BIOHACK

The New York Post reports:

If you’ve ever tried out a virtual reality headset, you will understand the disarming sensation of pulling the headset from your eyes once it’s game over.

It’s incredibly easy to trick your mind into feeling sensations like fear, panic or even total calm and now — according to scientists in London — dreaming.

Scientists are beavering away at methods that can coax the brain into changing its perception of what’s real.

A group of scientists in London are putting volunteers into a dream state even though they are awake.
Carl Smith, director of the Learning Technology Research Center (LTRC) in London  that they have been successful in the process, called “context engineering.”

They can do this using a method called binaural beats, where a tone of a particular frequency is played into one ear and a different tone of another frequency is played into the other.

The brain tries to regulate the sound and creates a third tone that balances the two by creating an equal frequency.

Focusing on this third tone, a method called “delta entrainment,” allows people to drop into a dream state – without going to sleep.

Smith said:”When people want to go into a dream state they can do a 15-minute delta entrainment so their brain actually goes into the delta state, a sleep state, even though they’re not sleeping – and that’s just through listening to binaural sounds.”

It’s not just for inducing different levels of consciousness, these methods can help us regulate sleep patterns, calm us down and help us focus, they claim.

There are a variety of exercises you can perform to train your brain into focusing on senses we typically ignore.

This includes concentrating on your peripheral vision to gain a sense of calm, something athletes are adopting to focus their mind.

It’s part of a subculture called biohacking, which has gained notoriety among amateur scientists. 

The implications of this new process engineering the mind are intense. Tricking your mind to feel intense emotions such as fear and panic could be weaponized against an enemy. A soldier in a panic attack state is not concentrating on his training. He is vulnerable. A weak link.

The use of sound, a tone to stimulate delta sleep patterns, to force a waking person to go into a dream state seems like a plausible Dharma experiment. Viewers often questioned why the main characters were oblivious to their surroundings, the lack of questions to get answers, and a general malaise from the beach campers.

When Faraday remarked that the light on the island was "different," he was seeing it as being diffused or interrupted in its normal pattern. Like light, sound is also a wave form. It is possible that the island light refraction was a byproduct of tonal "context engineering" of the island inhabitants. In the last season, there was a strong hint that the characters had to "awaken" in order to be saved. Saved from what? An island experiment into mind control? The re-training of one's human brain to change into an altered state of consciousness to pass on to another dimension (as the ancient Egyptians believed in their burial texts)?

You can put all the characters missteps, misinformation, misguided missions and missed opportunities on the fact that they were sleepwalking through the series. Literally. Sleep deprivation by putting their minds into delta wave patterns mimicking sleep when they were not at rest. You could then "suggest" patterns of behavior like programming a computer to run simulations. For example, when Hurley's imaginary friend came to him in the island and convinced him it was all a dream - - - in his head - - - and the only way to "wake up" was to jump off a cliff, Hurley was going to do it until Libby showed up out of nowhere. And to keep Hurley grounded, Libby then became his unlikely girlfriend. This dramatic shift in Hurley's thought processes could be an example of how he was programmed to change course. And to keep him on the right path, Libby was constructed to give him a new purpose.

Is there a state of consciousness between being awake and being asleep? Does daydreaming create the bridge between those mental states. And can one scramble their defined positions to change a person's personality, thoughts, morals, goals and fears?

LOST was a series of manipulations. Powerful personalities were always looking to manipulate behavior in others. Some did it by intelligence. Some did it by force. Some did it by instilling fear. But the manipulation was to create order, obedience and leadership.

If these manipulations were a series of experimental biohacks, that puts the series in a new light. None of the characters were dead or truly alive. You could think you were immortal (like Jacob and Patchy) if those images were planted in your mind. They were lab rats in an open experiment.

But what was the end game of the experiment? If it was to get the characters to merge their collective thoughts to find the same finish line in the church, then they succeeded in that task. But what was the church? Was it the afterlife or was it merely the end of an elaborate video game? And the idea of the characters walking out into the bright white light (the symbolism of out-of-body death experience) could be the means of bulk erasing their memories by the scientists conducting the experiment.

Or it could have been a crazy military experiment to try to "expand" the territory of mankind by trying to find a way to "jump" into parallel universes or alternative realities (such as heaven after one dies and their spirit is released). One could have a great military advantage is one could control another world embedded in the present reality. People like Widmore saw the power in controlling the island (and its mind altering possibilities).

This news story sheds some more credence on a biohack premise to the show. The character(s) may have been mere test subjects outside the realm of Earth's physics and cultural common sense.

THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOHS

The curse of the pharaohs refers to an ancient alleged curse believed by some to be cast upon any person who disturbs the tomb of an Egyptian person, especially a pharaoh or king. This curse, which does not differentiate between thieves and archaeologists, allegedly can cause bad luck, illness or death. Since the mid-20th century, many authors and documentaries have argued that the curse is real in the sense of being caused by scientifically explicable causes such as bacteria or radiation.

When a tomb is opened after hundreds of years, it contains dust and bacteria that have not seen the light of day. Those bacteria or dust can contain pathogens that modern man has no immunity form.

The Book of the Dead contained passages to ward off people from disturbing the tombs. Religious beliefs stated that those possessions in the deceased chambers were needed in the afterlife. Grave robbers knew that the rich were buried with vast treasures of gold, silver and gems.

The curse legend grew in the 1920s and 1930s when Howard Carter's archeology team uncovered the best tomb of all time, King Tut's. After excavating the tomb, several members of the team died mysterious deaths, one from a mosquito bite and one from blood poisoning.

For those who still seek a unified theory to LOST's mythology, the curse theory may be the one.

The island was filled with Egyptian references, including columns of hieroglyphs in the Temple to Jacob's textiles. And if you review LOST's elements as an allegory to ancient Egyptian rituals and practices, you can weave a good theory.

In order to protect a pharaoah's afterlife, he would have gathered loyal subjects, his priests, to make continuous offerings and to protect his tomb from raiders. These priests were powerful men in society. Many were viewed to have magical properties and direct contact with the gods.

When people do not understand what they see, they call it magic or supernatural.  The magicians can use unknown science, illusion or slight of hand to deceive, manipulate or shock people. Some people know that one way to control people is to create chaos, fear or expectation of death.

We have Jacob as the island guardian. He is the high priest of the island. The island contains a temple - - - and temples were created for the specific purpose of burial of powerful people.

The smoke monster could be viewed as the deadly dust that is the manifestation of the curse for those foreigners who came to the island to disturb the temple rites.

Why did Jacob allow people to come to his island? Just as in ancient times, a pharaoh, dead or alive, needed subjects to protect him and his remains. The Flight 815 survivors could be unwittingly recruits for the pharaoh's subjects. They were placed in the way of raiders such as Widmore's men who wanted to take control (and plunder) the island.

One can see that the smoke monster's deaths were not indiscriminate. It killed people like Eko because he did not believe in the island's religion. He was wrapped up in his brother's religion out of guilt. As such, Eko had no role in protecting the temple or the island. Eko was then expendable.

Likewise, converts like Locke were used to try to recruit loyal subjects to return to the island. When he failed, he was killed because he had no value to the island high priest.

The one concept that stood the test of the series was that the island had to be protected (from the unknown). That was the reason and excuse for all the conflicting behaviors and story lines. 

Just as in Egyptian mythology, the smoke monster may have evolved to rival the high priest - - - to overthrow him to create his new cult. That is why Flocke did not kill Widmore's men in mass; he used the alleged conflict between the sides in order to oust Jacob from his position of power. Flocke's background was one of science (MIB was into Roman culture and technology as a young man) while Jacob was schooled in the metaphysics of religious beliefs tied to the island's mysterious past. The theme of science vs. religion was common in the series. It seems that it was tested at various stages in time, from the military coming to the island to challenge the inhabitants to Dharma's uneasy truce with the natives. There were two different views of the island. One was to keep the religious tenets in place (Jacob). The other was to abandon the old ways (MIB) and abandon the island.

In some ways, the latter prevailed just like it did in Egypt. Egyptian cult religion or worship its pharaohs died off to be replaced with modern religions in a secular government structure (with intermittent civil wars and political upheaval.)

Just as modern archeology triumphed over the safeguards of tomb construction, LOST's major change was the loss of the island's long standing structure and purpose.

When it was said that the characters had to "let go" in order to be free, it could mean that they had to let go their own past personal principle structures (which commonly is called religious beliefs) in order to embrace their own free will and their thoughts on morality and mortality.

LAYERED DREAMS

It was not one of the best Doctor Who Christmas specials, but this year's did have an interesting concept at play: dreams within dreams where the characters believed they were dealing with real time, interactive events, even though they were not even in the same location.

In LOST, dream theorists believe that the characters were all hooked up on machines that criss-cross neuron-impulses to create a fabricated, collective dream matrix. It is run by the subconscious mind, like running through levels of a video game. Nothing is real, even though your brain and your senses think it is real.

But the application of dreams within dreams can explain the problematic sideways universe. In essence, the characters mental comas or sleep states could have created the following layers: background stories; the flight from Sydney; the crash onto the island; the island events; the off-island events like the O6; the inconsistent time travel events; and the sideways world. Even when someone died on the island, like Libby, she was still an illusion in the next layer of the complex dream state: the sideways arc.

The dream state explanation is one of the true unified theories to LOST. Since dreams are not reality, basic tenets of fact like time and physics (such as a moving island) do not matter so there is no continuity errors. Vivid dreams can take the place of actual events in minds that are broken, drugged or fragmented - - - which are traits in most of the characters who landed on the island.

WAKING UP DEAD

"He woke, and remembered dying." - Ken MacLeod, The Stone Canal.

That opening line has been considered one of the great starts to science fiction novel.

I have not read it, but the premise is an excellent leaping off point to a story.

In the case of LOST, the seminal Season One scene is Jack opening his eyes in the bamboo grove.
Some would now say, he woke up and did not remember dying in the plane crash.

Because the stated mechanism to "resolve" the series story lines was to "awaken" in the sideways world and "remember" you were dead, it could be logically concluded that Jack was dead on the island but he did not realize it.

Adding the Egyptian mythology sewn into the fabric of the show, that makes sense. Jack's soul ("the ba") would have passed to another dimension (the sideways) while his body and mind ("the ka")would have to journey through the underworld (the island) in order to be judged worthy of "reuniting" with his soul.

This simple premise makes the most sense in dealing with the polarizing, negative debates on what really happened in the series.

It also validates two different theories and beliefs.

The characters were "alive" on the island. Yes, they were alive on the island because they did not know they were dead. What happened on the island did happen to Jack's "ka," but only to part of his spiritual being in physical form. For all intensive purposes, Jack was living in a physical form.

The other part of the character's mortal being, the ba, were transported to what we would consider an afterlife realm, a forehell or purgatory, in which the souls are also "unaware" that they have lost connection with their physical, mortal, human body. These souls are continuing their former "lives" on memories in a spiritual form. The characters were in an illusion of physical beings; the reality was shown when Christian opened the church doors to show the reality of their realm was only white light.

