"People who have power look for fights. People who don't have power lose everything." - - - Masashi Kishimoto
Who were the most powerful people in LOST?
Widmore was a powerful businessman who could do just about anything, including "faking" the 815 crash site with corpses. He was ruthless. He showed no mercy. He did everything he could get back control of the island, including sending mercenaries to kill everyone.
Ben was a powerful leader of the Others. He manipulated his followers by a combination of fear and mental brain washing. He also was ruthless and showed little mercy to his enemies. He helped wipe out Dharma compound by betraying his co-workers with nerve gas. That was his first coup; his second was exiling Widmore from the island.
Jacob was the island guardian. He had immense power of an immortal being. He could grant eternal life as he did to Alpert, but he could not bring back the dead to life. He could bring people to his island. He manipulated his followers through surrogates, adding a level hidden control over the people who believed in him. His followers would worship him but never see or hear him.
Eloise seemed to know everything about everyone. She knew the power of the island. She knew how to find the island. She knew how to manipulate people to get to the island. And she was the only person fully aware of what the sideways world was, and that awakening her son who make him leave her. If knowledge was power in the series (as I believe), then Eloise was a very powerful character who used it to her advantage.
But at the same time, Widmore lost his island conquest goal when he was killed by Ben.
Likewise, Ben lost his control and leadership of the Others when he killed Jacob.
And Jacob lost his followers when word spread that he had been killed by Ben and Flocke.
Widmore lost everything material in his life that he acquired under the most brutal means, but somehow he was rewarded with a blissful life in the sideways world.
Ben lost everything in his life, including his family, friends and followers, but he was somehow rewarded with a second chance in the sideways world where he did not have to move on. He was granted a similar reward as Eloise, the knowledge of the sideways world realm, and an opportunity to keep the fantasy world alive in his own mind.
Jacob had lost his family while on the island. He was trapped there as the light source guardian. He spent thousands of years trying to find a way to leave, but the smoke monster kept him imprisoned on the island. When ghost Jacob told the final candidates that when the fire (his light) would go out, he would be no more - - - it would seem that Jacob received no reward for his island service. He lost everything and everyone close to him.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Saturday, March 22, 2014
ALTERNATIVE LOST: HOOK UPS
One of the themes of the show was love, lost love and strange romance.
As an alternative to what happened in the series, which characters should have gotten together:
SAWYER and SHANNON.
This was originally proposed in the writer's guide. It makes sense. Both characters gave their fellow castaways a negative impression. Sawyer was hoarding valuable materials. Shannon was drawn to rich men who could take care of her. It seems like a logical and compatible match.
JACK and JULIET.
They have many things in common (medicine, hatred for Ben). Juliet was used as bait to lure Jack into Ben's plans, but we get the impression that she did harbor real feelings for him. If we get rid of the time traveling nonsense, Jack and Juliet were "married" once in the sideways world so one could assume that at a subconscious level they would have wanted to be a couple.
BEN and ANA LUCIA.
This would have combined fire and gasoline to create the new power couple to succeed Eloise and Widmore for island control. Ben has the social skills of a repressed child while Ana Lucia was a forward, aggressive and take charge woman.
LOCKE and CLAIRE.
It would have made more sense for Locke, who really knew what it was like to be raised without a caring father, to help Claire with her baby. There was a hint of this possible relationship when Charlie went into a bender as Locke helped Claire by protecting her and building a crib. Locke had more necessary skills to provide for a new island family than Charlie.
SAYID and ROUSSEAU.
There were the outcasts more comfortable alone than in the group. Both are clever and resourceful persons who could create a formidable opponent. There was a glint of their personalities when Rousseau captured Sayid and began to torture him for information. Maybe bondage would have brought them closer together.
As an alternative to what happened in the series, which characters should have gotten together:
SAWYER and SHANNON.
