Dogen's Test by Marcus

Hi folks, this is just a few thoughts i had on Dogens test.

There were three parts to the test. First was the ash, and I’m not sure what Dogen was trying to achieve here. He could‘ve been looking to see how the ash behaved over Sayids body. It did seem to go off to the side, almost as if Sayid was repelling it in some way?? Or he could’ve been watching to see how the ash settled around the wound. If none settled over the wound, but formed a small ring around its outside instead, this would indicate Sayid is repelling the ash. Next was the electric shock treatment, and going by Dogens reaction, i don’t think he discovered much here. The third part of the test was for me the most interesting part. When he burned Sayid with the hot poker, check out where Doggen is looking. He’s looking directly into Sayids eyes trying to pick up some information.

The eyes are often said to be a window into the soul and that’s what Dogen was trying to measure here, the amount of empathy that remained in Sayids soul. Empathy is an indicater of the amount of goodness a person has. Psychopaths and people who maim or kill typically have very little empathy. The link below shows an interesting vid on mirror neurons and empathy.

http://vodpod.com/watch/2516571-understanding-the-triggers-of-empathy

To measure Sayid’s empathy, first Dogen had to expose him to extreme pain, where his pupils would dilate in response to that pain. Doggen was looking to see if both eyes matched each other in dilation. This is a measure of empathy, the greater degree the two eyes mirror each other, then the greater amount of empathy found in that person. So maybe he discovered that Sayids eyes did not match, one might’ve been constricted, while the other dilated, and this meant he has very little empathy in him, so he must be infected with the darkness.

Thanks for reading )