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.

SIMULATION

One premise of LOST was that it was only a simulation of reality.

It could have been a video adventure game with the characters being avatars.
It could have been an interconnected dream experiment.
It could have been a mock mental warfare simulation by Dharma and the U.S. Military.
It could have been an imaginary dream of a coma patient.

Or it could be our reality which itself is not real.

Scientists work to find out how our world actually works.
Recently at the American Museum of Natural History, scientists debated whether or not the universe is a simulation. The answers from some panelists may be more comforting than the responses of others.

Physicist Lisa Randall said she thought the odds that the universe is not "real" are so low as to be "effectively zero."

But on the other hand, celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was hosting the debate, said that he thinks the likelihood of the universe being a simulation "may be very high."

The question of whether or not we know that our universe is real has vexed thinkers going far back into history, long before Descartes made his famous "I think therefore I am" statement. The same question has been explored in modern science fiction films like "The Matrix" and David Cronenber's "eXistenZ."

But most physicists and philosophers agree that it is impossible to prove that we don't live in a simulation and that the universe is real. Tyson agreed, but said he would not be surprised if we were to find out somehow that someone else is responsible for our universe.

If someone else is responsible for our universe, then we would call those persons or things gods.

In any higher order planetary relationships, the most intelligent, strong, technological and adaptable species are the alpha species who can assert their will on the rest of the known world. In human evolution, mankind had to have come to the realization that it was the alpha species. But instead of adopting a self-sufficient, own legacy approach to species self-esteem, ancient and disconnected cultures adopted religion and worship of superior beings as being responsible for their own self-awareness and life cycles.

Some could argue that religion is a pagan belief system because they did not have the means to investigate their true world. Except, that ancient cultures did have the brain power to solve and predict thousand years of  astronomical cycles with the accuracy of our current atomic clocks. Ancient people were more well versed in nature and the effect of cycles on human existence. They were the first to understand and to ponder the question of whether we are alone in the universe.

Ancient Egyptians constructed the pyramids in 20 years. Our modern technology cannot replicate that feat. Generally, the public does not think ancients were very advanced in their thinking. But they pondered the same "big" questions we do today.

PAGANS & A NEW ORDER

The oral stories have generational cultural significance as the basis of traditions, beliefs and rituals. In European Pagan cultures, they had similar myths and legends about human-gods with great powers who came to Earth to influence men. In Nordic culture, Thor was one such representation.

When Christianity spread through Europe, the southern troops came to conquer and wipe out the old Pagan ways. In some areas, religious sites were burned to the ground and new churches put in their place. It was a way of erasing the past with the present. It was a means of control.

In the latter religions, god and his messengers seem to be all-powerful beings. This is in contrast to the Pagan viewpoint that their gods had tremendous power and magic, but the one thing the gods could not do was overpower Nature.

Throughout human history, when a dominate philosophy comes to power with an army to enforce its principles, weaker cultures succumb or perish. Those who did not covert, died. But over time, even some of the old ways get incorporated into the new way of beliefs (such as Pagan holiday feasts being transformed into new Christian holidays such as All Saints Day around Halloween, the Night of the Dead festival).

There is probably an application of these long standing ways to LOST.

There is a progressive "conquest" history of people arriving on the island. Each new group attempts to impose its will upon anyone left on the island. The one exception to this is the Flight 815 survivors. They did not seek to change or control the island; they wished to leave it behind. Perhaps this is the one great change (loophole) that MIB mumbled about in his discussions with Jacob. The castaways did not want to rule, but to escape. With the prospect of controlling the ultimate power, the castways wanted to merely survive long enough to go home.

There is no religious belief canon in the island rituals. There is little worship of a god (that word is not used; Jacob is called a guardian). Religion plays no central role in the story. Religion plays only a minor role in a negative way with Eko's con of impersonating his dead brother in order to save his own life. There are Egyptian temples and deep history, but the Others practice none of the sacred rites. If the show is anything, it is a secular notion of non-belief in higher powers. But at the same time, it is not about empowering the characters in their own self-belief. It is a religious paradox: those who can't save themselves, can't ask for a higher power to save them. It would seem the only theology principle at work is "Live Together, or Die Alone" metaphor. In the primordial time, when chemical compounds began to group together to form amino acid chains (and the start of life), it is that same group connection that is the lesson of island life. And just as the ooze evolved into complex creatures, so did the island character connections grow into a critical mass to allow an eternal peace.

NEW QUESTION

There is a new gnawing question that just popped into my head. It is like "Who is Buried in Grant's Tomb?"

Who is buried in the Temple?

It is a major question because under Egyptian death rituals, the Pharaohs built temples as part of a complex burial mythology. The island temple was filled with hieroglyphs, many with passages from the Book of the Dead, an ancient text on how a soul can manage the journey through the underworld to paradise.

Since the temple was built on the island with Egyptian mythology and construction, one must assume that an Egyptian demi-god had it built in his honor. In the tradition of the culture, the temple would have been built in the king's life time, and his priests would manage the ceremonies when the king died so that he would be guaranteed passage to the stars. The priests would break a part the body, organs into separate vessels, to be reunited in the after life. There would be offerings of gold, food, beer, servants and weapons that the king could use during his journey through the underworld as they believed that the soul took a human form in its path through the after life.

After death, the priests and their followers would be charged with maintaining the temple and praying for the soul of their departed leader. But over a long period of time, one could imagine that their ranks would thin and their time on the island would die out.

Egyptian culture was the first civilization. It predates the empires of Greece and Rome. As such, parts of it remain in today's current societal foundations. As such, since it goes back thousands of years, the temple on the island could be that of a "lost" Pharaoh. Some scholars believe that the ancient Egyptians did possess the engineering knowledge to create ocean faring boats to explore the seas. As such, a conquering king could have made it to the Pacific with a large crew of soldiers and servants. Once shipwrecked, he would have ordered a temple be built in order to fulfill his destiny.

In a series that loved its complex back stories (like Alpert's), this could have been a good one - - - and set a solid foundation for the LOST mythology. Given the detail in the temple sets, one would think that some one gave it a great deal of thought - - - a great deal of importance that was somehow itself lost in the story line as it went forward.

So who was buried in the temple? We will never know.

But what happened to the king? We can assume that his passage to the stars may have been interrupted, intercepted or thwarted by the mere fact that his temple was not in Egypt, and aligned to magical stars of Orion. If his temple was not properly "aligned with the stars," his soul (ba and ka) could never reunite in paradise, so in essence, his spirit would be trapped on the island.

A spirit trapped on the island seems to fit the profile of the smoke monster.  It wanted to leave the island to go "home," which could mean Egypt or even the after life paradise promised in the ancient texts. After thousands of years, the spirit would become angry, frustrated and desperate. The spirit would know how things should happen, and who should help him in this time (his priests and servants). But once they were gone, it had to wait for humans to shipwreck on the island in order to fashion a way out of its island limbo.

The spirit could have convinced many men or women that it was a god. It may have promised immortality and special favors such as power or wealth. Whether Crazy Mother was the final Egyptian follower of the Pharaoh or whether Alpert eyeshadow took on the markings of an ancient Egyptian priest, they seem resigned to their own fate to serve the island (spirit) in its quest to find a loophole in trap. Desperate, the spirit recruits more and more priests to his service, such as Jacob to find humans with the ability to cross time and space (realms) or Dogen to revitalize the reincarnation rituals inside the temple pool. Everything done on the island by modern man had the tangential goal of helping bridge the present with the after life.

