LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 97-100 (Days ????- - ????)
Ben awakens to find Flocke sitting over him. Ben exhibits surprise that Locke is alive, but tells Locke that he expected his resurrection. He also tells Flocke that he broke the rules and has to face the consequences, which will result in being judged by the Smoke Monster. Ben then travels out to the beach, where several survivors, including Bram and Ilana, are trying to transport a crate filled with what they call necessary supplies. Ben speaks to Caesar about Locke, telling him that he doesn't believe that Locke was on the plane. Ben feigns ignorance when Caesar informs him that Locke believes that Ben killed him, saying that Locke is insane and dangerous. To atone for sins of the past, Ben must attempt to summon the Smoke Monster in order to be judged
A reluctant Miles is forced to work with Hurley when he's asked to deliver an important package to a top DHARMA official. Meanwhile, suspicions about a possible security breach intensify after young Ben is taken from the infirmary.
Kate and Sawyer return from delivering boy Ben to Alpert, and Sawyer contacts Miles to have erase the surveillance tape. Kate is worried that Sawyer could get in trouble, but he's confident he can smooth things over. Miles pops out the tape, but before he can erase it, Horace arrives with a package, asking him where is LaFleur. Miles tells him that he's tried to contact LaFleur on the radio, but he's out of contact. Horace gives Miles the package to bring to Radzinsky and asks him to get a package in return, "no questions asked". Horace tells Miles that he's letting him in the circle of trust.
Miles drives to the location Horace specified, and delivers the package, which turns out to be a body bag. Radzinsky puts a body in it, and tells him to transport it back to Horace. Miles, curious as to why a person who apparently fell in a ditch had a head wound, unzips the body bag and uses his speaking to the dead ability to find out what really happened. He learns that the dead man, Alvarez, had a filling which ripped from his mouth and exited through his brain.
Horace, after a consultation with Chang, tells Miles to bring the body to the Orchid so it can be determined if the accident was caused by the unique electromagnetism. Miles walks back to his van to complete the assignment, but finds Hurley loading coolers filled with sandwiches for the Orchid construction team into the vehicle. After he insists they carpool, they set off, only to have Hurley notice an unpleasant odor of Miles “package.” Miles jokes that it is probably Hurley's special garlic mayonnaise, but Hurley is concerned that his food might be contaminated. Hurley investigates and discovers the body. Confronted, Miles tells him what really happened to the body. To Miles' bewilderment, Hurley completely accepts his story, noting he also talks with the dead, and sometimes plays chess with dead people. Miles says that isn't how it works, at which point Hurley responds that Miles admitted to his ability. Miles explains that he is able to get a "feeling" about who the deceased was and whatever they knew before they died.
The time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the Island. He demands to be taken to Jack's house. Miles complies. Once at Jack's house, Daniel frantically questions him on how he returned to the Island. Jack mentions a plane, and says that Daniel's mother, Eloise, persuaded him to get on the plane. Daniel asks Jack if Eloise spoke about destiny, to which Jack says yes. Daniel tells Jack that his mother was wrong, and that Jack does not belong there; whether meaning on the Island at all, or in the DHARMA.
Daniel explains that it is necessary to begin evacuating the Island, as the EM energy unleashed by DHARMA construction work has caused injuries. When Chang responds skeptically and insists that the energy has been contained, they board the Orchid elevator to the surface and Daniel explains that in six hours, a catastrophic accident will occur at the Swan site. Chang demands to know why Daniel considers himself qualified to make such a prediction, and Daniel reveals that he has arrived "from the future."
Daniel later explains to Jack and Kate that the installation they know as The Hatch will be built as a precautionary measure to contain this energy and prevent future incidents. Over the next 20 years, he explains, it will be necessary for DHARMA to keep this energy at bay by pressing a button; ultimately, Desmond’s failure to do so will cause Flight 815 to crash on the island. Daniel tells Jack and Kate that his studies of relativistic physics have revealed the relationship between the "constants” in this equation and the "variables." The variables, he says, are people—specifically, their choices and free will may allow them to change their destiny. Daniel then reveals his intention to set things right by detonating a hydrogen bomb in an attempt to negate the catastrophic energy release, thereby preventing the events that led to Oceanic 815's crash.
