I'll try to make this as short and simple as possible.
I think when you enter the temple, your entire life flashes before your eyes(ala Desmond). You live your life to it's end and then your consciousness travels back in time to the moment you first walked into the temple, and so you walk back out with direct knowledge of the future, or at least your future.
This would explain why Rousseau's companions tried to kill her after coming out of the temple, because they saw that she would end up killing them and so decided to try and kill her first. Obviously this became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as their knowledge of the future is what ended up being the cause of it.
With Ben, his innocence was lost for the same reasons. He lived his entire life and walked out with that same future knowledge and experience. This might be why he always has a plan and is two steps ahead of everyone else, or at least was until Locke came back from the dead.
The same might be said for Eloise and Charles Widmore as well. We know in the present day at least, they have knowledge of future events, but only up to a certain point. Perhaps the future really did change in someway due to what the flight 815ers have done in the past.
What's the chance of this being the case? Well, we know the electric-magnetism of the island is what caused Desmond's consciousness to travel into the past several times, so it's definitely possible for this to happen to people that enter the temple.
I think when you enter the temple, your entire life flashes before your eyes(ala Desmond). You live your life to it's end and then your consciousness travels back in time to the moment you first walked into the temple, and so you walk back out with direct knowledge of the future, or at least your future.
This would explain why Rousseau's companions tried to kill her after coming out of the temple, because they saw that she would end up killing them and so decided to try and kill her first. Obviously this became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as their knowledge of the future is what ended up being the cause of it.
With Ben, his innocence was lost for the same reasons. He lived his entire life and walked out with that same future knowledge and experience. This might be why he always has a plan and is two steps ahead of everyone else, or at least was until Locke came back from the dead.
The same might be said for Eloise and Charles Widmore as well. We know in the present day at least, they have knowledge of future events, but only up to a certain point. Perhaps the future really did change in someway due to what the flight 815ers have done in the past.
What's the chance of this being the case? Well, we know the electric-magnetism of the island is what caused Desmond's consciousness to travel into the past several times, so it's definitely possible for this to happen to people that enter the temple.