CULT OF THE GODS

One of the main background themes to LOST was the temple and the clear Egyptian artwork that told the stories of Death and the Afterlife.

In ancient Egypt, it was believed that a person's soul would travel a dangerous journey through the underworld. It would be tested and a final judgment would be made if it would reunite with a body in heaven. It was said that the soul would be weighed against a feather by the god of the underworld. If the soul was heavy with sin, then the soul would be condemned to hell.

So Egyptian kings and queens and royals were buried in elaborate tombs and temples to "help" them on their afterlife journey. They were buried with gold and jewels to bribe ferrymen across the River Styx. They were buried with food and wine to sustain their souls on the journey. They were at time buried with their servants who would serve and protect them.

Egyptian rulers believed that they were gods from the stars. That there final place was to return to the heavens.

There are some who believe that there may be more truth in that myth.

The ancient Egyptians built thousands of years ago the largest free standing masonry structures in the history of the planet. Massive stone blocks were moved, placed and perfectly aligned to the stars. In modern times, the largest stone supported skyscraper was 10 stories. In ancient Egypt, it was 23 stories. Modern engineers still do not know how ancient people with stone and bronze chisels could move and lift 10 ton blocks to create the massive pyramids. Even with today's heavy industrial equipment and cranes, it is doubtful that we could achieve such structures.

So the mystery of how the pyramids were constructed is joined in the religious attributes of its creators. If the ancient kings were in fact aliens from another planet with advanced technology to move large stones with ease (which would show their great power and "magic" over the human race), then our own perception of history would be false.

Beyond Egypt, there were other ancient cultures who built massive pyramid structures in harsh climates and locations. Those ancient engineers also had a detailed and accurate grasp on astrophysics and hydrodynamics to built temples and water systems which could sustain a population of more than 50,000 (which is a huge amount in ancient times).

One explanation is that our ancient forefathers were a lot smarter than we think they were. We, today, think we have the most knowledge and savvy because of our own education, experience and accomplishments. But our ancient relatives were more tuned to nature and its properties since they were more dependent on direct interaction with nature than we are today in a our processed economies. After more than tens of thousands of years of trial and error, our forefathers could have developed technology to move large stones with ease - - - something completely lost on us today.

This is not as far fetched as you might believe. In the dark middle ages, much of human knowledge was lost (it was kept alive by monks writing manuscripts). Much of the great ancient inventions were lost in the great fire of the Library of Alexandria.  Those inventions may have included the first computer, navigation devices, the first automatic door and water fountains. Recall, inventors around the time of the Roman empire were magicians who entered the royal courts with fancy machines and usual feats of mechanical engineering. Leonardo had concepts of flying machines and modern tanks.

So ancient temple priests may have been the magicians of their time because they had superior knowledge. Knowledge equated to power. While much of human thought was harnessed in order to create the next superior weapon for conquest and defense (which is even true today), such knowledge could have been applied to solve the mysteries of life after death.

The pyramids could have been the launch pads for the exploration into outer space. Observation decks to the heavens or portals (physically or metaphysically or interpretive) would have been the quest of the powerful rulers who wanted "immortality" as their legacy.  All major religions believe in some form of afterlife. The ancient Egyptians may have tried to find the pathway to the afterlife and bring it into their present.

Likewise, LOST's island could have been a metaphor of the quest for the pathway to immortality. A weigh station along the underworld journey of lost souls trying to reach a final judgment; to release the burdens, sins and regrets attached to their human souls. The guardians of the island were like the cults of kings who oversaw the graves and temples of ancient Egyptian rulers. They stood guard over the buried souls so the living could not disturb the dead's journey. In the LOST story line, "outsiders" like Widmore wanted to come to the island to disrupt the guardians and to take the island's power to their present. It is that grave robber dynamic that pushed the guardians, including Jacob, to recruit his own army of "followers" (including the 815 castaways) to defend the island against the likes of Widmore and his kind.

INCARNATE

Every major religion has a creation myth that has elements of gods creating human beings on Earth. Several religions also believe that once a person dies, their spirit will be reincarnated into another person (or form).

The ancient Egyptians had a complex view of reincarnation. Their belief system is founded on two gods coming to Earth to begat mankind. The subsequent Pharaohs were believed to be the reincarnated souls of those original gods. Since they were gods, Pharaohs ruled with impunity.

But the incarnate god was not reserved just for royalty. The Egyptians believed that when a person died, his "ba," the spirit associated with one's character and personality, leaves the body to find a new vessel in which to be reborn. The souls of the departed continue to return to new bodies for an infinite cycle.

There have been several research papers on the subject. Scientists interviewed various people from different parts of the globe who claimed to have remembered clear details of their past lives. Scientists then would take this information and try to independently verify the recalled facts. In several instances, researchers concluded that the interviewees remembered things that they could have not known (personal information, names of relatives, phone numbers, houses, etc) that were not accessible to them in the present time.

There has always been a puzzle when reproduction happens in people. When the egg and sperm fuse, historically it was said there is a "spark of life," some form of energy which gives rise to fertility to the newborn. Theorists think that spark of energy may be a soul that the fuels the rebirth of a spirit.

On the other extreme, in the realm of B-movie sci-fi, science knows of all the elements of a human body, its chemical composition and structure. In theory, what is missing from the base elements is a form of electrical current that makes the human organs (including brain) function. In Frankenstein, the mad scientist uses lightning bolts to jump start "life" in a corpse. This "re-animation" is different than reincarnation since the former tries to re-use the old vessel to bring back a person's life.

It is not as far fetched as one would assume since emergency room personnel routinely revive cardiac arrest patients with electric stimulation. But in the re-animation world, it is assumed that the brain functions as a storage device for all memories, personality, speech, etc like a turned off hard drive. Turning the brain back on would revive that person's personality.

But the Egyptian view would say no. The dead person's character and personality is not located in the brain but in the spirit (or soul) of the individual. And once the person dies, their soul leaves the body so re-animation will not work.

In the Egyptian dead scrolls, it is said that the deceased spirits have to journey through the underworld to be judged before being reborn. And since one spirit can be reborn more than once, the journey could be fraught with danger.

In LOST, the island could be a representative underworld where souls travel to begin their journey to the after life. This would explain why certain characters, Mikhail Bakunin, could apparently die over and over again on the island. It could also explain how Desmond survived the Swan station implosion to be found naked wandering around the jungle (symbolic "reborn.")

One of the story principles in the series was giving the characters "a second opportunity" in life. Reincarnation would be a means to give a person (especially a tortured soul like Locke) a new beginning, a new life.

AN ENDLESS BATTLE

One of the layers themes of LOST was akin to sibling rivalry.

We begin with the LOST mythology of using a waking eye. It is said to have symbolized an ancient Egyptian god.  The Eye of Horus was a powerful protective symbol, and represents the eye of the god Horus that was injured in a fight with the god of chaos, Set.  This battle was for control of the underworld from the god Osiris. 

Jacob and his brother were locked in a battle for the island. Jacob agreed to protect it, while his brother demanded to leave with the outsiders. But Crazy Mother said Jacob's brother could not leave. He killed her, then Jacob caused his brother's demise - - - and creating an eternal monster called The Man in Black, or a smoke monster. At some point there was a truce; and then a odd game between themselves using humans as pawns.

Then there was the battle of control over Dharma. Horus was challenged by Ben, who sided with the native Others. Ben used mass murder to overthrow Horus and eliminate any outsiders.

There were several rivalries around Jack. First, Jack had a rivalry between his father. His father's lack of interest or acceptance of Jack gnawed on his son. Second, Jack had a rivalry with Locke over the direction of the survivor's camp. Locke wanted to embrace the island. Jack wanted to find a means of leaving it. (The theme of mirroring as in the Jacob-MIB dynamic). Jack wanted the camp to move to the fresh water caves, but Sawyer, another rival, did not. And when Kate stayed on the beach with Sawyer, Jack had to suffer his first leadership defeat.

There were other personal battles. Desmond battled Widmore for Penny's affection. Hurley battled his own personal demons, including his "imaginary friend" Dave, for his own soul. Then there was Locke's rise to power in the Ben's Other's camp. The test was whether Locke could kill his father to become the leader. He could not, but since the Others had grown weary of Ben's tyranny, Alpert gave Locke a loophole to become king of the island.

So LOST could be viewed as a series of vignettes about two people butting heads. Stubbornness, anger, bruised egos, headstrong demands, illogical actions . . . . those were several key traits from the main characters draw out by the conflict between themselves.

X-FILES REVIEW

The X-Files ran on Fox TV for 9 years, ending in May, 2002. It returned to the small screen after a 13 year hiatus through the work of the original creator, Chris Carter, and the original cast.

It started as a cult hit then morphed into a cultural phenomenon. The government conspiracy theories of the show's mythology hit a cord in the public, and spawned other science-fiction series and "alien" speculative shows that congregate today on the History Channel.

