THE EXPERIMENT

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

There was an old theory about the show that believed that the events were all part of one large experiment. There was a great deal of scientific exploration on the show, from Daniel's maze rat time consciousness experiments, to the various Dharma stations which were tied to various educational disciplines.


The DHARMA Initiative built a series of stations on the Island and at least one off island in Los Angeles. The different stations had different purposes. Some stations were for research into various scientific subjects but other stations provided communications infrastructure. According to the Sri Lanka Video, they were created to help scientists "save the world as we know it" via research in various fields such as zoology and psychology. 

After Ben's Purge, the Others began using some of the stations for their own purposes while others were left abandoned.

Station No. 1 was The Hydra, which studied zoological research.  It included an underwater aquarium section, a number of animal cages above ground, and multiple large above-ground buildings. In the past, it held animals such as sharks, dolphins, and polar bears for experimental purposes. The Others controlled the station and did unspecified work at the location. The station was on a small island off the coast of the the main Island.

Station No. 2 was The Arrow, which was found by the Tail Section survivors. It had a
Quarantine Marker. It's possible function was to develop defensive strategies, and intelligence gathering.  In 2004, the station was largely empty except for several boxes, one containing a glass eye and copies of the Bible. Its name and symbol were noted on the blast door map. As in the Swan station "QUARANTINE" was written on the inside of the door. The station still had power and light, operated by some kind of switchbox. No Arrow-specific Orientation Film was found, but an aborted take was shown being filmed. The tail section survivors lived here before merging with the middle section survivors.

Station No. 3 was The Swan, or "the Hatch" as Locke and Boone called it when they found it. It also had a Quarantine Marker. It appears to have been created to conduct Electromagnetic Research and later to contain it. According to its orientation film, the Swan was originally a laboratory "where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the Island". However, after an "Incident", a protocol had to be followed in which two people would take shifts pressing a button (inputting the Numbers into a Computer) every 108 minutes for 540 days, at the end of which time replacements would arrive to take the place of the previous inhabitants. It was located in the southern region of the Island, about a mile inland of the crash of Flight 815. There was a fail safe switch, when activated by Desmond the station imploded following the massive EM discharge.

Station No. 4 was the The Flame, a communications facility. The Flame was the name of a DHARMA initiative communications station. Its name and symbol were depicted on the blast door map, but the location was describe as "alleged." The station itself existed in three parts. The outside was a paddock for cows; inside was a living area, some storage, and a computer room. Underneath a rug was a door to a lower hatch area. This hatch contained DHARMA paperwork and more storage. The Flame was also rigged with a self-destruct feature consisting of C-4 explosive wired throughout the lower level. Patchy and Klugh were apparently living there when Locke, Kate and Sayid stumbled across it with Rousseau. Sayid looked for information and found a few manuals. Locke found a computer and began to play a game. When Locke entered the code "77" into the Flame's computer, the self-destruct sequence was initiated and the Flame exploded soon after Kate and Locke left.

Station No. 5 was The Pearl. On the  Blast Door Map it was shown as "The ?" in the middle.
It's function was Psychological Research and/or Observation. The Pearl was a DHARMA Initiative station and was first discovered by Nikki and Paulo and later by Locke and Mr. Eko. The task of this station, according to its Orientation video, was to monitor the Swan station and other stations via a Remote Viewing system. The orientation video also stated that the inhabitants of the Swan station were unknowingly part of a psychological experiment and the Pearl's occupants were to record their every behavior. However it is presumed the work the Pearl staff was conducting was in fact the real psychological experiment, since the notebooks they were asked to fill ended up at a dump. ("?") DHARMA Initiative staff members delivered food and supplies to the Pearl from time to time.
There was also a hidden camera present in the Pearl, indicating they and not the Swan residents were the subject of the experiment. The station consisted of a corridor with an octagonal tunnel leading down by ladder to the outside and one large, octagonal room, in which nine television sets were fed live surveillance pictures. There appeared to be damage to this station: missing panels in the roof, loose wires, boulder in room. There were no living quarters for the Pearl's personnel, as they only served in eight-hour shifts. However, there was a still-working toilet in a room placed left in the station.

Station No. 6 was The Orchid. On the  Blast Door Map it may have been the "Crossed-out station."
It was a facility on Space-time manipulation research, disguised as a Botanical station. It had a greenhouse on the surface, which had a secret elevator that led down to a short corridor with several doors along it. At the end of the corridor was a large room which housed the Vault (the time machine). Behind the wall of the vault was a dirt tunnel which led to a frozen cave with a large wheel sticking out of part of the dirt wall.

The Staff was an unmarked station. It was found by Claire, Kate and Rousseau. It looked to be a medical facility. Claire was taken here after being abducted by Ethan. Presumably, the fully operational staff was preparing her for a forced birthing, to deliver Aaron into the clutches of the Others. After her escape (assisted by Alex), the station was abandoned but was still powered with equipment. The station was later revisited by Claire, along with Kate and Rousseau. It was also visited by Juliet and Sun when they went to find out the date of Sun's conception and again at Juliet's request by Jin, Sun, Charlotte, and Daniel to gather medical supplies for Jack's appendectomy.
According to the station's position in the blast door map, it appeared to be located in the western portion of the Island. No Staff-specific Orientation Film was found, and unlike the Swan and the Arrow stations, there was no "Quarantine" warning on any of the doors of the station.