The spiritual circuit can only re-connect when the character's island ka realizes that it is dead at the same time the character's ba realizes that it is also dead. Jack's moment of enlightenment happened at Christian's coffin, and his father replied that everyone has to die sometime.

DEAD ENDS & VERSES

How does one get one's self out of a painted corner?

The LOST writers continually put themselves into mystery corners without an explanation to free themselves from their own dead ends.

And there were too many such instances of huge plot inconsistencies to understand let alone explain.

Here are few of the nagging writing problems:

1. If Aaron was born on the island; why was he not born already in the sideways world?
2. If Ben was shot as a boy in the chest by Sayid, why didn't Ben remember him when 815 crashed?
3. Generally, why did so many characters fail to ask basic questions to their fellow castaways?

Here is a possible deux es machina explanation for the writing inconsistencies: multiverses.

Science is still trying to grapple with the workings of the cosmos. The discovery of the minuscule mass of the Higgs boson, whose relative smallness allows big structures such as galaxies and humans to form, falls roughly 100 quadrillion times short of expectations. Trying to put math to the known quantum pieces yields a result that none of us should be in our universe. Instead, there has to be another theory to explain our place in space.

Leading cosmologists like Alan Guth and Stephen Hawking envision our universe as one of countless bubbles in an eternally frothing sea. This infinite “multiverse” would contain universes with constants tuned to any and all possible values, including some outliers, like ours, that have just the right properties to support life. In this scenario, our good luck is inevitable: A peculiar, life-friendly bubble is all we could expect to observe.

Many physicists loathe the multiverse hypothesis, deeming it a cop-out of infinite proportions. But as attempts to paint our universe as an inevitable, self-contained structure falter, the multiverse camp is growing.

The problem remains how to test the hypothesis. Proponents of the multiverse idea must show that, among the rare universes that support life, ours is statistically typical. The exact dose of vacuum energy, the precise mass of our underweight Higgs boson, and other anomalies must have high odds within the subset of habitable universes. If the properties of this universe still seem atypical even in the habitable subset, then the multiverse explanation fails.

When a science fiction show can tap a real scientific theory (however unproven), it can free itself of the dead end badness of a misplayed plot line.

 Our characters were not jumping around in time travel when the island shifted, but our characters were jumping between multiverse bubbles, different parallel dimensions.

Instead of seeing a bubble, the LOST explanation is clear with a deck of cards analogy. In each island time skip, the deck was shuffled and a new card would be the "current" universe while the characters would continue on unknowingly in the other 51 parallel story verses. For example, boarding the plane in Sydney is Universe 1. When the plane hits turbulence, we are not shown a continuation of Universe 1 but a switch to Universe 2. As such, Universe 1's time line may continue the plane to LA (as seen in the sideways flashbacks). But then, when the island goes critical when Locke trips the numbers computer for a lockdown, Universe 2 switches to a different but similar Universe 3. When Ben turns the FDW, he triggers a series of multiverse quakes shifting through several different universes. This may be why we see Locke's paralysis come back on the island, for in a different universe he did not recover. When Locke vanishes the island with his FDW turn, this may be the clearest evidence of the multiverse concept: the shift to Universe X meant that the island was not in that X location.

After enough shuffling of multi-dimensions, a few individuals who can remember the "constants" in each plane of existence have a great advantage to control other people and events (such as Eloise Hawking and Desmond). One can guess more accurately if they had experienced an event generator of possible outcomes before making a final decision.

The multiverse explanation can help cushion the frustration of so many plot dead ends in the series, but it is still a trick to skip to a happy ending.

UNIFIED IN SPIRIT

The attempt to unify the various story aspects of LOST is a difficult chore.

One cannot be positive about anything.

As Oscar Wilde wrote,  “All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.” 

Exactly. What was the true peril in LOST?

What was the one fear that bound together everyone?

It may be a basic human inner terror: dying alone.

The composite feature of any of the main characters were that they were basically loners wandering through life with little or no true friendships. Some say that it is not how you perceive your own life, but your life will be judged by those who attend your funeral.

Human beings have a tribal instinct to belong to a family, a community, kindred spirits. But during one's life, those connections can get lost - - - trampled by the pressures of work, obligations, derailed by alcohol, drugs or quests for power, or tortured relationships including rejection.

That is a heavy dose of DOOM that people think is shadowing them throughout their lives.

If we examine what was below the surface of the island, we find two things. First, we find the ancient Egyptian temple complex, with a drawing of the smoke monster sitting across from Anubis, the god of the underworld. Second, we find the mysterious light force which is said to bring life, death and rebirth through supernatural powers which includes moving both time and space. Despite what is shown on the surface of the island, below is the clear symbolism of death and the after life. And the smoke monster is clearly depicted as part of this underworld realm.

Attached to the subsurface of the island are the roots of the plants, including the banyon trees which some believe have magical powers to ward off evil because spirits reside in their roots. Juliet and Kate were saved from the attacking smoke monster by hiding in the tree roots. What also is tied to the surface of the island? We would learn from Michael that the whispers are trapped spirits who cannot move on in death. Michael was one of those trapped spirits when he spoke to Hurley.

So we could conclude that the island itself is symbolic border between the living and the spirit world. We can also conclude that the smoke monster is a form of a spirit that is trapped on the island. As a spirit, it has magical abilities to change matter and form, to probe the minds and memories of human beings, and to destroy or kill. In all natural systems, there is a balance in order for the system to sustain itself. If the smoke monster is a evil, dark force, then the light force represents the counterbalance of good. It would have its own representative shape or smoke monster form on the island - - - which probably is symbolic of the island guardian such as Jacob.

Jacob being an energy being, a spirit, can explain why he could give Alpert the gift of life on the island because he was connected to the life spirit who can give life and rebirth. Thus, it is fair to assume that there are more than one smoke monster on the island. This could explain why Rousseau's reanimated dead crew members came after her, to turn her into another smoke creature. It could also explain why there was an obsession with new born children. Evil spirits who are trapped or chained to the island because of their evil past may believe that taking a new born, free from sin (pure goodness), absorbing that soul could be the key to releasing their bonds to the island underworld.

We have an island filled with symbols of death and the rituals of the underworld. We have an island inhabited by immortals and spirits. Indeed, the island is thus a magical place not fully of Earth.

If spirits are energy beings, the uncontrolled release of the EM pulse such as Desmond's failure to input the containment numbers causes the spirits to surge into time and space to attach themselves to human beings or to draw them (shipwreck them) on the island. So we can have the 815 plane crash survivors being live, human beings living in a spiritual realm that seems, on the surface, just another Pacific island. 

There has to be some sort of unwritten bargain at play. The trapped spirits need to have humans come to the island for their own redemptive purposes, so their chains can be released so their souls can move on. But redemption is not what happens to any of the main characters on LOST. In fact, no one really has a defining revelation and life changing redemption on the island. There was no more compass that judged good or evil in their hearts. So what could the island spirits give the castaways that was so important, so valuable, that it could redeem them?

Since the spirits are dead, they had experienced the human frailty of dying alone. The island visitors have not gone through that end life moment. The spirit world would give them one last chance to find true connections with other human beings to avoid the fate of the whispers. Friendship, which includes affection, love, respect, trust and deep memories, was the passport for the 815 survivors to reach the sideways church, which was symbolic of their own group funeral.

When Christian said that "they" created the sideways universe, he was probably mistaken. It was the released spirits who created the supernatural alternative sideways world to hold departed souls in a state of ignorant limbo until everyone in the group was ready to "move on." The freed island spirits created the sideways world as their last penance before they themselves could move on. When know MIB could shape shift forms, so we can assume other spirits can too. And using the memories of the human visitors, the spirits and the island magic could create a realistic alternative world. And this could explain why it was slightly different, because a person's memories contain both factual recollection of past events as well as a person's dreams. So that may be why the spirit sideways world had Jack married to Juliet.

The bargain was simple: if the trapped island spirits could change human beings to be good, then they could be released from their island purgatory, and thus helping the humans from their inglorious fates of dying alone (and being unable to move on, like trapped spirits). The theme of redemption had little to do with the main characters, but it was the stake for the invisible characters, the island spirits.

This bargain unites two major elements of the series: life and death. How one lives their life is important, but it is also how one lives in death that is just as important. It answers the question of why people were brought to the island (to release trapped spirits). It answers the question why MIB was frustrated (most humans became corrupt-evil and turned into more whispers trapped on the island like himself). It also answers why an unlikely bunch of diverse people from Flight 815 could do something no other visitors could accomplish - - - because they truly changed their lonely paths and made strong friendships and bonds with unlikely people which enhanced the goodness in the island's life force.  The reward for this bounty was the release of the whispers, who in turn rewarded the castaways with something they could only dream about: dying together, and not alone.

WHAT BRIDGES THE GAPS IN STORY

Perhaps we must look beyond our modern viewpoint of the world, society and culture to find deeper answers to life's questions.

Ponder this: ancient civilizations created massive stone temples which today, modern man cannot replicate.

Throughout history, man has known it was different from other members of the animal kingdom. Man's brain function was far superior to the creatures that inhabited the same environment. With thoughts and observations came memories. And memories led to applied knowledge of how the world around them functions. In time, man learned to manipulate the environment around him which was the seeds of civilization.

But at the same time, man knowing it was different, tried to figure out if there was something more to living on Earth. If man was special, is it possible that there was something unique inside him and her that would live beyond our mortality. In order to live, man are dead animals. But at the same time, man learned live poisonous plants could kill man. It was one of the first paradox.

Many ancient cultures believed in a higher order of existence. Some thought that there was a spirit in everything: man, woman, child, plants, animals, earth, sky . . . every object contained a spirit. And if the spirits lived in harmony, all was well in the world.

Some narrowed the view to limit spirits to human beings, the special inhabitants of the planet. They called their spirits "souls" which gave them to prospect of immortality after death. Civilizations began to study then worship the concept of the soul. It changed the perspective of time. Time usually meant one thing: the harvest cycle which was symbolic of life itself - - - since the harvest was the real means of survival. But if one's soul could live beyond our mortal coil, then they looked to the stars and the long cycle of cosmic events. People began to view their place not in their physical location but a part of a larger universe.

Thoughts of the unknown led to philosophy. Deep thinkers who wondered, speculated, formulated then told stories about us and our place in the universe. As such, no one could actually challenge the formation of opinion of the unknown realms. And in certain respects, personal belief systems have cast mankind in reverse, to a more primitive and violent shell of their enlightened selves. The concept of one "true" religion has little place in a pure spiritual world.

Love, honor, community, family, trust are all elements of an enlightened human being. They are markers that most people believe help feed and comfort their mind to live a proper life in order to receive a proper reward after death. A person's spirit or soul is merely in a pupa stage of existence. In the end, it will release itself from the host body to a) reincarnate into another spirit animal or b) become energy and pass through a portal to a different dimension.