So I wanted to believe that the show re-boot could be well made. However, I did not have high expectations because the show leveled out and then faded away with answers to most of the big questions that the show runners had posed early on in the series.

By the end of the series it was revealed that a stealth group of men, The Syndicate, acted as the  liaison between mankind and a group of extraterrestrials that intends to destroy the human species. They were usually represented by "The Smoking Man," a ruthless killer, masterful politician, negotiator and the series' principal antagonist. As the series went along, Mulder and Scully learn about evidence of the alien invasion piece by piece. It is revealed that the extraterrestrials plan on using a sentient virus, known as the "black oil,"  to infect mankind and turn the population of the world into a slave race. The Syndicate—having made a deal to be spared by the aliens—have been working to develop an alien-human hybrid that will be able to withstand the effects of the black oil.

In between that main story arc, FBI agents Mulder and Scully went on paranormal and monster investigations of strange cases. Scully, a physician, was skeptical at first but slowly turned as she started to not being able to explain away conflicting scientific evidence. It was the chemistry between the two main characters that made the original show very good.

But in the re-boot premiere, there was no real chemistry between the main actors. David Duchovny went on monotone rapid fire speeches and Gillian Anderson looked tired and wooden in her performance. The only believable actor was John McHale's protrayal of a conservative conspiracy nut who has made a personal fortune out of poking a stick at government shadows. It is through McHale's character's television show connections that Mulder resurfaces from his apparent Unibomber retirement existence, while Scully is working with surgeons at a hospital who correct rare birth defects in children.

Part of the problem of the premiere was the forced writing to bring a new audience up to speed with the 9 years of past episodes between the main characters. It did not work.

The main reason Mulder and Scully are re-united in a new investigation is to meet a young woman named Sveta, who claims to have fragmented memories of having her fetuses stolen from her during her alleged alien abductions. She hints that Mulder had interviewed her and her family before, but may not have believed her. If she does possess alien DNA, Mulder asks Scully to run a DNA test.

 Later, McHale's character, O'Malley,  takes Mulder to a secret location where human aircraft built from alien technology is being housed by the next generation of the Lone Gunmen, but with much more resources and capital. Mulder is amazed by the alien spacecraft replica that runs on "free" energy and can disappear/teleport. We are led to believe that this is what the bad guys are after.

During her medical examination, Sveta makes several observations which allude to Scully's strained relationship with Mulder, making her uncomfortable. She remarked at one point that it was very difficult for her to contact Mulder, who appears to be living underground in some state of echo paranoia.  There is a throw-a-way line from Sveta that infers that Mulder and Scully had a child. When the test results on Sveta's blood come back, Scully orders it re-examined but we don't know why. Later, Scully herself takes a blood test to check herself.

Because of what O'Malley has shown him, Mulder comes to believe that he and Scully had been misled all along during their original career with the X-Files. Mulder's suspicions are confirmed when he with the old doctor from the Roswell crash site. Mulder tells him that he believes that alien technology was used on people and made to look like aliens had done so. He also outlines a global conspiracy involving hoarding and testing alien technology to prepare for an attack on America. The old man tells him he is close to the truth.

Following these revelations, Mulder begins to doubt his belief that aliens are the primary force behind the global conspiracy against humanity, but is instead a group of violent ultra-fascists armed with alien technology attempting to subvert democracy and assume power over the United States and then the Earth. He rattles off a list of government intrusions into America's private lives, liberty and constitutional rights since 9/11 (all done for "national security") plus the "distraction" of many different wars across the globe.

However, at a meeting Scully lies to Mulder and Sveta about the DNA test results. She states that she found no alien DNA. This puts a major hole in the hole conspiracy evidence chain. It unravels Mulder's entire theory.

Before O'Malley can go public with his claims, there is a counter strike: O'Malley's website is shut down, Sveta goes on TV to tell the world that O'Malley is a liar and a fraud, the replica space ship and scientists are killed by men dressed in military uniforms, and a UFO stops then destroys Sveta's car, seemingly with her inside. Mulder and Scully meet in a dark parking garage and Scully reveals that she has alien DNA, just like the girl O'Malley introduced to them. Mulder states that she is the key to exposing the testing and those responsible.

The episode ends revealing the Smoking Man, cancer having taken his throat,  alive in the present day, stating that the FBI unit, the X-Files,  has been re-opened to apparently re-start an investigation into his sinister group.

It is okay to manipulate and twist the main character into doubting his old past into a new conspiracy direction, but the premiere did it too swiftly and awkwardly to make us truly want to care about what is about to happen. By turning the original premise that aliens were coming to Earth to set the stage for a global invasion and world enslavement on its ear may not sit well to original fans by now claiming that the aliens are not the enemy but a band of human Illuminati taking alien technology to rule the world.

For the first part of the premiere, it was underwhelming. The second part of the premiere needs to bring back the action and clever writing between the main characters or the short series will turn into a very bad relationship counseling session between two old, tired and uninteresting main characters.

WHEN YOU CAN'T SLEEP

There is a Japanese legend that states that if you cannot fall asleep it means that you are awake in another person's dream.

How interesting.

LOST had several key trigger words or concepts: awakening, dreams, alternative reality, changes in time and space.

But what is a better representation of an alternate reality or change in time and space than dreams?

Even another person's dreams that affects you.

It is not that the person who cannot sleep knows about, or controls the other person's dream. It is probably the exact opposite. When one tosses aimlessly trying to get to sleep, you are restless and not in a dream state. It is like the actual dreamer has pulled the mechanism for your dreams, your subconscious REM dream state, from you to power their vivid imagination with your appearance, words, character and personality.

Would this be a dream thief in action?  No, because they are not "your" dreams since you are still awake.

The idea that a heavy, deep thinking dreamer can attach their mental thought waves to other people to harvest and extract "better" more lucid dreams is a fascinating collision of philosophy and science fiction.

Through the series, we rarely saw any of the main characters actually sleeping. They were constantly on the move, in day light and at night. And over time, they did look tired. Their mental faculties were low. (How many times did we complain that the characters failed to ask basic questions to people coming back from a mission?) The island characters were the ones who were sleep deprived for a reason.

It still could be associated with a Dharma experiment on weaponizing dreams for the military. Or it could be that the stress levels and electromagnetic properties of the island interfered with anyone getting REM sleep (the biological basic need to rest and recharge one's internal batteries). Prolonged non-sleep can make people forgetful, irritable, and psychotic.  

But what does the original legend mean?

It may be a philosophical means to explain how being awake can be expressed on different levels of reality. Being in another persons dream for example can simply mean that person has interest in you or it can actually be a theoretical idea that you exist many different places at once.

In LOST, we presume that the main characters were in two different places (island world and the sideways plain of existence) at the same time. The sideways people could not "remember" their island pasts until "they were awakened."  Since the sideways world was the after life, it could be equated that the main characters were "restless ghosts" who could not come to terms with their pasts. 

Or it could mean that in each person, we have many people: we have our biologic human form that is transfixed to this planet. We may also have a spiritual form which rests inside our body, but it can be released into a different plain of existence. Perhaps, people whose "soul" has left their living body are suddenly defenseless against the temptations and evil urges that plague mankind. 

In the sideways world, the characters did not reunite with their bodies. Their souls "remembered" their past - - - their island past and their friendships, the missing pieces in their lives.  

A HERO'S JOURNEY

The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development.  It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.

Its stages are:

1.        THE ORDINARY WORLD.  The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

2.        THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.  

 

3.        REFUSAL OF THE CALL.  The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly.  Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

4.        MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.  The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.

5.        CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.  At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.  

6.        TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.  The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.

7.        APPROACH.  The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.

8.        THE ORDEAL.  Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life. 

9.        THE REWARD.  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death.  There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.

10.      THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

11.     THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.

12.       RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.  The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

LIFE

The age old question is "when does life begin?"

Politically, this question has been hijacked in the abortion debate (which itself was a very early, fleeting theory that the childlike behavior of the main characters showed that they were not really adults but kids projecting themselves as adults in a fantasy world - - - one created because these characters were actually souls of aborted babies who never had a chance to live a life.)

But this is not a post about family planning (if anything, LOST was the anti-family planning show with unplanned pregnancies, abusive parents, foster care, etc.)  

What is life?

 Life is defined as the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death; living things and their activity.

A person's life is existence; either of the two states of a person's existence separated by death (as in Christianity and some other religious traditions) or any of a number of successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated (as in Hinduism and some other religious traditions).

As LOST was not a religious show, more a secular mash-up of Western and Eastern philosophies with a heavy dose of ancient Egyptian death rituals, we should avoid defining life as merely a religious context.

At the base level of all life is this simple formula which I have developed over the years:

The purpose of life is to gather, store and consume energy.

All organisms, plants, animals, humans fit into this simple formula. How each life form goes about gathering its energy needs and resources are the variables in life.

Higher life forms like mankind think about the basic needs in more complex ways. To distinguish themselves from dumb animals, man has created his own mythology about creation, life and death. It was to explain the unexplainable. It was to comfort those against the impending losses (since everyone is born with a death sentence.) It was to create a greater purpose and foster hope for an unlimited future. 

