You've been clamoring for more LOST discussion. So here we go...
PERCEPTION: What do you see? Do you see what I see? Do I see what you see? Is what you are perceiving really what is being presented? Is it the truth or all part of a wonderful magic trick, where slide of hand and hypnotic convincing words are conning you into believing what you are seeing?
Since the show began we have been led to believe that these people are survivors of a plane crash. Random coincidence brought these people together. Bizarre extremes in their lives are revisited on the island. Redemption seemed to be the name of the game. We then live the trials and tribulations of these survivors trying to "survive" the island and the Others who already live there. We learned a privately funded organization used the island and its special properties to study people and their environment; a laboratory. The goal was to make people and the world better. Social behavior, education, religion and politics are part of the plan. Let's not forget the medical and psychological aspects this organization wanted to study and perfect. While on the island it became apparent to these people there is an issue with pregnant woman and fertility clashing with this "Island." We met a handsome man who seems to never get any older, although it appears he has lived a very long time. We question how people travel to and from that "Island." And then there's the implication of time travel. All of that in short seems to be the story as we are shown it. Do you agree?
When time is taken to dissect the show we find things are not what they seem. We began to see that many of the people who are on the "island" do indeed share common interests and mutual friends. Their paths have crossed before. And all roads seem to have led them all together, here, to this "Island."
If you are a regular reader of my episode clues notes, you've seen how the subliminal clues come into play. When we dig deeper into a clue we find that what we thought on the surface was the truth, could be something very different under the smoke screen. This particular blog post is here to explore additional information and reminders of events of episodes past. After four seasons, and the seemingly endless notes I've posted here, what if there's still too much assuming going on? What if the viewer is getting just enough surface information to base assumptions on? Has that been enough to let you see the truth? This is why I am always compelled to dig deeper. That's why each of my episode clues notes is written as they are. With all that digging I think I've been able to show and hint to other possibilities and ways to look at some things.
I'd like to use the long hiatus to really get into some of the clue words, connections to people, places, things, and other revelations, to see if they are fitting into the puzzle or are they clues I can file away. Of course, due to the many layers of the story, we can only tackle a few things at a time. Let's tackle just a few of them today.
Important layers and clue words I hope to address before season 5 returns are all that show up in my notes. Including, but not limited to: Plate tectonics, North, Cold, Ice, Freeze, Below, Under, Underwater, Sub, Underground, Hidden, Klick, Egg, Flash, Fly, Change, Chess, Tracking, Monitor, Looping, Australia, New York, Germany, Norway, England, Los Angeles, Tustin, Religions, Literature, Philosophy, Quarantine, Bug, Morph, Transform, Natives, Hostiles, Ancient culture, Comic books, Communication, Journey, Home and Vincent.
I've been saying to you for the longest time that things and people are not what they seem. Illusion, tricks and cons are hiding the truth. We've even seen Ben pull a rabbit out of a hat once or twice. So, taking the story as I stated in the first paragraph of this post and using the subliminal clues that are running ramped throughout the story let's refresh our memories on few things to see if things are turning out to be something different than what you originally thought or have been led to believe.
Now, that's not to say there aren't some terrific "out of this world" things going on with this "island", I'm sure there are.. But what I am saying is there could be examples of some things having a much simpler explanation.
I am not here to replay the same ol' things, but some things are necessary to show how things tie together.
It's important to remember episode titles, clues, words and phrases seem to always have at least two meaning.
Let's start with a few of my mainstay thoughts. Yep, l still feel the "Flashes" are out of order or at least don't follow in a constant time line. This could include the segments of events we see on the "island." I can only imagine what the picture is going to reveal when the puzzle pieces are placed in order. How is the picture going to differ from where we started? I also feel they are never out of the confines of the "Island" or its surrounding areas; a bloody snow globe, going from one island to another island. Would that mean the "Island" isn't really an "Island"? I've touched on that in past notes too.
Casket/coffin: In the S4 finale, we see Jack will need to transport a casket back to the "Island." This casket would contain the remains of Jeremy Bentham/John. Will this casket turn up empty upon arrival there, just as the casket in S1 was empty? Don't you find that curious; coincidence or replay? In S1 the casket was to contain Jack's father. Let's not forget that the empty casket Jack finds in the cave was already inside the cave. How could the casket, those plane parts, suitcases, dolls, etc., already be inside the cave when this crash was supposed to have just happened? I imagine the simple answer would be the "crash" didn't just happen. Many think those items could be already inside because of the popular "time loop theory." It very well could be. But, what if the items inside the cave are there as props for another run through of tests/exercise/challenges of the game and not by people who were there before them. What if the people who were there before them were "Them"?