As stated in previous posts, there are wide gaps between facts, science fiction and fantasy plot lines in LOST. But one could argue now that the mortar that could fill those story spaces is the spiritual world. The producers remarked that Season 6's turn was toward a bigger question of spirituality, but without actually answering the question. It is not obvious, but probable that the pre-island represents reality, the island represents the transition between humanity and the spirit world, and the sideways world the spiritual after life. But the odd thing is that the main characters personality never changed in any of those plains of existence. Even ancient philosophers would be puzzled by that fact.

LOST IN THE DETAILS

The ultimate quest is to find a unified theory to LOST.  In the last post, we started to pull the key elements from each season as the starting point to try to link everything together.

The result depends on how one views "realism" in their story genre:

Drama and mystery: factual clues to evidentiary conclusions.
Science fiction: factual points and applied science theories into plausible conclusions.
Fantasy and supernatural: events tied to purely fictional components, environments, and unknown.

Depending on how one views the overall premise of the show, it is hard to even agree on basic facts.

Flight 815, Sydney to LAX.
      If you believe that it was a dream or virtual reality premise, then this fact is not real.

Flight 815 plane crash on the Pacific island.
     If you believe that it was a dream or virtual reality premise, then this fact is not real.
 
The polar bear.
     If you believe that the characters on in a different realm of existence, like the after life, then the polar bear is not real.

The smoke monster.
     Is the smoke monster mechanical, alien, spiritual or an illusion/nightmare in a dream?

The characters on board Flight 815 survived a plane crash.
    If you believe that the show was all about the after life, then they did not survive the crash, per se.

The ghosts of dead people on the island, including Dharma Initiative, leaders.
   If you believe people can communicate with the dead, then it is science fiction. If you believe it is not possible, then it is fantasy.

Time travel elements that changed throughout in the series.
    If you believe that time travel is an application of future knowledge and technology, then it is sci-fi show. If you believe the time travel elements were not applied science theory, then it is fantasy.

The island moves in time and space.
    Factually, we know islands do not move. If the island is not an island, then it is either a ship (factual drama), or a beast (alien) or something else (fantasy world).

The two concurrent time lines: one current and one in the 1974 where characters are living in both time lines.
     Science fiction is full of time travel stories, but if you believe that the series failed to follow "time travel rules" or was not consistent in applying some principles to its time travel trope, then it falls into the fantasy world which could include supernatural or dream states.

The concept of killing immortal beings like Jacob and MIB.
    Immortality is a concept that humans believe (faith) but is not proven by science, so a fair amount of people will conclude that immortal beings are supernatural or fantasy. And the ability to kill immortals without rules muddles various opposite premise genres.

The concept of humans becoming immortal island guardians by volunteering.
    Human beings cannot transform themselves. And there appears to scientific explanation why Jack then Hurley became immortal guardians unless they were already supernaturals (such as dead spirits) or that the whole guardian story was part of a fantasy game or dream world.

The flash sideways universe where Flight 815 never crashed on the island; an after life limbo.
    This is the classic chicken or the egg paradox. Which came first? The sideways after life world and the character spirits sent to the island for redemption, or the island world where humans lived in a fantasy realm, for the possible amusement of immortal beings, prior to their individual deaths.

It is hard to get the pieces could fit together. It needs a game of rock, paper, scissor rules to help figure out what is the dominate element to try to find the path to a final solution.

What element beats the other element?
Does science fiction trump factual-drama?
Does supernatural trump science fiction?
Does factual-drama trump supernatural?

Without enough clarity, i.e. answers to the mysteries (whether factual, sci-fi or supernatural explanations), we fall to the point of personal perception and opinion.

THE QUEST FOR THE LOST GRAIL

It may be like trying to chisel the statue of Crazy Horse with a metal toothpick, but the final epic quest is to try to find the center piece, the keystone, the Rosetta Stone, or the Holy Grail that perfectly merges the desperate elements of the series into one cool unified theory.

Yes, it is like trying to obtain world peace.

In order to figure out this major puzzle, we need to find all the pieces.

In season one, the key elements were:

Flight 815, Sydney to LAX.
Flight 815 plane crash on the Pacific island.
The polar bear.
The smoke monster.
Rousseau being crashed on the island for 16 years, sending out a looping SOS in French.
Locke finding the Hatch

In season two, the key elements were:

The conflict with the Others.
Control of the Hatch between Jack and Locke.
The Numbers.
The other survivors, the Tailies.
The ghosts of the Dharma Initiative, and its scientific experiments.
Desmond being trapped in the Swan pushing a button every 108 minutes to avoid a catastrophic event.

In season three, the key elements were:

Benjamin Linus, the sociopathic leader of the Others.
Time travel elements begin to appear in the series.
Desmond is believed to be "unstuck" in time.
Survivors make contact with the Kahana freighter.

In season four, the key elements were:

Widmore's army arriving on the island.
The strange time differential from the ship to the island; the nose bleeds.
The frozen donkey wheel chamber and its apparent ability to "move the island."
The Oceanic 6 survivors and the plan to return to the island.

In season five, the key elements were:

The two concurrent timelines: one current and one in the 1974.
The three year gap to the reunion of the time lines in 2007 with Ajira flight 316.
The mission to assassinate Jacob, the island guardian.
Flocke, the MIB's impersonation of dead Locke.

In season six, the key elements were:

Back stories of Jacob, his brother, Crazy Mother,  MIB/smoke monster and Alpert.
The final conflict between MIB and Jacob with the rebooting of the "cork."
The deaths of Jacob by Ben, and MIB by Jack and Kate.
Hurley becoming the last island guardian.
Several 815 survivors take off on Ajira plane to leave the island.
The flash sideways universe where Flight 815 never crashed on the island; an after life limbo.

To get how the pieces could fit together, they need to be sorted into categories.

The factual pieces are:

Most visitors to the island came via crashes, and shipwrecks.
Many people like Rousseau, the castaways and others were trapped on the island.
The island was used for various experiments, including on polar bears.
The island contained various stations, such as the Hatch.
If one did not input the numbers into the Hatch computer, an alarm would sound and an incident would occur.

The science pieces are:

Rocket experiment and the doctor's body coming ashore showed the island was moving at a different time than the freighter.
One can only leave the island by a precise bearing or using the FDW.
The island caused inconsistent illness and death to visitors.

The supernatural elements were:

The smoke monster.
The immortal Jacob and Alpert.
The island moving in time and space (especially after Ben turned the wheel).
Certain characters were transported to 1974 while other characters in the same time-space did not.
The island's light source has unique properties (said to contain life, death and rebirth).
The sideways world was an alternative or parallel after life limbo where the characters did not remember their past island time.

So what was LOST? Based on the ending, a supernatural show. Based on the beginning, a survival show. In the middle, a science fiction mystery. There different genres trying to play well together like three spoiled toddlers fighting over one seat on the swing set.

Let's take the weekend to ponder what this all means.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

Is it possible that someone will be able to take the LOST story and re-work it into a unified climax of the desperate, tangential plots?

Yes, if someone took the time and effort to re-edit the series into chronological order (which I have not seen except the first two hours), then in the buried archeological pit of the scripts there is a lost treasure that ties everything together.

In order to tie every piece of the LOST puzzle together, one will have to consider suspending belief but not to the point of irrational McGuffins. The best science fiction has at its core science principles "extended" by theoretical advancement.

For example, is it possible to survive a mid-air plane separation at 30,000 feet? No. Is it possible to survive a free fall from 9,000 feet (as shown in the Others centric episode showing the crash from Ben's perspective)? Perhaps, but unlikely. Is it possible that since Desmond did not enter the numbers promptly, causing a system failure and release of electromagnetic energy, that the unique EM properties could have acted as parachutes or pillows for the survivors who landed alive on the island? That could be a possibility. With the Desmond error causing an electromagnetic incident, is it possible that based on the FDW's ability to harness the EM to shift the island in time and space, that the EM discharge selectively carried the survivors into a different time, space or dimension (including the afterlife as in Dante's Inferno)? That could be a greater possibility since it links together more key elements of the story mythology.

And this is how it could be possible to use the story clues, stated science principles, island factors, and cause-and-effect relationships to build a detailed model of what actually happened to the characters in a unified story that would tie all the loose ends.

In order to accomplish something this grand, one will need to extract the core mythology elements and make them core building blocks from which "the answers" can logically be found for the show's mysteries. There truly needs to be story rules to avoid continuity issues.

It will be complex, confusing and frustrating. For example, the writers had no consistent concept of "time."  It was linear. Then it was circular. Then it was classified as a moving stream. Each one of these time concepts is different. And when the writers dropped the bomb in the sideways world having "no past, no present, no future, but just now," how does one deal with characters moving forward in a space with no time at all? The "now" is not the present because the present represents the future minus the past. Unless the after life principle is that souls live in a null space, then why would they appear to live "normal" lives along a progressive time line?

Even if one can forge through the serious stuff, can one weave an explanation that would appease, delight and answer all the questions of the die-hard fan? Probably not. And that is why no one has really tried to tackle this ambitious project.

NOW

"There is only now." - - - Ernest Hemingway

Words have meaning. There is a certain precision in a few words.

Now means at the present time or moment; at the time directly following the present moment; immediately;  under the present circumstances; as a result of something that has recently happened; and as a consequence of a known fact.

In LOST, who was actually living in the Now?

The sideways world was a result of something "recently" happening: the plane crash.
It appears that the time directly after the plane began to tear a part solidified the sideways realm as at that moment, each passenger on the plane had their "lives flash before their eyes."

It could be argued then that the sideways world was the characters "true past." It was in that one moment that capsulized both their past and their hopes for the future into one cosmic present aboard Flight 815.

Some characters did not really change in the sideways world: Jack was still searching for his father; Kate was still a fugitive. But there were other critical changes. Hurley was not the lottery loser in the sideways world but a confident, but lonely businessman. Sawyer was a cop looking for a con man. And the secondary characters actually had prior connections before popping up on the island: such as Miles being Sawyer's partner, and Juliet being Jack's ex-wife.

For if the sideways world would have been the time line IF Flight 815 did not crash, then that is the true core of the main characters.

Such a viewpoint would drastically change the perception of the island world. We would now know why there was an immediate connection between Juliet and Jack when Jack was captured by the Others. In the past "real life," they were once married but now divorced.

And even secondary characters had prior island connections. Arzt and Ben were faculty members at school prior to Arzt being crashed on the island (so Ben's memory was in his time line, and transferred into the island world). Likewise, Alex and her mother, Rousseau, were in Arzt's memory as well. If mere memories were the building blocks for the island world, that puts the island realm into the universe of imagination, fantasy, dreams or supernatural thought transformation.