The fundamental purpose of life to pass on one's own life to the next generation. That is the cycle of renewal that most people understand and can fully grasp. It is the belief structure upon death that separates the believers from the non-believers.

Some may think that our existence on Earth is merely an embryonic state in which, like a larva turns into a butterfly (releasing a soul) upon the death stage to the after life. Others believe that man is just a chemical factory of complex neurons that returns to its inert, organic state to be renewed by other organisms. 

LOST is more hopeful than that. At least the main characters found a way to another level of existence in the sideways world. Even if it was purely a dreamlike fantasy after death, where a person's own memories fuel an everlasting loop of dreams, that is still better than chemical decomposition theory.

But what is missing is clear: life still needs to be lived. Lived to the fullest. The LOST characters were anchored in misery by their own regrets and failures. They failed to use their own mistakes, failures and faults to become better human beings. Being better people would have made them happier, fulfilled and loved. They would not be bitter loners just waiting for the end. They would have cherished their moments with their loved ones so as not to care about the end.

Life was described as a bowl of cherries, which sometimes contains the pits. It is navigating around the pits that makes life worthwhile.

BLACK & WHITE

It was a simple analogy: black and white.
It meant there are two things in the world: darkness and light.
It also means that the two represent many things, like good vs. evil; moral vs. immoral; trust vs. distrust; caring vs. apathy; friendship vs. enemy.

When you look at Locke's face above, you notice that he is scarred above and below his right eye. In Egyptian mythology, the Eye of Horus was a scar on the left eye of a sky god. In one story, Set and Horus fought over the throne after Osiris' death. Set gouged out Horus' left eye, which was restored by the magic of Thoth, the moon god. So the dark piece could be the moon and the light piece the sun, Ra, the most powerful god who had to traverse the dangerous underworld each night.

For the left eye of Horus represented "protection, royal power and good health."

But since it was a mirror image on Locke's face, would it represent the opposite?
"Insecurity, servitude and poor health."

In many ways, insecurity, servitude and poor health was Locke.  He was clearly insecure in his own self, his skill set, his dreams and his handling his own expectations. He thought of himself as a great man, but never had the drive to be his own boss or leader. He was boxed in various meaningless tasks like a clerk at a box company, or a pest control specialist. And his poor health, his disability, was direct result of mistrusting his con man father and his inability to defend himself.

In many ways, Locke was set up from the very beginning to be the series Fall Guy. He would never be the true leader. He would never have any true power over other people. And he would not live a happy or healthy life.  He embodied the dark fears of most people's subconscious. Even when things are going well, there is a hint of pending doom, despair or questioning in the back of one's mind. "This has to be too good to be true."  Self-doubt at times turns into real doubt on the road to failure.

It is ironic that Locke was trying to teach Walt, a young black child who had no mother and a stranger as a father, the symbolism of backgammon. Walt would wind up with a better fate than most island castaways: he would find some security with his grandmother, he would have a chance to control his own future, and he was in good health the last time Locke saw him. The time Locke could have tried to convince Walt to give up his new life and return to the island with him. But Locke did not even try to convince Walt to return to the island. It really was the clearest black and white decision Locke ever made in the show.

THE QUEST

In all great historical stories and myths, there is a difficult quest that the main character must endure in order to find his answers.

A quest is a long or arduous search for something important.

In the series, various characters were looking for answers but few were truly on a quest.

Locke was an angry, lonely child - - - bounced from foster home to foster home. He had no father. He had a crazy mother. He longed to be popular, but his intelligence outcast him to the geeky group in school. Throughout his life, he turned away from applying his natural talents in order to chase the illusion of grandeur of the high school jock, or adventurous outback hunter. In the show, Locke continued on his fantasy illusion, not finding answers but running into the same societal judgments and roadblocks that angered him so.

Sayid was also an angry child - - - having to do the dirty work for his older brother. He was the one who became tormented by family honor to become a self-hating soldier. He knew he could not fit into normal society because his training had created a monster within him. He ran away from his homeland, feebly chasing a vision of his dream girl, but only to wind up in a miserable place with people weary of his background and his purpose.

Sawyer was also an angry child - - - having his parents killed by a con man's greed set him on the path of revenge. Finding the man who ruined his life became an obsession that ruined Sawyer's own life. Instead of learning from the experience, he became what he hated most: the con man. In the show, Sawyer never changed his self-preservation mode.

Most people believe the LOST mythology best suits Jack. Jack was a child who wanted the attention and admiration of his father. But he never got it. This void motivated Jack to become a miracle worker surgeon. And that got nothing from his father but criticism. So when his father died suddenly, Jack had no means to get the acknowledgement from his father. He was lost in his own psychic pit of growing despair. It was on the island that Jack chased the ghost Christian to find an answer to the hole in his heart. But in the end, the long journey led Jack not to an answer, but to a cruel, unfortunate death. There was no grand revelation. There was no grand moment of enlightenment.

It does not fit the classic pattern as used in Star Wars. Luke is also a lonely child, his parents gone. He is living on a desert planet doing mindless work. He has no prospects and has no adventure if he stays on his home world. But once his family is killed, he is set on a course to fight against the tyranny of the Empire. He joins forces with an old wizard and slowly learns the way of an ancient religion, to grasp and combine with the Force to defeat his enemies. Along his journey, Luke meets up with a cast of misfits, royalty and evil masters - - - so he has to confront danger, and defeat it in order to protect the people he cares about. Luke overcomes his sparse upbringing to become an enlightened Jedi Knight.

Jack's journey does not have all the elements of Luke's. Jack is not transformed into an enlightened individual. He would have met up with his father in the after life no matter what happened to him on the island. The people in the church were people he knew from the island, but they did little to mold him into a better person (some would say his island experience threw him into deeper darkness and despair). And what did Jack find in the end? The anti-climatic twist was that he was dead, everyone was dead, and it was time to "move on."

MYTHS OF DEMI-GODS

In Greek mythology and other cultures, there are stories about the heavenly gods coming down to Earth to mess with the human population. Sometimes, these gods mate with human females, creating a hybrid off-spring which other gods try to eliminate. These demi-gods have half human and half-god like traits. They may have magical powers, but still be mortal.

Under the background of these stories, the off-spring are usually hidden away from the gods in order to protect them from destruction. Sometimes they are banished by the gods to a faraway place so their mere presence will not upset the gods' rule over humanity. At times, these off-spring are cursed by the gods so they could have no human interaction, such as the ability to turn men into stone.

As such, these stories may be relevant to the island guardian. The ones we have seen, like Crazy Mother and Jacob, appear to be immortal, with magical powers but yet have the ability to die under certain circumstances.

Perhaps, the initial island guardian was a demi-god, banished to this remote island. One of its magical powers is the ability to turn human beings into smoke monsters. With the essence of human souls trapped in smoke form, they would be trapped on the island prison with their host, the demi-god.

We saw the smoke monster take many human forms. However, that does not eliminate the possibility that there were more than one smoke monster on the island. The whispers, the trapped souls who have no physical form, may be like cloaks that a smoke monster absorbs in order to create a human form.

What damage does one do by banishing a supernatural being to a deserted island to live their eternity alone? You try to find loopholes in order to bring things to the island "for play." Jacob was all about playing games; and his manipulation of Alpert to Ben Linus was all a part of an elaborate game that Jacob made up the rules as it went along. In one way, this may be a childlike game of "tag." Jacob was looking to find a person to be "it," the new guardian, so his prison sentence or banishment would be over.

STAR CHILDREN

In the lore of Native American people, there is creation story about their ancestors being star children. It goes that mankind was created from beings from the stars. As such, they believed that one day they would return.

The concept of children of the stars can be adopted to the LOST mythology.

If you break a part the main story periods, pre-Flight 815, post crash and the sideways arc, you can get a formula for the native legend.

We must assume that the events in the flashbacks were true, that the main characters lives as represented in the story. The issues, personalities, crimes, emotional problems, etc. were all part of each individual.

We know that the sideways arc was the after life. Everyone in that plane of existence was dead, but remembering their past lives seems cloudy or confused. Most of the characters actually were living separate and distinct "new" lives such as Jack, as being amicably divorced from Juliet, and being a father.

So what is the in-between state? The island may represent the transition between life and death. A level of existence where both body and soul are in the journey of dying, perhaps along the analogy of the ferryman carrying souls across the River Styx, for a price. Flight 815 was that ferry.

If the island was a world of semi-life and semi-death, the process of removing mortality to immortality, the island setting is that bridge. The characters became "star children" because in order to migrate to the universe of pure souls, they had to work out their earthly human issues and become better, content souls.

And as "children" on the island, they acted like children. That would help explain the inconsistent behavior, the lack of common sense, the elementary school soap opera romances, the "war games" in the school yard, and the fantasies that kids would like to act out.