The hieroglyphs in the frozen donkey wheel chamber indicated the words "travel" or "open Earth" gates. This is a possible portal to the after life which needed a human being (and its life force) to operate.  The smoke monster became frustrated with the humans who came to the island, as they turned corrupt and failed in their mission to worship him or help him escape Earth. The guardian of the island must be considered the High Priest of the Temple, who has the special knowledge of the ages, i.e. the after life. If one can control the power of life and death, that person could control the universe. And that is probably the true corruption that frustrated the spirit the most.

The real LOST story may be the island plight of the unknown, trapped Pharaoh spirit. For the most important and revealing quote in the show was from MIB to Jacob:

“They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.”
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”

THE ORDER OF JACOB

All religions have been obsessed with the meaning of life and death. In this alternative LOST, Jacob is the leader of secret sect whose mission is to protect the most sacred of places, the source of the life force. The life force which creates, destroys and renews all life in the universe. A force so powerful that its protection is protection of all life.

Jacob would have his followers in an underground temple in an abandoned California mission. There, we would see the Lamp Post facility with its old computer and swinging pendulum. Alpert would be Jacob's liaison to Dogen, the temple master who would teach the new recruits like Locke to the path of enlightenment. 

There is one concept that is clear as day. The concept of god, creator, and all knowing being is found in one place, in the light source. It has the power to create life, destroy life and to give rebirth. As such, it is an entity of enormous power. But in its energy form, it is venerable to attack or discharge which to throw the universe into chaos.

Jacob's cult is part religious order and part paramilitary guards. Chief among Jacob's recruits is Sayid, a despondent Iraqi War veteran who seeks peace and redemption for his past sins. Sayid is trusted with a crusade to protect the energy source from the heathen capitalists that want to exploit its power to the destruction of mankind. Sayid believes that this mission will get him to paradise in the after life.

It is Sayid who finds a wayward Locke the perfect tool to help in Sayid's quest for immortality. Locke is a man without a family; without dreams; without hope for a future. Sayid can use that emptiness and fill it with the purpose of the Order.  Locke falls for the high purpose and his elevated personal stake in something much larger than his pitiful life. So Locke is recruited to spy on Dharma. But Locke, thinking himself as an avenging angel, takes it upon himself to destroy Dharma which leads to major headaches for Jacob and Sayid. Locke's actions actually brings Dharma and Widmore closer to finding the hidden light source. Jacob must scramble to contain the damage.

He finds a prospect in Bernard, a dentist who is searching for a miracle cure for his wife's terminal cancer. Bernard finds Jacob at the mission and asks him for Divine intervention. Jacob makes "a deal" with Bernard - - - he must get a job at Widmore's research facility in order to disrupt Widmore's chase of the light source. The early information Locke acquired from Dharma is Bernard's passport into Widmore's facility . . . posing as a disgruntled ex-Dharma employee.

Rose only learns of the deal after Bernard has started to work for Widmore. She is livid that Bernard was conned by some "religious nut," and their relationship turns sour. Bernard is distraught. Widmore sees a sudden change in Bernard, and he confesses that his mind is on his sick wife. Widmore offers him hope (a false promise of a cure that he is close to achieving) if Bernard can recruit "someone special" for his project. Bernard goes to Rose's social worker mission where he meets a lonely boy who has lost his mother, and is abandoned by his adopted father for foster home placement. Bernard talks to Walt about the future, how it is always darkest before the light. Bernard sneaks a peak at Walt's file while waiting for Rose to end her work day. He finds out that Walt's adopted father abandoned him because Walt has "unusual abilities" to control nature, especially birds in dangerous ways. Bernard steals a copy of this report and takes to it Widmore, who is impressed by Walt's condition.

Bernard says he is not unsure Walt can trust him. So Widmore gives Bernard the candy to lure Walt to their side: the identity of Walt's real father, Michael. So Bernard makes another deal with Widmore to recruit Walt with the promise of giving him a chance at a new family life. Walt, who has no future on his own, accepts the proposal to go with Bernard to meet his father. But once in Widmore's compound, a distraught Bernard confesses that it was a trap - - - a pledge to get a cure for his sick wife - - - that Walt was merely a pawn in a bigger game. Walt feels betrayed by adults, again. So he lashes out, causes lab animals to die, foam at the mouth, bite their handlers, and destroy much research gains. But this mental ability fascinates Widmore to no end. He could use Walt's mind to find a portal to the life source.

But after confessing to Rose his bad deeds, Bernard is told that he has to make amends to Walt. So Bernard, through the files at Widmore's offices, tracks down Michael. He tells Michael that his son "needs" him. That he is being held like a lab rat at Widmore's facility. He needs to rescue his son.

But Michael has no means of taking on Widmore and his men, like Keamy. Until he meets a man outside the research campus who stops his car to ask Michael if he needs a lift. That man is Alpert, who takes Michael to the mission to meet Jacob to discuss his problem. And Jacob offers Michael a solution: Sayid and his skill set. And thus Jacob finds a weapon to pierce Widmore's iron gate. But Sayid will only use Michael and his life as a diversion for his own plan to take down Widmore's research facility.

Jacob's cult then has a two front battle on its hands: one to take down Dharma, and another to take down Widmore.

CROSS OVER

In television, the concept of a "cross over" is where a star from one show makes a guest appearance on another show, in character.

We have a similar concept in the LOST saga between the characters' island/flashback lives and the sideways presentation. There are some apparent irreconcilable differences.

For example, Jack.

In both worlds, Jack is a successful spinal surgeon.
In both worlds, Jack has had serious issues with his father.
In both worlds, Jack has gone to Australia to bring his father's body back home.

In the island world, Jack is divorced from Sarah. He is alone. He only has his mother left.
In the sideways, Jack is divorced from Juliet. He is not alone, he has his own son David.

For example, Locke.

In both worlds, Locke is paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair.

In the island world, Locke is bitter and hateful against his father for causing his injuries.
In the sideways, Locke has a relationship with his catatonic father.

In the island world, Locke has ruined every relationship he had including the one with Helen.
In the sideways, Helen is by his side as his loving spouse.

In the island world, Locke has bounced from meaningless jobs and has no career path.
In the sideways, Locke is a content substitute teacher who befriends a meek teacher, Ben.

There is such a continental divide between the character's foundational base in the sideways world as to question which realm is actually the true one.

It is more likely that the island/flashbacks are real because we saw them unfold for five seasons. The sideways world would be a collective fantasy, dream world for the island characters to deal with their anxieties, fears, stress and depression.

However, there is a possibility that the sideways world is the true foundation because the characters in that realm were basically good people living normal, good lives. And is that not the fundamental philosophy of all religions that good people can go to heaven or paradise after death? The sideways world was a place of death where the souls of the characters got together in the church.  But if their shown lives were continuations of their true past lives (which makes some common sense if their souls did not want to acknowledge their own mortality), then the island and flashbacks were the collective fantasy and dream world created by the characters to continue to experience their fantasy lives or come to terms with their own deaths.

So, which cross over is correct?

