I believe that the general theory and the plot of Lost should satisfy several conditions:
1. This is a very long show. Anything can happen to main characters. The plot should be flexible enough to replace any heroes and introduce new ones.
2. There is only one general theory but it should be introduced in several mind***s. One nested doll after another. All our theories about what’s going on should be debunked but in a gentle way – “Yes. How dumb of me not to think about it.” And this should happen not once or twice but at least three times to keep the show interesting for six seasons.
3. All the ideas behind the plot should be easy enough for an ordinary viewer. This is not a show for intellectuals with backgrounds in nuclear physics.
When I used these three conditions as tools for testing and thought about all the theories about Lost and its mysteries I came up with this “Nested Doll Theory”.
Imagine a group of smart people from the Ancient times found a computer. They start pushing buttons randomly and soon discover that the computer can do amazing “wonders”. Some of them are “special”, like one of them by some unimaginable intuition clicked on Media player and watched a movie. Then there’s another group that was playing with this computer for many years and they know a lot about it and could actually use it successfully, like they know that movies are saved in files and one can even make your own movies with a camera. But they don’t know HOW it works and they believe the computer is God that wants to tell them something or to lead them somewhere. And at last imagine a third group that in the future will discover that computer is just a computer. You are the master of it and not the other way round. This is how produces of Lost unfold the mystery of the island.
First “doll” – “Magnetic Resonance Imagining”. The island is an electro-magnetic field invisible to an outside world. It has the power to increase the electro-magnetic impulses of someone’s brain neurons thousand and millions of times but only one when a person catches the right brain wave. What is our thinking but zillions of electro-magnetic impulses jumping from one neuron to another in a very complex manner? The island simply amplifies them and sometimes results are amazing. Some people are special. Locke is almost on the same wave with the island and he’s “given” things he was so deeply thinking about. Pushing button was actually an absolutely senseless thing – the Others didn’t care about it at all Otherwise they wouldn’t put their faith in hands of crazy Desmond. The station imploded not because Desmond turned the key – it was Desmond’s brain impulse that resonated with the island in such a powerful way. That’s what DI was doing on the island – experimenting with people trying to understand what brain impulses patterns bring what results using different psychological methods. They didn’t understand how it works and worked most of the time by trial and error.
What mysteries could be explained by this theory? First, unusual abilities of the Others. Juliet is perfect in martial arts; Ethan demonstrates extraordinary strength when fighting Jack. They know some brain “tricks” – how invoke a certain brainwave and become powerful and skillful. Second, healings. People think hard about becoming healthy and even wounds heal faster. Third, unusually high quantity of spermatozoa in sperm. Hey! Reproduction in quantity is the strongest basic instinct! Maybe amplification of “wishes” also causes deaths of babies and their mothers. Maybe the mysterious disease is a projection of negative suicidal thoughts. That’s why it’s so important for Ben that Jack “should want to want to operate him”.
In "Born to Run", Kate is seen running through hospital doors that say "Magnetic Resonance Imagining" instead of "Magnetic Resonance Imaging". Doesn’t it explain it all?
The Island is a super concentrated electro-magnetic field and because of this so many people so easily become psychic. But in the normal world it’s also possible to use normal EM field to make wonders. It’s possible that numbers is just by pure chance discovered method of invoking especially powerful resonance. One just reads the numbers but brainwave impulses created by this act trigger a fantastically strong reaction. This way Hurley wins the lottery and later his negative thoughts start bringing bad luck. The numbers produce such a strong reaction that some people become mad just hearing them for too long.
Second “doll” – Destiny. Later it turns out that the island is not simply a booster but something many times more complicated. Imagine – you put a special computer helmet on, turn the switch and find yourself in a virtual environment that is as real as life. Only you don’t know this – it looks and feels like real life. Your brain is a huge game pad with billions of buttons – electro-magnetic impulses of your brain communicating with the electro-magnetic amplifiers of the island. The Island is God. This is want the Others believe (later it turns out they were wrong). The island wants you to complete some very important mission you don’t fully understand. The island wants every one of you to participate in a huge “video game”, figuratively speaking. You move from one level to another but if you fail you are moved back to the start of the level. You start it again completely unaware of your previous “life” except that the island saves the copy of all previous games and sometimes due to system failures you are given glimpses of previously saved games. There is no time travel – Desmond just loaded a previously saved copy and played it again. The Others believe that they’re on a special mission played by the Game Master – Jacob. There’s no freedom of will – we all should do “course correcting”.