Flocke further solidifies his stance as leader of The Others, though Alpert and Ben are worried about his true intentions.
Jack and Kate discuss their options while hiding near the Others camp. Suddenly, a gunshot is heard, and they watch Daniel collapse to the ground. As they are about to run away, two men charge them on galloping horses. One of them knocks out Jack with his rifle's butt, and the other one aims a rifle at Kate.
In the Hostiles camp, Eloise thumbs through the pages of Daniel's journal and looks at Daniel's corpse on the ground in front of her. She reaches the first page, and is confused by the dedication in it, which she appears to recognize as her own handwriting. Widmore and a man arrive, holding Jack and Kate captive. Alpert explains the situation to Widmore. Eloise asks Jack and Kate if they've come with Daniel, to which Jack replies "Yes." She orders that they be taken to her tent. Widmore inquires why DHARMA would declare war on them, but Eloise tells him that the three intruders are not DHARMA people.
In the tent, Jack reveals to Kate that he means to reset their lives, having the plane never crash and avoiding all the misery that's happened since.
Kate adamantly states that it was not all misery, but does not tell Jack her true feelings. He responds that enough of it was. After entering the tent, Eloise assures Jack and Kate that she will believe whatever they say because she has just killed a man who claims to be her future son, the same man who told her to bury the bomb 23 years earlier before disappearing. Jack tells Ellie that by using the bomb, they can alter the future, and undo what Ellie did to her future son.
Science:
Variables. Defined:
adjective
1 not consistent or having a fixed pattern; liable to change: the quality of hospital food is highly variable | awards can be for variable amounts.
• (of a wind) tending to change direction.
• Mathematics (of a quantity) able to assume different numerical values.
• Botany & Zoology (of a species) liable to deviate from the typical color or form, or to occur in different colors or forms.
2 able to be changed or adapted: the drill has variable speed.
• (of a gear) designed to give varying ratios or speeds.
noun
an element, feature, or factor that is liable to vary or change: there are too many variables involved to make any meaningful predictions.
• Mathematics a quantity that during a calculation is assumed to vary or be capable of varying in value.
• Computing a data item that may take on more than one value during the runtime of a program.
• Astronomy short for variable star.
• (variables) the region of light, variable winds to the north of the northeast trade winds or (in the southern hemisphere) between the southeast trade winds and the westerlies.
Daniel’s equation of people’s choices changing future events.
Daniel states his studies of relativistic physics have revealed the relationship between the "constants” in this equation and the "variables." The variables, he says, are people—specifically, their choices and free will may allow them to change their destiny. However, his statements do not correspond to Einstein’s theories of relativity.
Daniel stated that time is like a string: you can go back and forth along it, but you cannot change the events. What has happened, happened. As Eloise told Desmond in the clock shop, the universe “course corrects” to make sure events (such as death) occur so the time line remains the same (automatic paradox correction).
Daniel’s time equation could be represented like this:
Space Time (Events) = Past + Present - Future
Past = People + Experiences (Memories)
Present = People + Knowledge (of the Past)
Future = People + Application (of Knowledge)
So the equation can be rewritten as:
Space Time (Events) = (People + Memories) + (People + Knowledge) - (People + Application of Knowledge).
If People are the same (constant value 1):
Space Time Events = Memories + Knowledge - Action (Application of Knowledge).
If People are not the same (variables x,y z):
Space Time Events = XMemories + YKnowledge - ZAction
If the People is actually a Person represented by Daniel himself (and his friends):
If you change X’s memories to create Y’s knowledge to re-direct Z’s future action,
that is what Daniel thinks what will happen if he counteracts the Swan drilling incident
by destroying the island with the hydrogen bomb.
Improbabilities:
Young Ellie understanding that she has killed her future son, so she will help Jack and Kate (non-scientists) to correct the future.