The characters needed the island and its events to release the baggage of their past lives so their souls were properly prepared for the white light of the stars.

WHAT WE KNOW

Diagrams are useful tools to express ideas and alternatively, to try to find answers to complex problems.

One of the great mysteries of the series was the island. We know a lot about the island, but we really don't know a lot of important information about the island.

Using Jacob as the focal point, I began to draw the above diagram. We know that Jacob was the central authority on the island during the 815 era. We know that he was brought to the island by Roman shipwreck. He was kidnapped by Crazy Mother, who at the time was the central authority on the island. Jacob and his brother lived together with Crazy Mother on the island.

One thing we do know is that the island is hard to find, even with the most advanced technologies. Therefore, the island is a "closed" system. It has a special barrier that limits who can ingress or egress its boundaries.

During the family feud, Jacob's brother killed Crazy Mother, and then Jacob killed his brother (which was strictly forbidden). As a result, a smoke monster took the form of his dead brother (MIB). It appears that they were to live alone on the island forever. Jacob was given the role of island guardian, and MIB was given the role of island security dog. But if no one could find the island, their existence would have been futile. Without MIB presence, Jacob probably would have gone mad in isolation (which was probably what happened to Crazy Mother).

We know that the unique energy of the island is contained in the heart of the island, which equates to some kind of "life force." The light source was described as "life, death and rebirth." The context of this description is that the heart of the island is the heart of the universe - - - the creator of all life and the religious recycler of all death into new life.

So we know the importance of the island as it houses the power to create life, destroy life and re-create life.

To save his own sanity, Jacob decided to bring "candidates" to the island in order to a) play a game or b) experiment with human behavior to prove a point to MIB. We know that deep inside MIB's memories is the strong desire to "escape" the island (as Jacob's brother did), so MIB played along with Jacob's work. MIB's support of Jacob bringing people to the island was a mere ploy to learn how to get off the island. If MIB could not directly kill Jacob (as was the rule with his brother), then MIB would use trickery to get one of Jacob's candidates to do it. MIB frustration with the people brought to the island was clear: they would get her, settle in, then devolve into "corruption." From MIB's perspective, corruption could have been worship of Jacob and not plotting his demise. From Jacob's perspective, the people brought to the island did not get the result he secretly wanted: death and release of his responsibilities as Crazy Mother had lured Jacob into thousands of years ago. Even though they did not know it, both Jacob and MIB were looking for the same result but took their own different paths to try to achieve it. This caused a frustrating stalemate.

Since the candidates were brought to the island, they were under the sphere of influence of the heart of the island. We do not observe any intelligent behavior of the light source itself. We do not observe it changing or killing either Desmond or Jack when they went into the light cave to reboot the island. Whether Dez and Jack were marked with immortality earlier by the island is unclear, but whatever they did together did set the stage for the final time of Jacob and MIB.

The light source had to transform the candidates into one of the three categories: giving life, giving death or giving rebirth. We know that all of the candidates and their closest friends were reincarnated in the sideways church world, a place in the after life. The exact process of that reincarnation is unknown. It appears not automatic, as there were several candidates who were either trapped on the island as spirits or never made it to the sideways world.

As a machine diagram, the island looks like it takes through its barrier human souls, experiments with them in order to either remold or change their behavior, then releases them back to their lives, or kills them directly, or gives them rebirth either on or off the island.

SMOKING SOMETHING

The Smoke Monster a/k/a Smokey was a fascinating character.

We really do not know how it was created; what it is made of; how it manifests itself in time and space; or why it is the island's "security system."  We know it is capable of being a shape shifting pillar of smoke with the memories of dead people.

The earliest we see the smoke monster (in island time) is after Jacob kills his brother and the body is thrown into the stream to float into the light cave. A howling smoke monster flies out of the cave opening. Now, do we believe that the fact that Jacob's brother's body "awakened" the smoke monster and its ire, or that Jacob's brother turned into a smoke monster? Well, the latter is probably not true because Jacob buried his brother in a cave with Crazy Mother (whom Locke called Adam and Eve.) So Jacob's brother's body was not transformed into a smoke monster.

We believe that Crazy Mother was a smoke monster. We saw that she destroyed the Roman camp in the same after math as the smoke monster destroying the Barracks when Widmore's soldiers returned to the island. And there are ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs at the temple depicting the smoke monster. So the evidence shows that a smoke monster was on the island prior to Jacob's brother's death.

Since Crazy Mother was a smoke monster, we know that she was killed only after she passed on her "guardianship" of the island to Jacob in a ceremony near the light cave. Once she did that, Jacob's brother stabbed her with a special knife. It is unclear whether she allowed the fatal blow or was defenseless, considering that Sayid's attempt to kill MIB was thwarted by mere words with Flocke.

And was Crazy Mother's ceremony to grant Jacob the knowledge of the island also a transformation of Jacob himself into a smoke monster? It is possible since Jacob did not know about the island's properties - - - just as Jacob transferred his authority to Jack at the last camp fire. But then, Jack would have become a smoke monster. And if Crazy Mother's rules were correct, that smoke beings could not kill each other, then Jack's turning over the guardianship to Hurley (unknown to Flocke) plus Kate's bullet could have killed Flocke.

If one sees the evidence that a smoke monster's shape shifting and memory stealing abilities is tied to engulfing a dead body, then there are more issues to explain. The series does point to the abilities to talk to the dead or read their last memories (Hurley and Miles). The smoke monster must have those same abilities in order to transform itself into dead people.

But there is one problem with the first incarnation. Christian's body was not on Flight 815. The coffin was empty. In the sideways arc, the body arrives weeks later. So if Christian's body was not deposited on the island, then where did the smoke monster get the information to create a Christian body double?  The only logical means would be to read Jack's mind.

But this leads to an uncomfortable detour for some fans. If the smoke monster can only shape shift based upon reading the memories of the dead, then that would mean that Jack was dead on the island. He did not survive the plane crash. Jack was not the only example of a memory swipe to create an illusion on the island. Kate saw her horse in the jungle, but her horse was not on the plane. Then we have Hurley interacting physically with Dave, his imaginary friend. Was Dave on the island another smoke monster manifestation, urging Hurley to kill himself (because he was a candidate)?

We also have the situation of Mr. Eko talking directly to his dead brother Yemi. Yemi was the priest who was captured by the drug smugglers at the airport during a firefight with police. Eko assumed his brother's life. On the island, the smuggler's plane was found - - - with the body of Yemi. Now, it impossible for a small plane to fly from Africa to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Most people believe that the plane crash and Yemi's body were manufactured by the smoke monster. If that is true, then the smoke monster would have had to read Eko's memories - - - again, meaning that Eko died in the plane crash.

The same holds true for Richard Alpert, when he sees his dead wife, Isabella on the island. The first time was when he was in the hold of the Black Rock, as the smoke monster was killing the survivors. The second time was near the end, when he saw her with Hurley near Alpert's special spot (where he buried her jewelry).

If the smoke monster was re-creating persons from the island inhabitants past, what was the reason?

The simple answer is that the smoke monster wanted the people to do something. Ghost Walt stood over the purge grave telling a bleeding Locke to get up because he still "had work to do." Ghost Alex confronted Ben in the temple, scolding him with guilt, to follow everything Flocke (MIB) told him to do (which led to the killing of Jacob.) Ghost Horace told Locke about Jacob's cabin and foreshadowed the danger that island leaders encounter on the island.

The one oddity is that in all the creations of dead people, the smoke monster had the most freedom, interaction and interpretation as Jacob's brother, MIB. In that form, MIB seemed to be an equal with Jacob. MIB called Jacob "the devil." However, in MIB's form, the smoke monster must have fused in Jacob's brother's last strong emotions: to leave the island. MIB's quest for centuries thereafter was to leave the island.  But for no apparent reason, MIB or the smoke monster could not.

Which leads to another problem. When Jack returned to the mainland as an O6 survivor, he found Ghost Christian in the lobby of the medical building. The smoke detector went off, and Jack went to investigate. If this was a shape shifting smoke monster, but not MIB (who could not leave the island), then it had to be Jacob. That would mean Jacob himself was a smoke monster.

The grant of immortality to people on the island by Jacob may have been a ruse of a truth. With Alpert, being dead was itself being immortal. But Alpert did not know his fate so he could be conned into the service of Jacob.

So in all the smoke monsters manifestations, it is not perfectly clear who or what the smoke monster was in every situation. In one sense, the smoke monster was an information gathering machine. In another sense, it was an angry amalgamation of dead souls trapped in an island purgatory. No one can say for sure whether the smoke monster was good, evil or merely confused. It killed both good people, bad people, sinners and followers.

What we can say is that the smoke monster by definition is the visible suspension of carbon or other particles in air, typically one emitted from a burning substance, which some theorists minds would represent carbon (the basis of human life) being burnt in hell.


