ALL IN HIS HEAD

Some new recent fan posts follow an old theory, that the premise of LOST was all inside the head of a character. In this latest versions, it was Jack's mind.

This theory infuses Jack's background. We first met Jack in season one, he was a doctor with an alcoholic father and some "daddy issues."  As we learned more about his background, we started to learn about his relationship and commitment issues, along with suicidal tendencies and deep regret for mistakes made, often made in the operating room. The question is whether these dark emotions and mental illness are first and foremost, or secondary to the pressures of being the son of a famous doctor. If it was the former, Jack may never have been a physician; the "miracles" of his skills were all fantasy.

As another flavor on this theory, the entire island experience was Jack trying to work out his personality issues by his subconscious creating characters to "work things through."  Many scientists believe that humans dream for a reason; it is the down time that frees up the brain to run a series of calculations and scenarios of real life issues so the waking person has some idea how to handle them.

Each series character represents a different part of Jack's  personality. For example Kate could have been the part of him that wanted to be strong and kind, but couldn't let go of his past. John Locke could have been the part of him that wanted to stop being told what or how to do things, and was just downright angry. Shannon could have been the part of him that wanted to be taken care of, and so on. 

As he worked through different issues and overcame challenges on the island, the "parts of him" started to die. When he realized that his father was kind of at the center of everything, the island Jack (subconscious) died, because he had finished what needed to be done, and alternate Jack (reality) met up at the church with everybody else.  Jack being "dead" in the sideways church was "awakening," or leaving the dream state. For one last time, his subconscious memories joined together since Jack's brain had figured out how to cope with his problems. The island was his dream state making sense of what was happening, and the other places and adventures were a way of working through his problems. At the end when it was between MIB and Jacob (Good/Bad) He had a hard decision and realized that he needed to choose to be the guardian of the island, which represents real Jack taking control of his own life.  When he did even though he would lose everybody close to him (even though they were parts of him) he was ready to move on. So in conclusion, each character was a part of him. When he worked through the problems represented by that person, they would die. As it narrowed down to the harder stuff ( Oceanic 6) he had harder decisions. When he made the right choices and worked through his problems, he was alone, but that meant he had figured out that aspect of his problems.

A different take on the psychological aspect of Jack's dream series is that the method of his unconsciousness could have been from an actual plane crash. Under this theory, the whole series of events on LOST happened inside Jack’s head. He was in a plane crash, got rescued, taken to a hospital where he spent some time in a coma. The Island was his coma dream.


When the show used  terms like "constant" and "projection" it was a clue to describe how Jack’s mind formed the surrounding imaginary environment. A projection is something that Jack experienced in his life, some strong emotion for example, and then it appeared/usually reiterated in his dream, while a constant is some part of the physical environment that imposed itself into the dream world. Like for example, the phone starts ringing while you are asleep, and this appears in your dream in some abrupt occurrence. It is similar to a constant in LOST, in a sense that it is something that exists in both worlds - inside and outside of the dream. A link. Both are just different instances of something called “dream incorporation.”


Dreams objectify that which is subjective, they visualize that which is invisible, they transform the abstract into the concrete, and they make conscious that which is unconscious. They come from the most archaic alcoves of the mind as well as from the peripheral levels of waking consciousness. Dreams are the kaleidoscope of the mind.

Further, there were clear clues that the show was about "illusions."  There was a boat in the O6 marina by that name, when Jack had to make (and convince the desperate elements of his own personality) to go back deep into his subconscious ("go back to the island) in order find his final answers. Remember, it never made any sense that they were going back to "save" the people they left behind, because by their own experience, the island disappeared and everyone was dead. People represented as dream characters can always come back to life, inside one's head. That is what happened when Jack "returned" to the island. 

The dream theory (no matter whose character is the center piece) is one of the lasting fan theories of LOST. It helps explain a lot of the inconsistent mysteries and odd tangents of the show, including the Ending.