Maybe that stuff was left by their "parents".
What if the items are just "triggers"? Besides, wouldn't Danielle have heard this huge "crash"? This statement being said leads me to reiterate that I still believe that Jack, along with all the survivors was placed in and around the "crash" site. Placed like pieces on a game board, all waking up at the same time.
GAMES- Backgammon and Chess- This story seems to contain a living breathing Chess game, a military game. Many examples of this are all over this story, starting with Chess terms.
Here are some of those terms we've heard or witnessed in some form since the beginning: Active, Adjournment, Adjudication, Algebraic notation, Amateur, Analysis, Arbiter, Attack, B, Battery, Bind, Black, Blunder, Board, Break, Breakthrough, Brilliancy, Bullet chess, Bye, Calculate, Capture, Castling, Casual game, Center, Check, Checkmate, Chessboard, Classical, Closed file, Coffeehouse, Color, Combination, Compensation, Control of the center, Cook, Counterattack, Cover, Cramped, Critical position, Decoy, Defense, Deflect, Develop, Diagonal, Draw, Drawing line, Equalize, Exchange, Family fork, First-move advantage, File, Fish, Flag, Flank, FM, Focal point, Forced move, Fork, Fortress, Friendly game, Grandmaster, Handicap, Hanging, Hanging pawns, Hole, Initiative, Interference, Kick, Line, Loss, Main line, Match, Mate, Material, Move, Odds, Opposition, Pairing, Pawn, Piece, Pin, Plan, Post-mortem, Promotion, Push, Queen, Rank, Resign, Sacrifice, Score, Second, See-saw, Sharp, Simplification, Skewer, Solid, Sound, Space, Squeeze, Sudden death, Swindle, Table base, Tactics, Take back, Tempo, Text move, Threat, Time, Time control, Time delay, Toilet move, Tournament, Trap, Trébuchet, Triangulation, Undermining, Valve, Variant, Variation, White, Win, Wing, X-ray attack.
Let's have some fun!!! Could we assign the people on the island Chess piece counterparts? I wonder if it would work. Hehehe!!!
Kate's real role here is more than what we perceive it to be, I'm sure. Is she on the run from something or to/for something? From the very beginning the Marshal tells Jack not to trust a word Kate says. By the way, Danielle said a similar thing to Sayid about Henry Gale.
Kate said she was awake for the entire event of the plane going down, she befriends Jack and she knows her way around the island. Kate's involved in almost every trek as if she's there to keep her 'eye' on things. She delivers Aaron in the jungle, tells Claire this baby is "All of us/ours." Kate is also responsible for Aaron off the island. Which brings me to this question...(S4 finale) Who does Claire dare Kate not to bring back? We can assume she's speaking about Aaron, but could it mean someone else? Plus I can't ignore the hug between Kate and Penny in the S4 finale. It leads me to think these two possibly know each other. Is Kate a mole, hired hand or babysitter?
"Santa Rosa's" role: Yes it has a role and is serving a purpose here, but how? Research or programming/deprogramming subjects/patients? Is it being used to "teach" subjects into "learning" something? Monitoring case studies, perhaps? I feel "Santa Rosa" is a HUGE part of the story. Could they all be patients at "Santa Rosa"? What if they were? What if they are?! It sure would explain a hell of a lot. Things would actually make sense. While I'm on that, could this be where the whispers come in?
Coffee/Tea, stimulants, drugs, alcohol, Clonazapam (other drugs), injections, implants, visions, hypnosis/triggers, lucid dreaming and states of consciousness:
All of these are forms of being able to manipulate a person's thoughts, perception and memory. We learn in a Missing Pieces episode that Ethan conveniently brings Jack a mega suitcase filled with medicine and drugs, supposedly belonging to the hypochondriac "Sullivan." I fucking call Shenanigans! It seems to me they need to be kept drugged up or in a certain "state."