This was originally proposed in the writer's guide. It makes sense. Both characters gave their fellow castaways a negative impression. Sawyer was hoarding valuable materials. Shannon was drawn to rich men who could take care of her. It seems like a logical and compatible match.
JACK and JULIET.
They have many things in common (medicine, hatred for Ben). Juliet was used as bait to lure Jack into Ben's plans, but we get the impression that she did harbor real feelings for him. If we get rid of the time traveling nonsense, Jack and Juliet were "married" once in the sideways world so one could assume that at a subconscious level they would have wanted to be a couple.
BEN and ANA LUCIA.
This would have combined fire and gasoline to create the new power couple to succeed Eloise and Widmore for island control. Ben has the social skills of a repressed child while Ana Lucia was a forward, aggressive and take charge woman.
LOCKE and CLAIRE.
It would have made more sense for Locke, who really knew what it was like to be raised without a caring father, to help Claire with her baby. There was a hint of this possible relationship when Charlie went into a bender as Locke helped Claire by protecting her and building a crib. Locke had more necessary skills to provide for a new island family than Charlie.
SAYID and ROUSSEAU.
There were the outcasts more comfortable alone than in the group. Both are clever and resourceful persons who could create a formidable opponent. There was a glint of their personalities when Rousseau captured Sayid and began to torture him for information. Maybe bondage would have brought them closer together.
Friday, March 21, 2014
THANKS
In the past few months, there has been an increase of traffic to the site, which now has gone past 12,000 unique site visits. There is still an interest for LOST related blogs and content after ten years.
CONTROLLING THE FUTURE
We can have peace if we let go of wanting to change the past and wanting to control the future.
— Lester Levinson
It is probably universal for a person to want a few basic social acknowledgements in their life: acceptance, security, friendship, love, trust or accomplishment. It is when a person tries to go to extremes to reach those goals, he or she becomes anti-social.
In all of our character studies, the most extreme spectrum may have been Ben.
His back story is cruel. For no apparent reason, his parents decide to hike through the Oregon woods on December 19, 1964 while his mother, Emily, is very, very pregnant. As a result of the walk, she goes into premature labor. His father, Roger, panics, but is there to deliver Ben. But his mother bleeds to death, sending Roger into a spiral of anger, depression and regret. He would blame Ben for killing his mother, which is a false statement but it would haunt and change Ben forever.
After Ben's birth, a distraught Roger flags down a car driven by Dharma leader Horus. Horus and his wife, Olivia, help the Linus family. It is this random meeting that would lead Roger and Ben to the island. Roger was unable to cope with the pressure of fatherhood, the loss of his wife, and the responsibility of caring for an infant. He drank heavily, and could not hold a job. This increased his hatred towards Ben.
At some point, Roger reconnects with Horus, who invites him to work for Dharma. Roger accepts the offer, and Ben and his father reach the island with other new workers. But the cruel reality of Roger's life hits him again hard, when he finds that the job he gets is that of a lowly janitor.
Ben has an opportunity to change his life on the island. He is an quiet 8 year old boy. He is smart, attentive, and polite, but extremely shy. His social skills have been repressed because of his father's mental abuse and alcoholic rages. Ben becomes bitter about his lot in life. He longs for a normal family life, and the Dharma group, even though they are nice people, cannot substitute for his family.
Ben's life was immediately different than from the states. The Dharma compound routinely faced attacks from the Hostiles, the native people on the island. Roger, now an alcoholic, neglected his son. Ben did make one friend on the Island - a young girl named Annie. On Ben's ninth birthday, Annie carved two dolls, likenesses of the two children, and Ben kept them for the next 30 years. That same night, he saw his mother's ghost in the jungle. He later packed his belongings and went out in search of her, and he came upon Richard Alpert, one of the Hostiles. Richard was intrigued to learn Ben had seen someone who'd died off the Island, and he said Ben may be able to join the Hostiles one day, if he was patient.
