DYING TO WAKE UP

In Dying to Wake Up, Dr. Rajiv Parti, the Chief of Anesthesiology at the Bakersfield Heart Hospital in California, writes in his new book that an experience from "the Divine" changed him forever. 

Following this experience Parti gave away his mansion, quit his career, and opened a wellness clinic.
Parti claims to provide "rare details of heaven, hell, the afterlife, and angels." According to Parti, during his near-death experience he encountered "archangels" and his deceased father who showed him "through the tortures of hell."

Parti purports that to this day he still converses with angels and "spreads their wisdom to the living."
While there have been many books published by people that have experienced something similar to Parti, the book genre isn't without its critics.

Neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of the book, Hallucinations,  wrote these "life-altering religious experiences" are "hallucinations," and that "whether revelatory or banal, are not of supernatural origin; they are part of the normal range of human consciousness and experience."

What strikes me from this summary account of Parti's experience is that mirrors the basic premise of LOST.  Jack was guided through the tortures of the island hell by his deceased father, Christian. And once Jack survived his initial island test in the underworld, he gave up everything to return to save his friends.

The title invokes another theme of the show, "waking up."  In the after life, the characters had to "wake up" to the realization that they were dead. So what was their experiences prior to that revelation? 

Could each of the characters be going through separate near death experiences that funnel into this island hell gateway? As we speculated in the past, each of the main characters had a back story element where they could have died in real life. 

The idea of Jack's deceased father shepherding him through the stages of death, preparing him for the after life, is an appealing notion. It reinforces major religious symbolism. It also reinforces the bonds of friendship can cross barriers, including death.

HOW TO GET HOME

One of the themes of LOST was the character's desire to "get home."

There are many expressions about home.

Home is where you live.
Home is where you sleep.
Home is the shelter where you keep your possessions.
Home is where the heart is.

But in broader context, home is connected with the promised land in many cultures.

This supposes that our life on earth is a transitory event. That on the path of life, our mortality is nothing more than a way station to the next form of existence.

Many religions have concepts of heaven or paradise for "good" people after they die on Earth. It is a comforting notion on what happens after we pass on, and for those we leave behind.

Many ancient cultures believed that man was created from the stars, and upon death returns to the stars.

But there is no clear explanation for how this transition happens.

There are views of the brimstone of hell for sinners, and near-death experiences where people began walking to the "bright light," but since no one has been revived from the after life, we really don't know what happens next. It is a matter of faith over science.

So it is open to interpretation and imagination of how one travels back to the stars, or paradise.

The concept of the soul is a means of explanation. It is the spiritual vessel that can transcend time and space; to recreate your body in a different dimension to live on.

This journey may be as important as the destination. That is another strong theme in the series. The journey of the main characters to get to the sideways church.

The whole LOST saga could be placed in the after life journey of the characters. They needed to suffer physical and mental pain in order to figure out what was truly important. It was not a moral redemption but a personal manifestation of releasing one's own emotional demons in order to see the world around them in a new light. They need to get beyond the material aspects of life because they are immaterial in the after life. They need to get deep personal bonds with other souls in order to share the burden of getting to the doors of paradise.

If this is the true purpose of LOST, then the sideways season makes a little more sense.

SHEPHERDING SHEEP

Jack and Christian had one thing in common: their last name, Shepherd.

Shepherd is a noun which means a person who tends and rears sheep.

It also means  a member of the clergy who provides spiritual care and guidance for a congregation.

As a verb, it means to tend to a thing or a task, or give guidance to (someone), esp. on spiritual matters.

Sheep tend to be docile, dumb, domesticated animals. Sheep is also a semi-derogatory slang for a mindless follower.

It a way, we can see both definitions in Jack and Christian.

The obvious connection is Christian to religion. In his death, as a spirit, he provides his son with care and guidance to get him to the right place (the sideways church).

Jack, on the other hand, is a de facto leader of a bunch of sheep (plane survivors) who need to tended (survival) and directed to the task (rescue).

But Jack is a reluctant leader. He does not want to make the big decisions. He is uncomfortable around people other than his ER staff. He was taught early on in his life that he did not have the emotional guts to be a real leader, the type of person who can make life and death decisions, and be able to live with the death ones. That is why Jack was delusional with his patients; that every case had hope and a miracle result. Jack could have been living in a fantasy world for a long time.