The death of Daniel in 1977 does not erase his existence in 2007, thus creating a paradox.
Clues:
Dead is Dead: Ben is physically accosted by Dead Alex in the Temple. Only the dead can manhandle other dead beings.
Dead is Really Dead: Ben tells Sun that “dead is dead” on the island, and he had seen the island heal, but never bring back the dead like Locke.
“Hello, Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living.” It is really a taunt from Flocke to Ben, that the island is not the land of the living, since Locke is dead.
Some Like It Hoth. A take off on movie title, Some LIke It Hot, 1959 comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. In the movie, the two main characters must disguise themselves as members of an all-girl band to avoid retribution after witnessing a mob assassination. but Hoth may be represented of the Egyptian god, Thoth. Or, in Hurley’s mind, the Rebel Alliance base on a distant uninhabited planet which would be destroyed by Darth Vader’s forces. If all of this is in Hurley’s mind, as a Star Wars fan, this would be another clue to the big premise.
Follow the Leader. A child’s game, but in that episode the game is deadly, as Flocke tells Ben the reason he is taking everyone to see Jacob - - - is to kill him.
Sawyer tells Kate when he helps her get young Ben to the Hostiles, “I did it for her (Juliet).” He states that he has “grown up a lot” in the three years in the time shift. Which parallels modern day progression: gamer children at some point need to grow up - - - stop the game worlds and go on to real life.
Discussion:
“ Memory presents to us not what we choose but what it pleases. ”
— Michel de Montaigne
“ Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past. ”
— George Orwell
We come to the intersection of conflicting explanations of the Lost mythology. We have the collision of the time travel arc and the 815 Swan incident crash causation events.
The Miles Time Travel Explanation:
MILES: What the hell are you doing, Tubby?
HURLEY: Checking to see if I'm disappearing.
MILES: What?
HURLEY: "Back to the Future", man. We came back in time to the island and changed stuff. So if little Ben dies, he'll never grow up to be big Ben, who's the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can't be here. And therefore, dude? We don't exist.
MILES: You're an idiot. [Takes a seat at the table]
HURLEY: Am I?
MILES: Yeah. It doesn't work like that. You can't change anything. Your maniac Iraqi buddy shot Linus. That is what always happened. It's just...we never experienced how it all turns out.
[Hurley looks at Jack, confused.]
HURLEY: This is really confusing.
MILES: Yeah, well, get used to it. But the good news is that Linus didn't die, so that means the kid can't either. He'll be fine.
KATE: Didn't look like he was gonna be fine. What if you're wrong?
MILES: Well, if I'm wrong, then I guess we all stop existing, and none of it matters anyway then, does it? ****
KATE: He's just a boy, Jack. You can't just let him die.
JACK: You heard Miles. We can't change what's already happened. This has nothing to do with me.
KATE: Unless you're the one who's supposed to save him.
JACK: 30 years from now, that boy's gonna be a man...that locks me in a cage because he needs surgery. And then you're gonna come in and you're gonna beg me to operate on him because he's threatening to murder Sawyer. I've already done this once. [scoffs] I've already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you, Kate. I don't need to do it again. [Goes back to the food.]
KATE: This is our fault. We brought Sayid back. We caused this.
JACK: You know, when we were here before, I spent all of my time trying to fix things. But...did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix things itself? And maybe I was just...getting' in the way? ***
HURLEY: Let me get this straight.
[Miles is pacing.]
HURLEY: All this already happened.
MILES: Yes.
HURLEY: So this conversation we're having right now...we already had it.
MILES: [Claps his hands] Yes!
HURLEY: Then what am I gonna say next?
MILES: I don't know. [Shakes his head.]
HURLEY: Ha! Then your theory is wrong!
MILES: For the thousandth time, you dingbat, the conversation already happened, but not for you and me. For you and me, it's happening right now.
HURLEY: Okay, answer me this. If all this already happened to me, then...why don't I remember any of it?
MILES: Because once Ben turned that wheel, time isn't a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now.
[Hurley's face tightens in confusion as he thinks, Miles stares at him.]