And the island transformation helps explain away some paradoxes. For example, why Aaron was born "twice," once on the island and once in the after life. We know that Claire was pregnant when she boarded Flight 815. We know that Claire was conflicted about giving her baby up for adoption. We know in the island time line, her "now" was giving birth on the island with Kate. In the sideways world, it was giving birth at the concert with Charlie.

But in Claire's "now" aboard Flight 815, Aaron was not born. In her future thoughts about her child, she could have imagined keeping the child (sideways) or losing the child (island/O6). But in both situations, Aaron is never born.

This sideways concept being the "true" one also helps understand why Ben did not leave with Hurley in the after life church. He still wanted to stay in the sideways "now" to remain close to Alex and Rousseau. If the island was the true past prior to Flight 815, then Ben would have stood zero chance of any happiness with Alex or Rousseau because his island character was brutal, cruel, evil and the cause of their deaths. So it can only make sense that Ben knew Alex and Rousseau prior to Flight 815, but his feelings or discussions with Arzt were transferred into the island world re-creation.

It makes the memories of characters like Arzt the foundation for people who were not on the plane but were on the island. Perhaps, Arzt's emotional state created a darker version of Ben for the island story (because Arzt also had feelings for Rousseau in his "real" life).

But then again, one could remark, the sideways being the true continuum of the characters pre-flight lives does not explain David, Juliet and Jack's child. But actually, it does. As a child of divorce, David may have resented both his parents. He could have blamed himself for having no normal family life. And that may be while David was in the sideways world, he was not in the church because he was living his own life in his "now," totally unrelated to both the sideways and island universes.

That would lead one to conclude that BOTH the sideways and island locations were not real. That the sideways world had its foundation the factual memories of the passengers aboard Flight 815 before it crashed. That the island world had its foundation on the emotional memories of the passengers as they died in the plane crash.

This explanation helps to unify both conflicting story lines and missing characters.

But it goes to show us how the concept of "now" itself during LOST's six seasons. We can agree that the original writer, Jeffrey Leiber, and ABC executives believed that his characters would survive a plane crash and continue their normal time lines. When Abrams and the first new writers were brought on the series, the writer's guide contemplated that the characters would be alive and struggling to survive on the island. But that "now" present changed with the supernatural jumps with time travel and immortal beings clouded in vague mysteries.  The show's focus left the present island time to create elaborate flashbacks and flash forwards to the state of illusion, fantasy and dreams.

It was clearly not the original intent of the origin of LOST to switch gears from a reality drama to a supernatural fantasy series, but it happened.  The means of shocking viewers with bizarre twists and violence became the standard operating procedure rather than keeping a cohesive story line together with mounting continuity errors. LOST would have been a much different, abet calmer, series if the original story vision kept marching forward in real time.

PERSONAL EVOLUTION

There is a theory that at some point, human beings will evolve beyond their physical existence. Science fiction writers have been using this idea for a long time, to create intelligent beings made purely of energy and thought.

One would think that evolving beyond a physical body would have its advantages. This new being would not have hunger, the need to consume food in order to survive. It would not feel pain as it would not have a nervous system connected to cells and organs. It would not have emotional bursts since it does not have the stressful demands for food, water, rest and procreation.

Based upon this scientific theory, one "unified" explanation for LOST is that the smoke monster was one of these non-physical body beings. Whether it evolved from humans or aliens is not really the issue. It could have been the last of its species. If so, there could be a vast sense of loneliness. So how could such a higher form of "life" cope with such loneliness?

Humans gather comfort in surrounding themselves with lower life forms. We call them "pets." If the smoke monster wanted companionship, mental stimulation, a sense of purpose or even something to do - - - then bringing those interesting, complex, emotional, primitive, cunning, violent people to his island.

We know that the smoke monster(s) could take the form of human beings (usually dead ones). When they reanimated humans, the smoke monsters had access all the memories of those people. They used those memories to manipulate the other characters into action or inaction.

But even if the smoke monster evolved into a higher order, the ending of the series did not shed any light on this theory or what the smoke monster really represented on the show. It could have been merely symbolic of the fears, anxieties, traumas and spiritual bankruptcy of certain characters. But the show runners would not need a supernatural being to coax those traits from human beings; they are messy enough ruining their own lives to have those matters come to the story surface.

The smoke monster is an enigma. It seems to be a supernatural, intelligent and violent force not known in nature.

COVER STORY

In 2010, LOST's showrunners made the following comment in regard to the mysteries of the series:

I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive. - - - Carlton Cuse

Fans who support the final conclusion to the series have jumped on this philosophy. They claim that    the producers having to provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. 

They believe that even though the mysteries shown in LOST should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, the mysteries do not need to be “tied together.” The concept is that there is no unified theory to anything. They think scientists will conclude that in life and our universe, there is no grand unified theory. It is futile to think otherwise. 

If one accepts this philosophy that LOST mirrors life in that there is never going to be a unified theory to explain the mysteries of life (or the show), fans are only left with the vague, unfilled vision.  The TPTB that hyped and worked on the story lines abandon the show's viewers to their own devices;  to wonder and philosophize and speculate to what they had invested six years in watching the story when the show's creators tell us that mysteries, as in life, cannot be addressed. 

I have to reject TPTB's premise. It is an excuse. It is a cover story. It is a con.

The art of writing a narrative or epic tale is based on a time-tested formula: a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the beginning, we have characters who are confronted with problematic situations (conflicts). In the middle, we have those characters trying to come to terms with those conflicts. In the end, we have those characters have those conflicts resolved, for good or ill.  

In 1972, sociolinguist William Labov isolated the historical elements of storytelling that applied to all cultures throughout time: 

1. Abstract - How does it begin?
2. Orientation - Who/what does it involve, and when/where?
3. Complicating Action - Then what happened?
4. Resolution - What finally happened?
5. Evaluation - So what?
6. Coda - What does it all mean? 


The LOST's creators gave us a weak resolution, nothing to evaluate and no coded principles to find out what it all meant. In some respects, it would be like Jules Verne writing his novel, Around the World in 80 Days, in one sentence: After accepting the wager that he could not make it around the world in 80 days time, Phineas Fogg left for the train station to begin his journey. The End.


LOST began with the riveting tale of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island. A diverse group of people would need to band together in order to survive and to be rescued. The complication was that they were not alone - - - people were spying on them, kidnapping some of the survivors, played mind games, and killed many people. The survivors had to confront the hostiles in order to live, but many died in the process. The initial story could have concluded whether any of the survivors were rescued in a Robinson Caruso way. But instead, in order to pad the story line, TPTB added layer upon layer of secondary backstories and more conflicts (Others v. Dharma; Ben v. Widmore; Jacob v. MIB). TPTB also brought in not only the big question of "where was the island?" but "what is the island?" If you are going to add smoke monsters, Egyptian temples, reincarnation, and time travel, people will want a reasonable explanation for those elements in the conclusion of the story. 

TPTB wanted to make LOST a grand, epic, "different" adventure story. But to believe at the beginning they needed no unified theory to any of the story elements that they would film defies common sense in the writing craft or common courtesy to the viewers. They were more engrossed in wild plot twists than the actual premise of the show. The sideways world was just another twist they used as an escape hatch to give viewers a "happy" ending with no answers. It is like a child going out Trick or Treating to be given instead of candy, a travel bottle of mouth wash. Yes, it could be worse: a razor blade in an apple. It is all a matter of perspective, which itself was lost at the end of the series (apparently by design).

May 25, 2010

From a fascinating discussion between LOST producers Cuse and Lindelof and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here:

Carlton Cuse: I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive.

This is similar to the point I was trying to make in my pre-finale essay “Why LOST Doesn’t Need to Answer Every Question.” To provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. The mysteries should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, but they do not need to all “tie together.” There is no unified theory of everything. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to think that the search for a grand unified theory is futile.
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.lrjvILoT.dpuf

May 25, 2010

From a fascinating discussion between LOST producers Cuse and Lindelof and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here:

Carlton Cuse: I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive.

This is similar to the point I was trying to make in my pre-finale essay “Why LOST Doesn’t Need to Answer Every Question.” To provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. The mysteries should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, but they do not need to all “tie together.” There is no unified theory of everything. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to think that the search for a grand unified theory is futile.
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.yZyUefSJ.dpuf

May 25, 2010

From a fascinating discussion between LOST producers Cuse and Lindelof and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here:

Carlton Cuse: I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive.

This is similar to the point I was trying to make in my pre-finale essay “Why LOST Doesn’t Need to Answer Every Question.” To provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. The mysteries should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, but they do not need to all “tie together.” There is no unified theory of everything. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to think that the search for a grand unified theory is futile.
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.lrjvILoT.dpuf

THE GREAT THING

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. — Anatole France

What was the great event, the great accomplishment, that made the end the LOST saga worth while?

In Season 6, the only conclusion presented was the fact that Jacob and his followers defeated the MIB who sought to leave the Island. No one viewing the pilot episode could have imagined that would be the key climatic event that would end the series. For those who believe that the series went back to the beginning to focus in on the main characters to finish their journey, the Jacob-MIB tangent doe nothing to resolve the deep emotional scars, fears, phobias and anti-social behavior deep within the main characters back stories.

To accomplish a "great" thing, one needs:
1. Action
2. A dream
3. A plan
4. A belief.

How does Jack's apparent victory over Flocke meet those requirements?

Jack fought MIB but he had no plan. Jack was a non-believer in faith, fate or spiritual aspects of life. He led his life in reality, in science, through the lens of a highly trained spinal surgeon. He had no use for politics, cliches, focus groups or public relations.

There are several key unanswered or poorly explained elements to the end.

Jacob is immortal. He has lived on the island for a thousand years. He can grant the gift of immortality. MIB calls him the devil. So how can a mere mortal like Ben kill him? And once he is "killed," he still wanders around the island interacting to various people, including the remaining candidates. 

MIB as the smoke monster is also apparently immortal. The smoke monster is depicted on ancient hieroglyphs in the Temple. It is termed a Cerberus, a security system, and pure evil. It can transform its shape to take the appearance of dead people like Locke, with all his faults and memories.

One must make several long assumptions to try to figure out how an immortal being becomes mortal.
The alleged dislodged frozen donkey wheel made the island time skip. It's core life force was in jeopardy. As a result, Jacob could be killed but not at the hands of his "brother," in the form of MIB, but at the hands of a human. The problem with this logic is that Jacob's brother died so the reincarnated smoke monster image of his brother was not bound by Crazy's Mother's rule that Jacob and his brother could not harm each other. Jacob broke that rule already. For that sin, he was left to a lonely existence.

To somehow make MIB into a mortal Flocke, Desmond and Jack had to "reset" the stone cap in the light cave, a place where intense electromagnetic energy would tear a human a part. Now, Desmond allegedly survived the Hatch explosion-implosion to become an electromagneto superhero. But Jack only took a job title of guardian without any special transformation. Again, there are no rules that grant such powers. The "reboot" of the Light Cave source somehow "trapped" MIB in Flocke's body (not Locke's actual human body because those remains were buried; MIB transformed matter to create Flocke). If one can transform matter, why would putting a stone back on a light source change or eliminate that power?