It could also mean to fumigate, cleanse, or purify by exposure to smoke, which also fits into the underworld judgment theme. It could also mean to  force someone to make something known: as the press smokes him out on other human rights issues, he will be revealed as a social conservative. If this is a character study, then putting the characters under stressful situations to make them change would be a story alternative.

A monster is an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening. This would fit into the illusion themes of the series. It can also be used to describe an inhumanly cruel or wicked person. There were many cruel and evil characters on the show who did not repress their cruelty onto others.

If you put both definitions together, smoke is an description of the main word. One could say the smoke monster is a purifying imaginary creature forcing characters to make something known to themselves. Whether that something is overcoming an inner fear, regrets about relationships or acknowledging their own demise, that could have been the smoke monster's role.

A BELIEF SYSTEM

The finality of LOST has one element that no one can dispute: death.

Everyone was dead in The End.

It is just a question of fact, metaphysical, spiritual or cosmic, when each character actually died.

But they all died.

Then one must ponder if that is the ultimate truth, that everyone dies, what was the show's belief system towards death?

In The End, all major religious symbols were contained in the stain glass. But the series as a whole had no deep moral, right or wrong, punishment for sins or crimes lessons. It had an atheist tone even though there were clear religious themes like faith versus science, etc.

There were three main religious philosophies that were in the series. First, there was a deep connection to the ancient Egyptians. The first great civilization had extremely detailed religious death rituals, embodied in the Book of the Dead and other tomb hieroglyphs. In order for a dead person to reach paradise in the afterlife, the deceased body and soul would be separated upon death. The dead would be reanimated in the underworld, where there would be numerous tests, dangers and conflicts. If at the time of judgment, one's heart weighed less than a feather, that person was fit to move on to the afterlife, to be reunited with its soul in paradise.

The ancient Greeks also had a similar view of the after life. In it, they believed that a dead person's soul would be re-established with speech and movement in the after life realm, where the person would be subject to punishment and purification. After this stage was completed, the dead person would be "reborn" in the realm of the gods.

Then there was the Buddhism-Hindu elements. Buddhism follows the basic Hindu doctrines of reincarnation and karma, as well as the notion that the ultimate goal of the religious life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Buddha asserted that what keeps us bound to the death/rebirth process is desire, desire in the sense of wanting or craving anything in the world. Hence, the goal of getting off the endless wheel of reincarnation necessarily involves freeing oneself from desire.Nirvana   is the Buddhist term for liberation. Nirvana literally means extinction, and it refers to the extinction of all craving, an extinction that allows one to become liberated. Individuals do not possess eternal souls. Instead of eternal souls, individuals consist of a "bundle" of habits, memories, sensations, desires, and so forth, which together delude one into thinking that he or she consists of a stable, lasting self. Despite its transitory nature, this false self hangs together as a unit, and even reincarnates in body after body. In Buddhism, as well as in Hinduism, life in a corporeal body is viewed negatively, as the source of all suffering. Hence, the goal is to obtain release. In Buddhism, this means abandoning the false sense of self so that the bundle of memories and impulses disintegrates, leaving nothing to reincarnate and hence nothing to experience pain. It is imperative that the dying individual remain fully aware for as long as possible because the thoughts one has while passing over into death heavily influence the nature of both the after-death experience and, if one fails to achieve nirvana, the state of one's next incarnation.

The root of Hindu religious beliefs is that one should strive to connect one's self, the Atman, with the Godhead, the Brahman, which is the spiritual source of the material world. Hindus also believe in reincarnation, samsara, and that one is reborn into a station and particular set of circumstances in life depending on one's actions, karma, and duties, dharma, in the previous life.

The goal is join the Godhead and get off the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, which only leads to suffering, because of man's incessant and insatiable desires. In Hindu religious beliefs, there are four ways (yoga = path) of achieving this union:

Jnana Yoga: based on knowledge
Bhakti Yoga: based on service to God
Karma Yoga: based on work for God (ie, not for oneself)
Raja Yoga: based on psychophysical exercise.

In LOST, the light cave force was described as "life, death and rebirth," which parallels the Hindu principles of the after life. LOST was also a bundle of character memories being re-worked or re-ordered which follows a pattern of thought in Buddhism. The ancient Greeks felt that after death, punishment and purification was necessary in order for a soul to move on in the after life. Likewise, the ancient Egyptians believed that there had to be final judgment in order for one's body to be reunited with its soul.

Perhaps the problem with LOST was that it jumbled these religious tenets not create a unified belief system for the show, but only to add a layer of conceptual confusion to the show's premise.

REBOOT EPISODES 105-108

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.
LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 105-108 (Days ????- - ????)

Many writers believe that the aftermath from Juliet's “detonation” of the hydrogen bomb is revealed as the sideways world, as her last thoughts were “it worked,” however, it is clear that the bomb did not explode because Sawyer finds Juliet alive in the Hatch site implosion debris.

Sawyer decides to leave the Temple and Kate follows him, while the  Temple leader, Dogen, tests with a resurrected Sayid and finds him “infected” with the darkness that will turn him into presumably a smoke monster when it reaches “his heart” just like Claire.

Flocke takes Sawyer through the jungle to find answers. Sawyer learns of Jacob’s candidates, including himself, and that the people brought to the island were for Jacob’s purposes.

Hurley convinces Jack to follow him to find Jacob. Jin is forced to watch mad Claire
interrogate an Other, Justin, about the whereabouts of Aaron. Jin lies about where Aaron is (with the Others at the Temple) in order to save his own life.


Science:

Infection and Darkness.

An infection the process of some foreign substance (virus, bacteria, fungal) infecting or attacking the person and his immune system. It can also mean in computing the presence of a virus in, or its introduction into, a computer system, which causes corruption and damage to system files and operations.

Sepsis is a serious medical condition caused by an overwhelming immune response to infection. Chemicals released into the blood o fight infection trigger widespread inflammation.
Inflammation may result in organ damage. Blood clotting during sepsis reduces blood flow to limbs and internal organs, depriving them of nutrients and oxygen. In severe cases, one or more organs fail. In the worst cases, infection leads to a life-threatening drop in blood pressure, called septic shock. This can quickly lead to the failure of several organs --lungs, kidneys and liver -- causing death.
Darkness is defined as:
1.     the partial or total absence of light: the office was in darkness.
• night: they began to make camp before darkness fell.
the quality of being dark in color: the darkness of his jacket.

2.     wickedness or evil: the forces of darkness.
• unhappiness, distress, or gloom: moments of darkness were rare.
• secrecy or mystery: they drew a veil of darkness across the proceedings.
• lack of spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; ignorance: his accomplishments shone in a world of darkness.

It would appear from the Temple explanations, that a person killed on the island may become “infected” by a substance that would turn them into a dark being, one who would lack spirituality or intellectual enlightenment.

Improbabilities:

The “immortal” Jacob being killed by Ben, and turning up to Hurley as a ghost.

A “smoke monster” that can recreate dead people can suddenly become “mortal” as Ilana says that Flocke is “stuck” in Locke’s body after Jacob’s death.

Jacob changing into a form a small child to haunt Flocke in the jungle, reminding Flocke that he cannot kill Sawyer because that would be against the rules.


Clues:

The hydrogen bomb did not explode, because the site wreckage was an implosion. Further, Juliet’s voice is heard by Sawyer and the crew trying to rescue her. Therefore, the Incident was not the bomb going off, but the catastrophic EM release.

The Incident EM release, like the FDW, turned the time travelers back to the present, which may be what Jacob referred to when he said dying, “they’re coming.” They, meaning the 815 “candidates” are the last of his pawn pieces in the game with MIB.

The large wooden ankh symbol in the guitar case represents LIFE in ancient Egyptian mythology. It is a key or passport in the after life journey.

Dead Sayid’s reincarnation at the temple into an evil spirit and follower of MIB may show how MIB acquires his game “pieces” against Jacob.

Jacob’s death somehow imparts “mortality” into the smoke monster that is inhabiting Locke’s body; the only means of leaving the island for the smoke monster is to be in mortal, human form.

Sideways Jack cannot remember his appendectomy that his mother says happened when he was 7 or 8 years old. If one links that information to the lighthouse where Jack says he has not been at since he was a young child and the school yard fight where Jack is severely beaten up, one could make the case that Jack is really just a soul of a 7 or 8 year old child.

Flocke tells Sawyer that everyone was brought to the island by Jacob when Sawyer is shown the cave with the names and numbers. Flocke tells him that Jacob believes himself to be the guardian of the island, but “the joke” is that the island does not need protection. All Flocke wants to do is to “go home.” He asks Sawyer to join him, and he responds “hell, yes.” One can deduce that one of the “rules” is that mortal MIB cannot leave the island “alone.”

Hurley remarks that it is “old school” to trek across the jungle on a mission that they do not understand. It may be a reference to an old school yard game, “follow the leader.” In that children’s game, one person is assigned  the role of leader and the rest are followers.  The leader starts to doing something. He can walk, run, dance, sing, talk or do any activity or combination of activities he wants to do, in any order he wants.