HURLEY: Say that again.
MILES: [Pauses in exasperation and pulls out his gun and holds it out for Hurley to take.] Shoot me. Please. Please!
HURLEY: Aha! I can't shoot you. Because if you die in 1977, then you'll never come back to the island on the freighter 30 years from now.
MILES: I can die because I've already come to the island on the freighter. Any of us can die because this is our present.
HURLEY: But you said Ben couldn't die because he still has to grow up and become the leader of the Others.
MILES: Because this is his past.
HURLEY: But when we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn't he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?
[Miles blinks and looks around. Hurley raises his eyebrow.]
MILES: Huh. I hadn't thought of that.
HURLEY: Huh. [Crossing his arms.]
Faraday’s Time Travel Explanation:
FARADAY: How did you get back to the Island?
JACK: Where have you been?
FARADAY: I was--I was just at DHARMA headquarters in Ann Arbor. I was doing some research. What's more important right now... how did you get back here to 1977?
JACK: [Sighs] What's going on?
MILES: Don't look at me. I just carried his luggage.
FARADAY: Jack, how?
JACK: Uh... we were on a plane, and then--
FARADAY: Who told you to get on a plane?
JACK: As a matter of fact, Dan, it was your mother.
FARADAY: [Sighs] And how did she convince you, Jack? Did she tell you it was your destiny?
JACK: Yeah. That's exactly what she said.
FARADAY: Well, I got some bad news for you, Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong. *****
FARADAY: It's contained down here. But in about six hours, the same thing is gonna happen at the site for the Swan station, only the energy there is about 30,000 times more powerful, sir. And the accident... it's gonna be catastrophic.
DR. CHANG: That is utterly absurd. What could possibly qualify you to make that kind of prediction? Hmm?
FARADAY: I'm from the future. ****
FARADAY: It's this plane crash. I don't know why it's bothering me so much. [Whispers] it's just so sad. They're dead.
WIDMORE: Daniel, what if I told you... they're not dead? What if I told you the plane was a fake? An elaborate... [scoffs] expensive fake.
FARADAY: [Sighs] How would you know that?
WIDMORE: Because I put it there.
FARADAY: Well... why would you tell me that?
WIDMORE: Because come tomorrow, you won't remember I did. Daniel, the real Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on an island--a special island with unique scientific properties. I want to send you to the Island. It will further your research, show you things you'd never dream of. But more importantly, it will heal you, Daniel--your mind, your memory.
FARADAY: H--heal me? W--why are you doing all this for me?
WIDMORE: Because you're a man of tremendous gifts, and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.
FARADAY: [Chuckles] You sound like my mother.
WIDMORE: [Chuckles] That's because we're old friends. ****
JACK: You need a gun to go talk to your mother, Dan?
FARADAY: You don't know my mother, Jack.
[Drops bag.]
JACK: You ready to tell me why she was wrong? Why we don't belong here?
[Kate moves closer.]
FARADAY: In about four hours, the DHARMA folks at the swan work site--they're gonna--gonna drill into the ground and accidentally tap into a massive pocket of energy. The result of the release of this energy would be catastrophic. So in order to contain it, they're gonna have to cement the entire area in, like Chernobyl. And this containment--the place they built over it--I believe you called it "the Hatch." The Swan hatch? Because of this one accident, these people are gonna spend the next 20 years keeping that energy at bay... by pressing a button... a button that your friend Desmond will one day fail to push, and that will cause your plane--Oceanic 815--to crash on this Island. And because your plane crashed, a freighter will be sent to this Island--a freighter I was on and Charlotte was on and so forth. This entire chain of events--it's gonna start happening this afternoon. But... we can change that. I studied relativistic physics my entire life. One thing emerged over and over--can't change the past. Can't do it. Whatever happened, happened. All right? But then I finally realized... I had been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables. Do you know what the variables in these equations are, Jack?
JACK: [Chuckles] No.
FARADAY: Us. We're the variables. People. We think. We reason. We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny. I think I can negate that energy under the Swan. I think I can destroy it. If I can, then that hatch will never be built, and your plane... your plane will land, just like it's supposed to, in Los Angeles.