Three years later, Ben thought he found his chance when he heard that Dharma had imprisoned one of the Hostiles. Ben brought the man a book and food (earning Roger's abuse). Ben later broke him out of his cell, setting fire to a van to distract those watching. But the prisoner turned out not to be a Hostile at all - Sayid was a time traveler from Ben's future. Knowing what Ben would become, an evil psychopath, Sayid shot Ben in the jungle, leaving him for dead. Jin found the wounded Ben and brought him back to the Barracks where Juliet tried to operated on him and Kate donated blood. When it became clear that they could not save him, they sought the help of Alpert. Alpert told the time travelers that if he took Ben, it would be irreversible; he would be changed forever. Ben was taken to the Other's Temple, where we would later assume he would have been put into the reincarnation pool like Sayid would be during the final season. Apparently, the temple ritual robbed Ben of his recent memories of being shot by Sayid (but we cannot be for certain) and changed him forever. According to Richard, from this point on, he would "always be one of us."
The Others returned Ben to the Dharma camp, but told him to be patient. When the time was right, he could join the Others. Young Ben was then primed with the mental time bomb of leaving his father and the Dharma collective. It was a long ten years or so that Ben endured living at the Dharma camp after his temple rebirth.
Ben would remain with the camp, eventually becoming a "work man" like his father. But he remained in touch with the Others, and when Widmore ordered the Initiative eliminated, Ben sided with the Hostiles. On Ben's birthday one year, he released gas that killed all the Dharma members. Ben killed his father personally with a separate gas canister, responding to years of ill treatment. Richard offered to retrieve Roger's body, but Ben declined.
Though he'd helped defeat the Others' enemies, Ben still answered to Widmore, and the two maintained a rivalry before and after the Purge. In 1988, Widmore ordered Ben to kill a Rousseau who'd crashed onto the Island. Ben discovered she had a baby girl and spared them both, kidnapping the baby Alex and bringing her to the Others. Widmore initially ordered the baby killed as well but eventually relented and allowed Ben to raise her. Widmore had a daughter, Penny, of his own with an unknown woman from off the Island. When Ben discovered this infidelity some years later, he had Widmore exiled from the island. Ben then replaced him as the leader of the Others. As leader, Ben frequently traveled to the mainland, developing a wide network of resources. He restricted most of his people from leaving the Island and used deception and secrecy to control them. Ben found himself a victim of secrecy as well - despite being the Others' leader, Ben never got to visit the Island's Protector Jacob. Jacob communicated only through Richard and sent Ben instructions and lists to follow. It was a bit ironic that Ben's entire plan was to join then lead the Hostiles, but once he reached that position he continued to be controlled and put into his place by an unknown man, Jacob.
Ben would become to associate Jacob with his father. Everything Ben did for them, he would not receive the acceptance, security, friendship, love, trust or accomplishment that he craved from a father figure. This simmering torment would lead Flocke to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, thereby changing the balance of power on the island forever.
Ben only found peace when he gave up control, his ambitions, and his personal darkness, to become Hurley's assistant guardian. When he awoke in the sideways world, filled with his past memories, he decided to stay to "work things out" with his father, Rousseau and continue to protect Alex, even though they were apparently in the after life, and Rousseau and Alex's island memories of Ben would be harsh hatred for what he did to them. Even if Ben could try to "change" that past, in the sideways world he realized that he could not. Further, he could not control their future responses when they awoke, but Ben seemed to be okay with that - - - because he would try to influence the sideways present to repent for his past by being a kind, caring and trustworthy person. But we really don't know if that would have worked.
All of the couples in the sideways church has at least a strong bond on the island. Those who did not, like Locke and Boone, were left alone. It would seem that would be Ben's fate as well because he passed on moving on with Hurley's group. So there may have remained a hint of Ben still trying to change his past by trying to bond with Rousseau and Alex in the sideways world.
If there was a lesson here it is that no matter what you do, you cannot change the past or control the future because it has too many variables.