The rest of the players must follow the leader, doing whatever the leader does exactly the way she does it. Anyone who doesn't follow exactly is out of the game.The game ends when only person is left following the leader. That person then becomes the leader of the next game.

There are variations of the follow the leader game. In the relay version, a leader from chosen among the group. The rest of the group breaks into two teams and have each form a single-file line. The leader is sent to the other end of the room or playing field. He instructs the two teams that they are to follow the commands of the leader such as hop, run or skip. The first person in the each line follows the directions of the leader until they reach the leader. Once they reach the leader, they turn around and head back to their team while following the leader's instructions. The first team to have all the members complete the relay wins.

In the Blind Fold version, a simple obstacle course is created for the children to go through using pillows and other soft objects you have around the house. You can also play this outside with your children's toys as the obstacles. Blindfold each child and assign a leader to each kid. Have the leader (the person without the blindfold) guide the blindfolded child through the obstacle course. This game will challenge the children who are blindfolded to trust the leader and learn to listen more than see.

The versions of follow the leader are incorporated into the LOST Jacob and MIB dynamic: they are leaders who tell followers what to do, either directly like telling Hurley in a cab to get back to the island or showing Jack in the lighthouse that he has been spied on since he was a child in order to get him to act on Jacob’s behalf. It also appears that once MIB as Flocke “becomes the leader,” he is somehow fixed in a mortal form, even though he can still change into the smoke monster and attack people like Bram in the statue (which is a major inconsistency in MIB’s eventual demise).



Discussion:

“ The power of man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good. ”
— Thomas Hobbes

“ Travel makes a wise man better but a fool worse. ”
— Benjamin Franklin

“ The past cannot be changed, the future is still in your power. ”
— Hugh White

During the show’s initial run, I took a great deal of time attempting to translate the hieroglyphs in order to glean some premise and meaning in plain sight:

My translation of he glyphs on the pillars that face the spring in the Temple appears to form prayers like passages of a ceremony from a Book of the Dead:

1. In the name of Horus, alas spirit enter. Horus, sacred god father's duties.

2. Horus, enter father's gardens.

3. Stand for father's long past ideas of health (rebirth).

4. Lord father, patron of the Dead, heal for eternities.

5. Lord father.

6. Island Heaven (sacred/magical sign symbol).

7. Enter Horus (Ra).

8. Heaven conspire against evil fires. 

9. Stand Ra. (sacred/magical sign symbol).

My translations of the hieroglyphs in the temple hallway as Hurley searched for the secret passageway:

The first one on his left:
SON WHO MAKES OFFERS (TO) GOD HORUS
The first one on his right:
YOU SAID TO THE MAN: ETERNITY.
The second one on the left:
OSIRIS' YOUTH (SON) HORUS CONTROLS BIRTHS.
The third one on the left, where Hurley stopped and was ready to touch:
The symbol of a coiled rope means ETERNITY and PROTECTION.

In the Lighthouse, the hieroglyphs were hard to read but this my best translation:

I approach the Devine Spirit, Lady Nephthys.

Support the King.

Fetch your Father's (Geb) Support.

Give and justify that which binds the Two Lands after binding the dangerous under ruler scourge.

Destroy Hell's entrails (on the) Island, our Garden.

Nephthys is the patron of the dead, funerals and protector of the house. She is the sister of Osiris and wife of Seth. She helped put together Osiris after Seth's murdered him. She is often depicted on a boat riding with the dead toward the Blessed Land.

Her father, Geb, is the God of the Earth, and a member of the Ennead, the council of the founding gods.

What is the importance of all these translations? Because the show’s creators continually used them in various scenes and important moments of the characters, symbols to help explain (we hope) the action going on in the foreground (such as Ben’s judgment in the Temple wall, meeting the smoke monster, and then Dead Alex).

Clearly, the sets of the final run of LOST invoke and scream ancient Egyptian mythology and belief systems. Such ancient rituals are a mystery to modern Americans, but in many respects are the starting points for most modern religious philosophies.

In the Egyptian pantheon of the living and the dead, there are many characters who serve various purposes; gods who would help the living, and gods who would punish the dead. At some time in the island’s own time line, people brought to the island were deeply moved to build a large temple complex, a huge Tawaret statue and an ancient lighthouse to serve their god(s), which apparently consist of Jacob (as Anubis) and MIB (the smoke monster, as depicted in the mural).

But in this series arc, we see that in the forefront of the Egyptian mythology and magic of the underworld, we have a “contest” between Jacob and his brother. The end for MIB (Flocke) is clear: he wants to leave the island and “go home.” But what is home to a disembodied spirit? Heaven? Hell? Nothingness? So what game are the brothers playing? There are two choices: backgammon or its forerunner, Senet (which we will see them play in later episodes).

A lesson on backgammon (wikipedia):

Backgammon playing pieces are known variously as checkers, draughts, counters,  stones, men, pawns, discs, or chips.

The objective is to remove (bear off) all of one's own checkers from the board before one's opponent can do the same. The checkers are scattered at first and may be blocked or hit by the opponent. As the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches, where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points.

Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points. The points are considered to be connected across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24. Players begin with two checkers on their 24-point, three checkers on their 8-point, and five checkers each on their 13-point and their 6-point. The two players move their checkers in opposing directions, from the 24-point towards the 1-point.

Points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the midpoint.

To start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first using both the numbers shown. If the players roll the same number, they must roll again as the first move can not be a doublet. Both dice must land completely flat on the right hand side of the game board. The players then alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn.

After rolling the dice players must, if possible, move their checkers according to the number of pips shown on each die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (notated as "6-3"), that player must move one checker six points forward, and another or the same checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six. If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, that player must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5-5 that player may move up to four separate checkers forward five spaces each. For any roll, if a player can move both dice, that player is compelled to do so. If players cannot move either die in a roll, given the position of their checkers, then that turn is over and the turn passes to the opponent. If either one die or the other but not both can be moved, the higher must be used. When removing checkers from the board ("bearing off"), the exact roll must be used unless a die is greater than any checker can use to bear off; in that case the die is played by taking a checker from the highest-numbered point off the board. If one die is unable to be moved, but such a move is made possible by the moving of the other die, that move is compulsory.

In the course of a move, a checker may land on any point that is unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker, or "blot". In this case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players simultaneously.

Checkers placed on the bar re-enter the game through the opponent's home board. A roll of 2 allows the checker to enter on the 23-point, a roll of 3 on the 22-point, and so forth. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers on the bar belonging to that player have re-entered the game.
When all of a player's checkers are in that player's home board, that player may start removing them; this is called bearing off. A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so on. A die may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on any higher points.

 For example if a player rolls a 6 and a 5, but has no checkers on the 6-point, though 2 checkers remain on the 5-point, then the 6 and the 5 must be used to bear off the 2 checkers from the 5-point. When bearing off, a player may also move a lower die roll before the higher even if that means 'the full value of the higher die' is not fully utilized. For example, if a player has exactly 1 checker remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and a 1, the player may move the 6-point checker 1 place to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear that checker off the 5-point using the die roll of 6; this is sometimes useful tactically.

If one player has not borne off any checkers by the time that player's opponent has borne off all fifteen, then the player has lost a gammon, which counts for double a normal loss. If the losing player has not borne off any checkers and still has checkers on the bar or in the opponent's home board, then the player has lost a backgammon, which counts for triple a normal loss.

To speed up match play and to provide an added dimension for strategy, a doubling cube is usually used. The doubling cube is not a die to be rolled but rather a marker, in the form of a cube with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 inscribed on its sides, denoting the current stake. At the start of each game, the doubling cube is placed on the bar with the number 64 showing; the cube is then said to be "centered, on 1". When the cube is centered, the player about to roll may propose that the game be played for twice the current stakes. His opponent must either accept ("take") the doubled stakes or resign ("drop") the game immediately. If the opponent takes, the cube, now showing the doubled stake, is moved to the opponent's side of the board. This is done to indicate that the right to re-double belongs exclusively to the player who last accepted a double. Whenever a player accepts doubled stakes, the cube is placed on his side of the board with the corresponding power of two facing upward. If the opponent drops the doubled stakes, he loses the game at the current value of the doubling cube. For instance, if the cube showed the number 2 and a player wanted to redouble the stakes to put it at 4, the opponent choosing to drop the redouble would lose two, or twice the original stake.

The game is rarely redoubled beyond four times the original stake, but there is no limit on the number of redoubles. Although 64 is the highest number depicted on the doubling cube, the stakes may rise to 128, 256, and so on. In money games, a player is often permitted to "beaver" when offered the cube, doubling the value of the game again, while retaining possession of the cube.