And Christian was a terrible father. As such, he was a pretty terrible angel. Angels are messengers from the after life who are sent to the realm of the living to guide people on the right path, to make the right decisions, and to change their destiny. Even in ancient times, powerful kings sought out the spirit world for guidance before battle. The righteous of the cause was as important as the army in the field.  Christian showed up on the island as a ghost to shock Jack into remembering his childhood, and the associated guilt of not making up with his father before Christian died.

We would learn that several appearances by ghost Christian were in fact the smoke monster (MIB) or possibly even Jacob, directing Jack to find the cave (for fresh water). But it does not limit the possibility that the spirit of Christian could have been on the island (if his body was in the coffin). If MIB can only transform if a body was on the island, then Christian's body would have been present. However, in the sideways after life story line, Christian's body was not on the plane.

If Jack was the shepherd in charge of getting his followers home, then he did a fairly poor job of that as well. The island wolves picked off most of the beach camp survivors. Only Kate, Sawyer and Claire (and Aaron) made it off the island in the end. That is a pretty low batting average is survival (life) was the goal.

But if Jack was the shepherd in the land of the living, Christian was not the shepherd in the land of the dead. Christian was strangely the master of ceremonies at the reunion in the church, but Christian had no part in bringing any of the people to the church. As a dead person, he had a physical form (just like everyone else). He also had complete memories of what had happened to him. But we think he must have some background on all the others, because he told Jack that "they made" this sideways world. (Again, we don't know how anyone could create a private purgatory).

It was Desmond who began to awaken the 815ers in the sideways world after Charlie tried to kill him in a car accident. The hand on the underwater glass sparked Desmond to remember his island time then spark his investigation into the 815 manifest. In some ways, Desmond was the real sideways shepherd gathering the flock back together again.

 One could go off on a wild limb and say that if Desmond was the after life shepherd, he played the same role on the island. Christian could have been "lost" on his voyage across the River Styx. He wound up as Desmond on the island, an angel in disguise. This was Christian's purgatory, trapped in the vessel of Desmond. How else could have Christian learned about Jack's island life, his trials, tribulations, loves, hates and ultimate death? Christian would have needed that information in order to create a "heavenly" landing place for his son in the sideways world.

As leaders, Christian and Jack appear to be cut from the same cloth. They believe that they have the skill set to lead their followers, but they have fatal flaws in their character. Christian follows the path of the easy way out of his issues; Jack has a delusional fantasy aspect of his dealing with his issues.

It also seems like a huge bother to create a complex sideways world with layers of new back stories just to give Christian the opportunity to tell Jack that he is dead. It seems more natural in our culture to see ancestors greet us at the pearly gates than send our souls into an island boot camp of soul torture, pain and suffering. Perhaps it took all the people in the church to tug the metaphysical rope to pull an obstinate Jack into heaven. The sheep had to corral the shepherd.

CONNECT FOUR TO SHEPARD

Many people believe the LOST saga was the story of Jack. Jack coming to terms with his father issues, especially life and death leadership decisions. It seems to be a roundabout away of getting to that point, especially where all the characters wound up in the End.

But what if the story was not about Jack but Christian. Christian was the master of ceremonies at the End. Was it his connections that brought Jack to the End?

Christian had three significant encounters during the latter stages of his life.

First, he hired Ana Lucia to be his bodyguard to go to Australia to confront is daughter, Claire. It was through that short relationship with Ana Lucia where Christian began to deal with his own family issues as a wayward parent.

Second, when Christian tries to tell Claire that she is keeping her vegetative mother alive "for the wrong reasons" (guilt over causing the traffic accident), Claire is hostile towards Christian, severing any possible relationship with him.

Third, after a bad encounter and argument with Ana Lucia, Christian winds up in a bar where he meets Sawyer. They discuss Christian's strained relationship with his son. This is the last point where we see Christian alive. Later he is found dead of a heart attack/alcohol abuse.

We are led to believe that Christian was the first person out of these encounters to die. But what if that was not true. In the back stories of Ana, Claire and Sawyer, there were deadly encounters which could have caused their demise. Ana was shot in the stomach (while pregnant) as a police officer. She could have died from those wounds. Claire was in a serious traffic accident (while pregnant). She could have died from those wounds (as her mother did). Sawyer's father was distraught over financial ruin caused by a con man. He committed a family murder suicide (which in today's news often includes the entire family, including children). In the alternative, Sawyer's con artist past could have caught up with him via the double cross and he could have been killed by fellow criminals.

