RECYCLED LIVES

There is an interesting concept, which may have roots in ancient Asian cultures, that states that individuals in the present are basically recycled souls.

We do not have the individuality that we think we have because we are the continuation of past lives, in different bodies, with different memories, experiences, etc.

It is a form of reincarnation, but different. It states that the soul or spirit is the living being, not the human form that looks us in the mirror each morning. The spirit is a non-physical form that inhabits flesh and bone (or in some cultures all things).

The application of this concept to LOST is interesting because the characters who were brought back together in the end church had very little in common besides the island experience. One would think that in an after life setting, the departed would reunite with the parents, siblings and spouses - - -  not a raggy band of misfits.

But step back and view the characters not as human beings but the 10th, 20th or 50th version of a spirit. Spirits whose past lives are repressed until their awakening prior to their next version.

As such, the reunion was not about the human characters but perhaps a long standing family or community of like spirits who have completed their last past human existence and are now ready for the next one.

There is some science to the notion that we are not individuals but a collection of past lives: in our DNA. It contains the genetic material for past generations so in fact we each our living histories of many people's pasts. Whether this past DNA is computer code that has an effect on our mental processes, and how our personality leads our lives, is unknown.

If LOST is viewed not as a human drama but as external spirits riding through a material world it does change the entire outlook of the series.

SAINT HELEN

If there was ever a character that deserved better, it was Helen Norwood.

She was only in a handful of episodes, but her character was actually the only true shining light in the series.

Helen was introduced at an anger management support group which Locke became a new member. After his outburst at the group about their whining, Helen approached Locke outside and told him that she appreciated his candor and shared his frustrations. She also flirted by telling him that she liked bald men - despite Locke not being bald she said that she was prepared to wait. 

Their friendship moved to the bedroom fairly quickly and continued to blossom. During a meal at a restaurant, Helen gave Locke a key to her flat as a six-month anniversary present. She told him that she'd followed him and discovered that he was sneaking out at night to lurk outside his father's house. The gift of the key was given on the condition that he stopped going there, to which Locke agreed.

Helen was the only person who truly loved Locke, with all his faults and pains. She was his soul mate. During the period before Flight 815, Locke intended to marry Helen.

But in typical Locke fashion, that plan fell a part. Just as Locke was preparing to propose to Helen over a romantic picnic, Helen read Anthony Cooper's obituary in the newspaper and that the funeral was scheduled for that day. Helen accompanied Locke to the funeral to support him. 

Some days after the funeral, Cooper revealed to Locke that he was still alive and convinced him to participate in a criminal financial scheme in exchange for a share of the money. Locke's suspicious behavior and a run in with some criminals searching for the double-crossing Cooper led Helen to follow him again. She turned up at the motel where Locke was meeting Cooper to hand over the money. She demanded of Cooper: "Are you him?", slapped him and berated him for his treatment of Locke before leaving to go back to her car. Locke caught up with her in the parking lot outside and pleaded for forgiveness, went down on one knee and proposed. Helen shook her head and drove off, never to see Locke again.

After Locke returned from the Island to reunite the Oceanic Six, he asked Widmore's driver, Abaddon, to find Helen for him. He was against the idea, but eventually found her.  Helen died of an apparent brain aneurysm on April 8, 2006. Abaddon brought Locke to the cemetery where she was buried in Santa Monica, California.

Nothing is really known about Helen after she left Locke in the motel parking lot. Some speculate that the break-up with Helen was in the mid 1980s. If that is true, Helen had twenty years to get over Locke. But it hard to believe that Locke ever got over Helen. Locke's life did change on September 22, 2004 when he boarded Flight 815. He had hit a new low in his personal life. Ironically, the crash gave him a second chance to prove himself to someone. We know he never really did.


Because in the flash sideways fantasy world, John was engaged to Helen and they planned on getting married in October 2004. Being very sick of the wedding planning, caterers, bands, and picking out fabrics for chair backs (both a shade of green), she asked John if they can "do it shotgun style" in Las Vegas instead. She also mentioned taking her parents and John's father with them, to which John replied that Helen deserved better and he knows everything will be done. However, Locke's father is in a nursing home. He was described by his son as a "great father," and after John received his flying license he took Cooper along as his first passenger. This first flight resulted in a horrendous crash that paralyzed John and put his father into a vegetative state. Helen was the one who helped care for Cooper.