Even if one goes backward from Season 6, this Jacob-brother dynamic goes past the plane crash to the early beginnings of the island itself, even before Jacob and his brother as children came to this place.

This place, the island, is also a debatable unknown. It seems real, with plants, animals, people, machinery, temples, beaches, food, water and human beings. But even vivid dreams can seem absolutely real to the dreamer.

One aspect of the Jacob-MIB relationship was the fact that young Jacob appeared before Flocke during the final back and forth with Widmore's men. Young or ghost Jacob had appeared before in the series, usually warning someone that they could not kill. This young ghost Jacob also appeared at the same time as ghost grown-up Jacob after Ben killed him in the statue. It is odd that dead Jacob would appear at two different ages around the same climatic time.

Or is it?

We have viewed the series through the eyes of adults. We used our personal experience, knowledge, education, research and common sense to try to figure out the island happenings and events. Some of us were disturbed by how TPTB handled and mistreated (or misused) children during the series. But that may be the point. The series would be different if it was viewed through the eyes of a child.

It now occurs to me that the end was an end as the beginning was just that, a new start. The ghost spirits of young Jacob and his young brother never grew up. They stayed children harbored away in a spiritual place we saw as an island. When MIB tells Jacob it is he who "brings" people to the island, it is a metaphor for the imagination of Jacob to create his own "stories" and "adventures" with his mind. The lighthouse is merely a window to the world of the living, just like a television set to a shut-in. There Jacob can spy on actual humans to get a blueprint for how people act, react and behave. There is no moral judgment just observation. That is why there is no moral tone or lesson in LOST. As a lonely unsupervised child spirit, Jacob would have no cause to know the difference between right and wrong.

So a child spirit begins a new adventure story to play against MIB, or his imagined brother. He "brings" people to the island by creating characters and placing them in a situation where they come to the island. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Claire , Charlie, Desmond . . .  they are all figments of Jacob's imagination. The interactive game of characters is just like MIB creates forms out of its matter; Jacob can do the same as he shifted from various states. We have the island more as a holodeck than a real place. We have programmed characters running through story lines created by a child. This is not black or white. It is not a game. It is an adventure like cowboys and Indians, capture the flag, or combat. Children at play. Jacob and his brother at play.

The concept that the entire LOST story is the telling of a tale made up by a child is probably the closest thing we can get to a unified theory. Nothing matters because nothing was real. The characters happy ending was a child's creation for his favorite action figures. They never died because they never lived on the island. It explains why certain family members of the characters who had strong bonds with them were not in the church. It also shows the imprint of loneliness that Jacob had in himself. It is probably Jacob's personality that keeps his brother from leaving the island playground because Jacob does not want to move on. As a child, who did not have a sibling or friend whine that he did not want to play the current game anymore. Kids get bored and want to move on to do something else. Some kids do not, and want to continue playing with or without their friends. In his fantasy world, he is the king and creator. He is the master of his universe. What ever he can imagine, he can make. He lives in the land of illusion with endless adventure stories that he can capture and rerun. 

The great thing Jacob accomplished was to create his own self-sustaining fantasy world.
To accomplish a "great" thing, Jacob needed a plan (the lighthouse to see into the human world to gather observations about people), a belief (that putting various people together in his fantasy world could create vast amounts of entertaining situations and events), action (in the devious plot twists he would throw at his characters) all within the confines of his own child-like dreams.

GAME PLAY

If one looks at LOST purely as a video game, what would be the purpose and game play?

It would seem the characters would be avatars in an open world MMO.

It would also seem that the goal of the game could be a variation of "Follow the Leader."

And the game ended only after Jack became the Leader and when he ran out of life force and died.

So, even in that situation, what was the reward or level-up?  The end church could represent Jack's true followers. And when Christian opens the doorway, this could mean they all were going to the level game level as a team.  All the characters came to the island as individuals. The situations made it impossible to stay unattached or alone for very long. One had to make pacts, deals, friendships in order to stay in groups. There is power in numbers. There is strength in numbers.

The missions were all convoluted in logic, but they did serve the purpose of gaining leadership points and followers.

And what leadership role was everyone fighting for? Jacob's island guardianship seems to be the top prize. Jacob had a huge following of Others on the island and in the Temple. But MIB destroyed much of that following leaving only a hand full of beach survivors as candidates. When Jack accepted the island leadership role from Jacob, he still had to defeat MIB who was on the verge of completing its own coup. When Jack defeated MIB (with the help of Kate), that ended his quest. Jack won the game.

The game would then have been played from Jack's point of view. This was Jack's game journey that the viewers rode along, shotgun. It was Jack's struggles to be leader, to make life and death decisions, to make deals, break his word, lead missions, make mistakes, and then finally get enough followers to trust him fully that they would all be rewarded in the end.

This is probably one of the weaker theories in the LOST universe. Who would want to merely observe another person playing a video game? But in one sense, with so many people identifying and rooting for specific characters, viewers did have a vicarious in game action with their favorite characters.

LITERARY TWIST

LOST had numerous literary references throughout the series, from character names to actual book props.  Many thought those were clues as to the premise of the story lines.

There is one literary format that is rarely discussed because of its twisted ending. It was once used as a reference outline for a Twilight episode.

The story structure is contained in a Civil War era short story called An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce in 1886 and first published in 1890. Bierce was called his era's greatest cynic based upon his work, The Devil's Dictionary.  Bierce had been a news correspondent during the Civil War.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is the three act story of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer condemned to death by hanging from Owl Creek Bridge. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist stands bound at the bridge's edge. It is later revealed that after a disguised Union scout enlisted him to attempt to demolish the bridge, he was caught in the act.

In the first part of the story, a gentleman planter in his mid thirties is standing on a railroad bridge in Alabama. Six military men and a company of infantry men are present. The man is to be hanged from the bridge. As he is waiting, he thinks of his wife and children. Then he is distracted by a tremendous noise. He can not identify this noise, other than that it sounds like the clanging of a blacksmith's hammer on the anvil. He cannot tell if it was far away or nearby. He finds himself apprehensively awaiting each strike, which seem to grow further and further apart. It is revealed that this noise is the ticking of his watch. Then, an escape plan flashes through his mind: "throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, take to the woods and get away home." His thoughts stray back to his wife and children. The soldiers drop him down.

The story flashes back in time: Peyton Farquhar lives in the South and is a Confederate supporter. He goes out of his way to perform services to support the Confederate cause. One day, a gray-clad soldier appears at his house and tells Farquhar that Union soldiers in the area have been repairing the railroads, including the one over Owl Creek Bridge. Interested, Farquhar asks if it is possible to sabotage the bridge, to which the soldier replies that he could burn it down. When the soldier leaves, it is revealed that he is a Union scout who has lured Farquhar into a trap, as anyone caught interfering with the railroads would face execution.

In the moment's before the man's death, time seems to distort and slow down. When he is hanged, the rope breaks. Farquhar falls into the water. While underwater, he seems to take little interest in the fact that his hands, which now have a life of their own, are freeing themselves and untying the rope from around his neck. Once he finally reaches the surface, he realizes his senses are superhuman. He can see the individual blades of grass and the colors of bugs on the leaves of trees, despite the fact that he is whirling around in a river. Realizing that the men are shooting at him, he escapes and makes it to dry land.

He travels through an uninhabited and seemingly unending forest, attempting to reach his home 30 miles away. During his journey through the day and night, he is fatigued, footsore, and famished, urged on by the thought of his wife and children. He begins experiencing strange physiological events, hearing unusual noises from the wood, and believes he has fallen asleep while walking. He wakes to see his perfectly preserved home, with his beautiful and youthful wife outside. As he runs forward to reach her, he suddenly feels a searing pain in his neck; a white light flashes, and everything goes black.

It is revealed that Farquhar never escaped at all; he imagined the entire third part of the story during the time between falling through the bridge and the noose finally breaking his neck.

One can easily see the same pattern in the general story line of LOST.

A diverse group of people are somehow connected (through various flashbacks) when they board Flight 815 from Sydney to LA. During the flight, time passes slowly. It will be a long journey. Minds will wander from consciousness to dream states; from small talk to deep concentration.

Then there is turbulence. The plane shutters and shakes. The passengers are all nervous. Fear is awakened within them. The the plane rips a part in mid-air causing each person's life to flash before their eyes.

Just as in the Bierce story, a constant theme of the main characters was running through the jungle. There were strange noises, whispers and supernatural forces. There are dangers lurking on the island but there are also things missing from each person's life, such as love or friendship or a purpose. Each main character has a bout of some psychological issue. Time begins to be distorted; the past becomes the present and the present the past.

Then suddenly, it is revealed that the in the sideways world, everyone is dead. This is a purgatory that the 815 passengers "created" at the most important moment in the lives. One needs to consider that the most important moment in a person's life is their own death, whether or not one believes in an after life.

Though explained as an ABC marketing department mistake of having the 815 plane wreckage under the final series finale credits, no one can doubt that disturbing image and silence made people think. Something that many fans discounted from the very beginning. That the whole LOST story from when the plane broke a part at high altitude was not as it seemed: that the passengers and crew never survived the plane crash. Everyone re-imagined their lives during the terrifying time the plane broke a part until it crashed on the island. As with the Bierce story, LOST ends with the characters being engulfed by a white flash of light.

If LOST followed the Owl Creek Bridge literary twist, the expansive story lines of each character's fantasies, fears, dreams and hallucinations are only minutes in real time. If one is looking for a unified theory to explain (and explain away the inconsistencies), then this old (and cynical) literary form could be the answer.

THE ISLAND DYNAMIC

People have debated what the Island was . . . a real place, a space ship, a parallel dimension or hell.
But the above cartouche explains the island. It alone can unravel the unspoken mystery of the island.

I have translated the symbols around the cartouche.  It depicts the relationship between two entities. It tells The Story of the Island.

Foremost, it shows the Egyptian god of the underworld, Anubis, summoning a monstrous figure which represents another Egyptian entity, Ammit. In Egyptian mythology, this makes perfect sense. Anubis was the god of the underworld, who protected souls on their passage toward the afterlife. Ammit was "the devourer" of souls. Ammit was associated with the god, Tawaret, the statue for which Jacob lived in on the beach. The Egyptians believed that once a person died, a soul needed to pass through seven gates in order to get to the afterlife. The passage from their tomb to the afterlife was through a duality called Duat which was connected by the Nun, the waters of the primordial abyss. In this place, spirits were not evil but under the control of the gods. The Duat served as the residence of underworld gods like Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horace, Hathor and Ma'at. The souls would pass through the Duat which was a place were souls were not condemned but tested and judged by the gods. The Book of the Dead set forth "rules" of passage onto the afterlife for a soul to navigate through the gates guarded by human form spirits.