In a linear thought process, the real characters crashed on the island and the sideways realm was mere purgatory fantasy holding pen until everyone lived out their lives on Earth.

In a non-linear thought process, the real characters sideways back stories were true, but their nightmare-fantasy-escapist adventures were captured in the island stories. Just like when people go on holiday, they can create new persona's or let their guard down to live a different kind of lifestyle.

So, one can cut and paste the various character time frames as follows:

SIDEWAYS BACK STORIES = TRUTH.
Island Back Stories = Fantasy/Adventure/Dreams/Nightmares
ISLAND STORIES = TRUTH
Sideways Stories = Fantasy Continuation of Lives until acknowledgement of own deaths.

This compares to the linear approach:

ISLAND BACK STORIES = TRUTH
ISLAND STORIES = TRUTH
Sideways Back Stories = Fantasy/Adventure/Dreams/Nightmares
Sideways Stories = Irrelevant Filler until all survivors died in real life.

The former approach is much more complex, which makes it highly unlikely thought process for the show's writers who seemingly too the easy way out in throwing a sideways after life to clean up the plot.

LEFTOVERS

The new television series The Leftovers had a morbid advertising display of the show at San Diego Comic Con. It showed realistic mannequins representing the missing 2 percent of the population who suddenly vanished in a Rapture type event. The show deals with the after math of the event, with a focus on the people left behind.

Since there is a LOST connection to this show, and one very old Hollywood adage is that "nothing is new in Hollywood," can we apply a rapture premise to LOST?

Yes, we can.

The Rapture is the religious belief that followers will be transported to heaven upon the Second Coming of Christ. In certain viewpoints, the Second Coming will be a purge of all evil on Earth. And only true believers will be saved from the rath.

First, Flight 815 suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason. People off the island believed that the plane crashed with no survivors, but on the island we were shown that was not true. The "survivors" were saved by the island.

This leads to the first point of contention. Was the electromagnetic discharge from the Swan because Desmond did not push the button down Flight 815, or was it Jacob's magical powers that delivered his candidates to the island? Science v. Faith. A major theme in the series.

This leads to a second point of contention. Was Jacob good or evil? Jacob appeared to be a benevolent leader who had many island followers. However, it was his intervention through Richard Alpert that sowed the seed for young Ben to "purge" the Dharma community in an act of mass murder. Further, Jacob's own game of finding candidates and bringing them to the island is a form of kidnapping that usually lead to their deaths. Good v. Evil. Another major theme of the series.

Second, Flight 815 safely landed in the sideways LAX. People on this plane found nothing had changed in their "lives" so they went on with the business. However, this sideways world was completely different than the island flash back stories.

This leads to a third point of contention. Which world was actually the "real" world? Since viewers first saw the island and the flashbacks, they assume those images are from the real character world. But if the survivors had been "teleported" to a different realm, than that reality is not their true past lives. But apparently at the same time, all of the passengers landed in the sideways world (which we would learn is the afterlife.) The intellectual paradox is how can one be both dead and alive at the same time?

This leads to a fourth point of contention: time. LOST was a series that used time like flour in a bakery; a commodity and utility to make different things happen despite WTF? reasoning. Is time linear as science and human experience shows? Or is time a circular motion like several ancient cultures who believe time follows the cycles of nature? Since the writers did not fashion set rules for time in their stories, we are left to drift in the quicksand of poor plot execution.

This leads to a fifth point of contention. Which came first, the flashbacks or the sideways reality? This is really a classic which came first puzzle, the chicken or the egg? Because the sideways character lives were so different than the flashbacks (Sawyer is a cop not a con man; Jack was married to Juliet and not Sarah; Jack had a son and not childless; Desmond was a successful businessman not a tramp loser; Hurley was a respected community leader and not a timid cursed crazy person; etc.) If you believe the flashbacks were the characters true past life experiences, then the sideways afterlife events are merely a dream, a fantasy until it is shattered by remembering the past. If you believe that the sideways world was the true (and at times boring aspects) of the characters real past lives, then the island events are taken either as a dream-fantasy or the characters going through Hell. It is not a simple answer because of one very troublesome point: in both realms, Aaron and Sun's child were born. If the children were born in the actual real life time line of the island, then they could not be born in the afterlife since they were already having their own Earth lives to lead. If the children were the heavenly reward for their parents to experience joy in heaven, then the island time frame births were a mere illusion, a deception or a trick by the devil.

Third, if the Flight 815 survivors were "snatched" from their lives by a god-like force, what was the purpose for their rapture event?  Some of the characters seemed to be good people (Rose, Bernard, Jack), some had done some terrible things (Kate, Sawyer, Sayid) and some had crazy mental problems (Hurley, Claire). We were told that only Jacob could bring people to the island, to be its next guardian. But that reason has been hollow without substance. Why would an island need protection if its life force creates life, death and rebirth? One smoke monster sentry guard could take care of any intruders. So this island mystery, quasi-religious "savior" theme really makes little sense in the context of asking why the island needed people.

This leads to a sixth point of contention. If the main characters were taken to the island, or even the sideways realm, to be "judged" for their lives sins, did that actually happen? The sideways world was more Happy Days than Hellboy. Certainly Jack's sideways life of being married to Juliet and having a son is not extreme punishment for his past issues disobeying his father. And the people who "died" on the island did not find any true redemption. And the ones who escaped, did not leave as changed individuals.

This leads to a seventh point. Was LOST's main concern like throwing a bunch of cats and dogs into one closed room just to see what would happen? The randomness of the characters, the forced missions, and faux dangers coupled with lies and manipulations does not seem to fit a classic tale of a journey by a character from his past, through trials that changes him or her, to a moment where his wish or dream is fulfilled in a meaningful way. It seems like all the character backstories and island stories seemed to intersect like a pile of leftovers after a big Sunday buffet.

Could LOST's mythology be cloaked in a rapture theme premise? Maybe. But it does not fit into normal views of such a major event. If the LOST characters were the people "left behind" and had to struggle to get to their heaven, the events leading up their their ultimate deaths are too inconsistent to determine whether that truly was the case.

AFTERLIFE WATCH

There is a new comic book that has strange themes similar to LOST's story construction.

It is called The Life After by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Gabo, on Oni Press.

The central theme of the story is religion in the surveillance age.

At the start of The Life After, a young man named Jude breaks the monotonous routine of his life, forcing his way off the bus he takes every day to chase after a woman he’s never met. What seems like a romantic moment of a guy getting up the nerve to meet the girl of his dreams quickly turns into an even bigger moment that begins to reveal Jude's world for what it really is. When he then meets deceased novelist Ernest Hemingway, the only other person who sees the world for what it truly is, that's when the comic really gets started.

The premise is a twist on a story about religion - being watched over by a higher power - but using modern technology of the surveillance age to show that events in an afterlife are all false.  That in this world, faceless individuals monitoring and orchestrating every person's  move.

LOST dealt with big concepts of life and death, but in either a bloody plot twist fashion or a overreach of white light conclusions.

One similar key is that the characters in the comic and the series may not be aware of their true existence. They go about their business like they are alive, but in fact their own perception of themselves and the world around them is false. LOST was filled with clues telling the viewers that the events they were watching were not real, an illusion, imaginary, or a deception. Individuals with sketchy backgrounds like Eloise seemed to be watching over and manipulating the characters.