The Looking Glass was an underwater station with a moon pool and signal jamming equipment. It was connected to the mainland via a Cable. Ben Linus told The Others that the station was flooded but this was untrue. Two Others were stationed at the Looking Glass in secret by Ben as guards. At the end of Season 3, the Others had lost control of the station and it was partially flooded. It was here that Charlie made contact with Penny and wrote on his hand in his last moments "Not Penny's Boat" to a frantic Desmond.

The Tempest was a Toxic Gas Research and Production Facility.  Charlotte informed Juliet that she and Daniel went there to disable the station for fear that Ben might try to "use" it again. Charlotte may have been alluding to the fact that Ben had used this station to initiate the Purge that killed all of the DHARMA Initiative members and that he would do the same to everyone currently on the Island. It contained computers with security protocols to stop the release of toxic gas, but it also had a clear fail safe switch near the enterance which the visitors failed to use.

The Lamp Post was a station built in the basement of a Los Angeles church. There was a large pendulum over a world map connected to banks of old mainframe computer systems. The station was used by Eloise Hawking to determine the Island's location at a certain time. It was at this place that Ben brought the O6 people to try to convince them to return to the island.

A common thread in each station was a behavioral test of its workers in critical situations. Each station was monitored by a bank of TV screens by Ben at the Hydra compound. It could mean that Dharma's main function was to conduct research on human behavior, by studying animals in unusual non-natural situations (polar bears in the tropics) to people in boring to stressful situations.

Further evidence of this behavior study would be the modification of people. Room 23 was not a station, but a laboratory designed to inflict noise, sound and images to a strapped in person to alter their mental patterns. Mind control. Punishment. It would seem that after the Purge, the Others continued to use Room 23 (with its cult like passages to Jacob) just as Dharma probably used it on its own people.

As such, one could conclude that one cult merely replaced a previous cult on the island. Dharma was run with the hierarchy of a cult leader directing his followers to serve a greater man (Jacob) under the philosophy of "saving the world." The Others also believed in Jacob. They believed that they were "the good guys" whose work and protection of Jacob and the Island was their paramount mission in life.


Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that's where you will find success. — Thomas J. Watson
 
But even the Others, including Alpert, grew weary of Ben's sidetrack experiments such as fertility issues and more outsiders with weapons coming to the island. The original Others probably were more content with the simple life of worship and peace at the Temple than Ben's Others taking over the Dharma barracks and a new set of marching orders. 

If the island was merely a place of intense experimental research, why did have strange occurrences and intense battles for its control? It may have been one of those situations where one event triggers a series of unforeseen, unintended consequences.

First, the people brought to the island may believe that they were there to serve a higher purpose. However, they may have been merely brainwashed to serve an egotistical master, Jacob, who enjoyed the voluntary imprisonment of his subjects. Second, the people like Juliet thought that the island was a place for true research into serious problems like infertility. The island's unique electromagnetic properties were the catalyst for research in various possible applications, including medical cures.

However, the tapping of the EM pockets could have been a mistake which altered the balance on Earth and/or the universe. The disruption of the EM light force could have opened a portal to a different dimension, parallel universe or a gateway to the after life (as depicted by the large amount of Egyptian death ritual symbols). 

There are viewers who believe that the LOST world seen upon the show is existentially different from our own world, such as that a  scientific experiment which opened or created a real Pandora's Box that would reform time, space, energy and matter by intense human thought waves, or now a more popular theory that the show depicts characters in purgatory or some "in between" place between the real  and the spirit worlds.

Just as people can debate the "place" of the characters, there are many psychological theories to explain the premise of the show. The psychological appeal, usually maintaining that either the events on the Island or those in flashback (or sometimes both), are inherently deceptive. The main motivation of those in power is to manipulate and control other people. They use rewards, cruelty, captivity, "deals," and threat of death to get what they want - - - behavioral change or submission.

What is notable that this concept of mental control can occur in reality or within a person's mind. In either situation, the person experiences the same vivid reality of the events. So the Island and its events on the characters could be a large social experiment to determine how people react to stressful situations or a conditioning experiment to induce dream states or hallucinations in order to correct anti-social or psychotic behavior in mental patients.The characters are exploited by their handlers to find the truth, in their actions or their feelings, in order to "move on" in the real life (to cure a social ill, to rehabilitate a criminal's behavior, to manage anxiety or anger, to bring coma patients back to life).

The idea that the show was merely a large laboratory experiment on human behavior could be justified since many of the characters had the same issues or problems (daddy issues, abandonment issues, criminal behavior issues, etc.) Whether all the missions, conflicts, choices and misery the main characters endured actually made them better people in the end is also debatable. For example, was Locke's murderous death the real answer to all his prior psychological problems? Perhaps Locke's life merely a prop situation for Ben to come to terms with his murderous rage issues (and in that situation, he failed that test.)

One thing is pretty certain: Jacob was the zookeeper of the island. Whether he was immortal or whether he was the one true mental patient with a vivid but cruel imagination is another mystery yet to be solved.