Thursday, March 20, 2014

HEALING

Healing comes from taking responsibility: to realize that it is you - and no one else - that creates your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. — Peter Shepherd

The obvious healing done on the island were Locke's miracle cure from paralysis and Rose's cure from terminal cancer.

Just because they survived a plane crash, medically, that would have not changed their terminal conditions. We were led to believe that the "unique" electromagnetic properties of the island cured people.

But the explanation of the curing energy is contradictory to other events on the island. People died all the time, from bullet wounds, to pregnancies, to spider bites, to drowning, to time travel nose bleeds. And it did not cure Ben from his back issues. 

It also did not explain how Jacob and Alpert became "immortal" beings. Alpert never aged a day after several centuries on the island.

An alternative (unpopular) explanation is that people were cured of their human illnesses and conditions because they were no longer human, i.e. dead. The characters merely misconceived their situation as their souls were reconstituted into new after life bodies.

There is a second alternative approach to the inconsistent "cures" of the island. The human beings who "survived" the plane crash crossed through a nexus or portal into the spirit world, where both living and dead souls could interact. In this intermediary place, dead souls would be immortal, and real people could still "die." But even in this special place, the uneven application of life and death is still a problem.

Beyond the physical ailments, most of the characters had emotional and mental issues. This extra baggage came with them when they boarded Flight 815.  It is possible that the key to the cure was each person taking responsibility for their own actions and their own lives. Acceptance and accountability would set one free.

Early on, Rose knew that everything was going to be alright; that she would be reunited with her husband shortly. How could she know that? She was calm, at peace, staring out at the ocean when she schooled Jack. Rose was in pain from her terminal cancer. Once she "survived" the plane crash, her pain was gone - - - and being a bright woman, she knew that the only way that could happen was that she had died. And since she accepted that fact, she had internal peace of mind. 

Every person had to come to that realization in order to have peace of mind. It literally took Jack to the end of time to accept his own death. Only then did his mental state unlock, and he was free to move on.

So there are two different kinds of healing with three different means of looking at the island as the means of that healing power.