It is probably universal for a person to want a few basic social acknowledgements in their life: acceptance, security, friendship, love, trust or accomplishment. It is when a person tries to go to extremes to reach those goals, he or she becomes anti-social.
In all of our character studies, the most extreme spectrum may have been Ben.
His back story is cruel. For no apparent reason, his parents decide to hike through the Oregon woods on December 19, 1964 while his mother, Emily, is very, very pregnant. As a result of the walk, she goes into premature labor. His father, Roger, panics, but is there to deliver Ben. But his mother bleeds to death, sending Roger into a spiral of anger, depression and regret. He would blame Ben for killing his mother, which is a false statement but it would haunt and change Ben forever.
After Ben's birth, a distraught Roger flags down a car driven by Dharma leader Horus. Horus and his wife, Olivia, help the Linus family. It is this random meeting that would lead Roger and Ben to the island. Roger was unable to cope with the pressure of fatherhood, the loss of his wife, and the responsibility of caring for an infant. He drank heavily, and could not hold a job. This increased his hatred towards Ben.
At some point, Roger reconnects with Horus, who invites him to work for Dharma. Roger accepts the offer, and Ben and his father reach the island with other new workers. But the cruel reality of Roger's life hits him again hard, when he finds that the job he gets is that of a lowly janitor.
Ben has an opportunity to change his life on the island. He is an quiet 8 year old boy. He is smart, attentive, and polite, but extremely shy. His social skills have been repressed because of his father's mental abuse and alcoholic rages. Ben becomes bitter about his lot in life. He longs for a normal family life, and the Dharma group, even though they are nice people, cannot substitute for his family.
Ben's life was immediately different than from the states. The Dharma compound routinely faced attacks from the Hostiles, the native people on the island. Roger, now an alcoholic, neglected his son. Ben did make one friend on the Island - a young girl named Annie. On Ben's ninth birthday, Annie carved two dolls, likenesses of the two children, and Ben kept them for the next 30 years. That same night, he saw his mother's ghost in the jungle. He later packed his belongings and went out in search of her, and he came upon Richard Alpert, one of the Hostiles. Richard was intrigued to learn Ben had seen someone who'd died off the Island, and he said Ben may be able to join the Hostiles one day, if he was patient.
Three years later, Ben thought he found his chance when he heard that Dharma had imprisoned one of the Hostiles. Ben brought the man a book and food (earning Roger's abuse). Ben later broke him out of his cell, setting fire to a van to distract those watching. But the prisoner turned out not to be a Hostile at all - Sayid was a time traveler from Ben's future. Knowing what Ben would become, an evil psychopath, Sayid shot Ben in the jungle, leaving him for dead. Jin found the wounded Ben and brought him back to the Barracks where Juliet tried to operated on him and Kate donated blood. When it became clear that they could not save him, they sought the help of Alpert. Alpert told the time travelers that if he took Ben, it would be irreversible; he would be changed forever. Ben was taken to the Other's Temple, where we would later assume he would have been put into the reincarnation pool like Sayid would be during the final season. Apparently, the temple ritual robbed Ben of his recent memories of being shot by Sayid (but we cannot be for certain) and changed him forever. According to Richard, from this point on, he would "always be one of us."
The Others returned Ben to the Dharma camp, but told him to be patient. When the time was right, he could join the Others. Young Ben was then primed with the mental time bomb of leaving his father and the Dharma collective. It was a long ten years or so that Ben endured living at the Dharma camp after his temple rebirth.
Ben would remain with the camp, eventually becoming a "work man" like his father. But he remained in touch with the Others, and when Widmore ordered the Initiative eliminated, Ben sided with the Hostiles. On Ben's birthday one year, he released gas that killed all the Dharma members. Ben killed his father personally with a separate gas canister, responding to years of ill treatment. Richard offered to retrieve Roger's body, but Ben declined.