Anubis was a protector or guardian of the souls in their passage toward the afterlife. If a soul at judgment did not pass the weighing of the heart test, then that soul would be devoured by Ammit, which meant that the soul would never pass on to the afterlife (it would "die a second time") and the condemned soul would remain restless forever (i.e., the whispers).

Second, the stone carving specifically shows the summoning of Ammit. Ammit arises from black smoke to form an "electric" looking demon. When we have seen the smoke monster, it contained electrical flashes as being some sort of electro-magnetic beast. Ammit was under the control of Anubis. So this means that the smoke monster was not an indiscriminate killer.

Third, the translation of the hieroglyphs may be subject to some interpretation. But in the overall scheme of the stone's large representations, I believe the symbols mean, from left to right:

PROTECT ETERNITY

RISE TO SEE EVIL (the message under the figures)

DEATH GATHERS ETERNAL EVIL

Fourth, the message seems clear. Once Anubis, the guardian of souls has final judgment, he summons Ammit to rise to find the evil soul and devour it.

So why is this stone relief so important in the LOST story.  As referenced themes of Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz state, there is a man behind the story engine curtain. The reveal of the LOST man behind the curtain is extrapolated from the church scene in The End: a clear reference that all the characters are dead, waiting for the final journey into the afterlife. This sideways way station is symbolic of reaching heaven's gate or the final passage way in Egyptian mythology.

In the Egyptian passage to the afterlife, a soul would encounter tests, spells, magic, fear and danger just like all the characters did on the island. The island was a modernized representation of the ancient Egyptian underworld.

It would then appear that Crazy Mother was the representation of Tawaret. Before Claudia's ship came to the island, other earlier people constructed a statue to worship Tawaret. But for some reason, Crazy Mother stopped guarding them - - - and allowed the smoke monster to kill them off.  This would be consistent with the Roman villagers being killed in a smokey like attack after Crazy Mother argued with MIB.

From that point on, Jacob assumed the role of Anubis. MIB's soul, which was "evil" by killing Crazy Mother, was devoured by the smoke monster, who retained MIB's thoughts, memories and desires. But being Ammit, it remained under the control of Jacob, the guardian of the island.

As the ancient Egyptian religious cults declined, one could say that the gods lost their power relative to loss of their worshippers. Gods, especially those in the underworld, may have become despondent, tired and less important. These gods may have become as trapped in the abyss as the devoured souls. These gods may have sought their own passage to the afterlife.

But it just as likely that once Jack "dies" in the bamboo forest next to Vincent, that the island would continue to reboot the Egyptian underworld rites since we really do not know for sure whether the immortal Jacob is really dead and gone, or whether the smoke monster's existence was terminated in the human representation of John Locke. But based upon the lies and manipulations of Jacob and Flocke, it is more likely than not that there "demise" was nothing more than a fiction to propel Jack to assume his leadership role in his final "test" before being judged as a soul who can move on in the afterlife.

So, in my view, the Island dynamic is a modern representation of ancient Egyptian death mythology. As such, it would explain most, if not all, of the story arcs, magical elements, science fiction and fantasy elements of the LOST story.

REBOOT: EPISODES 73-76

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 73-76 (Days 91-94)

In these 4 episodes, we begin Season 4.

In The Beginning of the End, Ben’s prophecy to Jack at the radio tower, with their rescue is close at hand, the survivors don't know whether to believe Charlie’'s final message that the people on the boat are not who they claim to be.

In Confirmed Dead, The survivors  begin to question the intentions of their supposed rescuers when four strangers arrive on the Island.

In The Economist, Locke’s hostage may be the key to getting off the Island so Sayid and Kate go in search of their fellow survivors in an attempt to negotiate a peaceful deal.

In Eggtown, possibly the worst episode of the series, Kate's need to get information from the hostage may jeopardize her standing with Locke—as well as with Sawyer.

Science:

The human ability to make mental images; to see “things” in one’s own mind has been called “the mind’s eye.” 

The biological foundation of the mind's eye is not fully understood. MRI studies have shown that the areas of the visual cortex are activated during mental imagery tasks.  Wikipedia notes:

The visual pathway is not a one-way street. Higher areas of the brain can also send visual input back to neurons in lower areas of the visual cortex. Humans have the ability to see with the mind's eye - to have a perceptual experience in the absence of visual input. For example, PET scans have shown that when subjects, seated in a room, imagine they are at their front door starting to walk either to the left or right, activation begins in the visual association cortex, the parietal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex - all higher cognitive processing centers of the brain.

The rudiments of a biological basis for the mind's eye is found in the deeper portions of the brain below the neocortex, or where the center of perception exists. The thalamus has been found to be discrete to other components in that it processes all forms of perceptional data relayed from both lower and higher components of the brain. Damage to this component can produce permanent perceptual damage, however when damage is inflicted upon the cerebral cortex, the brain adapts to neuroplasticity to amend any occlusions for perception. It can be thought that the neocortex is a sophisticated memory storage warehouse in which data received as an input from sensory systems are compartmentalized via the cerebral cortex. This would essentially allow for shapes to be identified, although given the lack of filtering input produced internally, one may as a consequence, hallucinate - essentially seeing something that isn't received as an input externally but rather internal (i.e. an error in the filtering of segmented sensory data from the cerebral cortex may result in one seeing, feeling, hearing or experiencing something that is inconsistent with reality).

Furthermore, the pineal gland is a hypothetical candidate for producing a mind's eye; researchers have postulated that during near death experiences and dreaming, the gland might secrete a hallucinogenic chemical (DMT) to produce internal visuals when external sensory data is occluded. However, this hypothesis has yet to be fully supported with neurochemical evidence and plausible mechanism for DMT production.

In a 2011 medical study, researchers found that coma patients had the ability to access a dream state. In patients with seriously altered states of consciousness, there is also the puzzle about dreaming.   Do ‘vegetative’ patients  or minimally conscious state patients experience normal sleep?

 Electrophysiological studies have been no help so the hypothesis is if the vegetative state opens no conscious door onto the external world, the state of minimal consciousness for its part assumes a residual consciousness of the environment, certainly fluctuating but real.

It is this question of difference which has led a group of researchers to compare the sleep of these two types of brain damaged patients.  They say the results demonstrate the necessity of an adapted and specific medical care for each of these states.

The researchers’ work rested on a sample of 11 subjects (6 in a state of minimal consciousness and 5 in a vegetative state) and made use of high density (256 electrodes) electroencephalography (EEG). The goal was to determine the structure of sleep within the two types of patient. 

Researchers used markers for arousal such as whether the subject had his/her eyes open and muscle tone, or whether the patient had closed eyes and muscle inactivity.

The high density EEG revealed that the brain’s electrical activity differed very little between sleep and wake states in patients in a vegetative state. On the other hand the sleep of patients in a minimally conscious state had characteristics very close to that of normal sleep in a healthy subject. They showed changes in “slow wave” activity in the front of the brain considered important for learning and neural plasticity. It also appeared that these patients produced NREM (non rapid eye movement) slow wave sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is the support for dream activity. Researchers concluded that those patients had access to dreaming and the potential maintenance of a residual consciousness in these patients.


Improbabilities:

The rocket experiment. Regina counts down the distance when she launches the rocket. It appears that she believes that in 8 seconds, the rocket should have reached Daniel’s location. Assuming the freighter was 40 km from the island, a rocket would have to travel 11,904 mph to cover that distance. No model rocket has a top speed of 250 mph. The fundamental principles of the experiment may be true, but the “factual” presentation has no merit. Since we do not know the rocket variables, we can only assume that in a direct line launch at known model rocket speeds, the 31.3 minute variation seen in the timers means that the island is moving “away” from the freighter at a speed from 52 to 93 miles per hour. No island on earth is moving at that speed.

The continuity issue with the sat phone being jammed by the tower and/or Looking Glass station while less powerful hand held walkie talkies work fine on the Island.

Clues:

In story titles:

The Beginning of the The End. The End was the finale, where the characters wind up in the after life church, dead souls. The beginning of Season 4 starts the final journey to the church which is a place of death.

Confirmed Dead again references the theorists that the characters are souls trapped in purgatory.

The Economist deals with a tangent flash forward that has Sayid working as Ben’s hit man. The word “economist” comes from the 16th century greek word for “household manager.”  An economist deals with the relationship between supply and demand of any commodity, and how goods and services affect trade, wealth, power and exchange. It is possible that the world’s exchange principles go beyond the material world. There is ritual where people are buried with a coin in order to pay the ferryman to cross the River Styx in hell.

Eggtown was described by a commentator as a reference to depression era bartering where traveling merchants would go town to town to trade goods or services. It was said that Eggtowns were bad places to trade because who would want to trade for a perishable item like eggs.  Eggtown can be a reference to a bad place (the off-island)
or a place where one makes deals with the devil (on-island).

The show’s signature lose up of an Eye. Symbolic of the Mind’s Eye.

When Locke demands to know what the smoke monster is, Ben replies “I don’t know.”

When Daniel Faraday is emotional when seeing the news footage of the 815 crash site,
his wife or caretaker asks him what is wrong. She calls him by his name, “Sam,” which infers a duality in person. Hurley also has a duality in his character name with Hugo.

Daniel’s observations about the light and his rocket experiment show that the Island is not on Earth; it does not have the same physics properties. Also, Daniel says the light “scatters” differently on the island. Recall, Desmond called the island a “bloody snow globe” that no one could escape.

There is a real time discrepancy in the show that begins to appear. Jack states that he has been on the island 100 days, when in fact he has only been on it 94.

Miles can talk to the dead because he is dead. Hurley can see ghost Charlie, and ghost Charlie can physically slap him, because they are both dead. Charlie, having died while being dead before the island, haunts the living dead (see unified theories of Lost  below).

When Naomi is discussing the mission with Abaddon (whose name means Devil), Naomi remarks that the there were no survivors of Flight 815 which Abaddon confirms. But then she says what if some are still alive, but Abaddon cuts her off, as to say that the passengers could not have survived in the after life.

When Sayid is asked about Ben, he tells the group “the day I trust him is the day I sell my soul.”  The concept of selling one’s soul to the devil is shown in the flash forward with Sayid being Ben’s personal assassin.

When a frustrated Locke cannot find Jacob or his cabin, and his leadership is being questioned, Ben digs him by saying that Locke is “now more lost than ever,” to get a reaction to which Ben remarks “you’re evolving.”  Leaders are born to lead, they do not evolve. Evolution means a metaphysical transformation over time into a new being, such as a soul’s journey through the many layers of hell.

When Hurley is looking at tapes in the barracks, he asks Sawyer what he wants to see, Xanadu or Satan's Doom? Xanadu is a representation of a idyllic place of vast beauty and unattainable luxury. Satan’s Doom appears to be a fictional title, but possible foreshadowing of events to come.