KATE: And just how exactly do you plan on destroying this energy?
FARADAY: I'm gonna detonate a hydrogen bomb.
Eloise’s Time Travel Solution:
MS. HAWKING: Your daughter's in there. Why don't you go in and say hello?
WIDMORE: Unfortunately, Eloise, my relationship with Penelope is one of the things I had to sacrifice.
MS. HAWKING: Sacrifice? Don't you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles. I had to send my son back to the Island, knowing full well that--
WIDMORE: He was my son, too, Eloise.
[Eloise slaps Widmore. She gets in the taxi and it leaves.]
FARADAY: It doesn't matter. I need you to take me to Eloise.
RICHARD: I--I already told you she's not here. Let's just take it easy.
FARADAY: Where's the bomb, Richard? The hydrogen bomb that I told you people to bury--where is it?
RICHARD: Listen to me. Lower your gun, and we'll talk. Okay? Nobody has to get hurt here. Just put the gun down.
FARADAY: I'm gonna give you three seconds. One...
RICHARD: Don't do this.
FARADAY: Two...
[A rifle reports. Daniel looks down to see blood oozing from his midsection. He grunts faintly and then slumps to the ground with a thud. Behind him, a blonde woman holds a smoking rifle aimed at him.]
RICHARD: Why did you do that?
ELOISE: He had a gun on you.
RICHARD: He wasn't gonna shoot me, Eloise.
FARADAY: Eloise. [Gasping] You knew. You always knew. [Panting] You knew this was gonna happen. You sent me here anyway.
ELOISE: Who are you?
FARADAY: I... I'm your son. [Gasps]
[Eloise stares at him with shock. Daniel's eyes go still.]
We have the full revelation that Eloise Hawking is the woman behind the curtain.
She is the mastermind behind getting the 815ers “back” to the Island. She is the person who pushed her son, Daniel, into the complex physics of time travel. She convinced Widmore, her ex-husband, to fund the research and expedition back to the Island. She cajoled people to get back to the island to “save the world” or to complete their destiny. Was Jack’s destiny to replace her insane son’s plan to blow up the Swan station before the Incident (which, in theory would have killed Eloise before giving birth to him) in order to re-boot the time line of events where Daniel does not die by Eloise’s hand in 1977? It seems quite convoluted and complex.
Daniel’s Rube Goldberg trap explanation of how is is going to change the future by blowing up the past with members of the future at the event in the past fails to consider Ben’s terse statement “dead is dead” on the island. Daniel believes he can “fix things” and save Charlotte by stopping the Swan incident (massive EM release which would later be contained by the Hatch) by blowing up the pocket of energy with a hydrogen bomb. A bomb that would destroy the island and kill everyone on it - - - including himself, his mother and all the people who should have been on Flight 815. If the characters were truly “time traveling” in space time, they would only have one “life.” If they are killed in 1977, would they be erased from the future itself? Or is this plan really the ultimate “course correction” of the paradox of time travelers meeting their parents and changing events that had already happened?
The real method to stop the release of energy that downed Flight 815 is found in the fact that Eloise pushed Desmond to the Island, “to save (her) world” meaning that she found a patsy in Desmond to push the button. If he had done his job, Flight 815 would have never crashed; the freighter would have never been launched to the Island; Daniel would have never been time shifted by the FDW, and she would have never killed him in 1977.
So which came first? Eloise’s plan or Daniel’s plan?
And that is the incompatible issue of the series shock twist ending to Season 5.
There is another main story engine that begins.
In this series arc, we start to get the full immersion into Egyptian mythology.
The underground Temple wall where Smokey, Cerebrus, the Monster lives under the mural to Anubis, the Egyptian god of the underworld.
The reference to “Hoth” in a title could be a wink toward the Egyptian underworld figure, Thoth. Thoth’s roles in Egyptian mythology were many. Thoth served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. This seems to be Jacob’s role on the island, as the various factions claim the “good” label against their opponents. He also served as scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves. These symbols will be found throughout the island over the various ages including modern Dharma equipment. In the Egyptian underworld, he is the the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly even, so a soul could progress in the after life to be reborn.
