There is a haunting story from the UK Sun.
A UK study on what happens to cardiac arrest patients (where the heart stops) that "come back to life" indicates that brain activity continues after death. Specifically, a person's consciousness continues to work after the person has died. In other words, your brain knows you are dead when you die.
Dr. Sam Parnia and her team from New York University Langone School of Medicine set out to find the answer in a much less dangerous fashion, looking at studies in Europe and the US on people who experienced "out of body" death experiences.
“They’ll describe watching doctors and nurses working and they’ll describe having awareness of full conversations, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them,” Parnia said. Their recollections were also verified by medical staff who reported their patients could remember the details.
Death, in a medical sense, is when the heart stops beating and cuts off blood to the brain.
This means the brain’s functions also stop and can no longer keep the body alive.
Parnia explained that the brain’s cerebral cortex — the so-called “thinking part” of the brain — also slows down instantly, and flatlines, meaning that no brainwaves are visible on an electric monitor, within 2 to 20 seconds.
This study adds a factual context to several LOST theories. For those who believe that the series premise was contained inside the mind(s) of a character, then the after death experiences (which could seem to last for a long time like short REM dreams) could explain LOST's mysteries and inconsistent parts. For those who believe that LOST was staged in the after life underworld, the vivid life and death dreamscapes could be from the moments right after death - - - the brain pulling memories, fantasies and information from a still-active brain after the body has died.
Showing posts with label awake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label awake. Show all posts
Friday, October 20, 2017
Sunday, March 13, 2016
MEMORY OBSERVATION
Last month, William Shatner was being interviewed on a Chicago radio station. He was on to promote his new book, Leonard, a retrospective of his life with Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy.
He wrote the book as a tribute to his late friend. But in the process, he had an interesting observation on life.
He said that people share experiences with friends. And in order to remember them, re-live them, they have to be together - - - "do you remember the time we did such and such?" Then laugh about it.
He said those conversations keep those memories alive.
But once someone dies, a person loses that connection to the other person. Those strong memories begin to fade because the deceased friend is no longer around to share them with you.
That was why Shatner wrote the book. It keeps his memories of Nimoy alive in a tangible form.
This is a deep observation that makes logical sense.
Our memories fade of lost loved ones because we don't see them anymore. A daily, weekly, monthly or annual face-to-face helps reinforce past memories because you re-connect with the person, their face, their voice, their mannerisms, their personality, and humor. The stronger the bonds between two people, the clearer the memories will be retained.
So when we lose people, at some point we will lose the memories of those departed souls.
That is a sad dilemma. You want to remember. You need to remember.
We have things to help us remember. Family photograph albums. Pictures speak a thousand words. Grave stones. We visit the departed to pay our respects and to remember their life. Their children and siblings. They are the living images of their departed family members.
If you are a film star, friends can find the permanent footage of your acting career. It helps ease the problem of losing touch.
But those are mere substitutes for the real thing. The real experiences in life hold more meaning than just mere memories. But at a certain point, memories are the only things left to hold on to.
In LOST, there was the odd notion that the main characters "forgot" their island past while "living" in the sideways world. Perhaps, they lost their memories because people died and they faded from conscious memory.
He wrote the book as a tribute to his late friend. But in the process, he had an interesting observation on life.
He said that people share experiences with friends. And in order to remember them, re-live them, they have to be together - - - "do you remember the time we did such and such?" Then laugh about it.
He said those conversations keep those memories alive.
But once someone dies, a person loses that connection to the other person. Those strong memories begin to fade because the deceased friend is no longer around to share them with you.
That was why Shatner wrote the book. It keeps his memories of Nimoy alive in a tangible form.
This is a deep observation that makes logical sense.
Our memories fade of lost loved ones because we don't see them anymore. A daily, weekly, monthly or annual face-to-face helps reinforce past memories because you re-connect with the person, their face, their voice, their mannerisms, their personality, and humor. The stronger the bonds between two people, the clearer the memories will be retained.
So when we lose people, at some point we will lose the memories of those departed souls.
That is a sad dilemma. You want to remember. You need to remember.
We have things to help us remember. Family photograph albums. Pictures speak a thousand words. Grave stones. We visit the departed to pay our respects and to remember their life. Their children and siblings. They are the living images of their departed family members.
If you are a film star, friends can find the permanent footage of your acting career. It helps ease the problem of losing touch.
But those are mere substitutes for the real thing. The real experiences in life hold more meaning than just mere memories. But at a certain point, memories are the only things left to hold on to.
In LOST, there was the odd notion that the main characters "forgot" their island past while "living" in the sideways world. Perhaps, they lost their memories because people died and they faded from conscious memory.
Monday, February 29, 2016
HEAVEN AND HELL
One of the interpretive themes of LOST was heaven and hell. Some fans felt that the main characters were in hell, symbolized the by the island and its various monsters, sinners and punishments. Others thought that the characters found their heaven in the sideways world, which ran concurrently in the Season 6 series - - - but if you look at Alpert's back story, it had been running for eternity.
The concept of duality - - - two different planes of existence - - - is also a reoccurring theme. Many scientists believe in the time-space continuum contains multiverses, where each action creates a new and slightly different universe based upon those probable effects of an action.
But there is a simple way of looking at the LOST's split story personality.
From a spiritual perspective, each living person has two states: an awaken state and a sleeping state. When you are awake, you are living and experiencing the good and bad of real life. Over time, daily routines like work and family become grinds. The repetitive nature of living is a drain upon one's creative, adventurous curiosities. In order to fulfill that need, people tend to have deeper, more complex dreams when they sleep. Sleep is a person's way of repairing and re-energizing their body. But it can also be a needed fantasy diversion to a person's "perfect world."
In fact, people sometimes can get "lost" in their dreams. They may not be able to tell what is real and what is fantasy. The illusions in dreams become delusions in real life. And this creates personality disorders and mental mistakes, deep problems at work or with family. A prime example could be Locke, who drifted fantasy games into his real life to the point where he gave up his normal existence to join a commune in the hope of finding a "family"
It can be said that when people are awake in their boring, rotten, habitual work world, they are living in hell. For most of us, we cannot change the relentlessness of this existence. We are trapped by circumstance and obligation.
But when we totally get away from the daily routine, our dreams can appear to be heavenly. Our fantasies make us the star of our own movie. We can be the hero, the lover, the protector, the superhero, the leader, the greatest person in the world.
LOST's island world could be considered the collision of both the heaven and hell aspects of a person's existence. It contains fragmented bits of both worlds which cannot exist together. The show rarely showed anyone sleeping - - - insomnia was rampant. It could be a clue that the characters were trapped in a limbo between being awake and being asleep - - - a place ruled by their nightmares.
The concept of duality - - - two different planes of existence - - - is also a reoccurring theme. Many scientists believe in the time-space continuum contains multiverses, where each action creates a new and slightly different universe based upon those probable effects of an action.
But there is a simple way of looking at the LOST's split story personality.
From a spiritual perspective, each living person has two states: an awaken state and a sleeping state. When you are awake, you are living and experiencing the good and bad of real life. Over time, daily routines like work and family become grinds. The repetitive nature of living is a drain upon one's creative, adventurous curiosities. In order to fulfill that need, people tend to have deeper, more complex dreams when they sleep. Sleep is a person's way of repairing and re-energizing their body. But it can also be a needed fantasy diversion to a person's "perfect world."
In fact, people sometimes can get "lost" in their dreams. They may not be able to tell what is real and what is fantasy. The illusions in dreams become delusions in real life. And this creates personality disorders and mental mistakes, deep problems at work or with family. A prime example could be Locke, who drifted fantasy games into his real life to the point where he gave up his normal existence to join a commune in the hope of finding a "family"
It can be said that when people are awake in their boring, rotten, habitual work world, they are living in hell. For most of us, we cannot change the relentlessness of this existence. We are trapped by circumstance and obligation.
But when we totally get away from the daily routine, our dreams can appear to be heavenly. Our fantasies make us the star of our own movie. We can be the hero, the lover, the protector, the superhero, the leader, the greatest person in the world.
LOST's island world could be considered the collision of both the heaven and hell aspects of a person's existence. It contains fragmented bits of both worlds which cannot exist together. The show rarely showed anyone sleeping - - - insomnia was rampant. It could be a clue that the characters were trapped in a limbo between being awake and being asleep - - - a place ruled by their nightmares.
Friday, February 19, 2016
LUCID DREAMS
Sleep is an important function in humans. The exact nature of why people need to sleep (let alone the recommended eight hours a night) is unclear. Researchers have been trying to figure out why during a rest phase, human brains tend to remain active, including dreams and nightmares. Some have begun to research the condition of lucid dreams, a dream state where the sleeper actively controls what happens in their dreams.
It is postulated that if you think about something before you go asleep, your short term memory will be accessed to help complete the story before you wake. Other researchers think that strong, troubling thoughts or anxiety levels are put to the test when people dream. In other words, dreams are a series of symbolic "what if" scenarios to train your brain to decide a proper outcome in the decision making process when you are awake.
Lucid dreams may just be planted suggestions as you doze off. For example, if a teen boy has a crush on a school girl but he is too shy to talk to her, he may dream about her in such a way to interact with her without being rejected in real life. It may not be a lucid dream, but a planted story idea that the brain may create using stored memories.
The researchers found a significant relationship between how often
people snoozed and how often they remembered dreams and experienced
lucid dreams. While it could be that people who snooze a lot and people
who lucid dream a lot have some unknown quality in common, there’s also a
possibility that being briefly awoken by an alarm before going back to
sleep might put your brain in the right mode to lucid dream, such as by
producing rapid eye movement sleep (REM), a sleep stage that has been linked to lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreams can take on a high definition quality to it. There may be more "verbal" interaction with other people, known or unknown; in highly charged or adventurous situations. The sleeper may take on roles that do not suit him or her in real life. A shy, introvert could be a superhero in a lucid dream state.
And this is why the dream theory has many followers in the LOST world. It explains away all the continuity, science and plot errors or omissions because dreams are not real. It also explains the sci-fi elements like the smoke monster and lack of punishment for crimes and sins because they really did not happen. The components of LOST could be a jig saw puzzle of symbolic aspects of human life that are jumbled together into a layered story. And in such a fashion, the lucid fantasy could feel like it is real to the dreamer.
It is postulated that if you think about something before you go asleep, your short term memory will be accessed to help complete the story before you wake. Other researchers think that strong, troubling thoughts or anxiety levels are put to the test when people dream. In other words, dreams are a series of symbolic "what if" scenarios to train your brain to decide a proper outcome in the decision making process when you are awake.
Lucid dreams may just be planted suggestions as you doze off. For example, if a teen boy has a crush on a school girl but he is too shy to talk to her, he may dream about her in such a way to interact with her without being rejected in real life. It may not be a lucid dream, but a planted story idea that the brain may create using stored memories.
In a study in the journal Dreaming, a pair of psychological researchers from the Sleep Laboratory at Swansea University in the UK report that people who hit their alarm clock’s snooze button more often tend to have more lucid dreams. A
total of 84 participants between the ages of 18 and 75 filled out an
online survey about their alarm clock usage and the frequency of their
lucid dreams, if they had any. The participants were recruited through
online forums on dreaming, although some reported never having succeeded
in having a lucid dream.
Lucid dreams can take on a high definition quality to it. There may be more "verbal" interaction with other people, known or unknown; in highly charged or adventurous situations. The sleeper may take on roles that do not suit him or her in real life. A shy, introvert could be a superhero in a lucid dream state.
And this is why the dream theory has many followers in the LOST world. It explains away all the continuity, science and plot errors or omissions because dreams are not real. It also explains the sci-fi elements like the smoke monster and lack of punishment for crimes and sins because they really did not happen. The components of LOST could be a jig saw puzzle of symbolic aspects of human life that are jumbled together into a layered story. And in such a fashion, the lucid fantasy could feel like it is real to the dreamer.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
WHEN YOU CAN'T SLEEP
There is a Japanese legend that states that if you cannot fall asleep it means that you are awake in another person's dream.
How interesting.
LOST had several key trigger words or concepts: awakening, dreams, alternative reality, changes in time and space.
But what is a better representation of an alternate reality or change in time and space than dreams?
Even another person's dreams that affects you.
It is not that the person who cannot sleep knows about, or controls the other person's dream. It is probably the exact opposite. When one tosses aimlessly trying to get to sleep, you are restless and not in a dream state. It is like the actual dreamer has pulled the mechanism for your dreams, your subconscious REM dream state, from you to power their vivid imagination with your appearance, words, character and personality.
Would this be a dream thief in action? No, because they are not "your" dreams since you are still awake.
The idea that a heavy, deep thinking dreamer can attach their mental thought waves to other people to harvest and extract "better" more lucid dreams is a fascinating collision of philosophy and science fiction.
Through the series, we rarely saw any of the main characters actually sleeping. They were constantly on the move, in day light and at night. And over time, they did look tired. Their mental faculties were low. (How many times did we complain that the characters failed to ask basic questions to people coming back from a mission?) The island characters were the ones who were sleep deprived for a reason.
It still could be associated with a Dharma experiment on weaponizing dreams for the military. Or it could be that the stress levels and electromagnetic properties of the island interfered with anyone getting REM sleep (the biological basic need to rest and recharge one's internal batteries). Prolonged non-sleep can make people forgetful, irritable, and psychotic.
But what does the original legend mean?
It may be a philosophical means to explain how being awake can be expressed on different levels of reality. Being in another persons dream for example can simply mean that person has interest in you or it can actually be a theoretical idea that you exist many different places at once.
In LOST, we presume that the main characters were in two different places (island world and the sideways plain of existence) at the same time. The sideways people could not "remember" their island pasts until "they were awakened." Since the sideways world was the after life, it could be equated that the main characters were "restless ghosts" who could not come to terms with their pasts.
Or it could mean that in each person, we have many people: we have our biologic human form that is transfixed to this planet. We may also have a spiritual form which rests inside our body, but it can be released into a different plain of existence. Perhaps, people whose "soul" has left their living body are suddenly defenseless against the temptations and evil urges that plague mankind.
In the sideways world, the characters did not reunite with their bodies. Their souls "remembered" their past - - - their island past and their friendships, the missing pieces in their lives.
How interesting.
LOST had several key trigger words or concepts: awakening, dreams, alternative reality, changes in time and space.
But what is a better representation of an alternate reality or change in time and space than dreams?
Even another person's dreams that affects you.
It is not that the person who cannot sleep knows about, or controls the other person's dream. It is probably the exact opposite. When one tosses aimlessly trying to get to sleep, you are restless and not in a dream state. It is like the actual dreamer has pulled the mechanism for your dreams, your subconscious REM dream state, from you to power their vivid imagination with your appearance, words, character and personality.
Would this be a dream thief in action? No, because they are not "your" dreams since you are still awake.
The idea that a heavy, deep thinking dreamer can attach their mental thought waves to other people to harvest and extract "better" more lucid dreams is a fascinating collision of philosophy and science fiction.
Through the series, we rarely saw any of the main characters actually sleeping. They were constantly on the move, in day light and at night. And over time, they did look tired. Their mental faculties were low. (How many times did we complain that the characters failed to ask basic questions to people coming back from a mission?) The island characters were the ones who were sleep deprived for a reason.
It still could be associated with a Dharma experiment on weaponizing dreams for the military. Or it could be that the stress levels and electromagnetic properties of the island interfered with anyone getting REM sleep (the biological basic need to rest and recharge one's internal batteries). Prolonged non-sleep can make people forgetful, irritable, and psychotic.
But what does the original legend mean?
It may be a philosophical means to explain how being awake can be expressed on different levels of reality. Being in another persons dream for example can simply mean that person has interest in you or it can actually be a theoretical idea that you exist many different places at once.
In LOST, we presume that the main characters were in two different places (island world and the sideways plain of existence) at the same time. The sideways people could not "remember" their island pasts until "they were awakened." Since the sideways world was the after life, it could be equated that the main characters were "restless ghosts" who could not come to terms with their pasts.
Or it could mean that in each person, we have many people: we have our biologic human form that is transfixed to this planet. We may also have a spiritual form which rests inside our body, but it can be released into a different plain of existence. Perhaps, people whose "soul" has left their living body are suddenly defenseless against the temptations and evil urges that plague mankind.
In the sideways world, the characters did not reunite with their bodies. Their souls "remembered" their past - - - their island past and their friendships, the missing pieces in their lives.
Friday, December 11, 2015
LOST MEMORIES
One aspect of LOST was the disconnect between the island time period and the memories lost in the sideways purgatory world.
This was never explained to the viewers.
Now, the federal government is probing a memory restoration program which sort of fits science into the breach of LOST's lost science fiction explanation of memory loss.
Memory loss can be from trauma, old age, chemical imbalances and genetics.
The U.S. government's new Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program has been created for an implantable neural-interface designed to restore lost memories in those suffering traumatic brain injuries.
As stated by DARPA in its recent press release, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) affect roughly 1.7 million civilians each year and an astounding 270,000 military servicemembers since 2000. Further, TBI has shown to impair one's ability to recall memories created before suffering the injury while also limiting the capability to form new ones after. With the RAM program, DARPA intends to expedite the process of developing tech designed to bridge the gaps created in injured brains. In other words, TBI sufferers may not have to worry about lost memories if DARPA has its way.
The RAM program aims to accomplish this memory-saving goal by performing two steps. First, DARPA hopes to create a multi-scale computational model that describes how neurons code memories. Assuming it can gather the necessary data, DARPA's next step is to create a neural-interface armed with the ability to bridge memory flow gaps created in the brain after a traumatic injury. The implant would essentially stimulate the desired target in the brain to help it restore its ability to create new memories.
DARPA says it plans on working with a number of human volunteers for its clinical trials and also intends to run studies of the tech with animals. For the volunteers, it's targeting individuals with traumatic brain injuries who have trouble encoding or recalling memories, as well as those with other neurological conditions scheduled to undergo neurosurgery. Moreover, DARPA already has the insight of a relative Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications panel for supplemental information regarding human and animal trials of this nature.
"As the technology of these fully implantable devices improves, and as we learn more about how to stimulate the brain ever more precisely to achieve the most therapeutic effects, I believe we are going to gain a critical capacity to help our wounded warriors and others who today suffer from intractable neurological problems" DARPA's biological technologies program manager told Popular Science magazine.
No official timetable was given regarding the release of the RAM program's test results, though DARPA did say it had already begun administering trials since September. If all goes according to plan, the agency intends to expand the context of its research to those outside of the military who also experience brain trauma.
It is uncertain how a neuro-implant can "restore" lost memories if the memory center of the brain is damaged. However, in most defense projects there is something called redundancy. It is the concept that you put in a back-up into the main program or function in case of emergency. Humans also have redundant properties such as two lungs and two kidneys, in case one is compromised. But since memories are so individual and coded in brains by chemical-protein-neuron receptors, it is not like a computer chip can "reload" lost memories into an individual (like the concept in Ghost in the Shell series).
But LOST's sideways reveal of past memories seems to indicate, at least on the surface, that the main characters' memories were either a) blocked or b) damaged when they eventually died on Earth. They could not move on until they were "awakened" by some strong emotional tie or bond.
This was never explained to the viewers.
Now, the federal government is probing a memory restoration program which sort of fits science into the breach of LOST's lost science fiction explanation of memory loss.
Memory loss can be from trauma, old age, chemical imbalances and genetics.
The U.S. government's new Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program has been created for an implantable neural-interface designed to restore lost memories in those suffering traumatic brain injuries.
As stated by DARPA in its recent press release, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) affect roughly 1.7 million civilians each year and an astounding 270,000 military servicemembers since 2000. Further, TBI has shown to impair one's ability to recall memories created before suffering the injury while also limiting the capability to form new ones after. With the RAM program, DARPA intends to expedite the process of developing tech designed to bridge the gaps created in injured brains. In other words, TBI sufferers may not have to worry about lost memories if DARPA has its way.
The RAM program aims to accomplish this memory-saving goal by performing two steps. First, DARPA hopes to create a multi-scale computational model that describes how neurons code memories. Assuming it can gather the necessary data, DARPA's next step is to create a neural-interface armed with the ability to bridge memory flow gaps created in the brain after a traumatic injury. The implant would essentially stimulate the desired target in the brain to help it restore its ability to create new memories.
DARPA says it plans on working with a number of human volunteers for its clinical trials and also intends to run studies of the tech with animals. For the volunteers, it's targeting individuals with traumatic brain injuries who have trouble encoding or recalling memories, as well as those with other neurological conditions scheduled to undergo neurosurgery. Moreover, DARPA already has the insight of a relative Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications panel for supplemental information regarding human and animal trials of this nature.
"As the technology of these fully implantable devices improves, and as we learn more about how to stimulate the brain ever more precisely to achieve the most therapeutic effects, I believe we are going to gain a critical capacity to help our wounded warriors and others who today suffer from intractable neurological problems" DARPA's biological technologies program manager told Popular Science magazine.
No official timetable was given regarding the release of the RAM program's test results, though DARPA did say it had already begun administering trials since September. If all goes according to plan, the agency intends to expand the context of its research to those outside of the military who also experience brain trauma.
It is uncertain how a neuro-implant can "restore" lost memories if the memory center of the brain is damaged. However, in most defense projects there is something called redundancy. It is the concept that you put in a back-up into the main program or function in case of emergency. Humans also have redundant properties such as two lungs and two kidneys, in case one is compromised. But since memories are so individual and coded in brains by chemical-protein-neuron receptors, it is not like a computer chip can "reload" lost memories into an individual (like the concept in Ghost in the Shell series).
But LOST's sideways reveal of past memories seems to indicate, at least on the surface, that the main characters' memories were either a) blocked or b) damaged when they eventually died on Earth. They could not move on until they were "awakened" by some strong emotional tie or bond.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
AWAKENING
In ancient Egyptian mythology, when a person dies his or her body needed to be preserved so it could be reunited with the person's soul in the afterlife.
This ritual mummification has mysterious origins that archaeologists and scientists do not quite understand how a culture created such a complex death ritual.
In simple terms, when a person passes away their body "is at rest," but its spirit or soul, embarks on a journey through the underworld. There are many tests, dangers and judgments in this passage toward eternal paradise.
The disunion of the body and soul is the key element. Once the soul completes its journey, its body is resurrected in the after life to be joined back together again. This reconstruction apparently would incorporate all the deceased memories, personality, position and power had as a human being.
This ritual does have a parallel in the LOST universe.
It is hard to grapple with the fact that the characters were in the sideways world, but could not remember their past, especially their island time. If you look at the memory cycle of the main characters it was:
PRE-FLIGHT 815 . . . . . ISLAND CRASH . . . . . . . SIDEWAYS WORLD AWAKENING
There are a few ways to comprehend this disconnect.
First, the characters were killed in the plane crash, but their "souls" continued to live on to journey through the underworld (the island) on their way to be reunited with their bodies in the sideways world (the awakening). It would then seem that the body and brain would contain the hardware in which to access the memories of the departed, especially those "unknown" or new ones of the soul's passage through the underworld.
Second, the characters were killed in the plane crash, but their "bodies" continued to live on in reincarnated form at a base level while their souls left this plane of existence to create the sideways world purgatory (limbo - - - waiting for their bodies to return). The ancient Egyptians respect for the dead body could be the answer here, since the body is the vessel for the soul. The "new" body could have the physical attributes to move in the plane of another dimension to be re-fused with the old body in the after life.
Third, the characters barely survived the crash but part of their spiritual being prematurely fled to the afterlife (and then had to create a second world, the sideways narrative, in order to provide a beacon for its full soul to find it.) The characters continue to live out their lives, both on and off the island, only coming to re-connect with their departed soul fragment after their death. But this does explain the delay in the reunification of the soul and body with the deep memories of the island time. The island experience is what brought the characters together.
One theory was that Eloise was suppressing the final unification of the body and spirits of the island friends so she could keep her son, Daniel, from awakening and realizing that she had killed him while he time traveled on the island. Only a strong emotional hit or jolt awakened the characters in the sideways world.
These elements do fit in the heavy Egyptian themes on the island but do not fully fit together in the sideways context.
This ritual mummification has mysterious origins that archaeologists and scientists do not quite understand how a culture created such a complex death ritual.
In simple terms, when a person passes away their body "is at rest," but its spirit or soul, embarks on a journey through the underworld. There are many tests, dangers and judgments in this passage toward eternal paradise.
The disunion of the body and soul is the key element. Once the soul completes its journey, its body is resurrected in the after life to be joined back together again. This reconstruction apparently would incorporate all the deceased memories, personality, position and power had as a human being.
This ritual does have a parallel in the LOST universe.
It is hard to grapple with the fact that the characters were in the sideways world, but could not remember their past, especially their island time. If you look at the memory cycle of the main characters it was:
PRE-FLIGHT 815 . . . . . ISLAND CRASH . . . . . . . SIDEWAYS WORLD AWAKENING
There are a few ways to comprehend this disconnect.
First, the characters were killed in the plane crash, but their "souls" continued to live on to journey through the underworld (the island) on their way to be reunited with their bodies in the sideways world (the awakening). It would then seem that the body and brain would contain the hardware in which to access the memories of the departed, especially those "unknown" or new ones of the soul's passage through the underworld.
Second, the characters were killed in the plane crash, but their "bodies" continued to live on in reincarnated form at a base level while their souls left this plane of existence to create the sideways world purgatory (limbo - - - waiting for their bodies to return). The ancient Egyptians respect for the dead body could be the answer here, since the body is the vessel for the soul. The "new" body could have the physical attributes to move in the plane of another dimension to be re-fused with the old body in the after life.
Third, the characters barely survived the crash but part of their spiritual being prematurely fled to the afterlife (and then had to create a second world, the sideways narrative, in order to provide a beacon for its full soul to find it.) The characters continue to live out their lives, both on and off the island, only coming to re-connect with their departed soul fragment after their death. But this does explain the delay in the reunification of the soul and body with the deep memories of the island time. The island experience is what brought the characters together.
One theory was that Eloise was suppressing the final unification of the body and spirits of the island friends so she could keep her son, Daniel, from awakening and realizing that she had killed him while he time traveled on the island. Only a strong emotional hit or jolt awakened the characters in the sideways world.
These elements do fit in the heavy Egyptian themes on the island but do not fully fit together in the sideways context.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
NON-DREAMERS
Whether they are reliving childhood anxieties or visiting
imaginary landscapes, most people dream.
But there’s a small subset of the population who claims either to have stopped dreaming, or never to have dreamed at all. A group of researchers recently decided to look into the sleep patterns of self-proclaimed non-dreamers, to try to determine whether they may still be producing dreams.
The researchers, whose study was published in the Journal of Sleep Research recruited a unique group of participants. They wanted to look specifically at people who have REM sleep behavior disorder—a condition that causes people to act out their dreams. Because people with the disorder move around or speak in their sleep, their sleep patterns and behaviors are easier for scientists to observe.
According to New York Magazine, four percent of the participants in the 289 person study said they never dreamed or hadn’t dreamed in over a decade. However, upon observation, many of them appeared to dream, moving, speaking, or reenacting imaginary scenarios in their sleep. For example, one participant in his 70s, who claimed not to have dreamed since his 20s, was observed arguing with, punching, and swearing at an invisible enemy as he slept. Upon waking, however, he claimed not to have had any dreams.
The researchers recognize that the appearance of dream behavior is not definitive proof of dream production. More research is still needed to determine whether behaviors like sleep-talking and moving correspond to actual mental images. Still, the study provides strong initial evidence that non-dreamers may, in fact, be dreaming.
This is an interesting study to apply to the sideways world when the characters "forgot" about all their time on the island.
If alleged "non-dreamers" dream but don't remember their dreams, does that not fit the pattern or premise of the sideways world? The characters had to be "jolted" into remembering their past. For Jack, it was touching his father's coffin.
So if we transpose this scientific observation into the LOST story line, we get this possible explanation.
We know that the sideways world was the after life because Christian told Jack that everyone in teh church was dead.
Being dead, the characters could not "remember" their island time or the other characters.
Now, there would be two possible explanations of this: 1) the dead souls don't have clear recall of their past lives or 2) the dead souls can vividly dream (and probably collectively).
Now, many other researchers have been studying the purpose of dreams. Some believe it is a way humans try to solve real life problems in a safe and secure fashion. Some believe that dreams are a way for the body to rest and recharge (but the mind has to always be active since it controls all bodily functions).
Why would the dead need to dream?
Perhaps, the same way the living do: in order to sort through their problems, anxieties, fears, and regrets in order to become self-aware, self-assured and self-healed in order to "move on."
Whether in work or relationships, some people do get bogged down to the point of being unhappily stuck in a situation or hurt from a missed opportunity. This paralysis can be long lasting and bitter.
The dead LOST souls needed a means of reviewing the errors in the lives, making peace with the choices that they made in life, and accept who they were in order to move on in the afterlife.
So it is possible, despite the similar living issues and problems the characters had, each of them were also "non-dreamers" who could not remember working out their issues in their own minds.
But there’s a small subset of the population who claims either to have stopped dreaming, or never to have dreamed at all. A group of researchers recently decided to look into the sleep patterns of self-proclaimed non-dreamers, to try to determine whether they may still be producing dreams.
The researchers, whose study was published in the Journal of Sleep Research recruited a unique group of participants. They wanted to look specifically at people who have REM sleep behavior disorder—a condition that causes people to act out their dreams. Because people with the disorder move around or speak in their sleep, their sleep patterns and behaviors are easier for scientists to observe.
According to New York Magazine, four percent of the participants in the 289 person study said they never dreamed or hadn’t dreamed in over a decade. However, upon observation, many of them appeared to dream, moving, speaking, or reenacting imaginary scenarios in their sleep. For example, one participant in his 70s, who claimed not to have dreamed since his 20s, was observed arguing with, punching, and swearing at an invisible enemy as he slept. Upon waking, however, he claimed not to have had any dreams.
The researchers recognize that the appearance of dream behavior is not definitive proof of dream production. More research is still needed to determine whether behaviors like sleep-talking and moving correspond to actual mental images. Still, the study provides strong initial evidence that non-dreamers may, in fact, be dreaming.
This is an interesting study to apply to the sideways world when the characters "forgot" about all their time on the island.
If alleged "non-dreamers" dream but don't remember their dreams, does that not fit the pattern or premise of the sideways world? The characters had to be "jolted" into remembering their past. For Jack, it was touching his father's coffin.
So if we transpose this scientific observation into the LOST story line, we get this possible explanation.
We know that the sideways world was the after life because Christian told Jack that everyone in teh church was dead.
Being dead, the characters could not "remember" their island time or the other characters.
Now, there would be two possible explanations of this: 1) the dead souls don't have clear recall of their past lives or 2) the dead souls can vividly dream (and probably collectively).
Now, many other researchers have been studying the purpose of dreams. Some believe it is a way humans try to solve real life problems in a safe and secure fashion. Some believe that dreams are a way for the body to rest and recharge (but the mind has to always be active since it controls all bodily functions).
Why would the dead need to dream?
Perhaps, the same way the living do: in order to sort through their problems, anxieties, fears, and regrets in order to become self-aware, self-assured and self-healed in order to "move on."
Whether in work or relationships, some people do get bogged down to the point of being unhappily stuck in a situation or hurt from a missed opportunity. This paralysis can be long lasting and bitter.
The dead LOST souls needed a means of reviewing the errors in the lives, making peace with the choices that they made in life, and accept who they were in order to move on in the afterlife.
So it is possible, despite the similar living issues and problems the characters had, each of them were also "non-dreamers" who could not remember working out their issues in their own minds.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
LOSING MEMORIES
This is a story right out of science fiction.
The BBC reported that a man who went to the dentist for a root canal left with his memories locked in on 1:40 p.m. on 14 March 2005 – right in the middle of a dentist appointment.
A member of the British Armed Forces, he had returned to his post in Germany the night before after attending his grandfather’s funeral. He had gym in the morning, where he played volleyball for 45 minutes. He then entered his office to clear a backlog of emails, before heading to the dentist’s for root-canal surgery.
“I remember getting into the chair and the dentist inserting the local anesthetic,” he said. After that? A complete blank. It is like any new memories were written in invisible ink that slowly disappears from his mind after 90 minutes.
Today, he only knows that there is a problem because he and his wife have written detailed notes on his smartphone, in a file labelled “First thing – read this."
Even the events leading up to his amnesia are highly puzzling. The dentist thought it was a reaction to the anesthetic or a brain blood vessel had burst. But other medical evaluations could not confirm a cause.
The patient could work out how to solve a complex maze, however, he had completely forgotten the skill three days later. “It was like a déjà vu replica of the same errors – he took the same time to relearn the task once more,” says his doctor.
One possibility is that this kind amnesia is a “psychogenic illness." Some patients report memory loss after a traumatic event – but that tends to be a coping mechanism to avoid thinking about painful past events; it doesn’t normally affect your ability to remember the present. However, this patient had suffered no trauma, and according detailed psychiatric assessments, he is otherwise emotionally healthy.
The answer may be hiding in the thicket of tiny neural connections we call “synapses”. Once we have experienced an event, the memories are slowly cemented in the long term by altering these richly woven networks. That process of “consolidation” involves the production of new proteins to rebuild the synapses in their new shape; without it, the memory remains fragile and is easily eroded with time. Block that protein synthesis in rats, and they soon forget anything they have just learnt.
Crucially, 90 minutes would be about the right time for this consolidation to take place – just as he starts to forget the details of the event. It is like the protein production just stops so memories cannot be locked in place.
This story is relayed to LOST fans for the simple reason as a possible explanation of the untold torment of what "awakening" meant to the main characters. They had to "awake" in order to move on in life. But why in the sideways world they could not remember the island past has always been a confusing bit of mythology. Instead of not allowing the memories to set in the synapses, the LOST characters' memories were "masked" by something until a traumatic or emotional event triggered the release of that mask. This falls into the category of circumstantial evidence to the premise that LOST's foundation story line was about mind control and illusion over reality.
The BBC reported that a man who went to the dentist for a root canal left with his memories locked in on 1:40 p.m. on 14 March 2005 – right in the middle of a dentist appointment.
A member of the British Armed Forces, he had returned to his post in Germany the night before after attending his grandfather’s funeral. He had gym in the morning, where he played volleyball for 45 minutes. He then entered his office to clear a backlog of emails, before heading to the dentist’s for root-canal surgery.
“I remember getting into the chair and the dentist inserting the local anesthetic,” he said. After that? A complete blank. It is like any new memories were written in invisible ink that slowly disappears from his mind after 90 minutes.
Today, he only knows that there is a problem because he and his wife have written detailed notes on his smartphone, in a file labelled “First thing – read this."
Even the events leading up to his amnesia are highly puzzling. The dentist thought it was a reaction to the anesthetic or a brain blood vessel had burst. But other medical evaluations could not confirm a cause.
The patient could work out how to solve a complex maze, however, he had completely forgotten the skill three days later. “It was like a déjà vu replica of the same errors – he took the same time to relearn the task once more,” says his doctor.
One possibility is that this kind amnesia is a “psychogenic illness." Some patients report memory loss after a traumatic event – but that tends to be a coping mechanism to avoid thinking about painful past events; it doesn’t normally affect your ability to remember the present. However, this patient had suffered no trauma, and according detailed psychiatric assessments, he is otherwise emotionally healthy.
The answer may be hiding in the thicket of tiny neural connections we call “synapses”. Once we have experienced an event, the memories are slowly cemented in the long term by altering these richly woven networks. That process of “consolidation” involves the production of new proteins to rebuild the synapses in their new shape; without it, the memory remains fragile and is easily eroded with time. Block that protein synthesis in rats, and they soon forget anything they have just learnt.
Crucially, 90 minutes would be about the right time for this consolidation to take place – just as he starts to forget the details of the event. It is like the protein production just stops so memories cannot be locked in place.
This story is relayed to LOST fans for the simple reason as a possible explanation of the untold torment of what "awakening" meant to the main characters. They had to "awake" in order to move on in life. But why in the sideways world they could not remember the island past has always been a confusing bit of mythology. Instead of not allowing the memories to set in the synapses, the LOST characters' memories were "masked" by something until a traumatic or emotional event triggered the release of that mask. This falls into the category of circumstantial evidence to the premise that LOST's foundation story line was about mind control and illusion over reality.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
SENTIENCE
If you are secular and scientific in your view of how mankind has evolved on this planet, the dreadnaught moment has to be when we became sentient.
Sentient means to be able to perceive or feel things such as a woman who had been instructed from birth in the equality of all sentient life forms.
There was a recent comic strip that had a religious figure shut the door on all other lower life forms when he became sentient. He found his self-awareness and declared himself to be alone in the world.
I always said that on LOST knowledge was power. Those characters who controlled things knew how the island operated and used personal information to gain an advantage.
Those characters (Ben, Widmore, Eloise) clearly dominated characters who were more emotionally based such as Jack, Sun, Michael, Hurley, Sayid, Kate and Locke, who at some point felt that they were alone in the world.
The ability to perceive that one is not truly alone, even in the midst of personal despair, depression or loneliness, is one explanation of the theory that the show was merely a "character study" and not a drama. If one looks at the series as a quilt of personal relationship studies, like medical studies for the observation of new treatments, then when if at all did the characters come to the understanding of where they fit in the world?
Clearly, some of the characters never matured in any fashion, like Shannon.
Clearly, some of the characters continued to be haunted by their past actions, such as Sayid.
Clearly, some of the characters never wanted to take responsibility and grow up, like Kate and even Hurley.
Clearly, some characters were motivated by revenge which took away any pursuit of happiness, like with Sawyer and Ben.
And clearly, some characters took on leadership duties which caused them to become isolated and lonely, like Jack.
The plots merely swirled the characters personality traits and flaws in a primordial soup to see if anyone would evolve beyond their faults. Most of them continued to believe that they were vacant islands in the world. They were loners who only had to deal with others at arms length. It would be an open debate on whether anyone did evolve.
Kate continued to be runaway Kate through the bitter end at the sideways church.
Jack continued to be flawed Jack as he wound back up with broken Kate in the end.
Why Hurley and Sayid would become soul mates with women that they only met for weeks before their demise is a puzzling fiction - - - or is it an emotional lesson that the last person you cared about is the only person who will ever matter in eternity? That seems not to be a perception, but desperate clinging to someone you could not have. That sort of explains Sawyer and Juliet.
Many viewers had their emotional attachments to certain characters and certain storylines (such as Desmond and Penny relationship) which was enough to perceive LOST as a great show (for them). Perhaps, that is why many people are satisfied with the ending because their favorite lonely characters found some form of happiness in the end.
Sentient means to be able to perceive or feel things such as a woman who had been instructed from birth in the equality of all sentient life forms.
There was a recent comic strip that had a religious figure shut the door on all other lower life forms when he became sentient. He found his self-awareness and declared himself to be alone in the world.
I always said that on LOST knowledge was power. Those characters who controlled things knew how the island operated and used personal information to gain an advantage.
Those characters (Ben, Widmore, Eloise) clearly dominated characters who were more emotionally based such as Jack, Sun, Michael, Hurley, Sayid, Kate and Locke, who at some point felt that they were alone in the world.
The ability to perceive that one is not truly alone, even in the midst of personal despair, depression or loneliness, is one explanation of the theory that the show was merely a "character study" and not a drama. If one looks at the series as a quilt of personal relationship studies, like medical studies for the observation of new treatments, then when if at all did the characters come to the understanding of where they fit in the world?
Clearly, some of the characters never matured in any fashion, like Shannon.
Clearly, some of the characters continued to be haunted by their past actions, such as Sayid.
Clearly, some of the characters never wanted to take responsibility and grow up, like Kate and even Hurley.
Clearly, some characters were motivated by revenge which took away any pursuit of happiness, like with Sawyer and Ben.
And clearly, some characters took on leadership duties which caused them to become isolated and lonely, like Jack.
The plots merely swirled the characters personality traits and flaws in a primordial soup to see if anyone would evolve beyond their faults. Most of them continued to believe that they were vacant islands in the world. They were loners who only had to deal with others at arms length. It would be an open debate on whether anyone did evolve.
Kate continued to be runaway Kate through the bitter end at the sideways church.
Jack continued to be flawed Jack as he wound back up with broken Kate in the end.
Why Hurley and Sayid would become soul mates with women that they only met for weeks before their demise is a puzzling fiction - - - or is it an emotional lesson that the last person you cared about is the only person who will ever matter in eternity? That seems not to be a perception, but desperate clinging to someone you could not have. That sort of explains Sawyer and Juliet.
Many viewers had their emotional attachments to certain characters and certain storylines (such as Desmond and Penny relationship) which was enough to perceive LOST as a great show (for them). Perhaps, that is why many people are satisfied with the ending because their favorite lonely characters found some form of happiness in the end.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
MEMORY GARDEN
There is a common tread throughout the vast history of human cultures: burial customs.
Despite different beliefs, the common thread is that humans hope that their life will continue on after their Earthly demise.
In modern times, people are buried in cemeteries that contain neatly mowed grass, flowers and trees. It is a garden setting. Relatives and friends can return to recall fond memories of the departed in these memory gardens.
If we take this concept and apply it to the other side of the equation, LOST's island could also be considered a memory garden for the departed souls.
Not to label it heaven, purgatory or hell, but just a place where memories are revisited and replayed in order to release any final regrets before a second life begins.
It is a logical to tie the island to the sideways world if in fact both exist on the same level of existence. They can co-exist since time does not exist in the after life, but that realm is eternal.
As a memory garden, the island serves to spotlight the characters first and foremost, which is what the writers claimed was their purpose to have a character driven show.
This concept does negate traditional story telling because the setting is not real, but surreal. The events do not have true consequences. It seems when a soul has worked his or her memories clear and accepted their fate, they can move on without strings attached to their next life.
Despite different beliefs, the common thread is that humans hope that their life will continue on after their Earthly demise.
In modern times, people are buried in cemeteries that contain neatly mowed grass, flowers and trees. It is a garden setting. Relatives and friends can return to recall fond memories of the departed in these memory gardens.
If we take this concept and apply it to the other side of the equation, LOST's island could also be considered a memory garden for the departed souls.
Not to label it heaven, purgatory or hell, but just a place where memories are revisited and replayed in order to release any final regrets before a second life begins.
It is a logical to tie the island to the sideways world if in fact both exist on the same level of existence. They can co-exist since time does not exist in the after life, but that realm is eternal.
As a memory garden, the island serves to spotlight the characters first and foremost, which is what the writers claimed was their purpose to have a character driven show.
This concept does negate traditional story telling because the setting is not real, but surreal. The events do not have true consequences. It seems when a soul has worked his or her memories clear and accepted their fate, they can move on without strings attached to their next life.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH
The BBC recently had an article about the scientific research conducted with severely vegetative patients. The most revealing aspect of the article (and study) was that a patient in a deep coma awoke to tell the medical community what she experienced in her vegetative state. It was totally different than what medical science perceived was happening inside the brain of an unconscious patient.
The problem is that the scientific definition of “death” remains as unresolved as the definition of “consciousness”. Being alive is no longer linked to having a beating heart, explains Owen. If I have an artificial heart, am I dead? If you are on a life-support machine, are you dead? Is a failure to sustain independent life a reasonable definition of death? No, otherwise we would all be “dead” in the nine months before birth.
The issue becomes murkier when we consider those trapped in the twilight worlds between normal life and death – from those who slip in and out of awareness, who are trapped in a ‘minimally conscious state’, to those who are severely impaired in a vegetative state or a coma. These patients first appeared in the wake of the development of the artificial respirator during the 1950s in Denmark, an invention that redefined the end of life in terms of the idea of brain death and created the specialty of intensive care, in which unresponsive and comatose patients who seemed unable to wake up again were written off as “vegetables” or “jellyfish”. As is always the case when treating patients, definitions are critical: understanding the chances of recovery, the benefits of treatments and so on all depend on a precise diagnosis.
In the 1960s, neurologist Fred Plum in New York and neurosurgeon Bryan Jennett in Glasgow carried out pioneering work to understand and categorise disorders of consciousness. Plum coined the term “locked-in syndrome”, in which a patient is aware and awake but cannot move or talk. With Plum, Jennett devised the Glasgow Coma Scale to rate the depth of coma, and Jennett followed up with the Glasgow Outcome Scale to weigh up the extent of recovery, from death to mild disability. Together they adopted the term “persistent vegetative state” for patients who, they wrote, “have periods of wakefulness when their eyes are open and move; their responsiveness is limited to primitive postural and reflex movements of the limbs, and they never speak.”
In 2002, Jennett was among a group of neurologists who chose the phrase “minimally conscious” to describe those who are sometimes awake and partly aware, who show erratic signs of consciousness so that at one time they might be able to follow a simple instruction and another they might not. Even today, however, we’re still arguing over who is conscious and who isn’t.
Kate Bainbridge, a 26-year-old schoolteacher, lapsed into a coma three days after she came down with a flu-like illness. Her brain became inflamed, along with the primitive region atop the spinal cord, the brain stem, which rules the sleep cycle. A few weeks after her infection had cleared, Kate awoke from the coma but was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state. Luckily, the intensive care doctor responsible for her, David Menon, was also a Principal Investigator at the newly opened Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre in Cambridge, where one Adrian Owen then worked.
In 1997, four months after she had been diagnosed as vegetative, Kate became the first patient in a vegetative state to be studied by the Cambridge group. The results, published in 1998, were unexpected and extraordinary. Not only did Kate react to faces: but her brain responses were indistinguishable from those of healthy volunteers. Her scans revealed a splash of red, marking brain activity at the back of her brain, in a part called the fusiform gyrus, which helps recognize faces. Kate became the first such patient in whom sophisticated brain imaging (in this case PET) revealed “covert cognition”. Of course, whether that response was a reflex or a signal of consciousness was, at the time, a matter of debate.
The results were of huge significance for science but also for Kate and her parents. “The existence of preserved cognitive processing removed the nihilism that pervaded the management of such patients in general, and supported a decision to continue to treat Kate aggressively,” recalls Menon.
Kate eventually surfaced from her ordeal, six months after the initial diagnosis. “They said I could not feel pain,” she says. “They were so wrong.” Sometimes she’d cry out, but the nurses thought it was just a reflex. She felt abandoned and helpless. Hospital staff had no idea how much she suffered in their care. Kate found physiotherapy scary: nurses never explained what they were doing to her. She was terrified when they removed mucus from her lungs. “I can’t tell you how frightening it was, especially suction through the mouth,” she has written. At one point, her pain and despair became so much that she tried to snuff out her life by holding her breath. “I could not stop my nose from breathing, so it did not work. My body did not seem to want to die.”
Kate says her recovery was not so much like turning a light on but a gradual awakening. It took her five months before she could smile. By then she had lost her job, her sense of smell and taste, and much of what might have been a normal future. Now back with her parents, Kate is still very disabled and needs a wheelchair. Twelve years after her illness, she started to talk again and, though still angry about the way she was treated when she was at her most vulnerable, she remains grateful to those who helped her mind to escape.
In applying this real life coma story to LOST, there is a theme of "gradual awakening" of the dead in the sideways world to the events of their recent past (i.e. the plane crash). A person in a coma, or in a state between life and death, still can perceive the world around them - - - and still have strong emotions like pain and anxiety. For those who think most people pass quietly in their sleep may have to rethink that position. With her mind still active, the coma victim is trapped inside her own head. And what was she thinking about? Escape. What was the most driving force for everyone on the island, including the smoke monster? Escape. It was the inability of the coma patient to communicate with the outside world that led to frustration and more pain. Likewise, fans continually barked at the television screens when LOST survivors continually failed to communicate with each other, or ask the simple, common sense questions to get answers.
Many of the same elements of the coma patient study were embedded into the LOST story. It gives those fan theories about mental or coma patients more real scientific evidence to support their viewpoint of the series.
The problem is that the scientific definition of “death” remains as unresolved as the definition of “consciousness”. Being alive is no longer linked to having a beating heart, explains Owen. If I have an artificial heart, am I dead? If you are on a life-support machine, are you dead? Is a failure to sustain independent life a reasonable definition of death? No, otherwise we would all be “dead” in the nine months before birth.
The issue becomes murkier when we consider those trapped in the twilight worlds between normal life and death – from those who slip in and out of awareness, who are trapped in a ‘minimally conscious state’, to those who are severely impaired in a vegetative state or a coma. These patients first appeared in the wake of the development of the artificial respirator during the 1950s in Denmark, an invention that redefined the end of life in terms of the idea of brain death and created the specialty of intensive care, in which unresponsive and comatose patients who seemed unable to wake up again were written off as “vegetables” or “jellyfish”. As is always the case when treating patients, definitions are critical: understanding the chances of recovery, the benefits of treatments and so on all depend on a precise diagnosis.
In the 1960s, neurologist Fred Plum in New York and neurosurgeon Bryan Jennett in Glasgow carried out pioneering work to understand and categorise disorders of consciousness. Plum coined the term “locked-in syndrome”, in which a patient is aware and awake but cannot move or talk. With Plum, Jennett devised the Glasgow Coma Scale to rate the depth of coma, and Jennett followed up with the Glasgow Outcome Scale to weigh up the extent of recovery, from death to mild disability. Together they adopted the term “persistent vegetative state” for patients who, they wrote, “have periods of wakefulness when their eyes are open and move; their responsiveness is limited to primitive postural and reflex movements of the limbs, and they never speak.”
In 2002, Jennett was among a group of neurologists who chose the phrase “minimally conscious” to describe those who are sometimes awake and partly aware, who show erratic signs of consciousness so that at one time they might be able to follow a simple instruction and another they might not. Even today, however, we’re still arguing over who is conscious and who isn’t.
Kate Bainbridge, a 26-year-old schoolteacher, lapsed into a coma three days after she came down with a flu-like illness. Her brain became inflamed, along with the primitive region atop the spinal cord, the brain stem, which rules the sleep cycle. A few weeks after her infection had cleared, Kate awoke from the coma but was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state. Luckily, the intensive care doctor responsible for her, David Menon, was also a Principal Investigator at the newly opened Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre in Cambridge, where one Adrian Owen then worked.
In 1997, four months after she had been diagnosed as vegetative, Kate became the first patient in a vegetative state to be studied by the Cambridge group. The results, published in 1998, were unexpected and extraordinary. Not only did Kate react to faces: but her brain responses were indistinguishable from those of healthy volunteers. Her scans revealed a splash of red, marking brain activity at the back of her brain, in a part called the fusiform gyrus, which helps recognize faces. Kate became the first such patient in whom sophisticated brain imaging (in this case PET) revealed “covert cognition”. Of course, whether that response was a reflex or a signal of consciousness was, at the time, a matter of debate.
The results were of huge significance for science but also for Kate and her parents. “The existence of preserved cognitive processing removed the nihilism that pervaded the management of such patients in general, and supported a decision to continue to treat Kate aggressively,” recalls Menon.
Kate eventually surfaced from her ordeal, six months after the initial diagnosis. “They said I could not feel pain,” she says. “They were so wrong.” Sometimes she’d cry out, but the nurses thought it was just a reflex. She felt abandoned and helpless. Hospital staff had no idea how much she suffered in their care. Kate found physiotherapy scary: nurses never explained what they were doing to her. She was terrified when they removed mucus from her lungs. “I can’t tell you how frightening it was, especially suction through the mouth,” she has written. At one point, her pain and despair became so much that she tried to snuff out her life by holding her breath. “I could not stop my nose from breathing, so it did not work. My body did not seem to want to die.”
Kate says her recovery was not so much like turning a light on but a gradual awakening. It took her five months before she could smile. By then she had lost her job, her sense of smell and taste, and much of what might have been a normal future. Now back with her parents, Kate is still very disabled and needs a wheelchair. Twelve years after her illness, she started to talk again and, though still angry about the way she was treated when she was at her most vulnerable, she remains grateful to those who helped her mind to escape.
In applying this real life coma story to LOST, there is a theme of "gradual awakening" of the dead in the sideways world to the events of their recent past (i.e. the plane crash). A person in a coma, or in a state between life and death, still can perceive the world around them - - - and still have strong emotions like pain and anxiety. For those who think most people pass quietly in their sleep may have to rethink that position. With her mind still active, the coma victim is trapped inside her own head. And what was she thinking about? Escape. What was the most driving force for everyone on the island, including the smoke monster? Escape. It was the inability of the coma patient to communicate with the outside world that led to frustration and more pain. Likewise, fans continually barked at the television screens when LOST survivors continually failed to communicate with each other, or ask the simple, common sense questions to get answers.
Many of the same elements of the coma patient study were embedded into the LOST story. It gives those fan theories about mental or coma patients more real scientific evidence to support their viewpoint of the series.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
AWAKEN DREAMS
At times, cast members have mentioned discussions with fans about theories. Jorge Garcia once mentioned that one fan thought that as Flight 815 passed through the island's electromagnetic field, everything was cloned, and the show was all about their clones. There is really nothing to dispute that fan's theory ("the photo copier effect") or prove it.
But there has to be some logical construct to at least get a detailed understanding of the show's diverse pathways. As with the above graphic I stumbled across on the web, at each critical moment there is at least two clear choices.
The vast majority of people believe that the characters did board an airplane in Sydney. (There are several theories that state the contrary; that the entire show is the dream state of character(s)). Once the plane went over the island, at the same time of the electromagnetic burst, something happened.
We were led to believe that the plane broke up at cruising altitude. We saw the tail section break away from the main fuselage. We saw the wreckage on the beach, and the injured passengers. The plane crashed on a tropical island. There were some survivors. That is one conclusion.
However, later on in the series, Flight 815 makes a routine landing in LA. We would later find out that this "sideways" world was "created" by the characters as a means of getting back together. In this sideways world, everyone is dead.
We have two simultaneous parallel story tracks.
What is the reason for the sideways place? Everyone on board had in his or her own mind the expectation and dream to land in Los Angeles and to continue on with their lives. Whatever happened to Flight 815, it charged those memories and dreams to create the sideways universe. A "waking dream" is an involuntary dream while a person is awake. The dream state is that person's present reality. This must have been impressed upon each of their souls as a result of the plane crash.
But if in fact the sideways world was created at the time of the plane breaking up and crashing, all the characters in the sideways world were dead. That leads to one of two possibilities: everyone on the island was killed in the plane crash, or the characters survived in another supernatural place.
How can a person be in "two" places at once? Just as one can space off and daydream during a business meeting, that person is actually in two places at once. He or she may be hearing the business discussion around the table, but part of their mind is off at a distant place or memory. This lends some support to a possible dream state happening to the characters.
Then the question becomes can a dead person dream?
If the sideways world was the daydream of the characters, their last living moments impressed in the electromagnetic neurons of their brains, it could have been carry forwarded into the next level of existence.
This gets us to the final piece of the story. Characters in the sideways world were not aware of their true existence until they were "awakened" to the island memories. What were the island memories? In an endorphin charged fear of dying in a plane crash as the plane broke a part, it was the will to live. The island world was the will to remain alive - - - a dream scape by dead souls who did not want to realize or accept their fate. The characters continued to chase "life" on the island.
What was the one thing that could shock a sideways soul into remembering happened to him or her? To awaken or sever the island dream of life to recognize that you were killed in a plane crash. Jack was shocked by the notion that he was dead when he met his father in the sideways church, but he quickly accepted it and was at peace.
Just as the sideways world in the afterlife seemed "real" to those who had not been awakened, so to would have been an island dream world that would seem just as real.
TPTB continually state that the characters were alive. But they don't say when they died. They don't explain how the sideways world was created but acknowledge everyone is dead. They created this two place story. We are just trying to make sense of it.
If the island people thought they were alive, does that mean they were not in purgatory? No, if one considers a dream state not an after life realm.
If the sideways people thought they were alive, does that mean they were not dead? No.
One definition of being "alive" is (of a feeling or quality) continuing in existence, as in keeping hope alive. If one has the severe emotional will to "cheat" death by keeping one's memories alive in a supernatural time and place, then the show expands the normal concept of being alive to another plane of existence. TPTB claim that the ending was all about answering the meaning of life and what happens after you die. If we take them at their word, so be it.
But both the island and sideways story lines need a clear nexus in order to make sense. Since the creative forces behind the series do not or cannot fully explain their own story (and hide behind their clever mysteries), we are left to investigate all the possibilities to reach some consistent probabilities.
This Dream State theory weaves together the simultaneous parallel yet supernatural time periods with the major clue of the dead "awakening" in the after life.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
AWAKENING
There was a great emphasis on the main characters "awakening" in the sideways world - - - to remember the "importance" of their island time together - - - in order to "move on" in the after life.
The term "awaken" refers to a process which most fans do not acknowledge as a premise for the show.
To "awake" means to stop sleeping; wake from sleep; or to cause (someone) to wake from sleep. It could also mean to regain consciousness or to become aware of a realization. It can also be to become active again, such as "there were echoes and scents that awoke some memory in me."
However, the adjective of awake means not asleep, i.e. the noise might keep you awake at night.
So what did this mean in the context of LOST?
The most obvious would be that the characters were in a dream state; that they were not awake. If we put that into the situation of the island, that means all the characters and actions were part of a complex dream world. If it was a complex dream world, was it the dream of a single person or a collective network of separate dreamers interacting with each other.
If the latter is true, then how would the main characters be "together" in the dream world. There are a few possibilities:
First, all the characters are together in one place. For example, a medical hospital undergoing various treatments. As they are hooked up to their medical equipment (including life support and computer EKG readings), their subconscious filters through the system and interacts with the other patients who are in a similar dream state.
Or, all the main characters are actually children in an orphanage. This would explain, in part, the deep rooted parental issues, betrayal and abandonment. It would also feed the persistent character trait of personal loneliness. Children in an orphanage would naturally dream intense fantasies because they believe their current lives are dark and lonely.
Second, that the characters are in a coma state - - - either as a result of accidents or as part of grand scientific research experiment. The latter would tie into the Dharma experimentation in mind control and manipulation of unique energy systems. The human brain is the most complex energy system in the planet; and one which most mainstream science still does not fully understand. By containing the brains of diverse individuals in a deep control group (such as in a coma state), the researchers could feed their minds with various scenarios to see how they react. For example, inject the terror of a mysterious smoke monster into their minds to see how they would process that information in their patient's dreams.
Third, that the characters were actually "awake" but in a virtual reality that was the island. This could also be an experiment on how the brain works in regard to virtual soldier technology. We know that the defense department and government agencies have used virtual reality systems to train soldiers for combat missions. This would be a leap forward in technology, almost Avatar like, dealing with missions in real time. Perhaps in the future, as referenced in an old Star Trek episode, wars would be fought by soldiers in a virtual reality setting, to avoid the human pain and suffering of real warfare.
But if the characters were participants in this virtual combat world, why would they not "remember" it. If the technology was sufficient to implant the game program into their minds, it probably would have been just as easy as to erase or block those memories once the characters were no longer needed in the experiment.
So the concept of awakening in the series had to mean that the characters woke up or remembered something critical in their past (i.e. the island). After losing their conscious to a virtual dream world called the island, the characters were put back into normal situations to live normal lives as shown in the sideways world. Now this would work perfectly as a reasonable explanation of the entire series except for one critical plot detail. In the sideways world, everyone was dead.
This gets us back to the last definition of the word: to become aware of a realization.
I have thought for a long time that knowledge is power. If one knew what was going on at any moment in time, they could control their own destiny. Early on, I thought that Rose became fully aware of what the island really was because the pain of her incurable cancer was gone after the plane crash. Rose became aware on the beach that she had died in the plane crash. That is why she thought everything would be alright; that she would meet up with her husband soon.
This is also why Rose and Bernard later broke away from the survivors and their dramas with the island inhabitants. They knew that what they were up to was not "real." Rose and Bernard wanted to keep to themselves so they could enjoy the "extended time" they were granted, together.
It would also explain why we did not see Rose and Bernard "awaken" in the sideways world. They did not have to awaken. They already knew of their deaths while on the island. It would seem that all the LOST souls had to awaken by themselves - - - and once each individual came to the realization that they were actually dead, could their souls move on in the after life (as depicted at the ending of the sideways church scenes).
Everything up to that point was the individual's subconscious not wanting to let go with "life." It was fueled by the regrets of the characters; the things they never experienced in their life (such as Hurley finding a true love in Libby). Somehow, some one gave these lost souls the opportunity to live a second life on the island in order to experience those past events and maybe soothe their regrets.
If that is the case, then Jacob would be more like Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life than the Devil. He brought the people to the island. And the island gave them a second chance to find trust, love, friendship and a sense of purpose. It gave those lost souls a second chance before final judgment.
The term "awaken" refers to a process which most fans do not acknowledge as a premise for the show.
To "awake" means to stop sleeping; wake from sleep; or to cause (someone) to wake from sleep. It could also mean to regain consciousness or to become aware of a realization. It can also be to become active again, such as "there were echoes and scents that awoke some memory in me."
However, the adjective of awake means not asleep, i.e. the noise might keep you awake at night.
So what did this mean in the context of LOST?
The most obvious would be that the characters were in a dream state; that they were not awake. If we put that into the situation of the island, that means all the characters and actions were part of a complex dream world. If it was a complex dream world, was it the dream of a single person or a collective network of separate dreamers interacting with each other.
If the latter is true, then how would the main characters be "together" in the dream world. There are a few possibilities:
First, all the characters are together in one place. For example, a medical hospital undergoing various treatments. As they are hooked up to their medical equipment (including life support and computer EKG readings), their subconscious filters through the system and interacts with the other patients who are in a similar dream state.
Or, all the main characters are actually children in an orphanage. This would explain, in part, the deep rooted parental issues, betrayal and abandonment. It would also feed the persistent character trait of personal loneliness. Children in an orphanage would naturally dream intense fantasies because they believe their current lives are dark and lonely.
Second, that the characters are in a coma state - - - either as a result of accidents or as part of grand scientific research experiment. The latter would tie into the Dharma experimentation in mind control and manipulation of unique energy systems. The human brain is the most complex energy system in the planet; and one which most mainstream science still does not fully understand. By containing the brains of diverse individuals in a deep control group (such as in a coma state), the researchers could feed their minds with various scenarios to see how they react. For example, inject the terror of a mysterious smoke monster into their minds to see how they would process that information in their patient's dreams.
Third, that the characters were actually "awake" but in a virtual reality that was the island. This could also be an experiment on how the brain works in regard to virtual soldier technology. We know that the defense department and government agencies have used virtual reality systems to train soldiers for combat missions. This would be a leap forward in technology, almost Avatar like, dealing with missions in real time. Perhaps in the future, as referenced in an old Star Trek episode, wars would be fought by soldiers in a virtual reality setting, to avoid the human pain and suffering of real warfare.
But if the characters were participants in this virtual combat world, why would they not "remember" it. If the technology was sufficient to implant the game program into their minds, it probably would have been just as easy as to erase or block those memories once the characters were no longer needed in the experiment.
So the concept of awakening in the series had to mean that the characters woke up or remembered something critical in their past (i.e. the island). After losing their conscious to a virtual dream world called the island, the characters were put back into normal situations to live normal lives as shown in the sideways world. Now this would work perfectly as a reasonable explanation of the entire series except for one critical plot detail. In the sideways world, everyone was dead.
This gets us back to the last definition of the word: to become aware of a realization.
I have thought for a long time that knowledge is power. If one knew what was going on at any moment in time, they could control their own destiny. Early on, I thought that Rose became fully aware of what the island really was because the pain of her incurable cancer was gone after the plane crash. Rose became aware on the beach that she had died in the plane crash. That is why she thought everything would be alright; that she would meet up with her husband soon.
This is also why Rose and Bernard later broke away from the survivors and their dramas with the island inhabitants. They knew that what they were up to was not "real." Rose and Bernard wanted to keep to themselves so they could enjoy the "extended time" they were granted, together.
It would also explain why we did not see Rose and Bernard "awaken" in the sideways world. They did not have to awaken. They already knew of their deaths while on the island. It would seem that all the LOST souls had to awaken by themselves - - - and once each individual came to the realization that they were actually dead, could their souls move on in the after life (as depicted at the ending of the sideways church scenes).
Everything up to that point was the individual's subconscious not wanting to let go with "life." It was fueled by the regrets of the characters; the things they never experienced in their life (such as Hurley finding a true love in Libby). Somehow, some one gave these lost souls the opportunity to live a second life on the island in order to experience those past events and maybe soothe their regrets.
If that is the case, then Jacob would be more like Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life than the Devil. He brought the people to the island. And the island gave them a second chance to find trust, love, friendship and a sense of purpose. It gave those lost souls a second chance before final judgment.
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