from the cerebral cortex may result in one seeing, feeling, hearing or experiencing something that is inconsistent with reality).
Furthermore, the pineal gland is a hypothetical candidate for producing a mind's eye; researchers have postulated that during near death experiences and dreaming, the gland might secrete a hallucinogenic chemical (DMT) to produce internal visuals when external sensory data is occluded. However, this hypothesis has yet to be fully supported with neurochemical evidence and plausible mechanism for DMT production.
In a 2011 medical study, researchers found that coma patients had the ability to access a dream state. In patients with seriously altered states of consciousness, there is also the puzzle about dreaming. Do ‘vegetative’ patients or minimally conscious state patients experience normal sleep?
Electrophysiological studies have been no help so the hypothesis is if the vegetative state opens no conscious door onto the external world, the state of minimal consciousness for its part assumes a residual consciousness of the environment, certainly fluctuating but real.
It is this question of difference which has led a group of researchers to compare the sleep of these two types of brain damaged patients. They say the results demonstrate the necessity of an adapted and specific medical care for each of these states.
The researchers’ work rested on a sample of 11 subjects (6 in a state of minimal consciousness and 5 in a vegetative state) and made use of high density (256 electrodes) electroencephalography (EEG). The goal was to determine the structure of sleep within the two types of patient. Researchers used markers for arousal such as whether the subject had his/her eyes open and muscle tone, or whether the patient had closed eyes and muscle inactivity.
The high density EEG revealed that the brain’s electrical activity differed very little between sleep and wake states in patients in a vegetative state. On the other hand the sleep of patients in a minimally conscious state had characteristics very close to that of normal sleep in a healthy subject. They showed changes in “slow wave” activity in the front of the brain considered important for learning and neural plasticity. It also appeared that these patients produced NREM (non rapid eye movement) slow wave sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is the support for dream activity. Researchers concluded that those patients had access to dreaming and the potential maintenance of a residual consciousness in these patients.
Improbabilities:
The rocket experiment. Regina counts down the distance when she launches the rocket. It appears that she believes that in 8 seconds, the rocket should have reached Daniel’s location. Assuming the freighter was 40 km from the island, a rocket would have to travel 11,904 mph to cover that distance. No model rocket has a top speed of 250 mph. The fundamental principles of the experiment may be true, but the “factual” presentation has no merit. Since we do not know the rocket variables, we can only assume that in a direct line launch at known model rocket speeds, the 31.3 minute variation seen in the timers means that the island is moving “away” from the freighter at a speed from 52 to 93 miles per hour. No island on earth is moving at that speed.
The continuity issue with the sat phone being jammed by the tower and/or Looking Glass station while less powerful hand held walkie talkies work fine on the Island.
Clues:
In story titles:
The Beginning of the The End. The End was the finale, where the characters wind up in the after life church, dead souls. The beginning of Season 4 starts the final journey to the church which is a place of death.
Confirmed Dead again references the theorists that the characters are souls trapped in purgatory.
The Economist deals with a tangent flash forward that has Sayid working as Ben’s hit man. The word “economist” comes from the 16th century greek word for “household manager.” An economist deals with the relationship between supply and demand of any commodity, and how goods and services affect trade, wealth, power and exchange. It is possible that the world’s exchange principles go beyond the material world. There is ritual where people are buried with a coin in order to pay the ferryman to cross the River Styx in hell.
Eggtown was described by a commentator as a reference to depression era bartering where traveling merchants would go town to town to trade goods or services. It was said that Eggtowns were bad places to trade because who would want to trade for a perishable item like eggs. Eggtown can be a reference to a bad place (the off-island)
or a place where one makes deals with the devil (on-island).
The show’s signature lose up of an Eye. Symbolic of the Mind’s Eye.
When Locke demands to know what the smoke monster is, Ben replies “I don’t know.”
When Daniel Faraday is emotional when seeing the news footage of the 815 crash site,
his wife or caretaker asks him what is wrong. She calls him by his name, “Sam,” which infers a duality in person. Hurley also has a duality in his character name with Hugo.
