CONSUMED BY THE LIGHT

What happened when a person came into direct contact with the light source?

The first instance we know of was Jacob's brother drifting into the main light cave, and then a raging smoke monster flew out. The question is whether a human being or soul that comes into contact with the light turns into a dark smoke monster.

It is a good question. And it would help explain a lot of mysteries.

Desmond was consumed by the light when he turned the fail safe key. He should have been killed, or better, he was killed but "reborn" by the light itself. So what would the light create? Another smoke monster.

As a result of that incident, Desmond became special or different, in both time and space.

When Jacob finished the frozen donkey wheel his brother started, we assumed he used it. Did it turn him into an ageless smoke monster? He used the FDW to leave the island to go touch his candidates to bring them to the island.

When Ben used the FDW did he also die and become a smoke monster, too? Despite all the beatings, injuries and near death experiences, Ben never died on the island time periods.

When Locke used the FDW to re-set the time skipping island, did he die in the teleportation to the desert? If so, how could he have died in the seedy hotel room if he was a smoke monster? Because Ben, another smoke monster, killed him.

So when Locke's body returned to the island with Ben, who really assumed its form? We all assume that it was MIB, the darkness created from Jacob's brother's death in the light cave. But could have been someone else?

Since we don't know what the smoke monster was, we can't say for sure how many of them inhabited the island. Some believe that there was a smoke monster judging each person on the island; that a person's subconscious itself manifests as a smoke monster.