But LOST did not sort out or judge the characters by good or evil. People "died" whether they were good or evil. Whether the watchers did it more amusement or for another purpose is unclear.

CONSCIENCE

People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things. You don't necessarily even have to be afraid of punishment after death; purgatory, hell, and heaven are things that a lot of people can't accept, but still a religion, it doesn't matter which, keeps a person on the right path. It isn't the fear of God but the upholding of one's own honor and conscience. How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time. Anyone can do this, it costs nothing and is certainly very helpful. Whoever doesn't know it must learn and find by experience that: "A quiet conscience makes one strong!" — Anne Frank

A productive use of dreams to review one's day to judge whether you have been good or bad as a matter of honor and conscience.

Viewers dwelled on science and culture to explain LOST's events.

Perhaps, we should dwell more on honor and conscience to explain things.

Conscience is an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior, i.e. he had a guilty conscience about his desires.

It's meaning is from Middle English (also in the sense ‘inner thoughts or knowledge’): via Old French from Latin conscientia, from conscient- ‘being privy to,’ from the verb conscire, from con- ‘with’ + scire ‘know.’

Were the actions of the characters driven by their "inner voices" which guided them subconsciously?
If there were no conscious intent, then these characters could not be judged for their intentional actions, whether right or wrong. It would erase any religious context to the show.

Or course, psychopaths have no belief that their cruel actions are wrong. In fact, they may have convinced themselves that there actions, including murder, are justified for a greater purpose.

We never really saw any of the characters "sleep on" a major decision, then the next day change course and do the exact opposite. Most of the actors were pretty stubborn in their opinions and beliefs. In fact, critics often quipped that the characters failed to think things through before taking action.

The concept that the island was a dream factory to have the characters re-live their past actions, to judge themselves for themselves, then learn from their experiences is interesting, but flawed.

RITUAL

As the Hatch alarm clock inferred, the island was a place of Death. It was strange how the people on the island did not dispose of their fellow man in the same ways.

When Ben executed his purge of the Dharma group, he took the bodies to an uncovered mass grave.
Ben also sought to kill Locke when he was pushed into the mass grave.He also gassed his own father in a mini-bus, and left his remains to be found by Hurley decades later.  When Ben kills Widmore, we do not see any action but leaving the body behind in the barrack cabin. Open burial seems to be disrespectful, but it would seem the choice of Ben's enemies and foes.

There were several bodies left in the remains of their accident, such as the pilot in the cockpit or Yemi in the passenger compartment of the Beechcraft.  There was no indication that the smoke monster's kiling sprees in the Roman village or to the Black Rock crew had any subsequent burial ritual.

Now, some suspect that the open burial allowed the smoke monster to "take over" a dead person's body and memories. That is why the Dharma group was explicit in their requirement that any fallen comrade be buried as soon as possible. 

The 815 survivors used two means of burial: fire, when they torched the airplane section, and burial near the bluff next to the beach. Fire is an ancient means to dispose of human remains. Jacob was stabbed by Ben in the statue, but Flocke made sure to incinerate Jacob's body in the fire. But Jacob would return (in at least a ghost form) to interact with his final candidates.

Another ancient means of burial was placing corpses in caves. Jacob did so with Crazy Mother and his brother, who were found by Jack, Kate and Locke (who called them Adam and Eve).

The Others also used a Viking funeral boat pyre. The example seen was Colleen, who died in her pregnancy, was set off into the water in a boat of fire while Juliet brought Jack to the ceremony.

In a few circumstances, people died and they were cast off into the water, such as Desmond killing the guards in the underwater communications station. Many passengers presumably drowned during the plane crash.

But in all the forms of island burial, there was no distinct religious element. There were few, if any, words spoken. It seemed like everyone on the island was resigned to this fate, death. It was just a matter of time; a slow waiting game against the island and its hidden jungle reapers.

THE JOURNEY

Some believe LOST was merely a journey by the various characters through the pitfalls of danger and friendship which led to a lasting impression to reunited in the afterlife.

Others believe that LOST symbolized the ancient religious journeys through the afterlife.

Thoth, the Ibis headed humanoid, was the guardian of the souls on their journey through the afterlife. Other cultures around the globe used bird-men to symbolize the passage from life on Earth to new life in the stars. Ancient cultures believed that the Earth had been visited by star children who gave them knowledge and spiritual rituals to guide them.

In both ancient Egypt and China, leaders of those civilizations were entombed with a massive amount of supplies and other people, such as wives, consorts, guards, soldiers, and servants. The reason was simple: the leaders needed to have people around his soul to help navigate the after life to find paradise. So they were buried with their closest staff members, along with food, weapons and important writings. They left behind cult priests who would pray for their leader's safe passage and appease the gods during his journey.

The statement "live together or die alone" is a modern take on this ancient ritual. In order to move along in the afterlife, a person needs to have "friends" to help him make it to the end. That is why most cultures revere their ancestors, whom they hope to meet in the afterlife to help them get to heaven.

LOST was never heavy on overt religious symbolism. Religion rituals and symbols may be an explanation of what the writers were trying to hide in the plain sight as their vision of what was really happening to the characters. They kept on saying the it was the journey that was the most important thing of the show. That could mean the wild ride of plot twists given the viewer, or the slow progression of angst, loss and perseverance that the characters had to show in order to move on with their lives.

ONE EQUALS THREE

In mathematics, it makes no sense. In religions and mystic studies, it makes all the sense.

1 = 3

The Number 3 is an ancient and powerful number.

Three represents the trinity, a perfect number. The triad or trinity is a symbol of the unity of body, mind and spirit. The symbol is of universal significance - it is found throughout history and all over the world.

In science, Atomic Number Three - Lithium deuteride is the explosive material of the hydrogen bomb and may eventually be the fuel of controlled fusion reactors. Three symbolizes great power.

Three is important in geometry, which is the basic understanding of nature and engineering.  Two straight lines cannot possibly enclose any space, or form a plane figure; neither can two plan surfaces form a solid. Three lines are necessary to form a plan figure; and three dimensions of length, breadth, and height, are necessary to form a solid. Hence three is the symbol of the cube--the simplest form of solid figure. As two is the symbol of the square, or plane contents (x²), so three is the symbol of the cube, or solid contents (x³).

The ancient Egyptians used the power of the pyramid, which is a triangle, to build great structures. It was believed that the Pythagorean theory was first used here.
 
Three, therefore, stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire.
 

There are three great divisions completing time--past, present, and future.
 

Thought, word, and deed, complete the sum of human capability.
 
Three degrees of comparison complete our knowledge of qualities.
The simplest proposition requires three things to complete it; viz., the subject, the predicate, and the copula.
 
Three propositions are necessary to complete the simplest form of argument--the major premise, the minor, and the conclusion.
 
In nature, three kingdoms embrace our ideas of matter--mineral, vegetable, and animal.

In all cultures and societies, the number three represents the basic unit of family: father, mother, child. 
 
When we turn to the Scriptures, this completion becomes Divine, and marks Divine completeness or perfection.

The Divine completeness of the Shepherd's care (John 6:39), is seen in His revelations as--

• The "Good Shepherd" in death, John 10:14.
• The "Great Shepherd" in resurrection, Hebrews 13:20.
• The "Chief Shepherd" in glory, 1 Peter 4:5.

God's attributes are three: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.

