POSSESSIVE SOULS

Here is a new theory derived from Japanese folklore.

In Nara, the birth place of Japanese culture. there are stories of nature, culture, history; folk stories, and tradition there. "Tsukumo-gami" are things that existed for a long time that develops a self-awareness and soul. This is a unique idea that things have souls. For example, when you lose an important thing on your desk, without becoming frustrated you should think of it this way. "It is trying to come back to me!" Then you won't get so frustrated or you'll be happy when you see them again. This is very Japanese way of thinking that every possession has its own soul.

It is something hidden in plain sight. It is a very interesting concept.

What strikes me now is that fans were really pulled into what Desmond said about his attempted escape from the island. 

Desmond described the Island as a snow globe after experiencing navigational problems trying to escape it. Desmond had tried to flee the Island in his boat, but he steered due west rather than the necessary bearing. As a result, he arrived back at the Island. 

JACK: So, before you ran off, I guess you just forgot to mention that you still have a sailboat. Why'd you come back? 

DESMOND [laughing]: Do you think I did it on purpose? I was sailing for two and half weeks, bearing due West and making 9 knots. I should have been in Fiji in less than a week. But the first piece of land I saw wasn't Fiji, was it? No. No, it was here -- this, this island. And you know why? Because this is it. This is all there is left. This ocean and this place here. We are stuck in a bloody snow globe. There's no outside world. There's no escape. So, just go away, huh. Let me drink.

There were also other references to snow globes in the series. Hurley's comic book contained a picture of a dome covering a magical city. There was also a snow globe on the counter of the shop where Michael pawned his watch. And there was a large blue globe on the top shelf of a bookcase in Aaron's bedroom.

The explanation of the castaways being trapped on the island was that they were caught in a snow globe created by unique magnetic energy. Except, what if it was more literal?

Snow globes are souvenir items that depict a time, event or place. The classic example is a winter holiday scene. The item is jostled and plastic snow is churned about in the fluid to create a winter scene.

Instead of an explanation that the show was all inside Hurley's head, put it inside of a tropical snow globe that over time developed its own souls. All the characters were actually animated from the elements of the globe. 

The light at the end could represent many different things. It could represent an actual light switch in the globe that turns on a lamp so people can see the scene more clearly. Or, it could mean the actual light of the sun being shown coming into a broken element of the casing (releasing the souls being bonded inside the globe into the real world).

Such a complex and magical premise was never considered in the original pilot script or the writer's guide. The premise seems more suited to Japanese anime, where tales of humans being intertwined in a spirit world are common stories. But the idea that the island was a snow globe, and that its objects inside it developed consciousness or souls, has its own wonderful possibilities.