Though he'd helped defeat the Others' enemies, Ben still answered to Widmore, and the two maintained a rivalry before and after the Purge. In 1988, Widmore ordered Ben to kill a Rousseau who'd crashed onto the Island. Ben discovered she had a baby girl and spared them both, kidnapping the baby Alex and bringing her to the Others. Widmore initially ordered the baby killed as well but eventually relented and allowed Ben to raise her. Widmore had a daughter, Penny, of his own with an unknown woman from off the Island. When Ben discovered this infidelity some years later, he had Widmore exiled from the island. Ben then replaced him as the leader of the Others. As leader, Ben frequently traveled to the mainland, developing a wide network of resources. He restricted most of his people from leaving the Island and used deception and secrecy to control them. Ben found himself a victim of secrecy as well - despite being the Others' leader, Ben never got to visit the Island's Protector Jacob. Jacob communicated only through Richard and sent Ben instructions and lists to follow. It was a bit ironic that Ben's entire plan was to join then lead the Hostiles, but once he reached that position he continued to be controlled and put into his place by an unknown man, Jacob.
Ben would become to associate Jacob with his father. Everything Ben did for them, he would not receive the acceptance, security, friendship, love, trust or accomplishment that he craved from a father figure. This simmering torment would lead Flocke to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, thereby changing the balance of power on the island forever.
Ben only found peace when he gave up control, his ambitions, and his personal darkness, to become Hurley's assistant guardian. When he awoke in the sideways world, filled with his past memories, he decided to stay to "work things out" with his father, Rousseau and continue to protect Alex, even though they were apparently in the after life, and Rousseau and Alex's island memories of Ben would be harsh hatred for what he did to them. Even if Ben could try to "change" that past, in the sideways world he realized that he could not. Further, he could not control their future responses when they awoke, but Ben seemed to be okay with that - - - because he would try to influence the sideways present to repent for his past by being a kind, caring and trustworthy person. But we really don't know if that would have worked.
All of the couples in the sideways church has at least a strong bond on the island. Those who did not, like Locke and Boone, were left alone. It would seem that would be Ben's fate as well because he passed on moving on with Hurley's group. So there may have remained a hint of Ben still trying to change his past by trying to bond with Rousseau and Alex in the sideways world.
If there was a lesson here it is that no matter what you do, you cannot change the past or control the future because it has too many variables.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
HEALING
Healing
comes from taking responsibility: to realize that it is you - and no
one else - that creates your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions.
— Peter Shepherd
The obvious healing done on the island were Locke's miracle cure from paralysis and Rose's cure from terminal cancer.
Just because they survived a plane crash, medically, that would have not changed their terminal conditions. We were led to believe that the "unique" electromagnetic properties of the island cured people.
But the explanation of the curing energy is contradictory to other events on the island. People died all the time, from bullet wounds, to pregnancies, to spider bites, to drowning, to time travel nose bleeds. And it did not cure Ben from his back issues.
It also did not explain how Jacob and Alpert became "immortal" beings. Alpert never aged a day after several centuries on the island.
An alternative (unpopular) explanation is that people were cured of their human illnesses and conditions because they were no longer human, i.e. dead. The characters merely misconceived their situation as their souls were reconstituted into new after life bodies.
There is a second alternative approach to the inconsistent "cures" of the island. The human beings who "survived" the plane crash crossed through a nexus or portal into the spirit world, where both living and dead souls could interact. In this intermediary place, dead souls would be immortal, and real people could still "die." But even in this special place, the uneven application of life and death is still a problem.
Beyond the physical ailments, most of the characters had emotional and mental issues. This extra baggage came with them when they boarded Flight 815. It is possible that the key to the cure was each person taking responsibility for their own actions and their own lives. Acceptance and accountability would set one free.
Early on, Rose knew that everything was going to be alright; that she would be reunited with her husband shortly. How could she know that? She was calm, at peace, staring out at the ocean when she schooled Jack. Rose was in pain from her terminal cancer. Once she "survived" the plane crash, her pain was gone - - - and being a bright woman, she knew that the only way that could happen was that she had died. And since she accepted that fact, she had internal peace of mind.