The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced. He was the master of both physical and moral law. He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth, and everything in them. This begins to sound also like Daniel’s role in trying to explain the island. Thoth was the male figure, while his feminine counterpart, Ma'at was the force which maintained the Universe. This may refer to Eloise, as she tries to maintain a balance to avoid the end of the world. Thoth is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist. His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivaled that of Ra and Osiris.
The Egyptians credited Thoth as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic, in essence, he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine. If Thoth is the master of both physical and moral law, is that not a good explanation for Jacob?
The biggest reveal in this arc was The Mural. During Ben's "judgment" with the smoke monster, we find out where Smokey lives: under the Temple, under a metal grate, under a mural of depicting the smoke monster and Anubis.
Anubis is the Greek name for the ancient jackal-headed god of the dead in Egyptian mythology whose hieroglyphic version is more accurately spelled Anpu (also Anupu, Anbu, Wip, Ienpw, Inepu, Yinepu, Inpu, or Inpw). He is also known as Sekhem Em Pet. Prayers to Anubis have been found carved on the most ancient tombs in Egypt; indeed, the Unas text (line 70) associates him with the Eye of Horus. He serves as both a guide to the recently departed and as the patron of embalmers and mummification, though his primary role is as the guardian and judge of the dead.
In Ben's judgment scenes, we do confirm certain aspects of the smoke monster legend. First, we hear a flush of water when Ben summons the creature from his barrack secret room. However, the monster does not appear so Flocke says he will take Ben to it. Second, at the Temple wall, Ben remembers the place where he was taken as a boy to heal (however, Alpert said to Kate that Ben would not remember the healing, that he would become one of them (living dead?). Third, Flocke conveniently does not follow Ben into the lower chamber. Fourth, we hear a mechanical clicking noise as the smoke monster appears from the ground. Fourth, we see a swirl of images and electric flashes surrounding Ben (his life flashes before his eyes). Fifth, when the smoke monster retreats, it is only then that Dead Alex takes her form and physically confronts Ben, slamming him up to a hieroglyph pillar. She tells him that he is to follow all the directions of Flocke without question. The she disappears. Then Flocke appears above Ben with a rope for his rescue. Ben said "it let me live." But in reality, it was Flocke who let him live - - - for he is the manifestation of the smoke monster. Flocke and the smoke monster never appear in the same room at the same time or in split forms.
For if Jacob represents Thoth, the master of both physical and moral law, could he not have created his dead brother in any form he chose, including Smokey? And if that is the case, is the Island, as its own intellectual character, really symbolic representation of Anubis?
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
Dead Locke taking control of the Others, including Ben.
Ben knows Locke is dead, so why would he follow Flocke? Mind control?
Recognition by some characters that the Island is not “right:”
SUN: What you're saying, it's... impossible.
LOCKE: But here I am. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I'm sure there's a very good reason for it.
LAPIDUS: As long as the dead guy says there's a reason, well, then I guess everything's gonna be just peachy. And forget about the fact that the rest of your people are supposedly 30 years ago... now the only ones who are here to help us are a murderer and a guy who can't seem to remember how the hell he got out of a coffin. Sun, please, let's just go back to the plane, see if I can fix the radio, and maybe we can get some help.
Last lines in episodes:
EP 97:
BEN: It let me live.
EP 98:
FARADAY: Hey, Miles. Long time no see.
EP 99:
FARADAY: I... I'm your son. [Gasps]
[Eloise stares at him with shock. Daniel's eyes go still.]
EP 100:
LOCKE: So I can kill him.
[Ben, stunned, stops in his tracks and falls behind as the rest of the column passes him by.]
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Once upon a time in America (it was just after World War II), mainstream psychology came in two and only two forms. There was behaviorism and there was psychoanalysis, and no one with any other intellectual orientation need apply. The theorists on campuses were behaviorists; the therapists in offices were psychoanalysts.