Many people believe that man embodies three principles of life:  intellectual, moral, and spiritual.

Many world religions contain triple deities or concepts of trinity, including:

In Christianity, the Trinity defines God as three Divine persons: the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct, yet are one "substance, essence or nature". A nature is what one is, while a person is who one is.

In Hinduism, the Trimurti is the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahma the creator, Vishnu  the maintainer or preserver and Shiva the destroyer or transformer.

In Hindu Tridevi, the three consorts of the Trimurti  (Great Trinity), that are personified by the forms of three Goddesses. Saraswati is the goddess of learning and arts, cultural fulfillment (consort to the creator). She is the cosmic intelligence, cosmic consciousness, cosmic knowledge. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and fertility, material fulfillment (consort of the maintainer or preserver). However, she does not mean mere material wealth like gold, cattle, etc. All kinds of prosperity, glory, magnificence, joy, exaltation, or greatness come under Lakshmi. Parvati is the goddess of power and love, spiritual fulfillment (consort of the destroyer or transformer). She also depicts transformative power of Divinity, the power that dissolves multiplicity in unity.

The Three Jewels of Buddhism, refer to the three things that Buddhists  take refuge in, and look toward for guidance. The Three Jewels are:

Buddha: the ideal or highest spiritual potential that exists within all beings;
Dharma: the teachings of the Buddha, the path to Enlightenment; and
Sangha: the community of those who have attained enlightenment, who may help a practicing Buddhist to do the same. Also used more broadly to refer to the community of practicing Buddhists, or the community of Buddhist monks and nuns.

In the pagan world, the Wiccan Rule of Three (also Three-fold Law or Law of Return) is a religious tenet held by some Pagans that states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times

 It is clear that he number Three is intertwined in both science and faith.

Throughout history, religion and pagan societies found great meaning and power in the number three. Why would so many diverse people on the planet gravitate toward this number? In 1966, scientists found that the Number 3 was a critical component of humans, as our DNA is sequenced in sets of three proteins. Many people believe that this represents a key to understanding the universe since we have been encoded with the number three.

In LOST, we fixated on The Numbers (4,8,15,16,23,42).  We were told that the numbers only represented Jacob's final candidates, even though the Numbers had sew into the story at many times (lottery numbers, Hatch ID number, the Hatch alarm code, etc.).

But in the final candidates numbers, we can find an interesting solution to a math question. If the candidate's number represent the attributes of a person, can we distill a number from them.

If we take Jin minus Jack minus Sayid we can get a number.
42-23-16 = 3

If we take Sawyer minus Hurley minus Locke we can get the same number.
15-8-4 =3

When we take that to mean "33" as the solution to the Numbers Candidate equation, we look to the candidate's list to find that Candidate number 33 was "Novak."

Novak is the name is derived from the Slavic word for "new" meaning something similar to "new man", "newcomer" or "stranger" in English. The name was often given to someone who came to a new city, or a convert to Christianity.

In the  church, Christian explains their situation in a triad expression for time in the sideways world  that there is no past, present or future. 

CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you.
JACK: But why are they all here now?
CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here.
JACK: Where are we, dad?
CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.
 
We could make an argument that the Number 3 is a meaningful solution to the series. The concept of the past, present and future tied into one being or place or enlightenment is equivalent to any form of the  Trinity. Here, Jack was a stranger (man of science) in a strange land (the island, a place of spiritual faith). He had to release his intellectual self, control his emotional/moral feelings, in order to become aware of his spiritual existence in order to move on after his death.

SHEPHERDING SHEEP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FAITH WITHOUT RELIGION

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do. — Johann Von Goethe

One of the main plot themes was the apparent conflict between faith and science. However, science was never explained and faith had no true religious context.

Locke was a drawn as a man of faith, but he did not practice any organized religion. He wanted or desired to be a different person. As a boy he did not want to be a student scientist but a jock. It was not his faith in any particular thing that moved along his life. It was more fate, a predetermined pathway which one has no control over. Destiny is a meaningful end to a journey involving fate, but Locke's end was not heroic or meaningful. As in life, as in his death at the hands of Ben, he was a pawn, a follower, an anti-hero.

Even those who expressed beliefs were not true believers. Eko was posing a priest because it was a means to save his own hide from the authorities. He may have been despondent that his criminal actions caused his brother's death, but he did not have a conversion to a religious man to make amends for his sins. It was a cover that could not contain his anger.  He had no qualms about killing the Others who attacked the Tailies camp. 

If there is a lesson, it is that people really do not change. Sayid may have said his morning prayers but he did not bow to commandments of his religion. He used the aspects of his religion not for faith but as a means to try to keep his own Iranian identity that had been taken away after the war. His desire to be an independent person was lost when the U.S. military turned him into a spy. He was not independent on the island either; he turned into Ben's henchman, then later when darkness consumed him, a follower of MIB/Flocke.

After the crash, Rose knew things would be okay. Some would think it was faith, a wish, a hope. Others would think that she knew because she knew herself - - - when the pains of her cancer left her body, she knew she did too. It was not a religious revelation, but an acknowledgement or realization that she had passed on.

This may be the context of character beliefs in the series.

Instead of the back stories (the flashbacks) being about each character's past, they may have been actual flash forwards of what each person's life "could have been" if they had not died at a young age. The unbelievable coincidence that the main characters would wind up all together in Sydney is more palatable if they were being sorted into groups at some cosmic soul factory.

We have discussed previously the idea that the main characters were dead souls making a harsh journey through the afterlife. We also have discussed previously the concept that the main characters "died" before Flight 815 took off. For example, when Jack was severely beaten by the school yard bully and hit his head, at that moment, Jack could have died (there have been numerous examples of punching deaths in Chicago area in the last few years). Or, when premature Locke was born at a rural hospital in 1950s, he was not a "miracle" baby but actually died because medical science could not save his life. Kate could have been hit by a car when she was fleeing the dime store with the stolen lunchbox (or even blown up in the house explosion). Sawyer's father could have killed his entire family (which is also a current trend in even quiet suburban homes today). And Hurley could have been one of the two people who died in the porch collapse.

What happens when a person's life is cut short?  Maybe certain souls get a chance to "live" a fantasy life before crossing over. For example, Hurley dies in the porch collapse. His life is cut short with serious issues left unresolved, including the abandonment by his father. As a result, his one true wish to have his family back together again can only been done if he magically "wins" the lottery. In his fantasy back story, he wins the lottery but such joy is tempered by unintended consequences (probably brought on by his deep emotional childhood issues). Even with money, his father's return, Hurley's second life is not fulfilling because he is still shy, naive and without self confidence. At this point, the cosmic sorting machine brings together other lost souls with unresolved issues and places them together in the final act of the second lives, the island world.

So what happens when these lost young souls come to the island as the final leg of their underworld journey? Some find their own answers, like Hurley, who experiences love with Libby. Some need some form of reformation or acknowledgement like Jack by his father. Others, like Michael, are not ready to move on because they have compounded their spiritual issues or in some ways want or need to be further punished (Michael being imprisoned on the island for killing Anna Lucia and Libby) in their own mind. In this way, there is no religious context to any character's journey. It is one of self discovery and self-fulfillment. In Michael's case, he wanted, desired and demanded that he be punished for his actions. In Sawyer's case, he wanted, desired and worked to change his con artist ways into a normal family situation with Juliet. The island gave them the means to put their desires into action so they could learn what it takes to become who they wanted to be in their lost real lives.

