AD OCULOS.

Let's talk about LOST! Ad Oculos.

WAKE UP!
Sleeping. Dreams. Hallucinations. Visions. Illusions and Memory.
These occurrences, all happening in some form through the conscious and unconscious mind  are all part of the story.
Eyes closed...Eyes open. But are their eyes ever really open?
We see a constant thread of people on the "Island" being told to "wake up."   I've talked about the blurring of what is real and what is not real for a very long time. "Flashes" and  some "Island" events seem out of  order  or they just seems "off".
In the episodes we are shown events that are happening on the "Island" and shown in the "Flashes" actually connect and blur with each other.

Here is one example: In the episode White Rabbit, Jack is looking for Christian on the "Island".    He sees Christian around the island and asks "Where are you?"    In the "Flash" Jack is looking for his father in Australia.    In the "Flash" he wants to know where Christian is.   Jack's quest is happening twice and in two environments; they are blurring together.   Jack is obviously "looking" for something and needs to confront it.   Maybe what he needs to find is himself.

Let's look at the blurring of "Island" and "Flash" events and even items in The Hunting Party. On the beach we see Jin pick up a green towel when he is packing to go after Michael, then in the "Flash" we are shown a green towel hanging in the locker room when Jack and Christian discuss Mr. Busoni dying.  Why is it there?  Is it there to possibly show us they're not really out of the confines of the "Island"?  Are they "props" or an innocent continuity error?  Or maybe it's a clue to time...As in its happening at the same time.
This type of thing happens all the time not just with items but with clothes, sounds, dialogue, situations and "people" as well.

In the episode ?, one of the on "Island" events is Eko having a dream/vision of a "dead" Ana Lucia and "dead" Yemi, telling him to find the "question mark."    In Eko's "Flash" he is sent to question (Investigating) the drowning of an "un-dead" girl.   The girl, Charlotte, appears to have drowned although her father, Richard Malkin, the psychic, explains to Eko while she was underwater her body shut down; she went into hypothermia which made her appear dead.
The "Island" events we have to deal in the same episode are with  "dead" Ana Lucia and Libby. With all that said, are the clues telling us that Ana Lucia and Libby appear dead but they are not?  There are many other clues in other episodes that depict people appearing "dead" but are not "dead" present themselves.
Could there be some game of "Playing Possum" going on here?
But we'll get to more on that in another post, back to the things that go on in the heads/minds/consciousness of the "Islanders". (And my screwed up head. lol!)

We know that Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and
hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up. Hallucinations
may also be associated with drug use, sleep deprivation, psychosis, neurological disorders and delirium. Hallucinations occur in any sensory modality, visual, auditory, smell, taste, touch, proprioception, equilibrioception and thermoception.

Dreams are the images, thoughts and feelings experienced daily, replayed in various ways while we sleep. But here on the "Island" I feel there are some thoughts and experiences that are manipulated/played out in their heads/minds.  {Other times there may be the use of video imagery and/or holograms being utilized, like when Shannon sees missing Walt and his dialogue runs backwards or when Claire sees her pregnant self in the jungle with Ethan, to contribute to their on "Island" journey}  Can this be where or how the whispers come in? Being in a state of semi-consciousness, in between sleep and awake could have the semi-lucid dreamer in this experience hear things going on outside of the dream/experience. We all have experienced this.
You can go back through any of my past posts to review more insight to illusion, form constant, delusion, dreams, lucid dreams, Folie a deux, imaginary friends, simulated and merged reality, the conscious/subconscious mind etc..

Where could all this be taking place?  Is it on an "Island", an underwater city or underground city?  Maybe "some place" you would have never imagined them to be. Either way I'm sure there are many "rooms".

Over the next couple of compositions I'll post, I would like to have fun exploring some very important visions/dreams/hallucinations/etc..  We will talk about all of them in some form.  Let's see where they lead us. WoooooHoooooo! Good Times!

Let's start at the beginning. This is from the Promo for season 1.

Whispering, echoing.Voices speaking and repeating the following statements… Very dream-like….
Bare feet. Kate dances close with Jack. "All of us have a secret."
Jin dances with Sun."1 of us is a hero."
Sawyer dances, distant from Kate. He is looking back.
Claire walks alone, looking up.
Sun, dressed in black, dances with Jin, breaks away from him. "1 of us is a fraud."
Kate seems to want to leave Sawyer.
Charlie dances alone. "1 of us is a junky."
Michael with a suitcase is stumbling/stepping backward. {Almost getting pulled back.}
Boone dances with Claire.
Kate dances tenderly with Jack. "1 of us is a cop."
Shannon dances with Sayid.
Jack twirls Kate, she lets go of him, steps back. "1 of us is a saint."
Kate dancing with Sawyer. "1 of us a sinner."
Sun and Jin dance. "1 of us is a martyr."
Boone dances with Claire.
Locke conducting. "1 of us is a murderer."
Jack and Sawyer face each other.
Hurley walks alone, pulling a suitcase. "All of us are guilty."
Walt stands in front of Locke, both of them conducting. "All of us."
Kate dances with Jack. "All of us are lost."
Claire sits alone by fiery wreckage.