A variant of the doubling cube "beaver" is the "raccoon." Players who doubled their opponent, seeing the opponent beaver the cube, may in turn then double the stakes once again ("raccoon") as part of that cube phase before any dice are rolled. The opponent retains the doubling cube. E.g. White doubles Black to 2 points, Black accepts then beavers the cube to 4 points; White, confident of a win, raccoons the cube to 8 points, whilst Black retains the cube. Such a move adds greatly to the risk of having to face the doubling cube coming back at 8 times its original value when first doubling the opponent (offered at 2 points, counter offered at 16 points) should the luck of the dice change.
Some players may opt to invoke The Murphy rule or the "automatic double rule." If both opponents roll the same opening number, the doubling cube is incremented on each occasion yet remains in the middle of the board, available to either player. The Murphy rule may be invoked with a maximum number of automatic doubles allowed and that limit is agreed to prior to a game or match commencing. When a player decides to double the opponent, the value is then a double of whatever face value is shown (e.g. if two automatic doubles have occurred putting the cube up to 4, the first in-game double will be for 8 points). The Murphy rule is not an official rule in backgammon and is rarely, if ever, seen in use at officially sanctioned tournaments.

The Jacoby rule, named after Oswald Jacoby, allows gammons and backgammons to count for their respective double and triple values only if the cube has already been offered and accepted. This encourages a player with a large lead to double, possibly ending the game, rather than to play it to conclusion hoping for a gammon or backgammon. The Jacoby rule is widely used in money play but is not used in match play.

An ancient version of backgammon board game in Egypt was called SENET.

Senet is one of the oldest known board games in the world. It has been found in burial sites of Egypt around 3500 BC. It was one of the most popular games of Egypt. Senet  had become a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. Because of the element of luck in the game and the Egyptian belief in determinism, it was believed that a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon: Ra, Thoth and Osiris. Consequently, Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife and the game is referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead.

The Senet gameboard is a grid of thirty squares, arranged in three rows of ten. A Senet board has two sets of pawns (at least five of each and, in some sets, more, as well as shorter games with fewer). The actual rules of the game are a topic of some debate, although historians have made educated guesses. Senet historians Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell have each proposed their own sets of rules to play the game. These rules have been adopted by different companies which make Senet sets for sale today.
Senet is an Egyptian race game and may be the ancestor of our modern backgammon. We know of this game through ancient Egyption boards that have survived to this day. More than 40 have been discovered, some in very good condition with pawns, sticks or knucklebones still intact. The oldest known representation of Senet is in a painting from the tomb of Hesy (Third Dynasty circa 2686-2613 BCE).

The game board is composed of 30 squares: 3 rows of 10 squares each. If we number each square, the board can be represented like this:

 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

The path of the pawns probably followed a reversed S across the board.

Squares 26 to 30 have symbols on them. We will represent them in order by X, O, III, II and I. It seems that the square with an X, carrying the sign nfr, was beneficial, whereas the one with an O, associated with water, had a negative meaning. Square 15, also called the "square of Rebirth," might have been the starting square.

Other elements found with the game boards were pawns. The Hesy painting shows a game with seven pawns for each player. Then, some time after 1600 - 1500 BCE, the players were represented with seven or five pawns. Some games have even been found with ten pawns per player.

The movement of pawns was probably decided by the throw of four, two-sided sticks (as depicted in the Hesy painting) or, later, knucklebones might have been used to determine the moves.

What was the function of Senet? A game or something more? In his book, Lhôte notices that the first pictures show two human players whereas later the human player is depicted alone with an invisible opponent. It appears that Senet began as a simple game and later acquired a symbolic, ritual function.
Of course, the original rules of Senet are not known. No record of the rules on papyrus or tomb wall has ever been discovered. It is very difficult to reconstruct the game through the pieces and the tomb images.

A summary of Timothy Kendall's work on the reconstruction of the rules of Senet :

At the beginning of the game the seven pawns per player alternate along the 14 first squares. The starting square is counted as the 15th. In the oldest games this square featured an ankh, a "life" symbol. The pawns move according to the throw of four sticks or, later, one or two knucklebones. When using the sticks the points seemed to have been counted from 1 to 5: 1 point for each side without a mark and 5 points if the four marked sides were present together.

        When a pawn reached a square already occupied by an opponent pawn, they have to exchange their positions.

        The special squares have the following effects on play:

    15 : House of Rebirth, starting square and the return square for the pawns reaching square number 27.
    26 : House of Happiness, a mandatory square for all the pawns.
    27: House of Water, a square that can be reached by the pawns located on squares 28 to 30 which moved back when their throws did not allow them to exit the board. They have to restart from square 15.
    28 : House of the Three Truths, a pawn may only leave when a 3 is thrown.
    29 : House of the Re-Atoum, a pawn may only leave when a 2 is thrown.

        The winner is the first to move all of their pawns off the board.

Another version of the rules was proposed by RC Bell.

Each player has 10 pawns. Four two-sided sticks (one side painted) are thrown to determine movement.

When only one painted side is visible : 1 point.
With two : 2 points.
With three : 3 points.
With four : 4 points.
With none : 5 points.

        At the beginning of the game there are no pawns on the board.

        Each player in turn throws the sticks, and puts his pawns on the board on the squares with the symbols I, II, III, X, O according to the number of points thrown. Only one pawn may be present on each square. So if a pawn is already present the turn is lost.

        A player may either move one pawn or add a new pawn to the board, if possible, with each throw. The pawns located on the marked squares are in shelters.

        Pawns may not be stacked. When a pawn arrives on a square already occupied by an opponent pawn, the opponent is removed and must restart from the beginning. This rule does not apply for the marked squares which are shelters.

        The first pawn to reach square number 1 earns a bonus of five points and it fixes the goal of the game: that player's other pawns have to reach odd squares whereas the opponent must reach the even squares. The game ends when the pawns of the two players are alternately placed on the first and second rows.

        When a pawn has reached its last square, it cannot be attacked.
        The first player to have put all his pawns on his own squares wins the game and earns 10 points. He also gets one point for each move his opponent makes while placing all of his remaining pawns.

Senet is played in a LOST the episode in Season Six called “Across the Sea.”  It depicts the origins of the characters of  Jacob and his brother, MIB, and how they came to be on the island. It also reveals the identities of the corpses discovered in the cave in "House of the Rising Sun".

The backgammon game, referenced by Locke to Walt early in the show, as a struggle between black and white is reference to Jacob and MIB. And the roll of the dice (in some gambling parlance “bones”) moves men around the board. The basic doubling numbers include the Numbers 4, 8, 16, which correspond to Locke, Reyes and Sayid.

Other candidate numbers for the doubling cube (with names lined through meaning dead or taken out of the game):

2 - Lacombe, probably from Rousseau’s expedition
32- Rutherford, probably Shannon
64- Goldstein, unknown
128- Paddock, unknown
256- unknown

The other unlined or “live” game pieces are Reyes (8) Sawyer (15), Sayid (16), Jack (23), Jin (42), Kate (51). Sayid is infected and should be crossed off like Claire (313). Kate was crossed off by Jacob because “she was a mother” caring for Aaron, but on her return she could have been reinstated - - - possibly unknown to MIB who does not think she can kill him anymore - - - which is a fatal assumption (Jacob’s loophole, perhaps).

It could be as simple as the entire island game is merely a game of senet in the Underworld against Osiris's evil brother, Seth! If you win, your ba-spirit will attain immortality, as well as the ability to "go forth by day" and to take on any shape you desire. If you lose, your spirit will be swallowed up by Ammit, the Devourer-of-the-Dead. The 815 survivors and any other person brought to the island are the “game pieces” for this contest. Jacob and MIB must "claim" or "recruit" the people as their game pieces, and in a twist, must have the other brother kill off, or take off the island (board) the other person's people in order to win the contest. Example, infected Sayid (MIB's piece) will come to kill Dogen (a Jacob piece).


However, there is a twist to this gamesmanship. There may be another set of players than the basic brothers.

The "game" may be more complex if the goal is control of the island itself. It does seem at this junction, Jacob and MIB each have 5 living pawns, just like in a real game of Senet. However, it appears that each piece must square off against another one, to take out like in chess or checkers. Claire told Jin that if Kate took Aaron, she would kill her. Sayid will tangle with Dogen. Sawyer once sought revenge against Jack for Juliet's death. So each chip aligns with another one as the final clash is about to begin.  The wild card is Eloise. She is the outside variable, pulling the strings on Widmore and his men; she "recruited" Desmond to go to the island to stay there forever (so as not to awaken in the sideways dream world).

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The Lighthouse where the names on the mirror gear magically opens a window into the lives of a person.

The Temple’s magic “healing” spring that first kills, then brings Sayid back to life.


Last lines in episodes:

EP 105:

SAYID: What happened?

EP 106:

JIN: Claire?

EP 107:

SAWYER: Hell yes.

EP 108:
CLAIRE: That's not John. This is my friend.

[Malevolent smile from Locke. Claire smiles at Jin.]


New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Point One:

In a pseudo-scientific explanation of the Dogen analysis could follow the pattern of a supernatural staph infection:

Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected. Healthy people can be colonized and have no ill effects. However, they can pass the germ to others.

>>>> This is what could have happened to the 815ers. Once they were "brought" to the Island, they have been in contact with the Island bacteria and "colonized."

Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound, and even then they often cause only minor skin problems in healthy people.

>>>> More proof that you are safe unless you have an open portal for the Island bacteria to invade a body. Prime example: Sayid's gunshot wound in the belly.

A weakened individual can have the bacteria grow into a serious infection. The bacteria could be immune from antibiotics as over time the germs find a resistance to the drugs. Also, germ mutations can form making current antibiotics ineffective.

Using this foundational knowledge, we can transfer it to a sci-fi plane of existence:
Smokey can have the pattern of a mutant Island bacteria colony. It can infect human bodies when they are in a weakened state, such as just before death. Example, during the freighter fire-fight, Claire's cabin was blown up, and she came back to life in a groggy state (just like Sayid at the Temple). Dogen claims that Claire is like Sayid, infected by the darkness that will spread to their heart, obliterating that person as you would know them (like Flocke). Whether this Smokey bacteria can be a parasite and use dead bodies like Christian as a reanimated host is unclear. There may be two different minute cellular organisms at work.

The bacteria can only take hold with a weakened individual. In an Island sense, that may mean an individual whose mental or moral state has been weakened to a state of collapse and abandonment of hope. Sayid's conversation to Hurley at the van was a good example: Sayid was resigned to his fate because knew his time was up, and he knew he was going to hell ("an unpleasant place"). But little did he know, he would have a second chance on the Island to become a different kind of monster.
I think that since the Island is a spiritual place, elements such as free will and faith have more power than in a material world. A person who is in a weakened spiritual state would be in greater danger of being infected by then consumed by the dark side.

It would show that Jacob and MIB have a parasitic relationship with any humans or human souls brought to the island. Whether these souls bring life force, nourishment or entertainment is unclear.


Point Two:

Is Lost merely a game of revenge?

MIB, Jacob’s dead brother, was trapped by the island’s Life Force to continue to live on as smoke monster after Jacob violated “his mother’s rule” by killing his brother for killing Crazy Mother.

For some, both Jacob and his brother died when their Roman ship wrecked on the island. But, if their spirits (conscious) separated and were reincarnated by the powers of the Crazy Mother, then they would be living on the island as isolated children.

So to pass the time as an immortal being trapped on the island, MIB plots for a way to kill his brother. His brother, bored by the isolation of the guardianship of the Life Force, “brings” people to the island to play a game of chess-checkers-Senet with MIB. MIB complains that the game always ends the same: the people come, become corrupt and die (lose).

The goal of MIB is simple: his spirit wants to leave the island “and go home.” That may be a symbolic metaphor for leaving the island and move on in the after life. But so long as Jacob is alive, MIB is trapped with him on the island because Jacob will not leave because he made a promise to Crazy Mother to protect the island. That is why MIB deeply wants to kill Jacob; it is the only means for him to finish dying and to go home.

Throughout the centuries, MIB cannot kill Jacob himself. He needs a proxy, a substitute, a patsy, to do the actual deed. He finds an emotionally fragile and defeated Ben to do his dirty work. Ben knifes Jacob, and then MIB burns the body so he cannot come back to life (reincarnated by the life force). Now, MIB believes he is free to leave the island by
manipulating the remaining humans into getting the Ajira jet to take off.

It seems like a Rube Goldberg story line to get MIB in the position that he can leave the island by a round-about way of getting Locke to kill himself, have his body return to the island so he can reincarnate it, to have Ben believe dead Alex and do everything that Flocke tells him, to recruit crazed 815ers like Claire and Sayid to do his bidding and wage war against themselves, all to gain some form of mortality to leave his island prison.

How can a smoke monster, a shape shifter, turn mortal? That is not explained.
How can Jacob, an immortal being, be killed? That is not fully explained.
For if Jacob broke the “rule” in killing MIB in the first place, MIB is not his “brother” per se so why didn’t the smoke monster kill Jacob on the beach?
If Jacob is immortal, then why would he want or need candidates to replace himself?

Jacob death = mortality/human form for MIB
Locke death and return = vessel for MIB to take a human form
Jacob is only person who can “bring” people to the island.
Flocke instructs Alpert to tell time travel Locke to die to bring back 815ers.


Jacob & MIB “born” on island.
Jacob & MIB raised by Crazy Mother on island; her rules.
MIB decides to leave island and CM objects and kills survivors.
MIB gets mad and kills CM.
Jacob gets mad and kills MIB, throwing his body into the light cave to create smoke monster.
Jacob and MIB have a truce and reinstate rules about killing each other.
However, they devise a game of revenge to kill each off by using substitutes.
Jacob can bring people to the island for MIB to judge or recruit to try to kill Jacob.
Jacob counters by turning the Others into a cult like worship group.
MIB can take human souls and reincarnate dead bodies as vessels.
If MIB gets someone to “kill” Jacob, MIB “wins” mortality and an opportunity to leave its island prison.
If MIB gets mortality, Jacob’s substitute(s) can “kill” MIB forever.

But does that leave Jacob as ghost on the island?
Or if MIB mortally dies, their spirits both “let go” of the island and move on together? How?

If the plane crash caused death, but the dead's consciousness may live on (like in near death experience). A human conscious may be independent; it has no element of time or space - - - it takes personality, memory and emotions and goes to some unknown place (an island re-creation world) to play out the lost human life experiences until they awaken or they eventually die.

So the 815 survivors are actually in a sideways world #1, which upon their actual deaths
creates sideways world #2, a purgatory holding area, until the spirits in SW#1 “awaken” and “let go.”

Jacob and his brother may have been going through this same complex sideways world “life” until they found a way to kill off their faux lives. It brings into doubt whether the 815 survivors, Dharma or the Others are actual people, but spiritual recreations of the living consciousness of dead or dying people.

Whether the island rounds up the collective conscious of dead human souls to appease the island gods is unknown, but when the Lost game ends, there are still pieces are left on the board at the end of the game.

Why? Is it like chess, where once the king is captured or destroyed, the game ends?
Or in backgammon, when you take all your pieces off the board, you win?

If consciousness is an independent entity from the brain and human biologic life,
some consider it a “portal” to another dimension (after life, spirit world, etc.) So why do some consciousness leave forever, while other consciousness is trapped as a whisper on the island (Michael, others)?

Rose and Bernard apparently never leave the island. And what about Cindy and the children, Emma and Zach? In the End, the Others are in chaos, leaderless and torn a part by the smoke monster’s wrath. Do they go on in a feral existence for all time? And Hurley “shutting down” the island with Ben makes no sense either because the island itself is greater than one human being. How can Hurley change the life force and EM power of the island and take it away from Widmore, who also was left behind on the island?

The pure game explanation is “the” ending for the series, but who won? Jacob and MIB are gone.They do not appear in the sideways world.  The survivors whom Frank pilots out are returning to what? Nothing. Flocke told Sawyer that John Locke was the only person to “get it,” that all of the characters had nothing but miserable petty lives back home, which is not the sideways world because that is a soul fantasy world according to Christian.

And then, people who are aware of their own demise in the sideways world (Eloise, and later Ben) are allowed to stay in that fantasy purgatory and not forced to move on. That seems odd, that one can control their own spiritual progression.

Point Three:

The question becomes whether Jacob and MIB are actually two souls in their own sideways world, being trapped on the island because they died in their mother’s womb during her shipwreck. They need to somehow move on together, but for some reason Jacob is too scared to leave with MIB. So a complex game is devised in order for MIB to at least have a chance to go home, to rest in the after life.

In the same token, it is possible that the 815 characters sideways world is not the first fantasy soul land. The island may be sideways world number one and the sideways world being number two. As stated in earlier posts, it is possible that every major character on the island has a back story of being killed when they were a young child, and as such, their souls may have been given a chance to “experience” a life in the island realm. That may explain why Christian tells Jack in the church that these people present were the most important people in his life, a “life” which technically lasted less than four years in island linear time. So one conclusion could be that the island is a “life force nursery” for dead children’s souls.

the Lighthouse is a portal to find children; a spyglass to "touch" or claim children's souls by Jacob. He is told of manipulating all events in a person's life in order to get them to the island, seemingly by free choice. So every weird coincidence to get everyone on Flight 815 was done by Jacob's hand? So all the playing pieces are Jacob's at the beginning; only to be "corrupted" by MIB and killed off.

It is more probable that the island visitors are young dead children given a chance to "experience" a life. Sideways Jack does not remember his appendectomy at age 7 or 8; on the island, he has one. Which is real? If the Lighthouse is fixated on his house where he lived at age 7 or 8, is that when Jack died as a result of a school yard beating? That the island time and backstories are merely sideways world view number one and the Season 6 sideways world is after life realm number two.

If the island was created by the imagination of two still born children (Jacob and MIB) infused by the island (in the form of Crazy Mother) and its "life force" power (which must include the ability to give life and to take it away), who learn about their lost humanity by bringing other dead souls to their "play ground," that could be a simple explanation of the entire series.