Then came the revolution led by the humanistic psychologists, beginning in the 1950s and rapidly gaining strength through the 1960s and early '70s. It brought encounter groups, regional "growth centers" like Northern California's notorious "clothing optional" Esalen Institute, experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs, and "client-centered therapy." Nothing was ever the same again.
Cultural historian Jessica Grogan writes in Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self that humanistic psychology tried to connect to the civil rights movement. A few humanistic psychologists tried to adapt the encounter group and make it a tool to promote greater racial harmony, but nothing came of their efforts.
Grogan writes, there were "fissures built into the movement," for its members held "many disparate views of health, human nature, motivation, and behavior." Humanistic psychology, she writes, was more "a broadly encompassing orientation" than "any one specific theory." She notes that "within psychology and psychotherapy," the rebellious spirit of the '60s "didn't manifest as a [new] consensus in which all scholars and practitioners agreed they had found a universal theory or methodological approach that would reign supreme. Instead, it manifested as a dissolution of consensus," so that "a plethora of diverse psychological theories, services, and techniques were now emerging."
The diverse theories were all devoted to the proposition that human beings were individuals, not interchangeable machines whose behavior could be predicted experimentally and whose "mental woes," as Vladimir Nabokov famously put it, could "be cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private parts." They all believed that the human individual came "hard wired," as it were, for personal growth, and that the purpose of therapy was to create and sustain an environment in which the obstacles so commonly thrown up by social institutions to personal growth, self-actualization, and realization of one's potential were deactivated, so that the client could, in effect "cure" him- or herself. They all believed that psychological health meant something more than merely being free from mental illness, that it comprised a set of specifiable (and to some extent measurable) personal qualities such as self-esteem, self-confidence, and openness to experience.
Grogan deplores the "often destructive permissiveness" that she says became virtually "the rule" at "growth centers" during the late 1960s. She complains bitterly about the way in which the counterculture of the period "distrust[ed] all authority" and "expressed a blind allegiance to absolute freedom that rested on the assumption that human nature was fundamentally good." She complains that "the leaders of humanistic psychology seemed incapable of adequately considering anything beyond the distinct individual" and seemed to envision an American society remade one individual at a time.
Worse yet, the encounter groups these psychologists led "seemed to unwittingly encourage the development of negative characteristics like self-focus [and] hedonism." It wasn't long, according to Grogan, before the humanistic psychology movement as a whole developed "a reputation for being overly individualistic and encouraging of narcissism."
One result of that, needless to say, was that individuals began to act in ways intended to benefit themselves—for example, by starting businesses and attempting to make a profit. Grogan doesn't really approve of profit. She writes of "the potential for businesses to misuse humanistic principles in the ruthless pursuit of profit" and notes that the humanistic psychology movement "did little, if anything, to eradicate the baser profit motives of corporate leaders" during the 1960s and '70s, though it did come to exercise considerable influence on management theory at that time.
Grogan believes “the ideas and practices of humanistic psychology have dispersed so widely and thoroughly they've become virtually undetectable—they're the air we breathe." “If we measure the extent to which the leading concepts of humanistic psychology have pervaded our culture...we might deem the movement a whopping success. The language of humanistic psychology is everywhere: humanistic ideas of self, growth, health, individual potential, and relation are now woven into the very fabric of our thoughts and perceptions. The fundamentals of 'humanistic' communication, encounter, and expression populate our interactions with our spouses, our employees and bosses, our friends and children. They ring from the lips of our talk show hosts, and they populate our self-help shelves."
Whatever we would call it today (“pop psychology”), the characters in the LOST universe are clearly narcissistic individuals whose outlook and cultural morality is fused from the events of the late 1960s and 1970s. The most focused characters are hell bent on increasing their self-importance (which feeds their inadequate feelings on their own self-worth) to a destructive level of psychosis behaviors. By putting the characters under a “humanistic” approach puts their motivations in synch with their eventual actions. LOST appears to be one large experiment in humanistic psychology.