When the freighter helicopter crew land on the island, their mission is to take down
Ben. They show Jack and Kate a photograph of Ben Linus. The key to that photograph
is that is an image of Ben from the Sideways World, when he was a school teacher!

Discussion:

“ Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. ”
— Michel de Montaigne

“ War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ”
— Thomas Mann

The massive amount of legal errors in the “Eggtown” episode was appalling, even by television standards. It led to only one conclusion: nothing is real. The off-island courtroom events were so off-base to be beyond fiction; no basis in reality. Basic plot points: Kate would be charged for murder in Iowa, a state crime, and tried in Iowa and not in a court in California. And the “plea” bargain would disbar a prosecutor: The DA offers a deal of time served plus 10 years of in-state probation. Kate agrees over her lawyer's objection, telling the DA to give her something to sign because she just wants the whole thing behind her. Kate adds that she isn't going anywhere because she has a son.

This episode was poorly written and badly executed by any standard.

Kate's court proceedings were not believable; totally wrong both factually and procedurally:

Kate was being tried in a California court. However, California has no jurisdiction over any of her crimes. Murder is a local, state prosecution. The murder of her step father took place in Iowa. To be tried for murder, she would have been in an Iowa courtroom. Her bank robbery took place in New Mexico. Any bank robbery charges would be tried in New Mexico. She would have to be tried in each state for each separate crime. Also, federal courts have no concurrent jurisdiction over state criminal actions. So the whole premise that Kate was being tried for all her charges in one California court proceeding is totally wrong, an impossibility in the American legal system.

U.S. Attorneys try federal cases. District Attorneys try state/local cases. The arson-murder-insurance fraud case would have had to been tried at the place of the crime, Iowa, not California. (An interesting side note: Iowa does not have the death penalty for such a crime; which would make a prosecutor less lenient in a plea deal.) Also, the plea deal has no bearing on child welfare services allowing a murder-arsonist take care of child.

Is it not possible that the trial was held in California as a result of a "change of venue" motion since criminal trials are held in the location of the crimes. California has no contacts to any of the crimes alleged at the trial. The whole trial procedure was factually wrong.

During the trial, the prosecution presents its case in chief first. When Jack was called to the stand as a defense character witness, that would have meant that the prosecution would have rested its case. But it did not; because afterward the prosecutor (the District Attorney) told the judge her key witness, Kate’s mother, was unable to testify (because she was being uncooperative). A witness' condition does not stop cold a witness from testifying. There have been cases where people with oxygen tanks go to court and testify before jurors. Even if Kate's mom was near death several times over, the prosecution would have video taped an evidence deposition at the very least prior to trial to preserve her testimony.

Not only the court procedure was wrong, the excuse that Kate’s mother is now uncooperative is irrelevant to the prosecution of a capital case. Kate’s mother was already well enough to go to the courthouse to meet with Kate! Prosecutors subpoena uncooperative witnesses every day to testify at trials. Under the rules of evidence, a prosecutor can impeach its own witness on prior inconsistent statements, or subject an uncooperative witness to perjury charges. Further, the investigators who conducted the interviews with Kate’s mother would still be able to testify on Kate’s conduct. So the whole concept that the prosecution’s case instantaneously unravels when Kate’s mother got cold feet is not believable.

No prosecutor would offer time served (less than 2 years since that is my guess on Aaron's age) and probation to a murder-arson-insurance fraud case. An elected District Attorney would be run out of office for being soft on crime if allowed such a deal. But again, this whole legal proceeding is a farce.
There is also another background legal issue which was botched in Eggtown. The custody of Aaron made no sense. If Kate was in prison pending trial, her "child" would have placed in the care of a guardian, the nearest living relative, or if none, state care in a foster home. If Kate was alone, then her mother would have had custody or access to her grandchild. In the show, Kate’s mother was forbidden to see Aaron.

 In addition, it appears that Aaron stayed at home with a housekeeper. A housekeeper is a stranger, and has no custodial rights to a minor child.

Since that did not occur, the only conclusion is that the child, Aaron, remained with his "father" while Kate was in custody. Further, since parents control the upbringing of a child, in many states grandparents have no "visitation" rights This is why Kate's mother could not see Aaron without Kate or Aaron's "father's" permission. So to tie these matters up, Kate would have to be living with a man claiming to be Aaron's father.

However, we know later that is not true. Jack was not living with Kate because he did not want to be around Aaron, as a bitter reminder of the fact that they left their friends behind on the island.

So the whole premise of Kate’s trial resolution and guardianship of Aaron is totally out of the realm of reality even for television show writing. It taints the entire show’s credibility as a story of mystery and drama. Mysteries need facts and clues in order to lead the viewer/reader to the reveal: the solving of the mysteries.

So are there any other ideas that might make the Eggtown plot seem plausible?
During the show’s initial run, one poster said maybe it was all a dream; Kate's fantasy about the best possible outcome if she left the island. Based upon the egregious errors in Eggtown, a dream or fantasy outcome is the only explanation.

Back to other matters. The survivors camp has now split into two, which in some ways mirrors the Others' evolution on the island. Locke makes an a clear observation when holding Charlotte. He tells her that his group does not want to be “found.”  Before the survivors arrived on the island, they were “lost.”  Once on the island, most wanted to be “found” or rescued to get off the island. But Ben has told several castaways that they have no “life” to go back to. Whether this is jab or the harsh reality of the character’s real existence, alive or dead, does not matter. The split between the beach campers into one for rescue and one for staying on the island probably mirrors the earliest of the “natives” on the island: MIB Romans who tried to fashion an escape from the island, to Jacob and his adoptive mother who wanted or needed to stay.

Daniel takes the opportunity to perform an experiment. He sets up a tripod with a homing beacon and a clock on it, then asks Frank for his phone so he can call Regina . Frank hands it over on the condition that he hang up if Minkowski answers. Daniel agrees and phones the freighter, getting Regina. He asks her to send a “payload” (a small rocket) to his beacon. Regina does so and begins counting down the arrival of the payload in rapid 5-kilometer-steps, starting with 40 km. But when she reaches zero approximately 29 seconds after launch, the rocket has not arrived. Regina claims that is "weird," while Daniel responds that it is "far more than weird." Some time later. to Daniel's surprise, the rocket finally arrives. Daniel compares the time on a digital clock from the rocket with the one from the tripod and sees that they are different by 31 minutes and 18 seconds. Concerned, he says to himself "Oh no, this is not good."

At the initial airing, I calculated that the Island was actually “moving” away from the freighter at a rate of 93 mph. I revisited the calculations based upon current model rocket information. Based upon current rocket speeds, a model rocket’s top speed is 250 mph. According to Regina’s countdown and assumed location, Daniel’s rocket was suppose to travel at more than 3,000 miles per hour to reach the island in less than 30 seconds. That is not plausible or feasible. So I took the freighter as a fixed point, and the island as a moving point in a straight line, made several assumptions including average rocket speed of 100 mph, to theorize that the island was moving away from the freighter at 57 mph.

And finally, a “war” is coming to the island. The freighter crew’s primary mission was to capture Ben. Ben is aware of the plot to seize him (in order to seize control of the island) because Ben has his own spy on the ship (Michael). Guilt is apparently a big motivator. A war is an armed conflict between two groups, usually over a territory. The plot states that the war is Widmore against Ben, in an attempt by Widmore to “reclaim” the natives (Others) that he once led when Ben was a teen. But why would an uber-successful, wealthy man like Widmore care about reclaiming the island? The island is a powerful nexus, a portal between dimensions in parallel realms.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The Island is moving away from the freighter as shown by Daniel’s rocket experiment.

The helicopter leaving the island but not finding the freighter for more than a day.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 73:
PARACHUTIST (Daniel): Are you Jack?
[Jack and Kate look with apprehension.]

EP 74:

BEN: Because I have a man on their boat.

EP 75:

BEN: Good.

EP 76:

KATE: Hi, Aaron.


New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

There are two ways to view Lost with the current evidence at hand. Both unified theories have a premise that the characters have concurrent duality within the story arcs. For those who believe that the characters are “alive” on Earth, then the cumulative evidence points to a layered dream state.

The Unified Theory of Lost - - - Dream State
I re-read the comments from the episode on the community blog I was part of during the original show run. Eggtown was so horribly factual incorrect that one commentator had to admit that the only explanation it could not be real events; that it was all Kate’s dream scenario where she gets out of her troubles.

TPTB never disclosed the Big Premise of the show, because it is pretty clear to most viewers that they had no unified structure to the show except generalizations such as plane wreck, mysterious island, and rapid fire “shock” events to their characters.

So fans have been trying to put together the story puzzle pieces together so the entire series has a cohesive explanation. And after re-writing the old materials and re-watching the series on G4, I have come to a new Unified Theory of Lost which incorporates all the main elements of the story into a workable Big Premise.

One of the absolutes in the show is the sideways world. In The End, we are told that this sideways realm was a purgatory, or an after life existence, where souls “waited” for everyone else to “be awakened” in order to “move on.”

Sideways World = after life
Characters are functioning in a dream state waiting for their memories of the island
to return so they awaken so they can move on in the after life.

The key element of the sideways mechanics is that the souls are “waiting” to be “awakened.” That means the “real” human being is not awake in some other place of existence. This leads us to the sleeping man; when some one in real life is at a state of rest, they are asleep - - - in an out of dream states. When someone wakes up, the sleep dream state (REM) is broken.  So our characters have to be existing at some level in
some sort of dream state.

Add the show’s signature element, the close up of a human eye. An open eye has been the symbol or metaphor for a gateway into the mind. Further, the Mind’s Eye is stated as  the human subconscious. As we have discussed in earlier reboot commentaries, there is a possibility that some or all of the characters could be institutionalized for mental conditions or serious injuries (such as Claire’s mother in a car crash).  In turn, these same characters could be in a coma state. Caretakers of coma patients desire for them to “wake up” out of their comas at some point in recovery time.

So between the sideways world and the island world there lies character(s) in a coma state.  These characters could be a series of human experimentation like the military did to soldiers with LSD in the 1960s. Fragments of those type of mind-altering, institutional clips are found with Karl in Room 23 or the Dharma stations.

As stated above in the science section, patients  in a coma state have the ability to dream. We can place that as the foundation for the premise.

Island World = dream world of coma patient(s)
Since a coma patient is not conscious of their real world situation, the dream state becomes his or her true “reality.” The island world as a complex dream state would explain of the supernatural elements of the story. Why there are monsters, immortal beings, and the lack of moral consequences for people’s actions.

But that coma dream state does not explain everything about the Lost mythology.

The off-island world (flash back and flash forwards) is supposed to be the true past of each character. However, in a disjointed way, there are many continuity errors to really believe everyone’s back stories are true. So what could explain the difference, a sub-set of an island dream land?