The idea that Ana, Claire and Sawyer predeceased Christian is important if you can fathom an angel theory. Just like Clarence in the film, It's a Wonderful Life, the angel had to come to earth to save someone in order "to get his wings." Since Hollywood rarely has a unique idea, it is possible that at one point Christian was the George Baily character, at his wit's end. Ana, Claire and Sawyer all had experience in broken families so they could understand Christian's issues with his son.

Christian's "reward" in the end of the series was to be reunited with Jack, and to go into the church and open the doors to cast the Light upon everyone in the church. Was this where Christian and the others "got their wings?"

There is a corollary to the angel angle; Ana, Claire and Sawyer were not devote moral role models. As such, they had insight and personal experience on the dark side which could be used to get straight forward Jack to see Christian's faults and understand them.  It is the devil that knows you.

It is possible that Christian's "Australian" trip was much like the 815 flight: a passage into the underworld. He met people who were going to help him through the various levels of eternity (Ana, Claire and Sawyer). In turn, Christian's connections with those people allowed them to get back onto their own passage through the underworld. As a result, the lost souls of Ana, Claire and Sawyer got on Flight 815 to help Jack and the other departed souls. As Locke (possibly as MIB) told Shannon  in the jungle that "everyone got a new life on the Island,"  and advised her to start hers, this is what Christian's connections began for Jack.

Each of the character connections helped Jack become a complete person. Ana brought in street toughness. Claire brought in venerability. Sawyer had cunning. Libby brought charity. Charlie brought sacrifice. Kate brought adventure. Hurley brought friendship. Locke brought faith. Bernard and Rose brought trust. Boone brought enthusiasm. Ben brought evil manipulation. Sayid brought punishment. Juliet brought caring. Shannon brought selfishness. Walt brought childhood wonder. Vincent brought comfort. Without all those elements, Jack could never become a complete person. Likewise, all the other characters needed to experience and understand those same elements in order to find their acceptance of fate, duty and their own deaths.

LOST was all about accepting one's ultimate fate: dying. The church in the End after death was the ultimate goal for all of the assembled characters. They were ready at that point to accept their deaths and move on into the after life, together.

Just as Christian's Australian trip was his "island journey," Christian returned the favor for Jack by creating key connections in the after life to allow Jack to awaken to his fate and join him in the church at the End. The benefit was that as a result, Jack was able to bring along many of these connections with him toward eternal happiness as complete beings.

BEST OF TIMES

Here is a new question. If Christian was correct in saying that the main characters in the church died well before and well after Jack, why did they all appear in the church as their "island" selves?

The metaphysical question is what is the physical appearance of the dead in purgatory.

It may not be a bothersome proposition because it was just a television show, and the actors aged only 6 years.  But the show did use other actors to play the main characters roles such as in childhood or as young adults. But TPTB chose to represent the dead LOST cast in the church at their island ages.

Can one infer that when one's soul goes to purgatory, its physical appearance is locked in place? This would seem to match the ancient Egyptian concept of mummification of the deceased body and organs for the reconstruction and rebirth of that person in the after life.

Now, Christian also said that the people in the church waiting for Jack were present because they shared the "most important" time in their lives. He did not say "the best" times. The idea of the shared experience of an airplane crash may be important, and the survival of the plane crash even more important, but there were some characters who should have lived full lives beyond the island crash.

For the church scene to make sense, it would seem that all the characters were "locked" in their physical place based upon the moment they went into island airspace. And in the purgatory world, Aaron becomes the problem child. It is hard to imagine that Aaron, who left the island with Kate and was with his grandmother when Claire was rescued, would not have lived a full life outside the island. But the ending church realm has Aaron being born - - - meaning that he was still a fetus when the sideways world was "created." It also creates the massive logic issue of how can a dead mother, Claire, give "birth" to her child in purgatory? (In some respects that pregnancy issue was at the heart of Ben's island research with Juliet, i.e. evidence that the Island could also have been a purgatory state.) Was Aaron really born on the island, or was that a fantasy?

For if Aaron's physical spirit was locked in as shown in the after life (as a fetus or new born), one would have to conclude that Aaron died in the plane crash or shortly after birth on the Island. Otherwise, it would have been more appropriate to have a grown Aaron with Claire in the church, or no Aaron at all.  The idea that Claire "needed" to have Aaron's birth to "awaken" in the after life to reconnect her feelings with Charlie seems to be an unnecessarily convoluted plot twist. It makes Aaron a mere prop for Claire to accept her own death. A death that may have been caused because of a traumatic child birth (which mirrors Ben's back story birth).