Pregnancy, fertility, conceiving, parentage, blood disorders, DNA, Gnome, metabolism, blood: Who is really related to whom? Who are biological parents to which offspring? Is there a blending of two halves, creating one? Is someone trying to create the perfect person or even a perfect solider? Are they breeding a damn Super Hero race complete with ones who can fly?! Maybe their own Justice League while we're at it! Perhaps will we find a bunch of mutant alien bug beings roaming around. Through all this I still wonder why Ben claimed Alex as is daughter. But was she biologically tied to him, or even human? If there is "creating" a hybrid of some sort, to me it doesn't matter how, what matters is, why?
I don't think it is all about a physical transformation; it seems that it also encompasses emotional, mental and even spiritual transformation.
Reminder: We're told pregnant women die on the island. Let's not forget that in "All the best cowboys have daddy issues" a pregnant woman dies on the O.R. table at the hands of Jack and Christian. But this bit of info may come in handy when trying to show examples of them never really leaving the "island"; more on that next time.
Special: Locke, Walt, and Hurley. Who else? What makes them special or different? Let's not forget Shannon was special too.
Tests, Experiments, Exercises and Challenges: Since early on in S1, I have felt they've done all this before, lived on the "Island" running through things. When they first heard the monster sound they were concerned but never freaked out. As a matter of fact, when Walt hears that sound for the first time he asks Michael if that's Vincent. They found their way around the "Island" pretty comfortably. All their needs were always met, food, drink, meds, suntan lotion, pregnancy tests, reading material, etc.. I gave more insight to this back when we saw the episode The Other 48 Days. For me, the answer was right there in the title. There was, (at least) another set of 48 days, confirming they have done all this before. But how many times? 10? In that same episode Sawyer recalls in his haze, leaving Michael behind.
Being there before; returning. Did they ever leave? Since early on in S1 I felt Michael was one who may be remembering his tie to the "Island" and its people. Maybe that's why he was so determined to leave. The rest of them don't remember their tie to the "Island."
Remember this dialogue in the Missing Pieces episode Tropical Depression:
MICHAEL to Arzt- "It's Ok. The raft is finished. We're getting out of here. We're going to bring back help."
ARZT- "You are! I know you are! I know you are! And I am going to be the first one on the beach waving 'hello' when you get there."
TIME: There are inconsistencies with "time" issues. Do you think there's "Time Travel"? Where is it?! Did Desmond really time travel? I think it's possible he could be having "Flashes" of blended/blurred images of real and manipulated memory in "Flashes". These could connect to altered states of consciousness. If that is the possibility then Desmond experienced that not only in Flashes before Your Eyes, but also in The Constant.
Again, an altered conscious mind can happen via: Lucid Dreams, False awakening, Dream within a Dream, Flash within a Flash, Déjà vu, Memory and a bit of withdrawal from a hallucinogenic drug, drugs, alcohol, psychedelic drugs, brain washing, machines/computers, hypnosis, and even meditation.
Is Desmond a Pilot or Co Pilot in any of this, anyway?
I know you're going to say..."But Karen, Ben asked/mentions the year to the hotel desk clerk" and it seemed more like he, in his Ben way, cutely confirmed the year, not questioned it. Time Travel or Not to Time Travel, that is the question.
Some questions and things to note:
*Triggers: Would include things like, plane parts, caskets, dolls, the drug plane, Virgin Mary statues, rings, watches, books, (running) water, people, places, words, songs, x-rays, Vincent and a bunch of other fun items. Hypnotic suggestion seemed to be what was going on in One of Us, when Juliet heads out to the jungle to retrieve the medical kit and Sayid and Sawyer follow her. She speaks to them as if she "telling them" what to think and they appear hypnotized to me.
*Did Claire give Aaron away or did Christian? Claire looked loopy like she did when Ethan took her to the medical station.
* How old are the survivors? I'm sure Richard isn't the only one who hasn't aged. Is he really "native"? Could he be a regular person/scientist benefiting from the properties of the "island" or the studies of life extension by other scientists or something else? Besides, he better share some of whatever he's taking with me.
* THREE: The number of baby cribs in Cabin Fever. Two blue blankets and One pink. So is that where Boone, Charlie and Libby come up? Jack mentions them in the press conference. Why does he pick those three names?
* Are cryogenics involved? I'm just asking!!
Important facts:
* WAKE UP! They're always being told to Wake up!
* Yes, THEY ARE BEING WATCHED!!