Psychologists and mental therapists describe how the human mind works as the left-brain and right-brain. The left brain is our logical mind - the one that says: "Don't touch the stove; you'll get burned," "I have to go to work today," or "Pick up the dry cleaning." The right brain is the creative mind - the subconscious mind and the place where the inner child resides. Our subconscious mind has a 10 year-old mentality. It stops growing by the age of 10, and that is why our dreams can be strange and symbolic. It is so the subconscious brain (the inner child) can understand and process.

And here is where the Eggtown gross legal errors and resolution shed light on the off-world existence: it is how a 10 year old would view the complex legal system. It is a subconscious fairy tale opened by the mind’s eye to fed images, symbols and fears into a person’s dream state.

Off island world (flash back/flash forward) = subconscious mind of coma patient(s).

So the Dream State Unified Theory of Lost is:

In discussing “the church” from the ending episode in this blog in 2010, I remarked:

The church. In "The End," Christian specifically told Jack that "this place" was created by all his friends so they could find each again in the afterlife. Christian also told Jack that this special place "they all created" was real, and the things that happened to him was also "real." Everyone takes away from this finale sideways twist that the Lost Souls met up in a form of purgatory, or an anteroom world prior to making the final journey to heaven.

Except, we forgot about the church! Eloise Hawking operated the Lamp Post out of the same sideways world church! As lostpedia describes it "Jack meets Christian in the back of Eloise's Church in Los Angeles. Together, the two join the rest of their friends in journeying on to the white light."

If the church was a sideways world creation by the departed, then one could rationally deduct that the church in the O6, off-island story line (the Lamp Post) was also a sideways world creation, too. And that makes perfect sense, as the nonsensical, inaccurate, hard to believe events in the sideways world (Jin & Sun English awakening) mirror the inaccurate, hard to believe events in the O6 world (Kate's trial errors). None of those events were really "real" in the sense of the character's original life times.

All the characters who came to the church had NO REAL lives. That is why their memories of their collective, networked dream of the island was the most “important” part of their comatose lives. In other posts in this blog, there is a theory that based on bits of information in each character’s past memories, all of them could have had significant injuries to be in a vegetative state.

It was said that only Jacob brought the characters to the Island. It was a test that Jacob and his assistant, his brother MIB, devised to observe human behavior. What better way to observe the subconscious mind then network comatose patients together (which literally plays off the video game elements of the story actions). The human brain is the most complex computer and hard drive known in the universe. It electro-chemically stores vast amounts of commands and information. It is not unreasonable in a science-fiction setting to “wire” or network brains together. A place where the dream and subconscious states of a group of 70 vegetative people could roam free would be something that certain elements of society would find appealing, especially if it is the parents of comatose children (which plays into the parental issues throughout the series; a comatose child may not understand why his or her parent is not “with” them in their reality).

Jacob can be a symbolic representation of the lead medical researcher, the network administrator,  who hooks up coma patients into his group neuron-network. (In a certain fashion, conscious humans are doing the same thing with the interconnectivity of the Internet). And what happens when someone “dies” or “leaves” the island? The patient is unhooked from the network either by awakening or dying in real life, or re-connected later on like Michael “returning” on the freighter.

It also gives some explanation to the juvenile behavior/writing of certain episodes, like Eggtown. If the subconscious mind is that of a 10 year old child, then the critical factual errors in Eggtown are explained as being the logic of an ill-informed 10 year old.

The Dream State Unified Theory does have one final aspect to make it functional. As the coma patients are in their fantasy worlds, they are created new strong bonds and memories of their new friends and loved ones. As with all major religions, people’s souls after death will “reunite” with their loved ones in heaven. In order to bridge the existence from earth to the spiritual world, souls carry with them their thoughts, memories and connections. The sideways world provides a “re-connection” of those memory bonds by the characters souls until all of them awaken to move on in the after life.

And this does explain The Aaron Problem. The much debated Aaron problem was the major issue of Aaron being “born” on the island, but then being “born” in the after life. It was logically inconsistent for a child to be born in the real life setting of the island, and then born again in the after life. If we presume that Claire was pregnant when she was in her accident that led to her coma state, then one could assume that her unborn child is in the same state of existence, feeding off Claire’s own memories and dreams. But in reality, Aaron was still born. His birth in the after life is his soul reconnecting with his mother’s.

It is ironic that the worst episode of the series, “Eggtown,” brought about the most complete theories about the premises of the entire series.

The Unified Theory of Lost -- Egyptian After Life.

However, more factors point to the living dead type Big Premise to the show. We will learn that the Temple where the Others fled to is an ancient Egyptian construct. We will further learn that Jacob resides in the foot of the Tawaret statue, an ancient Egyptian god of fertility and the underworld.

Every ancient Egyptian had concerns about the After Life and the Beyond. Although, the gods and goddesses demanded mollification while Egyptians are alive, once they died, some gods became beneficent protectors and provided for the dead during their journey through the after life.

Death was not seen as the last stage of life, but as a stage of life to which a person was at rest waiting for revivification. For those more fortunate to live comfortably, they were able to avoid funerary objects, mummification, and entombment, which is what l us how dangerous they felt the Afterlife could be.

Inscriptions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Book of the Two Ways, and the Amduat, were found around the body.

The dead needed protection as they progressed from the Other World to the Hall of Judgment.
The dead travel on the solar barge (here, symbolic of Flight 815, an airplane), that the sun god,  Ra, created as a way to achieve eternal life.

A priest performed the 'Opening of the Mouth' ceremony over the mummified body in order to restore all of the senses to the body. Here, Lost has used the “opening of the eye” to symbolically symbol restoration of senses in the island existence.

All of the other senses were restored immediately, as well, because the first step after death was to the Field of Reeds- the land of wish fulfillment. The Lost island is such a place. For example, Locke’s wish to be able to walk again, to be an Outback hunter, were granted by the island. The deceased had to pass through 7 difference gates which is aided by the magical spells inscribed on the tomb around the deceased person. We will later see the temple, with its Egyptian hieroglyphs of spells, was the last sanctuary on the island.

The dead would have to stand in front of Osiris and face judgment, in a 'weighing the heart' ceremony, which is why the heart is remained intact and the other organs are placed in canopic jars. In the final arc, Jack has to face MIB in human form, to sacrifice himself so his remaining friends have an chance to escape the island (the place of death). Jack’s heart is heavy with regret and pain, especially when he tells Kate to leave him for the last time.

While justifying himself, the deceased would face all 42 gods and heart would be weighed against a feather. If the heart does not balance perfectly, Amemat would devour it and Set would eat the rest of the body. A person and his soul would be “permanently” dead with no chance of revival in the next stage of the after life. This is probably what Abaddon was telling Naomi about the survivors, the souls from Flight 815, not being “alive” when she arrived on the island, for they would have succumbed to the trials of the after life (and Smokey’s judgment, such as Mr. Eko refusing to seek forgiveness for his actions just before Smokey killed him).

In ancient Egyptian death rites, there is a clear duality. A person’s life is split at death into at least two parts, the Ka and the Ba being the most important elements. The Island itself has been called the place of the “life force.” We know that the sideways world is part of the after life.

In Egyptian mythology, the Ka is the double of the human being. It is very similar to the concept of the astral body. One big difference is that the Ka can separate or rejoin the body as it wishes. The Ka, in a sense a spirit, is also able to live with the Gods in heaven (which in our view is the sideways world)  The Ka was the life force that was created at birth and released at death; The Ba was like the soul. In order to live forever, the Ba and the Ka had to be reunited with the body after death.

The Ba that comes into existence after death is corporeal, eating, drinking and copulating so a deceased person may not “believe” they are dead because they continue to exist like that had done in their past life. The Ba is not part of the person but is the person himself, with his or her own memories, character traits, emotions and desires. The Ba existence is the island world.

In The Book of the Dead, the collection of spells which aided a person in the afterlife, had the Egyptian name of the Book of going forth by day. They helped people avoid the perils of the afterlife and also aided their existence, containing spells to assure "not dying a second time in the underworld", and to "grant memory always" to a person. In Egyptian mythology, it is possible that a person can “die” in the after life. The journey through the underworld was told to be hazardous, so it was possible to die in the afterlife and this “second” death was permanent.

The most power information that the Lost series takes place in the alternative dimension of death is connecting the dots from the End to the Beginning. The End clearly references the after life in the Church. When Christian tells Jack everything he experienced was “real,” he meant not in humanity but in his second life as a dual soul. The Beginning clearly references a place of death, as the Flight 815 plane crashes to Earth. But it may be more a symbolic representation of death that the actual cause(s) of death. For the split of an ancient Egyptian’s life into two spirits, one remains in a physical human state, almost unaware that it is dead per se, “living” a life no unfamiliar to its past life, going through various “tests” in the underworld. The person’s intellect is somewhere else (the sideways world) waiting to be re-united with its body (the “awakening”) to become whole again (the “Akh”). The intellectual part of the characters always resided in the sideways world. The human-emotional part of the characters always resided in the island world.

The Widmore freighter crew mission to kill Ben came with the photograph of Ben, clearly taken in the sideways world. This evidence of cross-over is important in trying to make sense of the two polar opposite realms. In the sideways after life, Ben is a school teacher. In fact, most of the characters have some intellectual pursuit more so than the more primal, emotional and physical existence on the island realm. The people on the island have no conscious understanding of the sideways world. Ben’s photograph is a direct connection between souls in the sideways world and their counterpart spirits in the island world.

In a way, the initial journey of the dead souls through the underworld is the “most important thing” in their spiritual journey through the afterlife. It echoes what Christian told Jack in the church in The End. The people Jack journeyed through the island passage were the “most important people” in his afterlife.

The Akh, which meaning “(magically) effective one'”) was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief.

It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The Akh also played a role in the afterlife. Following death, the Ba and Ka were reunited to reanimate the Akh. The reanimation of the Akh was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed: “to make (a dead person) into an (living) akh.” In this sense, the ritual texts explain that souls turn into a sort of ghost or roaming 'dead being' (when the tomb was not in order any more) during this period.  An Akh could do either harm or good to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, causing e.g., nightmares, feelings of guilt, sickness, etc. It could be evoked by prayers or written letters left in the tomb's offering chapel also in order to help living family members, e.g., by intervening in disputes, by making an appeal to other dead persons or deities with any authority to influence things on earth for the better, but also to inflict punishments.

There are a few characters who have reached the Akh state, that they “know” about their existence and the ramifications of the ba and ka reuniting in the after life. Eloise is the prime example of a character who “knows” what has happened or what could happen when the ba and ka reunite (which would awaken her son Daniel in the sideways world - -  a situation where he would leave her forever). Desmond reaches the Akh state in the sideways world, and sets off a course of conduct to “awaken” his friends from the island.

The freighter mission was coordinated by Mr. Abaddon.  Abaddon (in the Bible) is a name for the Devil or for hell. The word’s origin is Greek for “destruction” and its use for “hell” rose in the late 17th Century. We have character references to messengers of an underworld existence guiding our lost soul characters on and off the island.

So the Egyptian After Life Unified Theory of Lost is: