The Swan's white light is conscious time travel by SpLoDGe

This theory is inspired after having read, "We don't use rocks, we use boulders" by Roy Runnels


From The Variable Transcript

FARADAY: Jack. How did you get back here?

JACK: Faraday? What the--

FARADAY: How did you do it?

JACK: Whoa.

FARADAY: How did you get back to the Island?

JACK: Where have you been?

FARADAY: I was--I was just at DHARMA headquarters in Ann Arbor. I was doing some research. What's more important right now... how did you get back here to 1977?

JACK: [Sighs] What's going on?

MILES: Don't look at me. I just carried his luggage.

FARADAY: Jack, how?

JACK: Uh... we were on a plane, and then there was--

FARADAY: Who told you to get on a plane?

JACK: As a matter of fact, Dan, it was your mother.

FARADAY: [Sighs] And how did she convince you, Jack? Did she tell you it was your destiny?

JACK: Yeah. That's exactly what she said.

FARADAY: Well, I got some bad news for you, Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong.

What Dan said was more along the lines of his mother being wrong in sending them back rather than they should never have been in the 70’s. Yes they shouldn’t be there but since they are there, what they do while they are there must be controlled. Faraday’s mission is to ensure the future happens as it should or more importantly as he wants it to turn out. That’s why he’s running around like a mad man. He ensures that Chang sends people off the island for Miles future to be preserved. It is important to tell Chang that he is from the future but to what end? Then he’s off on a mission with the bomb.

I do think Jack and co. could have interfered in events in the 70's which could have totally changed the future. I think the only reason Faraday told Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Jin the idea of WHH was to stop them trying to make a difference in the past. Maybe to stop them second guessing themselves. He knows that these people don’t do anything in the past which has a detrimental affect on the future especially after he’s told them that they cannot make a difference. Unlike Jack who probably wants to try even if he’s told otherwise. So all Faraday can do is direct Jack he cannot change Jack’s mind but he can manipulate him.

Faraday knows the future because of his diary and he realises certain facts by going off island to Ann Arbour. When he comes back he is not expecting to see Jack. It is almost as if he (or the side he is fighting for) was involved in orchestrating events which lead to the O6 leaving the island for the very reason that Jack should NOT go back in time to the 70's.

Perhaps in an earlier iteration of the timeline or an earlier loop Jack made such a difference to the past that the future was changed beyond recognition. Maybe his actions gave the other side in the war the upper hand.

Faraday knows that Jack is determined to change the future, he thinks it’s his destiny. So Faraday decides to direct Jack's efforts so that Jack believes that he is changing the future by getting the bomb to the Swan site. All Jack and Faraday will be doing is setting up the future to be as we've already seen it IMO. I don't think that the bomb gets detonated I think the white flash is a time flash which is either someone turning the wheel or most likely a release of electromagnetism which moves the island to a different reality/timeline. It will most certainly send all people's consciousnesses, who are in close proximity to the site, to a different point in their respective pasts, similar to what Des experienced.

I think Chang's mind will go back in time so that he can take steps to be prepared for the incident and have a plan in action to resolve the leaking electromagnetism. It will appear to us watching after the end of the incident, that he turns a button or throws a device down the shaft and then pours concrete all over the drill site and bingo the problem is solved. In reality he flashed back in time to a couple of hours or days. This time he believes Faraday when he tells him that he's from the future and together they come up with a plan to stop the incident.

In the meanwhile the others, I mean some of our Losties (Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Miles, Jin, Hurley, Juliet and Sayid if they survive) will be going to their other selves who are off island as children perhaps flashing through different points in their lives. That’s when they might be able to make different choices which will influence events in the future. Maybe they will flash to those scenes we've already seen when Jacob visits them. That could be to correct their course had they been able to change it or maybe to help them change their destiny, who knows. Either way I think their actions during these mind flashes will shape the future and have an impact on events in 2004 after the death of Jacob. Hense his comment “They’re coming!”

I think in series 6 I believe we are going to see a repeat of scenes we've already seen but they may be slightly different but will definately have a larger impact on the future.



By the by, how did Sawyer become head of security? He was some guy that came out of nowhere that nobody trusted. He was going to be sent off island by Horace. Did he give them some vital advice which won them over? Did he tell them he was from the future? If WHH is so important surely that is the last thing that Faraday would allow to happen. Sawyer is such a position of power could make all sorts of changes different to the original events in the timeline or maybe Faraday has told Sawyer more than what we’ve seen.