Once upon a time, DHARMA used the Orchid Station as a botanical research facility. At some point, perhaps during the "incident", it was discovered that the Orchid Station had duplicative properties, meaning it could literally create a clone of an organism. However, because of course-correction, two of the same being cannot co-exist in the same space. With this said, somehow DHARMA utilized the effects of the "sickness" and came up with a teleportation & time travel method to send organisms off the island to certain locations around the world. In this sense, duplicate organisms could co-exist because the island occupies a different space than that of the real world. This is why we have polar bears in Tunisia; perhaps they were used as guinea pigs in the initial testing phase of teleporting. All of this explains the following:
1) Ben HAS lived on the island his entire life. The Ben we see out in the world is actually a clone of him.
2) Ben needed Jack to do his surgery because he can't leave the island. He is the keeper of the island and needs to remain on the island at all times to ensure its safety. Sending cloned copies of himself with tumors would not work in the long-run, hence why he needed Jack to fix him. This is also why Widmore asks Ben "What are you?" in episode 4.09, knowing that who he was speaking to wasn't the original Ben.
3) The Oceanic Six were sent back to the real world through the Orchid Station. Whether or not the Six were cloned is up for debate, but this could explain maybe why Hurley said "We're all dead" in episode 4.10 -- he probably assumed that their former selves who remained on the island were eventually killed by the freighter people, if they were cloned.
4) People can also be teleported to the Orchid Station via certain locations in the world. This is how Juliet was able to come to the island, but they had to give her the impression that she came by submarine. Also, this is how Tom, Richard, Ethan, and the rest of the privileged Others were able to go to and from the island. The orange liquid that they drink helps the body cope with the effects of teleporting.
Alright, well that's all I've got for now!
Theory by ASH
1) Ben HAS lived on the island his entire life. The Ben we see out in the world is actually a clone of him.
2) Ben needed Jack to do his surgery because he can't leave the island. He is the keeper of the island and needs to remain on the island at all times to ensure its safety. Sending cloned copies of himself with tumors would not work in the long-run, hence why he needed Jack to fix him. This is also why Widmore asks Ben "What are you?" in episode 4.09, knowing that who he was speaking to wasn't the original Ben.
3) The Oceanic Six were sent back to the real world through the Orchid Station. Whether or not the Six were cloned is up for debate, but this could explain maybe why Hurley said "We're all dead" in episode 4.10 -- he probably assumed that their former selves who remained on the island were eventually killed by the freighter people, if they were cloned.
4) People can also be teleported to the Orchid Station via certain locations in the world. This is how Juliet was able to come to the island, but they had to give her the impression that she came by submarine. Also, this is how Tom, Richard, Ethan, and the rest of the privileged Others were able to go to and from the island. The orange liquid that they drink helps the body cope with the effects of teleporting.
Alright, well that's all I've got for now!
Theory by ASH