Daniel’s observations about the light and his rocket experiment show that the Island is not on Earth; it does not have the same physics properties. Also, Daniel says the light “scatters” differently on the island. Recall, Desmond called the island a “bloody snow globe” that no one could escape.
There is a real time discrepancy in the show that begins to appear. Jack states that he has been on the island 100 days, when in fact he has only been on it 94.
Miles can talk to the dead because he is dead. Hurley can see ghost Charlie, and ghost Charlie can physically slap him, because they are both dead. Charlie, having died while being dead before the island, haunts the living dead (see unified theories of Lost below).
When Naomi is discussing the mission with Abaddon (whose name means Devil), Naomi remarks that the there were no survivors of Flight 815 which Abaddon confirms. But then she says what if some are still alive, but Abaddon cuts her off, as to say that the passengers could not have survived in the after life.
When Sayid is asked about Ben, he tells the group “the day I trust him is the day I sell my soul.” The concept of selling one’s soul to the devil is shown in the flash forward with Sayid being Ben’s personal assassin.
When a frustrated Locke cannot find Jacob or his cabin, and his leadership is being questioned, Ben digs him by saying that Locke is “now more lost than ever,” to get a reaction to which Ben remarks “you’re evolving.” Leaders are born to lead, they do not evolve. Evolution means a metaphysical transformation over time into a new being, such as a soul’s journey through the many layers of hell.
When Hurley is looking at tapes in the barracks, he asks Sawyer what he wants to see, Xanadu or Satan's Doom? Xanadu is a representation of a idyllic place of vast beauty and unattainable luxury. Satan’s Doom appears to be a fictional title, but possible foreshadowing of events to come.
When the freighter helicopter crew land on the island, their mission is to take down
Ben. They show Jack and Kate a photograph of Ben Linus. The key to that photograph
is that is an image of Ben from the Sideways World, when he was a school teacher!
Discussion:
“ Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. ”
— Michel de Montaigne
“ War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ”
— Thomas Mann
The massive amount of legal errors in the “Eggtown” episode was appalling, even by television standards. It led to only one conclusion: nothing is real. The off-island courtroom events were so off-base to be beyond fiction; no basis in reality. Basic plot points: Kate would be charged for murder in Iowa, a state crime, and tried in Iowa and not in a court in California. And the “plea” bargain would disbar a prosecutor: The DA offers a deal of time served plus 10 years of in-state probation. Kate agrees over her lawyer's objection, telling the DA to give her something to sign because she just wants the whole thing behind her. Kate adds that she isn't going anywhere because she has a son.
This episode was poorly written and badly executed by any standard.
Kate's court proceedings were not believable; totally wrong both factually and procedurally:
Kate was being tried in a California court. However, California has no jurisdiction over any of her crimes. Murder is a local, state prosecution. The murder of her step father took place in Iowa. To be tried for murder, she would have been in an Iowa courtroom. Her bank robbery took place in New Mexico. Any bank robbery charges would be tried in New Mexico. She would have to be tried in each state for each separate crime. Also, federal courts have no concurrent jurisdiction over state criminal actions. So the whole premise that Kate was being tried for all her charges in one California court proceeding is totally wrong, an impossibility in the American legal system.
U.S. Attorneys try federal cases. District Attorneys try state/local cases. The arson-murder-insurance fraud case would have had to been tried at the place of the crime, Iowa, not California. (An interesting side note: Iowa does not have the death penalty for such a crime; which would make a prosecutor less lenient in a plea deal.) Also, the plea deal has no bearing on child welfare services allowing a murder-arsonist take care of child.
Is it not possible that the trial was held in California as a result of a "change of venue" motion since criminal trials are held in the location of the crimes. California has no contacts to any of the crimes alleged at the trial. The whole trial procedure was factually wrong.