So what about Locke? His resolution in the church was a lonely one. He had no one to cross over with - - - except if one looks at what was missing from Locke's death at an early age, he had it in the church: friends. Locke had found friends, some as close as siblings, so in the end he had what was missing in his life: a family. 

In one respect, everyone in the sideways church embodied the concept of family. An extended family created by the extended second life in the spirit world for lost souls who died early, without the opportunity to experience the ups and downs of being a part of a family unit.

THE JACOB ALTERNATIVE

There were a few absolutes in regard to Jacob.

1. He was immortal.
2. He was the island guardian.
3. He was the only person who brought people to the Island.
4. He had the ability to spy on people throughout their lives.
5. He had the ability to go off the island and touch his "candidates."
6. He gave the people brought to the island free will to make their own decisions.

What purpose did Jacob truly serve?

Most of the main characters in the series had no religious consciousness. Most were not devoted or true followers of any faith. Many, like Charlie and Hurley, grew up in religious families but had waned on their observation.  Many, like Eko and Sayid, referenced religion in the daily routine but acted in the opposite manner in their real lives.

LOST could have tackled the idea of sinners without religious observation by the background character of Jacob.

What if Jacob was not just the island "guardian" but a guardian angel?

Jacob dressed in white, which is symbolic of angels.  Instead of the scythe of a grim reaper, Jacob used a lighthouse and the touch of of hand to guide lost souls into eternity.  He may have been one of the spirits entrusted with guiding the souls of the no longer living to the other side.

Unlike the devils in literature who approach their grim duty with detachment or even malevolence toward sinners,  Jacob may have tried to "save"  those about to cross over.

He did not give solace and sympathy to those he brought to the island, but an opportunity to resolve lingering issues in a person's life,  or even a chance to make amends. He does not directly lecture these lost souls but gives them a complex environment in which to re-live their troubles in a different setting to see if they can resolve them.

Jacob would give the island visitors the opportunity to believe in something, including themselves, in order to reconcile their confusion and pain attributed to their lives on Earth.

It is not purgatory, but a diversion program toward the afterlife. 

As we learned, there are people who did not find what they were looking for on the island. They became trapped souls (the whispers) like Michael. In Michael's case, he may have been brought to the island to reconcile his abandonment of his son. But in the end, he made things worse by killing innocent people in order to get his son back. Michael failed to reach his afterlife.

Those people who reached the sideways church did reach their afterlives. They may have reached the church because they fulfilled something missing in their lives, such as true friendship or love, which only came about due to the events that Jacob created on the Island. Each found a new purpose and reason for living by passing the island challenges. In a clever way, Jacob allowed each person to help themselves without sermonizing their faults. That is what Clarence did to Jimmy Stewart's character in It's A Wonderful Life.

RESURRECTION

Most LOST fans do not want to consider that the show was truly a story about people traveling through purgatory. They make their belief based upon TPTB statements in Season 1 that the show was not about purgatory. Well, one explanation is that TPTB lied. The series is full of images and symbols of the after life and a purgatory journey of lost souls. TPTB also told us that we would get answers to the deep questions and mysteries  of the series. They lied about that, too.

For if all the major issues were addressed by the finale, we would still not be wandering the theoretical desert trying to find answers.

Resurrection, eternal life, and reincarnation are recurring themes in the plots and sets of the show. Christian, Egyptian, and Native American symbols were used to reinforce these themes.

The most common images of the after life theme were the Egyptian hieroglyphs and temples. The ancient Egyptians had an advanced funeral rites religious take on death. The temples and pyramids were grand palaces to worship the gods to help the worthy through their perilous journey through the after life. A prime example of the theme coming full bore is a dead Sayid being reincarnated in the temple pool.

Other aspects of the Egyptian death culture were found in the frozen donkey wheel chamber where the hieroglyphs referenced resurrection and portals to "Earth gates." The Egyptians believed that a dead person's soul and body would be split in the after life and travel through the various levels of the underworld to be reunited in paradise. The Hatch's warning glyphs stated "He Escapes Place of Death." The unique Egyptian cross, the Ankh, is seen in symbol form and worn as a pendant by Dharma leaders prior to the purge. Christian crosses, such as the one worn by Eko, were also seen throughout the series. Churches, were people pray for the souls of their departed, were also settings in the series.

On the Geronimo Jackson artwork, the Native American symbol of a hatband is shown. It represents everlasting life. The native tribes had a clear sense of a cycle of life by living on the plains. This cycle of life and rebirth follows the natural observation of nature's seasons. When Aaron was born, Boone had just died which shows a connection to the cycle of life from death. Even the Dharma symbols of ying-yang represent the circle of life; an endless balance and cycle of the univese which includes reincarnation as an essential element of its religion.

Locke was immersed in the resurrection theme. As a boy, Alpert visits him at a foster home. Alpert gives Locke several items to view. He then asks him which objects are "his." This test is similar to tests are done to find the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. When Locke is working a cross word puzzle, one of the answers is from the story of Gilgamesh, in which the main character searches for immortality. When Locke is killed off the island by Ben, Locke's body was returned to the island. As a result, MIB transformed into Locke's image, a form of reincarnation, to instill fear and loyalty in those remaining survivors.

After Locke's death, his body was transported by "Canton-Rainier" which is an anagram for "reincarnation." To take the effort to make an anagram for what was going to happen in the series could be considered foreshadowing or an explanation of what the series is truly about.

There were also clear references to religious texts and beliefs. Ajira Flight 316 takes its number from the most recognizable biblical quotation, John 3:16. The passage states: "For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Eko's walking stick contained numerous references including  "Colossians”, which includes the text: "When you were dead in your sins... God made you alive with Christ..." (Colossians 2:13)The appearance of his dead brother to Eko is also similar to the new testament passages of how Jesus came to be seen by his apostles after his death and resurrection.

While the action of LOST clearly contained struggles of life and death, hidden in plain sight were symbols and acknowledgments by the writers that the deeper meaning present was resurrection, eternal life, and reincarnation.

REBOOT EPISODES 53-56

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 53-56 (Days 70-73)

When Colleen, who was shot by Sun, is brought back to the barracks, Jack cannot save her life. As a result, many of the Others want revenge because Colleen was not saved by the doctor. Ben cons the con man, Sawyer. Desmond sees a vision, and builds a lightning rod to protect Claire and Aaron, which leads to friction with Charlie.

Locke assumes a leadership role. He takes a group to the Pearl Station. Eko sees a vision of his brother and goes off but is killed by the Smoke Monster when Eko refuses to repent for his life’s sins.

Jack finally volunteers to operate on Ben’s back to help his friends. Kate and Sawyer go from flirtation to animal lust. Jack stops the Others, Danny whose wife Colleen died and Jason, from killing Sawyer out of revenge.

Jack and Tom complete Ben’s surgery; Juliet is not convinced that Ben will keep his word so she helps Alex, Karl, Kate and Sawyer to escape the Hydra Island.