Every person had to come to that realization in order to have peace of mind. It literally took Jack to the end of time to accept his own death. Only then did his mental state unlock, and he was free to move on.
So there are two different kinds of healing with three different means of looking at the island as the means of that healing power.
The obvious healing done on the island were Locke's miracle cure from paralysis and Rose's cure from terminal cancer.
Just because they survived a plane crash, medically, that would have not changed their terminal conditions. We were led to believe that the "unique" electromagnetic properties of the island cured people.
But the explanation of the curing energy is contradictory to other events on the island. People died all the time, from bullet wounds, to pregnancies, to spider bites, to drowning, to time travel nose bleeds. And it did not cure Ben from his back issues.
It also did not explain how Jacob and Alpert became "immortal" beings. Alpert never aged a day after several centuries on the island.
An alternative (unpopular) explanation is that people were cured of their human illnesses and conditions because they were no longer human, i.e. dead. The characters merely misconceived their situation as their souls were reconstituted into new after life bodies.
There is a second alternative approach to the inconsistent "cures" of the island. The human beings who "survived" the plane crash crossed through a nexus or portal into the spirit world, where both living and dead souls could interact. In this intermediary place, dead souls would be immortal, and real people could still "die." But even in this special place, the uneven application of life and death is still a problem.
Beyond the physical ailments, most of the characters had emotional and mental issues. This extra baggage came with them when they boarded Flight 815. It is possible that the key to the cure was each person taking responsibility for their own actions and their own lives. Acceptance and accountability would set one free.
Early on, Rose knew that everything was going to be alright; that she would be reunited with her husband shortly. How could she know that? She was calm, at peace, staring out at the ocean when she schooled Jack. Rose was in pain from her terminal cancer. Once she "survived" the plane crash, her pain was gone - - - and being a bright woman, she knew that the only way that could happen was that she had died. And since she accepted that fact, she had internal peace of mind.
Every person had to come to that realization in order to have peace of mind. It literally took Jack to the end of time to accept his own death. Only then did his mental state unlock, and he was free to move on.
So there are two different kinds of healing with three different means of looking at the island as the means of that healing power.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
UNHAPPINESS
I read recently a fan post trying to explain why people who were unhappy with LOST's ending. The poster said the reason was that those fans were unhappy in their own lives.
I disagree. It is disconnected conclusion. Even if fans were unhappy in their personal lives, they use entertainment like LOST as a means to escape their dreary lives. Fans who invested a great deal of time and energy in the complex story lines were promised and then expected a grand finale. If fans were disappointed by the ending, it was not because it mirrored their own personal lives. Quite to the contrary, LOST was supposed to fulfill happiness in them.
The disjointed "happy ending" that many fans enjoyed for the main characters is a throwback to some cultures were stories have to have a happy ending. Fairy tales are a good example. But dramas are not fairy tales unless things get mixed up along the way.
CHANGE: Don't just talk about it, go out there and do it. Don't just meditate about it, go out there and create it. Don't just pray about it go out there and take action; participate in the answering of your own prayer. If you want change, get out there and live it. — Steve Maraboli
Why LOST so drastically changed course on itself is a mystery. It was not answered at the 10th Anniversary Reunion or any subsequent interviews.
We have discussed a theme of change before in reviewing LOST. One could find unhappiness in all of the main characters:
Jack: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father for everything wrong with it.
Hurley: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father's abandonment for his situation.
Locke: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father for betraying and stealing from him.
Claire: unhappy with her pregnancy because she came from a one parent home and can't handle responsibility.
Charlie: unhappy with his personal life because his band was his family unit when it broke up.
Kate: unhappy with her personal life because her mother loved an abused man more than her.
Bernard: unhappy that his wife had incurable cancer and he was desperate to find a miracle cure.