During the trial, the prosecution presents its case in chief first. When Jack was called to the stand as a defense character witness, that would have meant that the prosecution would have rested its case. But it did not; because afterward the prosecutor (the District Attorney) told the judge her key witness, Kate’s mother, was unable to testify (because she was being uncooperative). A witness' condition does not stop cold a witness from testifying. There have been cases where people with oxygen tanks go to court and testify before jurors. Even if Kate's mom was near death several times over, the prosecution would have video taped an evidence deposition at the very least prior to trial to preserve her testimony.
Not only the court procedure was wrong, the excuse that Kate’s mother is now uncooperative is irrelevant to the prosecution of a capital case. Kate’s mother was already well enough to go to the courthouse to meet with Kate! Prosecutors subpoena uncooperative witnesses every day to testify at trials. Under the rules of evidence, a prosecutor can impeach its own witness on prior inconsistent statements, or subject an uncooperative witness to perjury charges. Further, the investigators who conducted the interviews with Kate’s mother would still be able to testify on Kate’s conduct. So the whole concept that the prosecution’s case instantaneously unravels when Kate’s mother got cold feet is not believable.
No prosecutor would offer time served (less than 2 years since that is my guess on Aaron's age) and probation to a murder-arson-insurance fraud case. An elected District Attorney would be run out of office for being soft on crime if allowed such a deal. But again, this whole legal proceeding is a farce.
There is also another background legal issue which was botched in Eggtown. The custody of Aaron made no sense. If Kate was in prison pending trial, her "child" would have placed in the care of a guardian, the nearest living relative, or if none, state care in a foster home. If Kate was alone, then her mother would have had custody or access to her grandchild. In the show, Kate’s mother was forbidden to see Aaron.
In addition, it appears that Aaron stayed at home with a housekeeper. A housekeeper is a stranger, and has no custodial rights to a minor child.
Since that did not occur, the only conclusion is that the child, Aaron, remained with his "father" while Kate was in custody. Further, since parents control the upbringing of a child, in many states grandparents have no "visitation" rights This is why Kate's mother could not see Aaron without Kate or Aaron's "father's" permission. So to tie these matters up, Kate would have to be living with a man claiming to be Aaron's father.
However, we know later that is not true. Jack was not living with Kate because he did not want to be around Aaron, as a bitter reminder of the fact that they left their friends behind on the island.
So the whole premise of Kate’s trial resolution and guardianship of Aaron is totally out of the realm of reality even for television show writing. It taints the entire show’s credibility as a story of mystery and drama. Mysteries need facts and clues in order to lead the viewer/reader to the reveal: the solving of the mysteries.
So are there any other ideas that might make the Eggtown plot seem plausible? During the show’s initial run, one poster said maybe it was all a dream; Kate's fantasy about the best possible outcome if she left the island. Based upon the egregious errors in Eggtown, a dream or fantasy outcome is the only explanation.
Back to other matters. The survivors camp has now split into two, which in some ways mirrors the Others' evolution on the island. Locke makes an a clear observation when holding Charlotte. He tells her that his group does not want to be “found.” Before the survivors arrived on the island, they were “lost.” Once on the island, most wanted to be “found” or rescued to get off the island. But Ben has told several castaways that they have no “life” to go back to. Whether this is jab or the harsh reality of the character’s real existence, alive or dead, does not matter. The split between the beach campers into one for rescue and one for staying on the island probably mirrors the earliest of the “natives” on the island: MIB Romans who tried to fashion an escape from the island, to Jacob and his adoptive mother who wanted or needed to stay.
Daniel takes the opportunity to perform an experiment. He sets up a tripod with a homing beacon and a clock on it, then asks Frank for his phone so he can call Regina . Frank hands it over on the condition that he hang up if Minkowski answers. Daniel agrees and phones the freighter, getting Regina. He asks her to send a “payload” (a small rocket) to his beacon. Regina does so and begins counting down the arrival of the payload in rapid 5-kilometer-steps, starting with 40 km. But when she reaches zero approximately 29 seconds after launch, the rocket has not arrived. Regina claims that is "weird," while Daniel responds that it is "far more than weird." Some time later. to Daniel's surprise, the rocket finally arrives. Daniel compares the time on a digital clock from the rocket with the one from the tripod and sees that they are different by 31 minutes and 18 seconds. Concerned, he says to himself "Oh no, this is not good."
