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I think this theory can explain a lot going on the island. It’s a simple theory, has a basis in pseudo-science and religion and even references Greek mythology. And, even if I’m wrong, to me, it’s would be a satisfactory answer to a lot of weirdness of the island.

First, in case you’ve never heard of Gaia go to Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia

It’s somewhat of a simple sci-fi idea that has been around. I’ve been thinking about it since first watching the series b/c some how I felt there was some Asimov’s Foundation Series influence. For those that like reading sci-fi, but don’t know of Asimov, well, simply put, he is the JRR Tolkein of sci-fi, and his Foundation Trilogy is the Lord of the Rings of sci-fi. The original trilogy are the best of the novels, but some later written sequels deal specifically with Gaia, and do it in a narrative form. Read “Foundation’s Edge” if you can find a copy and the time.

So my theory is that the Island is alive in the way Gaia is alive. It has a overall “consciousness.” Everything is on the island, originally there, or integrated is part of it in varying degrees. This includes plant life, animals, rocks, volcanoes, and the surrounding ocean and sky. All of these things on the Island are conscious to a degree - animals more conscious and rocks less so.

Ok, so how is this displayed on the show?

Well I think you could attribute this consciousness to a ton of the island mysteries - regular and weird rain fall, the smoke monster, the wreckage on the beach disappearing quickly, polar bears, the statue, the Others moving without tracks, and the hinted at volcano purge, invisibility, snow globe effect, strange electro-magnetic properties, etc. I even think there may be clues as to how the Island became proto-Gaia and its overall age.

Alright, to the theory.

Strange stuff has been happening for a long time on the island and people have played a big part in it, a much bigger and longer part than the Black Rock slave ship arrival. The old ruins a testament to that. Some tribe lived there before, long ago and built these Greek like ruins. My theory is that these early island folk discovered the “black rock.” At this time the island wasn’t truly conscious, but was showing special characteristics. It wasn’t a island filled with life and wasn’t all that special. However, over time, these ancients helped the island awaken to some degree to use this black rock intelligence to generate an island consciousness.

Over time the island organism formed, and the people individually became less important. They became connected to each other like no people ever had before, possessing psychic abilities and able to communicate on a level of consciousness with each other and with everything on the island. Overtime their life spans grew longer, but not indefinite. Eventually, though grew old and feeble, but because of their connection with the island, they knew death wasn’t the end. When they died, their consciousness would be absorbed into the island and they would live as long as the island survived. These people disappeared, leaving only ruins of their ancient civilization.

Hundreds of years later the Black Rock ship discovers the island. Things really start going bad in Island terms. The crew brought there began mining the island for this precious material that seemed to have supernatural properties. Some members of this group mining the island began to connect with the island and refused to continue, causing a split, with a group of people becoming dedicated to defending the Island against all those out to destructively exploit it. This group, lead by Jacob, with the help of the island, destroyed the mining groups. These people then began the absorbing process too (more on this later), but now they had a greater purpose than the Ancients. They knew the island need to be protected. In cooperation with the Island, they pushed the consciousness forward. During this period, the Island learned to cloak itself, put in place a sophisticated immune system, and to screw around with space time on the island itself, all in the name of protecting itself. Eventually a number of the crew remaining were absorbed, the most special being Jacob. Jacob became the soul and mind of the Island at this point, and instilled with a certain humanity, both the good and bad side of it.

Now it’s important to think of the Island as a single organism with a consciousness to understand this. Like all living things, it has a survival instinct. From the past mining experiments, it grew to believe that many, but not all, outsiders could seek to exploit it or are a threat to its survival. So it created multiple layers of protection. (1) outsiders would have great difficulty finding the island (invisible), (2) outsiders once on the island would have great difficulty leaving (Desmond’s snow globe), (3) threats on the island could be eliminated by the security system (smokie), and (4) the island would stop persons from reproducing so no population could exist more than a generation before dying out. However, the island knew it had limits in it abilities, and could not always stop outsiders even with all these layers, so it kept a few people around, that were not absorbed into the island (like Richard), as personal guardians.