Sawyer: unhappy with his need to revenge his parents death that he turned into the man he hated all his life.
Every person has unhappiness in their lives. Life is a roller coaster, with highs and lows.
Many of the main characters did little to relieve their unhappiness. Exceptions included Kate, who blew up her house to "save" her mother. But that led to even more unhappiness and a fearful flight from justice. Also, Sawyer killed an innocent man because of his own personal demon for revenge.
Even during the series, the characters did not actively try to change their circumstances. They more often than not allowed things to happen to them. They were content to allow circumstances control them like a swift current carrying their body downstream. The merely accept where the current will take them, instead of swimming to their own shore.
And if LOST was a character driven experience of adventure, enlightenment and change, very little of that made it into the pages of the scripts. In the sideways church, they all appeared to be happy, but why? It would seem the reunion made each of them happy because they shared a common experience on the island. But for most, they never survived that experience. They never came to terms with their personal unhappiness. In the finale, all that happened was that their souls came back together in the after life. That reinforces the unhappy fact that the characters did not change at all. One could say that fate brought them all together; and fate would take them back into the light.
And that is a better reason for fan unhappiness with LOST's ending than trying to blame the fans for their own unhappiness.
I disagree. It is disconnected conclusion. Even if fans were unhappy in their personal lives, they use entertainment like LOST as a means to escape their dreary lives. Fans who invested a great deal of time and energy in the complex story lines were promised and then expected a grand finale. If fans were disappointed by the ending, it was not because it mirrored their own personal lives. Quite to the contrary, LOST was supposed to fulfill happiness in them.
The disjointed "happy ending" that many fans enjoyed for the main characters is a throwback to some cultures were stories have to have a happy ending. Fairy tales are a good example. But dramas are not fairy tales unless things get mixed up along the way.
CHANGE: Don't just talk about it, go out there and do it. Don't just meditate about it, go out there and create it. Don't just pray about it go out there and take action; participate in the answering of your own prayer. If you want change, get out there and live it. — Steve Maraboli
Why LOST so drastically changed course on itself is a mystery. It was not answered at the 10th Anniversary Reunion or any subsequent interviews.
We have discussed a theme of change before in reviewing LOST. One could find unhappiness in all of the main characters:
Jack: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father for everything wrong with it.
Hurley: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father's abandonment for his situation.
Locke: unhappy with his personal life to blame his father for betraying and stealing from him.
Claire: unhappy with her pregnancy because she came from a one parent home and can't handle responsibility.
Charlie: unhappy with his personal life because his band was his family unit when it broke up.
Kate: unhappy with her personal life because her mother loved an abused man more than her.
Bernard: unhappy that his wife had incurable cancer and he was desperate to find a miracle cure.
Sawyer: unhappy with his need to revenge his parents death that he turned into the man he hated all his life.
Every person has unhappiness in their lives. Life is a roller coaster, with highs and lows.
Many of the main characters did little to relieve their unhappiness. Exceptions included Kate, who blew up her house to "save" her mother. But that led to even more unhappiness and a fearful flight from justice. Also, Sawyer killed an innocent man because of his own personal demon for revenge.
Even during the series, the characters did not actively try to change their circumstances. They more often than not allowed things to happen to them. They were content to allow circumstances control them like a swift current carrying their body downstream. The merely accept where the current will take them, instead of swimming to their own shore.
And if LOST was a character driven experience of adventure, enlightenment and change, very little of that made it into the pages of the scripts. In the sideways church, they all appeared to be happy, but why? It would seem the reunion made each of them happy because they shared a common experience on the island. But for most, they never survived that experience. They never came to terms with their personal unhappiness. In the finale, all that happened was that their souls came back together in the after life. That reinforces the unhappy fact that the characters did not change at all. One could say that fate brought them all together; and fate would take them back into the light.