When Locke tells Helen he met a spinal surgeon on his flight from Sydney, Helen thought it may be destiny and thinks that John should call him. The next day she overheard John on the phone with Dr. Jack Shephard's office but he hangs up. She was glad John called and wanted to know when he was getting a consultation from Dr. Shephard. Locke confessed that he was fired from the box company. When his case of lost knives was returned, he told Helen to open the case and explained what happened when he tried to go on a walkabout but was not allowed to go. John acknowledged that he knows, she wanted him to go to more consultations about his back and "needed him to get out of this chair," but also shared with her that he doesn't want her to wait for a miracle, because he believed no such thing existed. She replied there are miracles, but assured him that he was the only one she ever needed, and ripped up Jack's business card.

After Locke's hit and run accident, Helen rushed to her fiance's bedside at the  hospital. She thanked Dr. Shephard as the two embraced. It was the miracle that she wanted Locke to have in his life.
 
But when Locke was cured of his paralysis and his memories of his former life were restored, he "moved on" without Helen. And that puts a heartless stab in the "happy ending" staged in the sideways church.

It seems that the sideways world was pure fantasy of Locke: he imagined a loving father and a great fiancee. He reversed the blame for his own injuries by hurting his father and himself in a plane crash. It is the mirror image of what was happening in the island realm.

Helen, which means "shining light" in Greek, was the sole person in the series who could have actually saved Locke from his own inner demons. But Locke rejected her. As a result, we can imagine Helen living a lonely and bitter life just like Locke. It would seem Helen should have been given a better fate.

But she did not have her own after life dream scape. She did not "move on" with her fiancee.  She may not have "moved on" at all. She was merely a fantasy footnote in Locke's dream world. Perhaps the lesson is that Locke did not deserve a woman like Helen because he could not see her great qualities through his twisted anger demons.

LEVELS OF DEATH

There is still a nagging question about the sideways purgatory stinger. First, it came out of left field and led many viewers to question the first season plane crash as being unsurvivable. Second, it clearly stated that all the characters were in fact dead, but some died long before and others long after Jack did. But Jack realized his death in the church before we saw him actually "die" on the island. Third, the story telling vehicle of flashbacks, flash forwards and leaps in time create an uncertainty of WHEN the characters "died."

If death is the ending, when did the characters actually die?

It is not as simple answer.  For those who steadfastly believe that the characters survived the plane crash, then bear in mind in the scheme of LOST universe, the characters were "alive" in their own perception and interaction with people and objects in the sideways world. It was "real" to them, even though they did not realize it was not the Earth existence we know as life.

As such, there is no prohibition that this perception of a sideways "real" life could extend to the island world, or even to each character's flashback or background events.  In other words, LOST may have been a show about death from the very beginning.

I speculated long ago that deep within the background stories of the main characters, there were chilling life and death moments which we were led to believe each character survived. But what if they did not?

No one knows what happens after death. Many cultures believe a human soul must travel through inter-dimensional portals to find paradise. Some religions believe a soul is judged in hell or the various levels of the underworld before it is cleansed or purged of its sins to be worthy for heaven.

The LOST universe could be a construction of various levels or stages of the after life. If during childhood, the main characters were killed by the accidents or traumatic events in their lives, then those child souls could have been given an opportunity to perceive or "live" a new life in a sideways world like existence. Those could be contained in the recent or adult flashbacks; illusions and dreams of children coming to "life." Once those souls ran their course in their first after life level, they were rounded up and boarded Flight 815 for the next level of spiritual attainment, the island. With themes like sacrifice, trust, redemption and judgment, the island is the ideal place for a religious component or a place where lost souls could get rid of regrets or selfish desires in order to move on to the next level of spiritual existence.

It is probably hard to imagine that the characters who boarded Flight 815 in Sydney were already dead. But it does make sense in reference to the season finale in the church. The characters died at different times in different places and they could not move on without finding each other. The whole series then did not have to follow Earth bound concepts of linear time, physics, time or any form of relativity because it was not of this planet.

Now, the show's creators and writers would dismiss this theory as nonsense because they continue to be adamant that the characters did not die in the plane crash. Again, it may be parsing words, but if they were already "dead" before the plane crash, then it would be true that they would not die in the conventional sense in the plane crash on the island.

For example, Locke's "miracle birth" aftermath was actually the beginning of his soul's first life in the after life. It would have been highly improbable that a premature baby injured in a car collision in rural America in the 1950s would have survived the trauma with limited medical technology. This theory is bolstered by the fact that an immortal, Richard Alpert, visited him in the hospital.