I've asked this question before… Who is orchestrating this dance?
Hmmm?!
If it means anything, pay attention to color and clothes they are wearing.
Sawyer wears a black vest. Boone wears a white vest.
Also listen to the statements and who is speaking it and who it is showing at the time.
We see Kate in the middle of Jack and Sawyer going back and forth between the two men.
We see Boone with Claire, Sayid and Shannon, Charlie dances alone.
Michael being pulled back. Hints to going back.
I've always felt we get a glimpse into the story with this TV ad.
Please note, as with the Locke/Boone vision in Further Instructions, we are left without any visual or info of original survivor Rose. Who knows…Maybe Rose could be the center of the compass.

Locke dream/vision from Duex Ex Machina. We do not realize it is a dream until we see Locke "Wake up".

Dream:
Daylight. Locke is picking up the pieces of the broken Trebuchet. Boone arrives at the site. Locke tells him, "You're late."
Boone asks, "Late for what?"
Locke- "Late for work."
Boone-"I think I'm done working, John."
Boone goes on to tell John "This is useless. You can't open that thing up. You say you can, But you can't."
John-"Don't tell me what I can't do."
Boone says John doesn't get it, "It's a dead end. You're not getting in."
John tells him that's impossible, 'We didn't find this by accident. We're supposed to…"
Boone cuts him off, walks over and stands on top of the hatch, "Oh, we're supposed to. We're supposed to find this, right? We're supposed to open it, right? Then tell me something John, If we're supposed to open it, the why the hell haven't we opened it yet?!"
John tells him the Island will send them a sign. (Animal sounds in background.)
Boone mocks him "The island will send us a sign."
John tries to explain to Boone that their faith and commitment is being tested. "But we will open it! The island will show us how."
Boone, "What kind of sign will the island send us? Huh, John?"
The sound of a small yellow and white plane puttering its way to the island; Black smoke trails it. John asks Boone if he saw that.  Boone is staring up. We catch a split second of him bloody. John looks troubled. The sound of a "boom" crash can be heard and then the sound of glass breaking. John turns to see "His mother" in her fur coat, pointing up. {Cranking sound like when the monster pulled John.} Bloody Boone repeats over and over, "Theresa falls up the stairs. Theresa falls down the stairs. Theresa falls up the stairs."
{Radio static. Sounds like a woman screams "John!"}
Boone voice is now distorted, "Theresa falls down the stairs. Theresa falls up the stairs. Theresa falls down the stairs.
Locke is in the wheelchair. His mother is still pointing up.
Boone still repeating "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs."
Locke is upset and can't move his legs; he tries to get out of the wheelchair. "No. No. No. Please. Please. Don't take it back. I'm…."
He falls out of the wheelchair. Locke wakes up; It is night.


Vocabulary…And Research….
* Hypnosis is a wakeful state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility, with diminished peripheral awareness.
* Self-hypnosis (auto suggestion) happens when a person hypnotizes himself or herself.
* Post-hypnotic suggestion can be used to change people's behavior outside of the trance state. Post-hypnotic suggestions are administered by a hypnotist and may optionally include a time scope. An altered sense of perception or behavioral pattern may be "programmed" into the person under hypnosis. Certain sequences of events may be set as triggers to enter or exit the post-hypnotic pattern.
* In a July 2001 article for Scientific American, titled "The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis", Michael Nash wrote that "...using hypnosis, scientists have temporarily created hallucinations, compulsions, certain types of memory loss, and false memories, and delusions in the laboratory so that these phenomena can be studied in a controlled environment."
* Asklepios, Greek god of medicine, healing, and hypnosis, was said to oversee the treatment of sick people in "dream healing temples".
* Hypnotism as a tool for health seems to have originated with the Hindus of ancient India who often took their sick to sleep temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion as also found to be the case in ancient Egypt and Greece.
* Paracelsus (1493-1541), A Swiss was the first physician to use magnets in his work along with hypnosis.
* Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist, psychologist and physician. Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.
*Partial sleep, to the idea that it is "hyper-suggestibility. J.D. Morgan, who put for the idea that hypnosis is a process of enhancing or depressing the activity of the nervous system, possibly involving feedback loops.
* Sleepwalking. The sufferer engages in activities that are normally associated with wakefulness while he or she is asleep or in a sleep-like state. They are simply not conscious of their actions on a level where memory of the sleepwalking episode can be recalled.
* Sleep Paralysis is a common condition characterized by transient partial or total paralysis of skeletal muscles that occurs upon awakening from sleep or less often while falling asleep.
* Covert Hypnosis is the ability to subtly communicate with another person's subconscious mind without them noticing.
* Many animals, including sharks, beetles snakes and opossum, are capable of appearing to be dead to an observer, but are alive. This could either be a reflex action, as in tonic immobility, or a defense mechanism for avoiding predators.


Let's remember this LOST fans…A chicken can be hypnotized or put into a trance too. lol

So until the next few visions....

Love to all who are "LOST"™

Disclaimer:I never claim to know everything about the show and my thoughts by no means make me right! Things I share here are my views and/or opinions. I don't claim to catch every single detail either. I hate spoilers! I stand clear of reading certain sites, as to not take me off my own research. The one thing I don't need to do here is rehash all of the obvious clues from an episode, we all know what they are. Good! I'll only note things that I know come up as clues in bold.