Science:

States of Matter
There are five main states of matter. Solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, and Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) are all different states of matter. Each of these states is also known as a phase. Elements and compounds can move from one phase to another when specific physical conditions are present. One example is temperature. When the temperature of a system goes up, the matter in the system becomes more excited and active. Scientists say that it moves to a higher energy state

A "phase" describes a physical state of matter. The key word to notice is physical. Things only move from one phase to another by physical means. If energy is added (like increasing the temperature) or if energy is taken away (like freezing something), you have created a physical change.

A compound or element can move from one phase to another, but still be the same substance. You can see water vapor, in the form of steam, over a boiling pot of water. That vapor (or gas) can condense and become a drop of water. If you put that drop in the freezer, it would become a solid piece of ice. No matter what phase it was in, it was always water. It always had the same chemical properties. On the other hand, a chemical change would change the way the water acted, eventually making it not water, but something completely different. If you added a carbon (C) atom to a water molecule, you would have formaldehyde (H2CO), and that is nothing like water.

All matter can move from one state to another. It may require extreme temperatures or extreme pressures, but it can be done. Sometimes a substance doesn't want to change states. You have to use all of your tricks when that happens. To create a solid, you might have to decrease the temperature by a huge amount and then add pressure. Some of you know about liquid nitrogen (N2). It is nitrogen from the atmosphere in a liquid form and it has to be super cold to stay a liquid. What if you wanted to turn it into a solid but couldn't make it cold enough? You could increase the pressure to push those molecules together. The opposite works too. If you have a liquid at room temperature and you wanted a gas you could use a combination of high temperatures and low pressures to solve your problem.

CHEMISTRY TERM       PHASE CHANGE
Fusion (melting)               Solid to Liquid
Freezing                            Liquid to Solid
Vaporization (boiling)       Liquid to Gas
Condensation                    Gas to Liquid
Sublimation                       Solid to Gas
Deposition                         Gas to Solid

Phase changes happen when certain points are reached. Sometimes a liquid wants to become a solid. Scientists use something called a freezing point to measure the temperature at which a liquid turns into a solid. There are physical effects that can change the freezing point. Pressure is one of those effects. When the pressure surrounding a substance goes up, the freezing point and other special points also go up. That means it's easier to keep things solid at higher pressures. Just remember that there are some exceptions. Water (H2O) is special on many levels. It has more space between its molecules when it is frozen. There's a whole expanding effect when the molecules organize into a solid state. Generally, when temperatures get colder, solids shrink in size. They become more dense.

Improbabilities:

The meatball spinal surgery on Ben.  A complex, delicate operation which needs sophisticated technology, machinery and staff to accomplish would be impossible to accomplish in an abandoned Hydra animal experiment station. In addition, Ben waking up in the middle of surgery would have been an alarming, if not fatal, event.

Mysteries:

How can the Smoke Monster be seen in various states of matter? In the smoke or gaseous form it appears as a instinct-only monster. In a human or solid form, it appears to be an exact duplicate of an intelligent human being, an aware animal or moving object.

Themes:

Religion: Judgment of Sins. Eko is defiant in his refusal to confess any sins; he believes he did what he did to save his brother; the ends justified the means. But his judgment by the Smoke Monster (Yemi) was a violent death, and in his last breath, tells Locke “you’re next.”  The Island afterlife as a test of a person’s soul, heart and sorrow are recurring elements.

Cons. Ben believes he is the master of con, besting Sawyer in the pacemaker illusion to keep him in line. One could also think that Ben was behind the complex double and triple cross betrayals of his own surgery, just so Jack would actually do the surgery in order to save someone (Kate, Sawyer or Juliet).

The Magic Box. If you wish it, it will come true. Ben will tell this to Locke on the Island, that it can make anything happen. When Juliet is recruited in Miami, she wishes her ex-husband would be hit by a bus. Alpert, Jacob’s right hand man, makes it happen in the most direct manner. It may be part of a con, since Ethan is seen leaving Juliet’s sister’s room just before she claims to be pregnant. Did Ethan plant the evidence or change the test results in order for Juliet to leave her sister and research to join the Others? Probably, since we see how devious the Others can be in getting what they want (and ironically, Juliet, after 3 years of captivity, has learned those same devious skills).

Clues:

Jack asks Ben if he is having symptoms of numbness and tingling to his fingers and toes, yet the tumor on his X-ray  is assessed to be over the L4 vertebra and is clearly lumbar (would only have paraesthesis in upper extremities if it was a cervical tumor). Some believe this is a continuity error and not a clue that this is “all make believe.”

Juliet is shown scans of a woman’s womb. She looks at it and believes it to be a 70 year old woman. She is told by Alpert that it is a 26 year old female. How could that be? That is the hook Alpert has to lure Juliet to the Island. Is it true? It could be a con. Or it could be a “real” issue for the Others, whose women could not come to term with their pregnancies. In the concept of an ‘other” dimension as the setting for the Island, such as the afterlife or dementia, a 70 year old woman could have the “illusion” of being her 26 year old self - - - and thus unable to have children.

When Desmond has a vision, he builds a lightning rod in camp. Was it truly a vision, or was it something he believed would happen - - - and if he believed hard enough it would become real. A person could manipulate events to make them real, like the sudden storm and lightning hit as Demond did. Desmond realizes that the Island is not tied to Earth’s natural laws. Mental manipulation of events is possible on the Island, which is a great source of ultimate power.

“She was dead before you put her on the table,” Jack said to Juliet after Colleen died of a gunshot wound. This may be another reference to reincarnated souls trapped on the Island hell waiting for judgment.

Ben asks if Jack believes in God. Ben believes the “proof” is that two days after his spinal tumor diagnosis, a spinal surgeon falls into his lap by the plane crash. But Locke tells Desmond do not confuse coincidence with fate. Are events caused by guardian forces at work or mere coincidence? This also may be a clue to the video game premise, in which Ben is playing a different level trying to “save” himself and the new game element of the 815 crash gives him tools to solve his personal mission of survival.

Discussion:

“ Thoughts are but dreams till their effect be tried. ”
— William Shakespeare

Wonder the purpose of the black smoke monster as it begins its killing spree . . .
black, a color associated with evil; smoke, an element associated with destruction;
monster, an inhumanly cruel or wicked person.

No one can tell what was the smoke monster. Was it really smoke? Doubtful, since it is well believed that the smoke monster could change forms, into physical human form (like Flocke). Was it super-technology, like a swarm of nano-robots? If one thinks that the Dharma experiment stations dealt with polar bears in tropical climates, why not with sci-fi robotics? A machine collective that escapes in the wild amuses some fans. Is it “evil incarnate?” As in the Devil, his minion, its hellhound or metaphor for grim reaper spirit - - -  but at times with total rage but at other times total cunning and mental manipulation.

The introduction of the smoke monster at the end of the pilot episode turned a normal survivor-castaway drama into a major mystery, sci-fi dangerous thriller. The island was not safe. It would dominate the human emotion for rescue.  But it is a contradiction that is never answered properly: for those characters who allegedly leave the Island (and be saved from danger), all have an unnatural desire to “go back” to the Island. The smoke monster is like a symbolic addiction of a person’s worst personality traits. There are many people who are only happy or content if they are miserable or despondent. The smoke monster is the catalyst for those broken personalities to reinforce their negative brainwaves.

The smoke monster could be the Boogie Man of a child’s nightmare. Instead of being under the bed or hiding in the closet, the Boogie Man is anywhere and everywhere. It is the irrational thought pattern drawn out to an extreme level of fear.