What mysteries does this theory solves? First, why the Others are so indifferent to death? They know how to “crack” the saved file. They simply start the level again. There’s no death but abilities to crack the file vary. Some (like Mikhail and definitely Bea Klugh) can reload themselves several times at any point of the level but some simply go to the start of the level That’s why Juliet is punished for killing her own but Mikhail not.. Locke couldn’t kill his father and thus demonstrated to the Others that he still didn’t understand the most important thing about the Island. But later after the talk with Walt Locke kills Naomi in cold blood. Ecko didn’t recognize that Yemi is not Yemi and was sent back to the start of the level to try again. Locke was also on the brink of making mistake but the monster spared him the moment he cried to Jack, “Let me go. Everything will be all right with me.” Dynamite had no effect. One more thing – nine (!) pregnant women died on the Island trying to bear babies. They and their husbands knew pretty well that chances were nil but still they tried. What for? Maybe they also believe that the one born on the Island will become the Messiah? Or were they just not afraid to die?
The Others know how to take off the “game helmet” and go back to reality to recruit new members of the sect. Losties cannot do it – they believe the Island is real. God doesn’t see this island because there’s no island only a hyper concentrated electro-magnetic anomaly.
I believe producers of the show will elaborate on this “doll” in Seasons 4 and 5 but we should expect the ultimate mind*** for Season 6 to put all pieces together. And I see no other way – they should give us hope and belief in FREE WILL.
Third “doll” – just we ourselves. It turns out the Others were wrong. The island has no mission and no aim. It’s just a super complex EM machine – the island cannot think. It was absorbing and resonating with human brains for thousands of years and yes – it became a kind of computer that can actually help people. At the end of the show Losties and Others realize that all the time they were unwillingly playing with themselves, sending themselves again and again at the start of the level but then starting it again. They realized that they have free will and there’s no quest just their own passions and fears. And they found peace with themselves and lived happily thereafter.
This explains Adam and Eve Easter egg. They must be the first people who decided to stop playing the game, start living in peace with themselves and died like ordinary people – once and forever.
Theory by Konstantin
1. This is a very long show. Anything can happen to main characters. The plot should be flexible enough to replace any heroes and introduce new ones.
2. There is only one general theory but it should be introduced in several mind***s. One nested doll after another. All our theories about what’s going on should be debunked but in a gentle way – “Yes. How dumb of me not to think about it.” And this should happen not once or twice but at least three times to keep the show interesting for six seasons.
3. All the ideas behind the plot should be easy enough for an ordinary viewer. This is not a show for intellectuals with backgrounds in nuclear physics.
When I used these three conditions as tools for testing and thought about all the theories about Lost and its mysteries I came up with this “Nested Doll Theory”.
Imagine a group of smart people from the Ancient times found a computer. They start pushing buttons randomly and soon discover that the computer can do amazing “wonders”. Some of them are “special”, like one of them by some unimaginable intuition clicked on Media player and watched a movie. Then there’s another group that was playing with this computer for many years and they know a lot about it and could actually use it successfully, like they know that movies are saved in files and one can even make your own movies with a camera. But they don’t know HOW it works and they believe the computer is God that wants to tell them something or to lead them somewhere. And at last imagine a third group that in the future will discover that computer is just a computer. You are the master of it and not the other way round. This is how produces of Lost unfold the mystery of the island.
First “doll” – “Magnetic Resonance Imagining”. The island is an electro-magnetic field invisible to an outside world. It has the power to increase the electro-magnetic impulses of someone’s brain neurons thousand and millions of times but only one when a person catches the right brain wave. What is our thinking but zillions of electro-magnetic impulses jumping from one neuron to another in a very complex manner? The island simply amplifies them and sometimes results are amazing. Some people are special. Locke is almost on the same wave with the island and he’s “given” things he was so deeply thinking about. Pushing button was actually an absolutely senseless thing – the Others didn’t care about it at all Otherwise they wouldn’t put their faith in hands of crazy Desmond. The station imploded not because Desmond turned the key – it was Desmond’s brain impulse that resonated with the island in such a powerful way. That’s what DI was doing on the island – experimenting with people trying to understand what brain impulses patterns bring what results using different psychological methods. They didn’t understand how it works and worked most of the time by trial and error.
What mysteries could be explained by this theory? First, unusual abilities of the Others. Juliet is perfect in martial arts; Ethan demonstrates extraordinary strength when fighting Jack. They know some brain “tricks” – how invoke a certain brainwave and become powerful and skillful. Second, healings. People think hard about becoming healthy and even wounds heal faster. Third, unusually high quantity of spermatozoa in sperm. Hey! Reproduction in quantity is the strongest basic instinct! Maybe amplification of “wishes” also causes deaths of babies and their mothers. Maybe the mysterious disease is a projection of negative suicidal thoughts. That’s why it’s so important for Ben that Jack “should want to want to operate him”.
In "Born to Run", Kate is seen running through hospital doors that say "Magnetic Resonance Imagining" instead of "Magnetic Resonance Imaging". Doesn’t it explain it all?
The Island is a super concentrated electro-magnetic field and because of this so many people so easily become psychic. But in the normal world it’s also possible to use normal EM field to make wonders. It’s possible that numbers is just by pure chance discovered method of invoking especially powerful resonance. One just reads the numbers but brainwave impulses created by this act trigger a fantastically strong reaction. This way Hurley wins the lottery and later his negative thoughts start bringing bad luck. The numbers produce such a strong reaction that some people become mad just hearing them for too long.
Second “doll” – Destiny. Later it turns out that the island is not simply a booster but something many times more complicated. Imagine – you put a special computer helmet on, turn the switch and find yourself in a virtual environment that is as real as life. Only you don’t know this – it looks and feels like real life. Your brain is a huge game pad with billions of buttons – electro-magnetic impulses of your brain communicating with the electro-magnetic amplifiers of the island. The Island is God. This is want the Others believe (later it turns out they were wrong). The island wants you to complete some very important mission you don’t fully understand. The island wants every one of you to participate in a huge “video game”, figuratively speaking. You move from one level to another but if you fail you are moved back to the start of the level. You start it again completely unaware of your previous “life” except that the island saves the copy of all previous games and sometimes due to system failures you are given glimpses of previously saved games. There is no time travel – Desmond just loaded a previously saved copy and played it again. The Others believe that they’re on a special mission played by the Game Master – Jacob. There’s no freedom of will – we all should do “course correcting”.
What mysteries does this theory solves? First, why the Others are so indifferent to death? They know how to “crack” the saved file. They simply start the level again. There’s no death but abilities to crack the file vary. Some (like Mikhail and definitely Bea Klugh) can reload themselves several times at any point of the level but some simply go to the start of the level That’s why Juliet is punished for killing her own but Mikhail not.. Locke couldn’t kill his father and thus demonstrated to the Others that he still didn’t understand the most important thing about the Island. But later after the talk with Walt Locke kills Naomi in cold blood. Ecko didn’t recognize that Yemi is not Yemi and was sent back to the start of the level to try again. Locke was also on the brink of making mistake but the monster spared him the moment he cried to Jack, “Let me go. Everything will be all right with me.” Dynamite had no effect. One more thing – nine (!) pregnant women died on the Island trying to bear babies. They and their husbands knew pretty well that chances were nil but still they tried. What for? Maybe they also believe that the one born on the Island will become the Messiah? Or were they just not afraid to die?
The Others know how to take off the “game helmet” and go back to reality to recruit new members of the sect. Losties cannot do it – they believe the Island is real. God doesn’t see this island because there’s no island only a hyper concentrated electro-magnetic anomaly.
I believe producers of the show will elaborate on this “doll” in Seasons 4 and 5 but we should expect the ultimate mind*** for Season 6 to put all pieces together. And I see no other way – they should give us hope and belief in FREE WILL.
Third “doll” – just we ourselves. It turns out the Others were wrong. The island has no mission and no aim. It’s just a super complex EM machine – the island cannot think. It was absorbing and resonating with human brains for thousands of years and yes – it became a kind of computer that can actually help people. At the end of the show Losties and Others realize that all the time they were unwillingly playing with themselves, sending themselves again and again at the start of the level but then starting it again. They realized that they have free will and there’s no quest just their own passions and fears. And they found peace with themselves and lived happily thereafter.
This explains Adam and Eve Easter egg. They must be the first people who decided to stop playing the game, start living in peace with themselves and died like ordinary people – once and forever.
Theory by Konstantin