* What is real and what is not?
* Eye color changes.
* Penny's boat the "SEARCHER" has no port city on it.
* Sayid spent time in France yet couldn't understand Danielle's 16 year loop recording in French. Why?
* Desmond and Juliet on the island 3 years. Coincidence? HA!
* According to the Blast Door Map, The Medical Station was abandoned in 1985. So how is Claire in the medical station with Ethan?
According to Hanso, D.I. was canceled in 1987 (funding cut).
Shut down 10.28.84. The Purge- 12.19.1992
Other Blast Door Map dates/numbers: 04.08.00, 08.15.01, 01.06.03
Kelvin and Desmond in the hatch 9.22.04
These dates show that the tests/studies never really ended.
The following is important info that I investigated while researching episode notes and previous posts.
Vocabulary...and Research...and Tid Bits...
* Agartha: is a legendary city that is said to reside in the Earth's core. It is related to the Hollow Earth theory and is a popular subject in Esotericism.
* Lost Horizon: is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional Utopian lamasery high in the mountains of Tibet. People live a very long time, speak and understand many languages. Familiar names from the story are Rutherford, Rock and Chang.
* Imaginary friends: are pretend characters often created by children. Imaginary friends perform a tutelary function when they are engaged by the child in play activity. Imaginary friends may exist for the child into adolescence and sometimes adulthood. Imaginary friends often have elaborate personalities and behaviors. Although they may seem very real to their creators, studies have shown that children understand that their imaginary friends are not real.
* Simulated reality: is the proposition that reality could be simulated perhaps by
computer simulation to a degree indistinguishable from "true reality. In its strongest form, the "simulation hypothesis" claims it is probable that we are actually living in such a simulation. This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality.
* Virtual reality: is easily distinguished from the experience of "true" reality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to distinguish from "true" reality.
* Psychology and parapsychology, an apparition is an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience. The term "ghost" implies that some element of the human being survives death and, at least under certain circumstances, can make itself perceptible to living human beings.
* Laboratory: (lab)-A facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments and measurement may be performed. Scientific labs can be found in schools, universities, industry, government or military facilities, and even aboard ships and spacecraft.
* "Mind's eye:" refers to the human ability for visual perception, imagination, visualization, and memory or, in other words, one's ability to "see" things with the mind.
* "Third eye": is a metaphysical and esoteric concept referring in part to the ajna (brow) chakra in certain Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. It is also spoken of as the gate that leads within to inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness.
* The map is not the territory: is a remark by Alfred Korzybski, Korzybski's dictum ("The map is not the territory") is also cited as an underlying principle used in neuro-linguistic programming, where it is used to signify that individual people in fact do not in general have access to absolute knowledge of reality, but in fact only have access to a set of beliefs they have built up over time, about reality. So it is considered important to be aware that people's beliefs about reality and their awareness of things (the "map") are not reality itself or everything they could be aware of ("the territory").
* Neuro-linguistic programming: (usually shortened to NLP) is an interpersonal communication model and an alternative approach to psychotherapy.
* Imagination as a reality: The world as experienced is an interpretation of data arriving from the senses, as such it is perceived as real by contrast to most thoughts and imaginings. This difference is only one of degree and can be altered by several historic causes, namely changes to brain chemistry, hypnosis, altered states of consciousness, meditation, many hallucinogenic drugs, and electricity applied directly to specific parts of the brain. The difference between imagined and perceived real can be so imperceptible as to cause acute states of psychosis. Many mental illnesses can be attributed to this inability to distinguish between the sensed and the internally created worlds. Some cultures and traditions even view the apparently shared world as an illusion of the mind as with the Buddhist, Maya or go to the opposite extreme and accept the imagined and dreamed realms as of equal validity to the apparently shared world as the Australian Aborigines do with their concept of dream time.
* The Minka Bird is a creature featured in Aboriginal dream time stories. According to the Aboriginals, the sighting of the Minka Bird foretells certain death.
* Astral projection: (or astral travel) is an esoteric interpretation of an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation.
* Teleportation: is the movement of objects from one place to another, more or less instantaneously, without traveling through space. The concept has been widely used in science fiction. It should not be confused with quantum teleportation.