The Island like an organism, the plants, rocks, trees, Richards, all live symbiotically with the Island. They grow mutually dependant on each other. That’s why the rains are regular, just enough rain to help the plaints and animals, not a enough to ever flood. This explains why no monsoons or other bad weather has ever struck the island. It also explains why polar bears and other strange animals adapted and thrived in the otherwise hostile environment. Their species were modified on a genetic level by the island itself, in a deliberate way. The bears control the boar population, which in turn feed on the lower life forms, down the chain. The same thing with the Sharks and the fish.

This also explains the whispers and the strange behavior of the Others.

First, I think there two kinds of Others, those that are communing with the Island and love it (originals), and those brought in by Ben to help protect it, as hired guns. The irony is that Ben, himself, is a hired gun, but directly hired by the island itself. The original Others include Richard and most of the group that went with him to the temple. (Remember how Richard thought the barren child issue was a waste of time). The hired guns, include most, if not all, of the group that lead the assaults on the Losties.

The hired guns include Juliette, the chick who Sun shot, and most of the rest of the dead folks. These hired guns know quite a bit about the island, but not everything, and they are never allowed to leave the Island once brought there, because they can’t really be trusted.

The reason I brought up the chick who shot Sun, is because of her funeral. The Other’s all put on white linen and placed her body on a wicker raft and burnt it. Why? Was it homage to the Wicker Man (1973 version). I think part of it was an homage, but I also think it was because she was a hired gun Other. My theory is, that those whose bodies are not burned are absorbed by the island. This is the reason for the ghosts and the whispers, they are people who died and whose bodies were absorbed. My guess is Sun-killed-chick didn’t want to join the island and asked to cremated, and the Other’s give each person an option. My theory also implies that Ethan Rom and Richard were “originals” and thus could leave the island as necessary, but Juliette and the rest, could not.

Ok, so then somehow the Dharma folks found the island, it began to exploit it. It built its stations in order to defend itself against the island defenses: (1) looking glass to both enter and leave the island, (2) stations built underground to avoid Smokey, (3) sonic fence around the barracks to protect against Smokey, etc.

I’m not going to really theorize on the purpose of the stations, because, I think they are probably better explained by other posts. Only, I simply would say that the experiments were designed by Dharma to harvest the island’s power, this time for a noble cause so they thought.

Now, part of the Island intelligence apparently goes to its ability to bend/mess with space-time. Besides cloaking itself, it appears the island can do more than just hide. It seems that it can manifest itself in several places at once, and even move around. I think the Island’s greatest power in this regard, is to see the future. How? I don’t know, sci-fi I guess. But regardless it sees the future, and realizes it’s going to die. I don’t know how, but likely involving the evil hand of man, and the forces of industrialization. The moving around and distortion of space time is just another attempt at staving off death and destruction. The island is attempting to slow time, to extend its life from the Vanzetti count down or some other event its seen. That’s why Island time is slower than the rest of the world.

I have a theory after episode 4:30, that Jacob’s cabin moves and exists on a mini level like the island. It stays on the island but can also hide and move itself when it desires for protection.

Ok, so now on to the food drops. Well, the absorption thing is interesting. A person can absorb the island to become part of it, or the island can absorb the person. Now, I’m kind of getting into the Star Wars force thing…and you know Star Wars plays a huge role in all of this. Like Luke Skywalker, certain people are just naturally more in tune with the Force of the island (Locke, Ben, maybe Jacob). But everyone on the island that eats from the island becomes a part of it. In other words, the island atoms over time replace off island atoms in the bodies of those who eat the fruit and animals on the island and the surrounding ocean. When they bodies are buried, then those too with whatever remaining consciousness they have are absorbed - like Ben Kenobi, Yoda, etc. And like Yoda and the rest, they can sometimes manifest themselves as force Ghosts - Christian Shepherd for instance.

The eating-is-absorbing thing is the reason for the Dharma food drops and the total lack of Dharma to do farming. I found it strange that Dharma had no farms or anything grown on the island, but survived on precarious food drops to live. (well with the exception of cows at the Flame, I guess - maybe they were fed by hay drops). Maybe the Dharma folks feared what eating island matter would do to them, and did not want to be absorbed. Maybe they were told there was a virus in that could be transmitted by the soil into the food. It seems that once eating the island’s “forbidden fruit” it became impossible to really leave the island and have any sort of meaningful life. (Adam and Eve reference?). So Dharma lived on the food drops for this reason, they wanted to eventually go home.

Well, this doesn’t explain everything, but I think it explains a lot. Please start pulling it apart.

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