Jacob was then not recruiting human beings but lost souls who were given a second chance to live a normal (abet fantasy) life.

It would also explain why Michael, after he left the island, could not kill himself. Mr. Friendly told him that the island was not through with him; he had work to do. A supernatural place was affecting Michael's suicide attempts; therefore, off-island was also a realm of supernatural actions. They could be classified as one in the same. If the island was a place of death then so to would be the off-island.

And then there is the Aaron problem. How could he be "born" twice? He was "born" just as the series ended in the sideways purgatory where everyone present was already dead (but just not aware of it). Aaron was so born earlier on the island. How could that be when the island did not or could not allow births of babies (if the island is hell or the after life that makes sense: who can bring new human life in the after life that is made up solely of souls). So this gets the trace back to Claire and her auto accident which severely injured and ultimately killed her mother. It could have also killed herself and her baby, leading the moments after the accident her first stage in the after life. Since Aaron was never born, he was always a spirit in the show who would manifest himself when Claire needed him.

This levels of death theory tries to unify the various aspects of a disjointed story line under one single premise: death.

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.

DARK MESSENGER

In various religions, messengers from the heavens can be considered good, bad, mischievous or indifferent. The character called Matthew Abaddon fits into all those categories by design or mistake.

He played a hospital orderly, an airline lawyer, a recruiter for the freighter mission, and a chauffeur for Locke in his quest to get the O6 back to the island. It is believed that he was an agent for Widmore who needed to move people "to where they needed to be" like pieces on a chess board.

Chronologically, he was first seen suggesting to Locke (after he was crippled by his father) that he take a "walkabout" in Australia (which he said he had once done) in order to find his "purpose in life." This advice ultimately led Locke to the Island aboard Flight 815.

Later, Abaddon was the recruiter who put together the "science team" for Widmore's freighter crew: Naomi would be the point person, along with pilot Frank, Daniel Faraday, Charlotte and Miles. The alleged purpose of the science mission was to find the wreckage of Flight 815. Abaddon told Naomi that there had been no survivors.

Sometime after the rescue of the O6, Abaddon posed as a representative for Oceanic Airlines when visited Hurley at the mental institution. Hurley had cut himself off from the world. Abaddon coyly asked Hurley if "they" were still alive.  This was done to start the "guilt" process to get Hurley to return to the island.

Sometime later, Abaddon was assigned by Widmore to take Locke around the world to convince the people who had escaped the island to return with him. While Locke's attempts to persuade Sayid, Hurley, Jack or Kate to return to the Island were unsuccessful, Locke remained persistent as they traveled to see  Walt and "to find" Helen his old girlfriend. Locke was taken to Helen's grave.  There,  Abaddon posited that Locke's fate, and his death, may be predestined. Locke argued that he didn't want to die, and if it was predestined then that would remove the choice. Abaddon, ending the conversation, simply remarked "Hey, I'm just your driver." As they were leaving the cemetery, Abaddon was in the midst of a pep speech that Locke should keep going when he was assassinated allegedly by Ben's operatives. Ben would later tell Locke that it was he who had shot Abaddon, who he claimed was "extremely dangerous" and would have tried to kill Locke in due time (but that makes no sense within the story since both Abaddon and Ben wanted Locke to succeed in bringing everyone back to the island.)

In all these situations, Abaddon is surrounded by pain, suffering and death. Many people quickly realized that Abaddon's names comes from the Bible as a reference to "the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, " whose job it is to take souls to their destination in the Last Judgment. Many viewers believe that was Abaddon's  role in the series.

Greek for "destruction" or "the destroyer,"  Abaddon the Angel is pictured as a human sized locust, and is known as the lord of pestilence. The root for "Matthew" in Hebrew is "Gift from God." Additionally, in Hebrew, Abaddon is synonymous for Hell or destruction. Very loosely translated "Matthew Abaddon" can be read as "Gift from the god of hell." Jesus refers to God the Father as "Abba" while "-don" is the first three letters of "donate," which comes from the Latin root for "give." The name of the character in the episode referred to by the press release using the spelling "Matthew Abbadon" might be interpreted "Gift of God/Father Gift."

Abaddon as a dark angel makes sense. His first appearance is after Locke should have been killed from the multiple story fall. If Locke had died, Abaddon may have been "collecting" his soul for a trip to the underworld playground called the Island. MIB called Jacob "the Devil." Dogen called MIB "evil incarnate."  The island was certainly a living hell for those taken to it.