* Parapsychology: (Greek "alongside" + psychology) -study of ostensibly paranormal events including ESP, psycho kinesis, and survival of consciousness after death. Parapsychologists call these processes psi, a term intended to be descriptive without implying a mechanism. Parapsychology is a fringe science because it involves research that does not fit within standard theoretical models accepted by mainstream science. Para psychological research involves laboratory research and fieldwork, which is conducted at privately funded laboratories and some universities around the world. Experiments conducted by para psychologists have included the use of random number generators to test for evidence of psycho kinesis, sensory-deprivation.
* Ganzfeld experiments: to test for ESP, and research trials conducted under contract to the United States government to investigate the possibility of remote viewing.
* Zener cards: cards used to conduct experiments for ESP, most often clairvoyance. Perceptual psychologist Karl Zener designed the cards in the early 1930s. There are just 5 different Zener cards: a hollow circle (one curve), a Greek cross (two lines), three vertical wavy lines (or "waves"), a hollow square (four lines), and a hollow five-pointed star. There are 25 cards in a pack, 5 of each design.
* The Fly: was a brig of 100 tons that sailed from Calcutta India on 14 May 1802 bound for Sydney, Australia. It was carrying a cargo of 4000 gallons of spirits and was commanded by John Black. It was never heard of again.
* Folie à deux: (literally, "a madness shared by two") is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than 2 people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie à famille , folie à plusieurs (madness of many)
* Bernard Trevisan: (Bernard of Treviso, Bernardus Trevisanus) refers to one or more Italian alchemists. These are often confused, or more accurately the name may refer to a shadowy figure or figures.
* Mahâbhûta: is Pali for the "Great Elements." The 4 Great Elements (Pali: cattâro mahâbhûtâni) are earth, water, fire and air. Mahâbhûta is generally synonymous with catudhâtu, which is Pâli for the "4 Elements." In early Buddhism the 4 Elements are a basis for understanding and for liberating oneself from suffering.
* A form constant: is one of several geometric patterns which are recurring, observed during hallucinations and altered states of consciousness.
* The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience." Bentham has said this is obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.
* Dharma: Teachings of Buddha. The Start of the 8 fold path.
* Bardo: a Tibetan word means "Intermediate State" also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state.
Together "six Bardos" form a classification of states of consciousness into six broad types: The Bardo of This Life, Bardo of Meditation, Bardo of Dream, Bardo of Dying, Bardo of Dharmata, and the Bardo of Existence.
Any state of consciousness can form a type of "intermediate state", intermediate between other states of consciousness. One can consider any momentary state of consciousness a Bardo, since it lies between our past and future existences; it provides us with the opportunity to experience reality, which is always present but obscured by the projections and confusions that are due to our previous unskillful actions.
The Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text.
The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State also mentions three other Bardos: those of "life" (or ordinary waking consciousness), of "Dhyana" (meditation), and of "dream" (the dream state during normal sleep).
Let's have some fun. You may think the picture posted above is here for a test on optical illusion, and yes it can be used in that way. But I want to use it to show perception. We obtain information about the world around us through our sensory system. Our perception is shaped by sensory input combined with experience. But perception can be tricked.
The image in the picture is permanently fixed so we can't change the lines and shapes. But our minds will organize the lines and shapes into a picture with meaning "to us". It will be different for some as opposed to others.
It is fact that perception can change as emotions change. Perception alters what we people see into a "partial version" of reality, which ultimately corrupts the way people perceive the truth. When people view something with a preconceived idea about it they tend to take those preconceived ideas and see them whether or not they are there. This is because humans are unable to understand new information without the inherent bias of their previous knowledge. The extent of our own knowledge/experience creates our reality as much as the truth, because the human mind can only contemplate that which it has been exposed to. The Buddhists believe "Piercing the veil of illusion." This means that our minds are shaping sensory data and we have a choice as to how we shape it.
Go back and check out my other episode clues notes for lots of details and researched items.
With the few things I mention here, along with the discussion of perception and illusion, can that be a bit of what the "islanders" are experiencing? Combine that with all the other things noted, I.E. altered state of consciousness, medication, hypnosis, lucid dreaming. PLUS illusion, tricks, magic and razzle dazzle. Could this part of the story be telling us this is due to them being challenged/tested or taught with psychology and/or parapsychology all for the purpose of finding what you've lost?
It is possible that in all that confusion..."Up is down!"
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.