And that is a better reason for fan unhappiness with LOST's ending than trying to blame the fans for their own unhappiness.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
MILES POWER
To be honest, I always thought Miles' "power" to read the last thoughts of the dead was pretty much a stark naked con to comfort family members (for a price).
But in the world of pseudo-science, there is now an article allegedly explaining this power.
In order to have a scientific truth, the author's conclusion needs to be repeatable by his peers. I cannot fathom how one could set up an experiment to duplicate these conclusions.
But in an extremely odd way, this paper hits on various science fiction points contained in LOST.
Projected consciousness could relate to Desmond's flash forward premonitions in a time altered world.
One of the ideas I had early on is that no one survived the plane crash, but those lost souls on Flight 815 failed to realize that they were dead. This is the paper's "postmortem embodied experience." Their consciousness continued to live on as each person survived the crash - - - living, breathing, interacting with other consciousness streams united by the same ending experience.
The manner of death, such as a plane crash or murder, would somehow heighten the duration and post-traumatic stress of a dead person's consciousness.
The main characters continued to repress their past actions, but the island projected to them symbols of their pasts (like Christian or Kate's horse) so they could remember that they were dead in order for their souls to move on.
And the author's claim that he can interview the dead by extending his own consciousness could be the method that both Miles and Hurley used in order to communicate with the dead. However, Hurley had the additional strange attribute to physically be with people he knew were dead, and to have physical contact with them (Charlie and Ana Lucia).
But in the world of pseudo-science, there is now an article allegedly explaining this power.
In the Australian Journal of Parapsychology, June, 2013 issue, there is a paper which deals with the subject matter of Psychological phenomena in dead people: Post- traumatic stress disorder in murdered people and its consequences to public health.
The journal abstract states:
The journal abstract states:
The aims of this
paper are to narrate and analyze some psychological phenomena that I
have perceived in dead people, including evidence of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) in murdered people. The methodology adopted was
"projection of consciousness" (i.e., a non-ordinary state of
consciousness), which allowed me to observe, interact, and interview
dead people directly as a social psychologist. This investigation was
based on Cartesian skepticism, which allowed me a more critical analysis
of my experiences during projection of consciousness. There is strong
evidence that a dead person: (i) continues living, thinking, behaving
after death as if he/she still has his/her body because consciousness
continues in an embodied state as 'postmortem embodied experiences';
(ii) may not realize for a considerable time that he/she is already dead
since consciousness continues to be embodied after death (i.e.,
'postmortem perturbation' - the duration of this perturbation can vary
from person to person, in principle according to the type of death, and
the level of conformation), and (iii) does not like to talk, remember,
and/or explain things related to his/her own death because there is
evidence that many events related to death are repressed in his/her
unconscious ('postmortem cognitive repression'). In addition, there is
evidence that dying can be very traumatic to consciousness, especially
to the murdered, and PTSD may even develop.
In order to have a scientific truth, the author's conclusion needs to be repeatable by his peers. I cannot fathom how one could set up an experiment to duplicate these conclusions.
But in an extremely odd way, this paper hits on various science fiction points contained in LOST.
Projected consciousness could relate to Desmond's flash forward premonitions in a time altered world.
One of the ideas I had early on is that no one survived the plane crash, but those lost souls on Flight 815 failed to realize that they were dead. This is the paper's "postmortem embodied experience." Their consciousness continued to live on as each person survived the crash - - - living, breathing, interacting with other consciousness streams united by the same ending experience.
The manner of death, such as a plane crash or murder, would somehow heighten the duration and post-traumatic stress of a dead person's consciousness.
The main characters continued to repress their past actions, but the island projected to them symbols of their pasts (like Christian or Kate's horse) so they could remember that they were dead in order for their souls to move on.
And the author's claim that he can interview the dead by extending his own consciousness could be the method that both Miles and Hurley used in order to communicate with the dead. However, Hurley had the additional strange attribute to physically be with people he knew were dead, and to have physical contact with them (Charlie and Ana Lucia).
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