There is a possibility that Abaddon was a version of the smoke monster as ghost Christian was a version of Jacob when Jack was back at the hospital after his rescue. There is no known rule that prohibits either Jacob or the smoke monster from materializing off the island. Jacob had been seen in many places, in LA, Korea and on the freighter. Immortal spirits such as the devil or his dark angels could haunt the living as well as the dead.

Abaddon's character is a strong clue that LOST was more about death than life. It was about dead souls attempting to cope with a journey to their after life reunion in the sideways realm.

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.

NURSING A CONCEPT

It is hard to imagine, but the story lines of LOST contained more than 35 "nurses."  In battlefield medical tents, nurses were called "angels of mercy." They have the difficult job of treating people in difficult to life threatening situations.

There are some interesting patterns with some of them.

Locke's nurse at St. Thomas Hospital where he donated a kidney to Anthony Cooper later showed up as his nurse at St. Sebastian Hospital with Jack. It is odd that a nurse would change hospitals. It would seem that this nurse was "assigned" to follow Locke, to watch over him.

A nurse worked at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute in which Hurley and Libby were institutionalized as patients. When Hurley came back (after being released) to visit Leonard, the nurse would not allow Hurley to see him, as he didn't know Leonard's last name. Eventually Hurley was let in by Dr. Curtis.  This nurse must have been hired after Hurley left because she did not know him. The odd part is that Hurley was good with names, so he would have remembered Leonard's last name.

But the more mysterious nurse was Susie Lazenby, a nurse from a prior episode, "Dave."  She was the nurse who gave medications in the day room to both Hurley and Libby. Was there something important to keep both Hurley and Libby "drugged" to the point where they would not remember each other?

Ayesha was a nurse at the local Tunisian infirmary to which a severely injured Locke was brought to after he turned the FDW.  She was on duty when three men entered carrying Locke. A doctor shouted out loud for her twice while he was treating Locke, but she was unresponsive until another nurse pointed out to her that the doctor was in hurry. When she finally responded to the doctor, Matthew Abaddon  was watching from behind a curtain where she was standing. Abbadon was Locke's orderly after he was paralyzed by Cooper's betrayal. Ayesha was the last person Locke seemed to recognize before losing consciousness.

Debra was a DHARMA nurse who assisted Juliet while operating and caring for a young Ben who was shot by Sayid during the time flash period. She worked with Juliet and later informed Juliet that Kate was there to donate blood for Ben because she was a universal donor.

In the End, Nurse Jean assisted Jack with patient Locke at St. Sebastian Hospital when Locke awakened. Jean's name was said on screen by Jack making her the final named character ever to be introduced on LOST.

In the theme of Life and Death, nurses as angels can be powerful symbols. Or they can be sinister agents for powerful forces. For example, in Locke's story his life "ends" when he is thrown 8 stories from a window. As part of his miraculous rehab, an orderly called Abbadon (which is a reference to the devil) imparts wisdom and hope to Locke to continue with his rehab. Abbadon, who is working for Widmore, returns to help Locke gather up the O6 survivors to return to the island. But not after being present when Locke is treated after his time flash. Abbadon and the nurses around him clearly were pushing, guiding and advising Locke on important decisions that Locke had to make in order to survive.

I also think nurse Susie Lazenby was carrying on exterior motives by being the one medicating both Hurley and Libby. She could have been an operative to keep Hurley or Libby from remembering their past or their future (see prior post about the sideways world being first in actual time).  Who would suspect a nurse who has an oath to help patients, actually dispensing drugs to keep souls in the state of darkness, despair, illusion or depression? It is the perfect cover to control, manipulate and brain wash patients.

Perhaps young Ben learned these manipulation techniques when he was shot by Sayid. Kate took on the role of being an angel of mercy by donating blood to save Ben's life. Juliet, knowing what Ben would become in the future, decided that her own personal feelings and desire to kill the monster called Ben in 2004 had no place in 1977. It was one of those ethical puzzles with no clear answer.

If one thinks the series was an dreamy after life state where the characters had to sort through various ethical, moral, immoral and judgmental decisions, the nurses weaved into the stories could be the good messengers to the dark forces trying to manipulate lost souls. And it was the various choices, changes of direction and final decisions in the maze of series events led the main characters to the sideways church reunion, all with some contact to a nurse sometime during the series.