At the initial airing, I calculated that the Island was actually “moving” away from the freighter at a rate of 93 mph. I revisited the calculations based upon current model rocket information. Based upon current rocket speeds, a model rocket’s top speed is 250 mph. According to Regina’s countdown and assumed location, Daniel’s rocket was suppose to travel at more than 3,000 miles per hour to reach the island in less than 30 seconds. That is not plausible or feasible. So I took the freighter as a fixed point, and the island as a moving point in a straight line, made several assumptions including average rocket speed of 100 mph, to theorize that the island was moving away from the freighter at 57 mph.
And finally, a “war” is coming to the island. The freighter crew’s primary mission was to capture Ben. Ben is aware of the plot to seize him (in order to seize control of the island) because Ben has his own spy on the ship (Michael). Guilt is apparently a big motivator. A war is an armed conflict between two groups, usually over a territory. The plot states that the war is Widmore against Ben, in an attempt by Widmore to “reclaim” the natives (Others) that he once led when Ben was a teen. But why would an uber-successful, wealthy man like Widmore care about reclaiming the island? The island is a powerful nexus, a portal between dimensions in parallel realms.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
The Island is moving away from the freighter as shown by Daniel’s rocket experiment.
The helicopter leaving the island but not finding the freighter for more than a day.
Last lines in episodes:
EP 73:
PARACHUTIST (Daniel): Are you Jack?
[Jack and Kate look with apprehension.]
EP 74:
BEN: Because I have a man on their boat.
EP 75:
BEN: Good.
EP 76:
KATE: Hi, Aaron.
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
There are two ways to view Lost with the current evidence at hand. Both unified theories have a premise that the characters have concurrent duality within the story arcs. For those who believe that the characters are “alive” on Earth, then the cumulative evidence points to a layered dream state.
The Unified Theory of Lost - - - Dream State
I re-read the comments from the episode on the community blog I was part of during the original show run. Eggtown was so horribly factual incorrect that one commentator had to admit that the only explanation it could not be real events; that it was all Kate’s dream scenario where she gets out of her troubles.
TPTB never disclosed the Big Premise of the show, because it is pretty clear to most viewers that they had no unified structure to the show except generalizations such as plane wreck, mysterious island, and rapid fire “shock” events to their characters.
So fans have been trying to put together the story puzzle pieces together so the entire series has a cohesive explanation. And after re-writing the old materials and re-watching the series on G4, I have come to a new Unified Theory of Lost which incorporates all the main elements of the story into a workable Big Premise.
One of the absolutes in the show is the sideways world. In The End, we are told that this sideways realm was a purgatory, or an after life existence, where souls “waited” for everyone else to “be awakened” in order to “move on.”
Sideways World = after life
Characters are functioning in a dream state waiting for their memories of the island
to return so they awaken so they can move on in the after life.
The key element of the sideways mechanics is that the souls are “waiting” to be “awakened.” That means the “real” human being is not awake in some other place of existence. This leads us to the sleeping man; when some one in real life is at a state of rest, they are asleep - - - in an out of dream states. When someone wakes up, the sleep dream state (REM) is broken. So our characters have to be existing at some level in
some sort of dream state.
Add the show’s signature element, the close up of a human eye. An open eye has been the symbol or metaphor for a gateway into the mind. Further, the Mind’s Eye is stated as the human subconscious. As we have discussed in earlier reboot commentaries, there is a possibility that some or all of the characters could be institutionalized for mental conditions or serious injuries (such as Claire’s mother in a car crash). In turn, these same characters could be in a coma state. Caretakers of coma patients desire for them to “wake up” out of their comas at some point in recovery time.
So between the sideways world and the island world there lies character(s) in a coma state. These characters could be a series of human experimentation like the military did to soldiers with LSD in the 1960s. Fragments of those type of mind-altering, institutional clips are found with Karl in Room 23 or the Dharma stations.
As stated above in the science section, patients in a coma state have the ability to dream. We can place that as the foundation for the premise.
Island World = dream world of coma patient(s)
Since a coma patient is not conscious of their real world situation, the dream state becomes his or her true “reality.” The island world as a complex dream state would explain of the supernatural elements of the story. Why there are monsters, immortal beings, and the lack of moral consequences for people’s actions.
But that coma dream state does not explain everything about the Lost mythology.
The off-island world (flash back and flash forwards) is supposed to be the true past of each character. However, in a disjointed way, there are many continuity errors to really believe everyone’s back stories are true. So what could explain the difference, a sub-set of an island dream land?
Psychologists and mental therapists describe how the human mind works as the left-brain and right-brain. The left brain is our logical mind - the one that says: "Don't touch the stove; you'll get burned," "I have to go to work today," or "Pick up the dry cleaning." The right brain is the creative mind - the subconscious mind and the place where the inner child resides. Our subconscious mind has a 10 year-old mentality. It stops growing by the age of 10, and that is why our dreams can be strange and symbolic. It is so the subconscious brain (the inner child) can understand and process.
And here is where the Eggtown gross legal errors and resolution shed light on the off-world existence: it is how a 10 year old would view the complex legal system. It is a subconscious fairy tale opened by the mind’s eye to fed images, symbols and fears into a person’s dream state.
Off island world (flash back/flash forward) = subconscious mind of coma patient(s).
So the Dream State Unified Theory of Lost is:
In discussing “the church” from the ending episode in this blog in 2010, I remarked:
The church. In "The End," Christian specifically told Jack that "this place" was created by all his friends so they could find each again in the afterlife. Christian also told Jack that this special place "they all created" was real, and the things that happened to him was also "real." Everyone takes away from this finale sideways twist that the Lost Souls met up in a form of purgatory, or an anteroom world prior to making the final journey to heaven.
Except, we forgot about the church! Eloise Hawking operated the Lamp Post out of the same sideways world church! As lostpedia describes it "Jack meets Christian in the back of Eloise's Church in Los Angeles. Together, the two join the rest of their friends in journeying on to the white light."
If the church was a sideways world creation by the departed, then one could rationally deduct that the church in the O6, off-island story line (the Lamp Post) was also a sideways world creation, too. And that makes perfect sense, as the nonsensical, inaccurate, hard to believe events in the sideways world (Jin & Sun English awakening) mirror the inaccurate, hard to believe events in the O6 world (Kate's trial errors). None of those events were really "real" in the sense of the character's original life times.
All the characters who came to the church had NO REAL lives. That is why their memories of their collective, networked dream of the island was the most “important” part of their comatose lives. In other posts in this blog, there is a theory that based on bits of information in each character’s past memories, all of them could have had significant injuries to be in a vegetative state.
It was said that only Jacob brought the characters to the Island. It was a test that Jacob and his assistant, his brother MIB, devised to observe human behavior. What better way to observe the subconscious mind then network comatose patients together (which literally plays off the video game elements of the story actions). The human brain is the most complex computer and hard drive known in the universe. It electro-chemically stores vast amounts of commands and information. It is not unreasonable in a science-fiction setting to “wire” or network brains together. A place where the dream and subconscious states of a group of 70 vegetative people could roam free would be something that certain elements of society would find appealing, especially if it is the parents of comatose children (which plays into the parental issues throughout the series; a comatose child may not understand why his or her parent is not “with” them in their reality).
Jacob can be a symbolic representation of the lead medical researcher, the network administrator, who hooks up coma patients into his group neuron-network. (In a certain fashion, conscious humans are doing the same thing with the interconnectivity of the Internet). And what happens when someone “dies” or “leaves” the island? The patient is unhooked from the network either by awakening or dying in real life, or re-connected later on like Michael “returning” on the freighter.
It also gives some explanation to the juvenile behavior/writing of certain episodes, like Eggtown. If the subconscious mind is that of a 10 year old child, then the critical factual errors in Eggtown are explained as being the logic of an ill-informed 10 year old.
The Dream State Unified Theory does have one final aspect to make it functional. As the coma patients are in their fantasy worlds, they are created new strong bonds and memories of their new friends and loved ones. As with all major religions, people’s souls after death will “reunite” with their loved ones in heaven. In order to bridge the existence from earth to the spiritual world, souls carry with them their thoughts, memories and connections. The sideways world provides a “re-connection” of those memory bonds by the characters souls until all of them awaken to move on in the after life.
And this does explain The Aaron Problem. The much debated Aaron problem was the major issue of Aaron being “born” on the island, but then being “born” in the after life. It was logically inconsistent for a child to be born in the real life setting of the island, and then born again in the after life. If we presume that Claire was pregnant when she was in her accident that led to her coma state, then one could assume that her unborn child is in the same state of existence, feeding off Claire’s own memories and dreams. But in reality, Aaron was still born. His birth in the after life is his soul reconnecting with his mother’s.
It is ironic that the worst episode of the series, “Eggtown,” brought about the most complete theories about the premises of the entire series.
The Unified Theory of Lost -- Egyptian After Life.
However, more factors point to the living dead type Big Premise to the show. We will learn that the Temple where the Others fled to is an ancient Egyptian construct. We will further learn that Jacob resides in the foot of the Tawaret statue, an ancient Egyptian god of fertility and the underworld.
Every ancient Egyptian had concerns about the After Life and the Beyond. Although, the gods and goddesses demanded mollification while Egyptians are alive, once they died, some gods became beneficent protectors and provided for the dead during their journey through the after life.
Death was not seen as the last stage of life, but as a stage of life to which a person was at rest waiting for revivification. For those more fortunate to live comfortably, they were able to avoid funerary objects, mummification, and entombment, which is what l us how dangerous they felt the Afterlife could be.
Inscriptions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Book of the Two Ways, and the Amduat, were found around the body.
The dead needed protection as they progressed from the Other World to the Hall of Judgment.
The dead travel on the solar barge (here, symbolic of Flight 815, an airplane), that the sun god, Ra, created as a way to achieve eternal life.
A priest performed the 'Opening of the Mouth' ceremony over the mummified body in order to restore all of the senses to the body. Here, Lost has used the “opening of the eye” to symbolically symbol restoration of senses in the island existence.
All of the other senses were restored immediately, as well, because the first step after death was to the Field of Reeds- the land of wish fulfillment. The Lost island is such a place. For example, Locke’s wish to be able to walk again, to be an Outback hunter, were granted by the island. The deceased had to pass through 7 difference gates which is aided by the magical spells inscribed on the tomb around the deceased person. We will later see the temple, with its Egyptian hieroglyphs of spells, was the last sanctuary on the island.
The dead would have to stand in front of Osiris and face judgment, in a 'weighing the heart' ceremony, which is why the heart is remained intact and the other organs are placed in canopic jars. In the final arc, Jack has to face MIB in human form, to sacrifice himself so his remaining friends have an chance to escape the island (the place of death). Jack’s heart is heavy with regret and pain, especially when he tells Kate to leave him for the last time.
While justifying himself, the deceased would face all 42 gods and heart would be weighed against a feather. If the heart does not balance perfectly, Amemat would devour it and Set would eat the rest of the body. A person and his soul would be “permanently” dead with no chance of revival in the next stage of the after life. This is probably what Abaddon was telling Naomi about the survivors, the souls from Flight 815, not being “alive” when she arrived on the island, for they would have succumbed to the trials of the after life (and Smokey’s judgment, such as Mr. Eko refusing to seek forgiveness for his actions just before Smokey killed him).
In ancient Egyptian death rites, there is a clear duality. A person’s life is split at death into at least two parts, the Ka and the Ba being the most important elements. The Island itself has been called the place of the “life force.” We know that the sideways world is part of the after life.
In Egyptian mythology, the Ka is the double of the human being. It is very similar to the concept of the astral body. One big difference is that the Ka can separate or rejoin the body as it wishes. The Ka, in a sense a spirit, is also able to live with the Gods in heaven (which in our view is the sideways world) The Ka was the life force that was created at birth and released at death; The Ba was like the soul. In order to live forever, the Ba and the Ka had to be reunited with the body after death.
The Ba that comes into existence after death is corporeal, eating, drinking and copulating so a deceased person may not “believe” they are dead because they continue to exist like that had done in their past life. The Ba is not part of the person but is the person himself, with his or her own memories, character traits, emotions and desires. The Ba existence is the island world.
In The Book of the Dead, the collection of spells which aided a person in the afterlife, had the Egyptian name of the Book of going forth by day. They helped people avoid the perils of the afterlife and also aided their existence, containing spells to assure "not dying a second time in the underworld", and to "grant memory always" to a person. In Egyptian mythology, it is possible that a person can “die” in the after life. The journey through the underworld was told to be hazardous, so it was possible to die in the afterlife and this “second” death was permanent.
The most power information that the Lost series takes place in the alternative dimension of death is connecting the dots from the End to the Beginning. The End clearly references the after life in the Church. When Christian tells Jack everything he experienced was “real,” he meant not in humanity but in his second life as a dual soul. The Beginning clearly references a place of death, as the Flight 815 plane crashes to Earth. But it may be more a symbolic representation of death that the actual cause(s) of death. For the split of an ancient Egyptian’s life into two spirits, one remains in a physical human state, almost unaware that it is dead per se, “living” a life no unfamiliar to its past life, going through various “tests” in the underworld. The person’s intellect is somewhere else (the sideways world) waiting to be re-united with its body (the “awakening”) to become whole again (the “Akh”). The intellectual part of the characters always resided in the sideways world. The human-emotional part of the characters always resided in the island world.
The Widmore freighter crew mission to kill Ben came with the photograph of Ben, clearly taken in the sideways world. This evidence of cross-over is important in trying to make sense of the two polar opposite realms. In the sideways after life, Ben is a school teacher. In fact, most of the characters have some intellectual pursuit more so than the more primal, emotional and physical existence on the island realm. The people on the island have no conscious understanding of the sideways world. Ben’s photograph is a direct connection between souls in the sideways world and their counterpart spirits in the island world.
In a way, the initial journey of the dead souls through the underworld is the “most important thing” in their spiritual journey through the afterlife. It echoes what Christian told Jack in the church in The End. The people Jack journeyed through the island passage were the “most important people” in his afterlife.
The Akh, which meaning “(magically) effective one'”) was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief.
It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The Akh also played a role in the afterlife. Following death, the Ba and Ka were reunited to reanimate the Akh. The reanimation of the Akh was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed: “to make (a dead person) into an (living) akh.” In this sense, the ritual texts explain that souls turn into a sort of ghost or roaming 'dead being' (when the tomb was not in order any more) during this period. An Akh could do either harm or good to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, causing e.g., nightmares, feelings of guilt, sickness, etc. It could be evoked by prayers or written letters left in the tomb's offering chapel also in order to help living family members, e.g., by intervening in disputes, by making an appeal to other dead persons or deities with any authority to influence things on earth for the better, but also to inflict punishments.
There are a few characters who have reached the Akh state, that they “know” about their existence and the ramifications of the ba and ka reuniting in the after life. Eloise is the prime example of a character who “knows” what has happened or what could happen when the ba and ka reunite (which would awaken her son Daniel in the sideways world - - a situation where he would leave her forever). Desmond reaches the Akh state in the sideways world, and sets off a course of conduct to “awaken” his friends from the island.
The freighter mission was coordinated by Mr. Abaddon. Abaddon (in the Bible) is a name for the Devil or for hell. The word’s origin is Greek for “destruction” and its use for “hell” rose in the late 17th Century. We have character references to messengers of an underworld existence guiding our lost soul characters on and off the island.
So the Egyptian After Life Unified Theory of Lost is:
