Distractions & Theory Merge :-)

I think a point Prof has been making recently is that we are being distracted by all the time information this season.  So I'm trying to get back at some of the fundamentals of the show and pull in some old theories that might help address those fundamentals.

The central conflict of the show is whether or not one can change destiny--and this is probably why everyone's getting off track with time travelling theories.

OK, but let's gather up clues as to how changing destiny might happen:

1)     One major component of the show is changing consciousness or changing perceptions.  There's extensive allusion to Skinner and behaviorism.  Richard Alpert, Aldous Huxley, "The Doors of Perception," LSD, brain-washing, Room 23, the vaccine “CR 4-81516-2342”—CR for Consciousness Raised?.  These are the internal route to change.

2)     There are also many allusions to scientific theories primarily coming from quantum mechanics and string theory which suggest the possibility of more dimensions than the three, or the four (counting time) that we are aware of.  This is the external route to change.

In Brian Greene’s talk on string theory, he talks about the way in which Einstein developed the idea of space and time as a fabric which is warped and curved by objects in order to explain gravitational force.  Shortly afterwards, Theodor Kaluza attempted to come up with a unified field theory which explained both the theory of general relativity and Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism using the same kind of model that Einstein had used, but Kaluza needed to introduce another dimension to make that theory work.  (Note the Philadelphia Experiment which both Prof and Agent have alluded to was supposed to be an attempt at a military application of unified field theory).   In the same talk, Greene uses the following model to imagine an extra dimension: First, picture a 3 dimensional grid of height/depth/width.  (Note—I don’t think it’s an accident that “grids” show up as patterns on so many of the men’s shirts on the show.)  Now imagine that along one of the lines of the grid you have circling (spiraling) another dimension but spiralling at a level that cannot be seen.  That microscopic coil around the axis of height or width or depth is another dimension.  Again, a number of allusions/connections to spirals around a central straight line are on the show—records, for one; the Caduceus staff for another.

3)     The combination of changing perceptions and alternative dimensions results in the possibility of changing destiny by altering reality.  The island seems to be a place (one among others) where such a power can be accessed—it’s a magic box. 

In an old theory of mine “You Can’t Change the Future”—I was thinking that the very fact that you have course correction opens up the idea that there’s a possibility of changing the time line—what, after all are we correcting for?  But later I was thinking about that not so much in terms of changing a time line, but in terms of having each decision one makes open up the possibility of another world in which alternatives exist.  (“Dimensions, Vibrations, Minds”).  And therefore what is happening is not paradoxes along a linear timeline, but possibilites from alternative dimensions/choices manifesting where they are not supposed to.  An image that might help here—historical time as a line coming from a central point, but different histories come out of that central point—different lines.  Human consciousness (or mind with a small “m”) in the Many Minds theory can only see along its own line.  In “Because You Left,” Aaron is watching a train enter a tunnel—we are like the train, we cannot see beside us to the other tunnels radiating out of the central hub.  But Mind with a capital “M”—expanded consciousness—exists at the central hub and can see all the possibilities.  This is what the island is—not just an “Axis Mundi”—center of the world, but center of the worlds (heh, whatever the plural of “Mundi” would be).  Very like the wood between the worlds in C.S. Lewis’s “The Magician’s Nephew.”  The central image for this--the island as the center out of which many lines of history radiate would be the Dharmacakra.

OK, if this is the basic framework, what might be some of the implications in terms of phenomena on the island, and then in terms of plot.

Richard & Smokie: In the post in which I was thinking about the island having a force which allowed for destiny being changed, I was speculating that Smokie is the force in which destiny is reasserted—the opposing force to change.  Then I was thinking about Richard in all of this and thought that I most often associate Richard with offering choices—not as an agent of change himself but one who shows up at important points in a character’s life—a moment in which they do make some far-reaching decision.  I think that’s probably most obvious with Ben and with Locke—with Locke as a child, but I’m also thinking that Richard provides the folder on Sawyer that gives Locke the opportunity to substitute Sawyer for himself in killing Cooper.  Another way of thinking about both their roles would be to define the Temple.  One reference to a temple that’s been important has been in the parable of the Grand Inquisitor from the Brother’s Karamazov.  In that parable the Grand Inquisitor argues that Jesus should not have offered choices to mankind but controlled mankind’s destiny.  The Inquisitor returns to the temptations offerred to Jesus in the desert (note, I'd identify Ben with the Grand Inquisitor and the idea of controlling mankind's destiny--and was recently also thinking about him as Set, the Egyptian god of the desert as opposed to Horus [Horace]).  And one of the ways he suggests that Jesus should have controlled mankind's destiny  is by throwing himself off the temple and have the Angels lift him up—demonstrating a miracle.  But Jesus does not impose the miracle because he gives humanity the free will to choose to believe or not to believe.  (Note: Richard and Locke might be paired on the free will/choice side perhaps, and Smokie and Ben might be paired on the determinism/fate side.)  The Temple (in Lost) I think is the central spatial location of this decision making ability—this ability to change destiny.  Richard is it’s priest (and offers the choice to humanity) while Smokie is it’s security system—taking away the choice and returning things to what they are supposed to be.  I think another way this works is in an allusion to the “Tempest” with Richard as the Ariel servant (in the play Ariel sets up situations in which characters either prosper or punish themselves based on their own choices), Smokie as the Caliban servant, and whoever the Island’s Chosen one is as the Magician/Prospero.  (Note that in the SciFi movie version Forbidden Planet, the Prospero figure, Morbius, has had his mind expanded by Alien equipment.  It is this expanded mind ability that creates the monster that mysteriously attacks everyone.)

Plot-wise what is going on?  Of course a place with this kind of power would be much sought after and incredibly dangerous.  As I was suggesting in the “Dimensions” post—the idea that one could alter reality might mean disturbing the vibrations which are fundamental to the very existence of our universe.  There are those 20 fundamental numbers which determine things like the mass of a particle.  These numbers reflect the “allowed vibrations” of the various strings in the 10 dimensions and the frequency of the vibration produces the basic particles or building blocks of the universe.  So fiddle around with the vibrations and you could be in big trouble. 

Here’s a part of what I think has happened.  The Others, I think, are people who have arrived on the island through various shipwrecks.  They provide the island with “minds” that are opened to these other possibilities.  I’m not sure what the purpose of the island in needing these minds is yet but the consciousness raising I think happens within the temple and Dharma was trying to artificially accomplish the same thing through drugs, the brain-washing techniques in Room 23, and in-putting the numbers.  Widmore was once the island’s leader but attempted to use the island power in the “real world”—to do so opens up catastrophic possibilities of bleed-through from one line of the hub to another, or realities merging, and so is forbidden.  Widmore was kicked off the island and funded Dharma as a way to get at the same power through artificial means.

This was only the first step in what has brought about a catastrophic reality merge.  It’s this reality merge and the leaking of the power from off the island onto the mainland which is the central problem that is going to result in apocalypse and which needs to be fixed.

Agent first brought up this idea of realities merging and hypothesized that it might be a result of Ben trying to change the reality in which Annie died.  I think there are a number of things which now point to it being Dan: He's in the past at around the time of the incident.  He feels responsible for not saving Charlotte.  He is already guilty for what he’s done to another woman (Theresa).  Looking at the flight 815 crash he's crazy and crying and in need of a caretaker. And he insists that timelines can’t be altered yet warns young Charlotte not to come back to the island.  So I think Dan precipitates the incident to keep Charlotte from dying, and that the incident will bring about the end of the world unless Desmond can change things back to what they were “supposed to be.”  (And possibly Des will have the same motivation--to try to return things to a reality in which Penny is alive.)

Some of the evidence that you have different realities merging: different versions of the crash of 815 with the pilot making different announcements, changing picture frames when Miles does the ghost whispering, the different versions of the stories told by the O6 and the fact that no one seems to notice the discrepancies.  The unfixedness of people’s identities as noticed for instance in Jukin’s post “Trading Places” and seems to be suggested in all the “proxy” stuff going on this season.

So what happened after the incident?  Widmore, I think took advantage of whatever Dan did in order to harness the island’s power for his own purposes.  Part of that is the inputting of the numbers and manipulating Desmond into place as the change agent—the one who will have access to this island power but be able to take it and apply it in the world.  At the same time, a counter force also wants Desmond to acquire this power because they can see that opening this door is allowing for all kinds of anomalies (which need course correcting) and will eventually lead to an apocalypse.

Once the door was opened and the force could leave the island via the numbers, you get things like Hurley’s phenomenal luck—both good and bad.  And eventually the kind of “infection” in which individuals can alter reality just by telling a different story. (Note in 4.12 Jack suffers an on-island infection at the same time that he infects the outer world with the false story--the Lie--and I have wondered whether that lie actually is what began to kill off everyone else--because he said they had all died.  Also note that Rousseau said that her team had to be killed because once infected they could never leave the island.  What were they infected with?  With an ability to let them determine reality?)  The cover story told by the O6 is flawed in ways that it doesn’t have to be, ways the writers could easily have fixed.  So the flaws are there to be drawn attention to.  Importantly another thing that happens once they are off the island is that  they become more extreme versions of what they were before.  Hurley also talks of them being dead.  And going back to Aaron’s cartoon—Kate says that the train would never go into the tunnel because there’s no way out.  Ironically—opening the door is leading to a dead end, to no change, to a catastrophic looping of causality that they can’t escape.  In other words, by making the individuals more powerful in determining their own destiny off island you’ve actually increased the extremes of the kind of destiny line they were on before as their choices have more weight, and nothing has changed as far as the kinds of people they are—their tragic flaws more determining.

Generally where things are going—don’t know how the problem will be solved but there’s going to need to be both internal change (Locke, the Hanged Man, faith) and external change (Desmond, the World, science).