If the smoke monster was the judgment mechanism for the Island to weigh the heart of a person’s soul against their sins, the great inconsistent demise of characters makes the whole concept hypocritical. Example, Eko refuses to acknowledge his sinful life - - -  he refuses to accept a redemptive change - - -  and is slaughtered by the smoke monster. Then, Ben who killed dozens of Dharma people in the Purge, including killing his own father, is never judged by the Island monster. Two evil characters who did awful deeds get two different fates for no apparent reason.

So at the molecular level, does the smoke monster actually know what is doing or is it purely a responsive wild animal? If it is a living being, then what does it “feed” on? Does it harvest only “evil” souls that cannot accept redemption?  Does it feed on the pure emotions of fear in human beings - - - and Eko refused to submit to the fear, he was killed because the smoke monster had no use of Eko if it could not suck out the evil energy of fear from him.

The great mystery is how the smoke monster could change, move about the Island, and how it actually “killed” someone. Was it a wave of electromagnetic energy generated by a swarm of evil gnats? Or was it a shape shifting spirit beast? Or was it an illusion? The monster had the stage presence of a great actor. It has some intelligence to interact in its “solid” state human form, but pure emotional anger in its “gaseous” smoke state. If we use chemistry to analyze the change in appearance, from solid to gas is “sublimation” which means (especially in psychoanalytic theory) “to divert or modify instinctual impulse into a more acceptable activity.”  Clearly, Smokey is under much more emotional control in a solid state, as in his appearances as Yemi to Eko. “Disposition” means “the inherit qualities of the human mind or character,” which infers that in a gas state, Smokey’s true character is displayed (as a violent killer). But it would appear that the character traits of Smokey’s physical traits are opposite on the Island - -  - but it makes perfect sense if one is looking into a mirror - - - a theme in the series.

It also brings the concepts of the mind again to the forefront of the story foundation. The balancing of instinct, emotion, intelligence is how one’s character is formed.  If a person is delusional or has mental problems (characters again mention “do you think I’m crazy?” in response to questions), the inner conflict could be symbolically represented by the Smoke Monster in the mind of a troubled person, such as Eko.

If it was an illusion - - - the mind of a person takes over and forces the weak person to commit mental suicide. One’s mind can create the most dangerous creature. One’s mind can harm you deeper than any mystery monster.

We see Room 23 - - - where Karl is strapped in with an IV, light glasses, blaring audio and flashing images. We have previously discussed the concepts of brain washing, and this is a vivid example of it. As Karl is being rescued, Sawyer begins to fall into a trance at the images and the words - - - change, God loves you like Jacob.  He snaps out of it to carry Karl to the boat. This is also the first subliminal reference to Jacob, who will also hear his name from angry Danny who claims “Shepard was not on Jacob’s list.” In retrospect, that is a damning statement, a real inconsistency. Jack’s name was on the lighthouse with the other castaways, including Kate. But Kate did not make the final list of candidates (which was known early in Season 3?)  That begs the question - - - why the story shift? Did Jack replace Eko (for real world contract issues) or Walt (who literally outgrew his role)? It is a bit of circumstantial evidence that the writers were winging it as the season’s went by, not careful to keep a storyline with real continuity points.

Another truly bothersome story line is how in The End Kate winds up with Jack as her soul mate.  One would have thought after the cage love session, Kate would have wound up with Sawyer in the church.  Or, if the flashback is true, Kate would have wound up with her true love, her husband, Kevin the Florida police officer. There is no rational basis for Kate to re-connect so strongly with Jack. So in the end, whose fantasy is fulfilled?


Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The Smoke Monster returns to confront Eko, which dire consequences. Is this the Island balancing the “loss” of Colleen’s life with Mr. Eko’s?

Last lines in episodes:

EP 53:
BEN: It's from Of Mice and Men. Don't you read? Come on, let's get you back to your cage.

EP 54:

LOCKE: He said, 'We're next.'

EP 55:

JACK: Kate, dammit, RUN!

EP 56:

JULIET: I've been on this island for 3 years, Jack. 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days. He said that if I let him live and I helped you -- that he would finally let me go home.

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Deal with the Devil. Juliet wants to go “home,” which may be metaphor to leave purgatory and into the next level of existence - - - since in the End she winds up with Sawyer and not her flashback family (including her ex-husband who she still pined for in her own way).

When Ben is told he has a cancerous tumor on his back, he cannot believe it because no one of the island ever got cancer. The question becomes whether the electromagnetic energy (which later would be termed “Life Source” contained in every living thing) “cures” cancer or “causes” it.

The fake healer told Rose in Australia that the Earth has different energy pockets - - - the one in the outback could not cure her, but another pocket could. The question is whether the Island’s EM is one of those “pockets” and if so, is it really electromagnetic energy or spiritual energy.  The latter is a new concept here because after the crash, Rose was at peace even though her husband was missing and presumed dead. She always thought Bernard was okay. Rose also knew that her cancer was “gone.”  But gone in what way?  If this “pocket” was a spiritual place, there would be no place for diseases because they live in the human world. If this place was the afterlife, again, diseases would have no place in an “energy” not carbon based existence.

If the Life Force of the Island is a healing power, Desmond’s fail safe implosion would have stopped all healing on the Island, including Ben’s back tumor. That would mean Rose’s terminal cancer would have stricken her, caused her pain and suffering because of its advanced stage. But none of that happens. But if people on the Island “believe it to be true” then it may be true in a dream world where reality is what the individual’s mind.

Are the forces in the Island split into the light (Life Force from the cave) and dark (the smoke monster) as the balance between good and evil? And when the Hatch was taken out, did that create the Island realm imbalance - - - with more darkness and evil that needs to be contained by those characters led by Jack?

It occurs to me that when Tom says since the purple sky, the Island has lost communication with the mainland. This must mean that the Island has “moved” itself as part of the fail safe release of EM.  Is this the real reason Ben could not leave the island for medical help, or merely an excuse to get Jack to do something voluntarily but against his free will? 

Since the Hatch was the “cap” on the Island’s massive energy force, it also occurs to me that this is the Third Attempt to control it.  The first was in the Light Cave, where a large rock with Egyptian hieroglyphs, contained the energy. The second was the Frozen Donkey Wheel from the Roman era.  On those glyphs, there is mention to “side gates” to Earth which infers Island movement in time, space or dimensions. The third was the Hatch, a modern American science station.  What do all three things have in common? Each place was created by the great civilizations of Earth by its greatest engineers of their time: Egyptians (pyramid builders), Romans (military conquerors) and Americans (moon landing).

The Island is clearly “testing” the characters’ own character. The push to get people to admit their mistakes, to be truly “sorry” for their actions, is a purgatory of the soul. On the other hand, the supernatural elements and manipulative mind control show that there is a hard attempts to modify behavior by external sources (such as the unseen physicians - - -  whose form may take on Smokey - - - at a mental hospital treating our character patients).

It also seems that the entire story focus now changes to the Others against the 815ers in a life and death chess match. In reality, there was no reason for the Others and the 815ers to begin as mortal enemies. The Others and Ben’s paranoia and freakish desire for control of the Island creates an unnatural conflict. Are both the Others and the 815ers merely pawns in the Jacob and MIB game of human Senet?