And if Aaron's "most important" life moment was being born on the island, that would mean Aaron had no other life . . . his soul represents only a fixed newborn whose life was measured in weeks not years. One cannot say that the best days of Aaron's life were on the island unless those were his "only" days.

Then again, the Ajira escapees would have lived a long lives after leaving the island. Kate, Sawyer and Claire would have aged before they died "long after" Jack. But again, their appearance in the sideways after life was that of the island time of the plane crash. Kate, Sawyer and Claire had life expectancies of forty years or more. They would have had the opportunity to change, meet new people, forge new relationships and put the island terror behind him. Kate could have reconnected with her husband, the Florida policeman. Claire could have reconnected with Aaron's father. Sawyer could have reconnected with the mother of his child. All those pre-flight bonds and relationships were present when they left the island for good. So, one would then have to assume that none of those mainland reunions ever took place. One could also assume that the Ajira people may have never made it back. Or one could assume no one ever left the island, per se.

The physical appearances of the characters in the sideways church and Christian's vague explanation creates more fundamental questions. The sideways plot premise does not seem to be consistent when one looks at the individual characters, especially post-island time. In fact, it leads us down the path to consider one explanation: that the sideways purgatory was also the island purgatory - - - the lost souls were locked in their spiritual and physical forms when Flight 815 crashed on the island.

But then again, the appearance of Christian in the church is also problematic. He was never on the island. He died in Australia. His body was never on the plane. He only had two connections: Jack and Claire. So if Jack's island friends "created" the sideways world as a purgatory holding pen for their souls until Jack accepted his own death, Christian's soul would not have been part of that collective experience (unless of course, they were all souls passing through the same after life gate and Christian, Eloise or some other guardian angel corralled them in place so they could "move on together.") Christian should not have been the master of ceremonies at the end.

It is hard to imagine that the island time was "the best times" for the main characters. That shared experience was so powerful that their souls would be linked forever. For a character like Locke, that seems counterproductive. The main characters abandoned him to die alone (or at the hands of Ben). Locke's soul would have had a better or stronger connection to meet up with his mother or even Helen in the after life. But he wound up with the 815 survivors in the after life, but sadly, he wound up alone without a soul mate. How cruel is that?

There is also an issue of why all the people in the church needed to be together in order to "move on." Was it some kind of reward for destroying MIB? Probably not, because Christian said the characters themselves created this diversion place. Recall, Jacob told Alpert that he could not resurrect the dead but he could grant some form of immortality. So it was probably not necessary to have the characters in the church to complete their journey. In fact, Rose and Bernard seem the most out of place. They specifically told them they did not want any more part of the island melodramas. They went off on their own to build their own cabin and live out their own lives without anyone else. When Rose and Bernard would have died,  one would have assumed they would have moved on together without the help of anyone else.

The problem with the "happy ending" to LOST is that when one begins to drill down through the smiles, it really cannot be considered a happy ending. There are too many inconsistencies and questions to say that the main characters needed each other in order to have true eternal happiness.

CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN

Christian Shepard is an anomaly.

In the fourth episode of the series, Jack begins to see visions of his dead father. A father who he was estranged from ever since Jack squealed on his father's alcohol induced medical negligence. Christian lost his medical license and his son.  Apparently, Christian went to Australia to see his former lover, Carole Littleton, who was severely injured in an automobile accident with his illicit daughter, Claire. Jack's mother sent him to Australia to bring back his father, but Christian spoiled that reunion by dying of an alcohol induced heart attack.

Jack accused his father of embarrassing him in front of other doctors during his internship. Then Jack believed people at St. Sebastian believed Jack got his position because of nepotism and not skill. But despite their rocky relationship,  Jack did not find work at a different medical facility which probably led to the staff's view of Christian's favoritism to his son.

Jack had a cold and distant relationship with his father as he grew up. Christian reinforced negative comments, like Jack did not have the stomach to be a leader; that he could not make the "hard" life and death decisions, and that you cannot "fix" everybody. It would appear that this is a long succession of daddy issues as Christian inferred that his own father did not approve of Christian's marriage to Margo, Jack's mother.

Christian's sudden death racks Jack's mind and emotional state. Jack cannot solve the problem of not correcting his relationship with his father. One can assume that this strong emotional state and memories of his father were "used" by the island (especially MIB) to manipulate Jack.

