LOSING ONE'S MIND

The Associated Press reported a very strange story about a man who woke up in a hotel with no memory of his past life, but actually living a new one.

Four months ago a man was found unconscious in a California desert motel who awoke with no memory of his past and speaking only Swedish. The Florida man called himself Johan Ek.
 He was found with a duffel bag of exercise clothes, a backpack and tennis rackets. He also carried four forms of identification — a passport, a California identification card, a veteran's medical card and a Social Security card — all of which identified him as Michael Boatwright.

Doctors diagnosed Boatwright with "Transient Global Amnesia," a condition triggered by physical or emotional trauma that can last for several months. The rare mental disorder is characterized by memory loss, "sudden and unplanned travel," and possible adoption of a new identity. He does not recall his family or his past life.

The AP story also references an incident last year, when a North Dakota college student went missing for nearly a week before turning up in Arizona. She also had a bout of amnesia and didn't know who she was. Her mother said she has had recurring amnesia since suffering a head injury years ago. It is unexpected when it happens to her daughter.

This story is every "LOST" like in that a person's mental condition can suddenly change so that person adopts a new, complex identity with no memories of their real past. 

Could this be the explanation of the sideways world?

It has always been problematic that the main characters in the sideways world could not remember their island time. It was more complicated by the fact that the island time relationships allegedly "created" the sideways world so the lost souls could meet each other in the after life. If one believes the island time was a different level of purgatory and the main characters were already dead, then there is some supernatural basis for memory loss. But if one believes the main characters were alive on the island, then how can their memories be altered or suppressed so completely in the sideways world (only to be awakened by a sudden, emotional event that triggers memory recall). Was it only necessary for the island survivors to have a connection with each other to forge bonds that would create their pre-island past in the sideways dream state? In a roundabout way, each member in the church (except Christian) had an island "constant" present in the pews which somehow allowed all of them to become reunited in the after life.

But the alternative is that sideways is not what it seems. The sideways world may just be an amnesia induced alternative reality or psychosis dream of the island characters who were so traumatized by the crash and being hunted by the Others, MIB and Jacob. This explanation would basically state that most of Season 6 was immaterial because the sideways story arcs were irrelevant to the reality of the Island and its inhabitants. No one every reunited in the sideways world - - - that was Jack's final thoughts or wishes. But that does not mean it came true.