WHAT IS REALITY?

There are two positions in regard to the end of LOST.

The pro-ending viewers said that the way the series ended was in a satisfactory conclusion where their favorite characters finally found resolution from their troubled lives. However, the majority of the pro-enders believe that though the characters were dead in sideways world, the characters were "alive" and survived the plane crash on the island.

The anti-ending viewers thought the series ended in an unsatisfying way for numerous reasons. First, many thought that the sideways church ending was a cop-out for not explaining the long, twisted science fiction mystery story lines of the island. Second, a minority of the anti-enders thought it was totally inconsistent (to the point of irrational) to believe that the sideways world could have been "created" by the characters at any point in time. Third, many thought the concept that the characters created their own sideways world - - - but failed to "remember" their island pasts as being a red herring. How could one create a fantasy sideways world (and actually participate and live in it) but not remember it?

Both sides of the question focus in on the pivotal conversation in the waning moments of the final episode: when Jack speaks to his father, Christian:

JACK: You...are you real?
CHRISTIAN: I should hope so. Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real too.
JACK: They're all...they're all dead?
CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you.
JACK: But why are they all here now?
CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here.
JACK: Where are we, dad?
CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.
JACK: Kate...she said we were leaving.
CHRISTIAN: Not leaving, no. Moving on.
JACK: Where we going?
CHRISTIAN: [smiling] Let's go find out.

So what is "real?"

First, let us look to the definition of the word.

1. actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed;

2. (of a substance or thing) not imitation or artificial,  genuine;

3. [ attrib. ] informal complete; utter (used for emphasis);

4. [ attrib. ] adjusted for changes in the value of money;

5. Law of fixed property (i.e., land and buildings), as distinct from personal property;

6. Mathematics (of a number or quantity) having no imaginary part;

7. Optics (of an image) of a kind in which the light that forms it actually passes through it; not virtual.


So what was Christian telling Jack?

"Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real."

Second, here is a literal translation:

"Yeah, I actually EXIST. You EXIST, everything that's ever happened to you is GENUINE. All those people in the church . . . they EXIST and they are not imagined or supposed."

Next,  Jack asks the question that is supposed to answer the question of what is the sideways world:

"They're all dead?"

The big twist in the finale is that everybody was dead. "Everybody" meaning the key players. Exactly who those players are remains open for debate and remains one of the show's most enduring mysteries. The finale revealed that a gathering of memory-restored Oceanic "survivors" in the sideways world have in fact been running through an elaborate fantasy, one designed to bring their group together before they step over to the afterlife. The major question that remains is when during the run of the show that break between life and death occurred. Life could have ended for the Oceanic passengers as far back as the pilot episode. The plane crashes, everybody dies, but this group is left behind because of unresolved issues within their individual lives. The trials they go through surviving on the island serve as a sort of purgatory. This would render certain key figures — Jacob, the Man in Black, Richard Alpert — as utter fabrications. That's just one theory. Another read could put the time of death for Oceanic 815's survivors as the hydrogen bomb blast at the end of the show's fifth season, which raises a whole new set of questions as to the nature of certain supporting characters. It is now a question of acceptance of this death premise in the mythology of the series.

The word "dead" is defined as follows:

1. no longer alive, as in a dead body;
• (of a part of the body) having lost sensation; numb.
• having or displaying no emotion, sympathy, or sensitivity;
• no longer current, relevant, or important;
• devoid of living things;
• resembling death;
• (of a place or time) characterized by a lack of activity or excitement;

2. [ attrib. ] complete; absolute;
• exactly:
• straight; directly;

Clearly, the sideways world characters were "no longer alive."

But, they were "real." 

And here is where the viewers become split in their perception of the show.

In the pro-ender camp, since we are told that everything was "real" that must mean that everything that happened on the island (including time travel and flashback back stories) was also "real."

However, the anti-ender camp points out that in the context of the sideways church statements, "real" means "dead." They would state that since the sideways world was "real" but "dead," then the island world being also "real" would also be "dead." For if the "dead" characters can create an elaborate fantasy dream purgatory in the sideways world (with marriages, children being born, etc), why can't the "dead" characters also "dream" of a fantasy adventure world called the island?

The pro-end fans would counter to say that Christian explained it.

"This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you."

But then again, the anti-enders say finish the passage:

JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember . . .

"Life" is defined as:

1.  the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death;
• living things and their activity;
• [ with adj. or noun modifier ] a particular type or aspect of people's existence;
• vitality, vigor, or energy;

2. the existence of an individual human being or animal;
• a biography;
• either of the two states of a person's existence separated by death (as in Christianity and some other religious traditions);
• any of a number of successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated;
• a chance to live after narrowly escaping death (esp. with reference to the nine lives traditionally attributed to cats);

3. (usu. one's life) the period between the birth and death of a living thing, esp. a human being.

"Remember" is a verb meaning:

1. have in or be able to bring to one's mind an awareness of (someone or something that one has seen, known, or experienced in the past);
• [ with infinitive ] do something that one has undertaken to do or that is necessary or advisable;
• [ with clause ] used to emphasize the importance of what is asserted;
• bear (someone) in mind by making them a gift or making provision for them;
• (remember someone to) convey greetings from one person to (another);
• pray for the success or well-being of; and
• (remember oneself) recover one's manners after a lapse.

2. The word is derived from Latin "to call to mind" or mindful.


The characters represented the most important part of their collective lives, so that is why the created the sideways soul oasis. But "which" life? Some would say their human life. Others would say, based upon the mythology and images shown in the show, "any number of successive existences" including reincarnation. So when Christian says "life" it can be an ambiguous concept, especially in the Lost story.

But Christian tells Jack that he and his friends created the sideways place (where they are dead) in order to "remember" their past "experiences" together. Some will postulate that the sideways world was created AFTER the characters first met, and formed during their island world adventure. That could explain why there were ghosts and visions on the island.

But others would balk at that assertion that the ghosts were sideways world messengers or souls in charge of the construction of the sideways world. Dave, Hurley's vision, was not a part of the sideways story. We were told that Jack's vision of Christian was a smoke monster projection.

Further complicating any reasoned analysis is the statement from Christian that the sideways world contained no "now" or "present" time. It is an undefined magical statement to show how characters who died long before Jack and died long after Jack's death could co-exist together in a complex sideways world - - - for which we saw linear time events occur.

But an open question remains of "when" the characters "actually died."  Pro-enders believe that the characters survived the plane crash, and died when they did on or off the island. There is no room for reincarnation, or a purgatory level to the island so there is no belief that the characters souls manifest in human form such as the spirited smoke monster after dying in the plane crash. But these lost souls may have died at various time prior to the Flight 815 crash; a theorist would argue that the plane crash (like all the previous wrecks on the island) were mere metaphors of souls passing through one level of existence to another.

How can one reconcile the "nothingness" of sideways time and space which showed about a week's worth of linear time events to the "reality" of the island time and space which went on for months (on the island) and years (off-island)? You really cannot unless you make assumptions to fit a unified theory. One could argue that the survivors of plane crash only "lived" as long as the sideways world permitted (one week or so); meaning that the survivors minds raced through the island adventures like REM dreams and nightmares.

To "awaken" memories of a sideways soul means that those memories had to have be repressed; what represses memories? The existence of repressed memories is a controversial topic in psychology; some studies have concluded that it can occur in victims of trauma, while others dispute it. According to some psychologists repressed memories can be recovered through therapy. Other psychologists dispute this arguing that this is in fact rather a process through which memories are created through a blending of actual memories and outside influences. According to the American Psychological Association, it is not currently possible to distinguish a true repressed memory from a false one without corroborating evidence.

Memories can be accurate, but they are not always accurate. For example, eyewitness testimony even of relatively recent dramatic events is notoriously unreliable. Misremembering results from confusion between memories for perceived and imagined events, which may result from overlap between particular features of the stored information comprising memories for perceived and imagined events. Memories of events are always a mix of factual traces of sensory information overlaid with emotions, mingled with interpretation and "filled in" with imaginings. Thus there is always skepticism about how valid a memory is as evidence of factual detail. Some believe that accurate memories of traumatic events are often repressed, but remain in the subconscious mind, from where they can be recovered by appropriate therapy. Others believe that truly traumatic events are never forgotten in this way, although often people may not disclose their memories to others.

So, is the whole story of Lost boil down to a collective repressed memory of a plane crash? Who would "forget" surviving a plane crash? Why would such highly charged, emotional memories be repressed in one's after life?  Is this part of a dynamic that upon death, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind separate and a soul cannot "move on" in the after life without their mind being whole? The show writers did not intend to give a clear answer to any of these questions.

It comes down to a personal interpretation of the meaning of "reality" in the context of the Lost story.