Following the crash of Oceanic 815, the Man in Black took on the appearance of Christian and began appearing to many of the survivors:
He appeared to Vincent and told him to wake "his son," whom he claims has "work to do."
He appeared to Jack a few days after the plane crash and led him to the caves. Years later, when confronted by Jack, MIB/Flocke would admit to using "Christian's form" when leading Jack to the caves, claiming that he was trying "to help" the survivors.
He appeared to Claire in the jungle and convinced her to abandon Aaron and follow him into the jungle.
He appeared in Jacob's Cabin and instructed Locke to move the Island.
He appeared to Locke in the FDW and told Locke he needed to find everyone, bring them to Eloise, and "to die" because "that's why they call it a sacrifice."
He appeared to Michael on the the freighter just before the explosion.

Even after leaving the Island, the image of Christian appeared to Jack. Christian appeared to Jack twice after the departure from the Island. First, Jack caught a glimpse of Christian as he walked by in the hospital. The second time also occurred at the hospital, while Jack was working late hours. He heard a smoke detector go off in the lobby. Christian said Jack's name from a nearby sofa, but one of Jack's co-workers appeared and Christian vanished. Believing this to be a hallucination, Jack requested a prescription for clonazepam.


The evidence suggests that throughout the series the image of Christian was a mere illusion. Christian was not Jack's father, but a re-creation from Jack's own memories but controlled by a supernatural smoke monster. The reality of the fake Christian was enhanced by the memories of other characters, like Sawyer and Ana Lucia's interactions with Christian in Australia. Jacob and MIB used that information to construct a puppet that could guide and manipulate Jack. There was a deep seeded need in Jack to seek final approval from his dead father. The island illusionists used that emotional pit to lead Jack to serve the Island/MIB/Jacob purposes. 


Since Christian was not "real" in the sense of a reincarnated person or even an independent ghost/spirit protecting Jack from the evils of the island conflicts, we must look closely at who was fake Christian. We have an admission from MIB that he used Christian's form to lead Jack to a fresh water supply to save the survivors. Why would MIB want to keep the crash survivors alive on the island when he told Jack centuries before that humans were destructive and corrupt?  MIB's grand plan was to use the survivors (especially the candidates) to "kill" Jacob so MIB "could leave the island." However, if Christian's image was seen by Jack off the island, who was that Christian?  If MIB was truly trapped and could not leave the island, it must have been Jacob. This would be evidence that Jacob was also had smoke monster shape shifting powers. That would make sense, since two equal smoke monsters would not be able to kill each other.


But if Jacob was Christian to Jack in the off-island appearances (we were shown Jacob touching other candidates off island so he had the power to leave the island at any time), why could Jacob not pretend to be Christian on the island?  Jacob said he never interfered with the people he brought to the island, but that is a bold face lie. Even MIB told Alpert early on that Jacob was a liar.


So we have island Christian being the smoke monster illusion in a physical form. But then, we have one more grand appearance of Christian in the sideways world. Christian is the master of ceremonies at the sideways church. Why is he the only parent of the 815ers present? Was Christian's appearance needed for Jack to be awakened so everyone could move on in the after life? But was that really Christian?!  Could this sideways master of ceremonies be the mirror reflection of the island's master of ceremonies, Jacob?

In the sideways church, Jack goes into a back room where his father's coffin is placed near a stained glass window reflecting all major religions. Jack touches the coffin and, with his memories awakened. He opens the coffin only to find it empty. Christian then enters the office, and explains to Jack that he had died and that this reality had been created by Jack and his former friends in order to find each other and "move on" together.

CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.

JACK: For what?

CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.

The two shared a hug. We are led to believe that Jack and his father have reconciled their differences. But there is one glaring hole in Christian's explanation. Christian did not create the sideways world, Jack and his island friends did. So why is Christian truly part of this sideways reconciliation or is Christian a mere "prop" like Jack's sideways son, David?

After Jack reunited with his friends at the church's nave and sat with Kate at a pew, Christian emerged and briefly patted his son on the shoulder. He then opened the church's doors, allowing a bright light to engulf all those present as they crossed over to the next stage in their afterlives.

It would seem that the ending was brought about by a supernatural power - - - one that would have been beyond a mortal soul, such as man like Christian Shepard. It leads to an open question: was the sideways Christian a final illusion, possibly Jacob in disguise, rounding up the lost souls that helped him escape from his own island purgatory?