LOST-Theories.com

The island * * * seems to lie outside the alternate realities that are possible outside it * * *. The people on the island are in some form of indeterminate state where both their future and their past is not decided.

— tman42

In Schroedinger’s famous thought experiment and critique of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, he imagined a cat trapped in a steel box with a poison canister, the release of which could be triggered (or not) by a quantum event. If Heisenberg were correct, he said, then the cat would in effect be in an indeterminate state, neither dead nor alive, until the box is opened. Later theorists have suggested that the quantum event would split the universe into two parallel universes, one in which the cat was alive and one where it was dead. The premise of parallel universes has not only become a staple of science fiction, but of mainstream entertainment as well eg, Sliding Doors.

I believe that the Island functions something like the box Schroedinger envisioned There are multiple universes and potential timelines, but the Island stands outside the normal space time of the “multiverse” although it may have links to certain places and times. Like the cat, the nature of the people on the island, their health, whether they are alive, etc., is not definitively resolved until the box is open. The Dharma initiative likely discovered that the island could be used to alter the future in a positive way but the outcome hinges on the arrival of the flight and or one or more of them doing something on the island and/or returning to the real world at a particular time. Controlling the magnetic anomaly is what kept the island in its isolated state. By pushing the button, Desmond saved the possibility of this optimal solution by keeping the island shut off from reality and frozen in time. But when the hatch imploded the box was opened and the island came into existence in an alternate universe where the plane crashed and there were no survivors. This is a mistake because it is not the reality to which the survivors are supposed to return, at least not yet. The rest of the show will be about the characters trying to get back to the island and getting the right outcome this time.

I don’t think this theory can be satisfactorily “proved” at this point. There are just too many strange occurrences and directions the show could go in, and there are probably enough inconsistencies already introduced into the narrative that it would easy to find something that any theory does not explain. But the one constant in the show seems to be that most things that occur are supposed to be taken seriously. People may misinterpret why something happened, misunderstand what other people say, or lie about their motives, but if the show tells you Locke could not walk before he came to the island and now he can, then that’s what happened. Similarly although Ben constantly “lies” we are supposed to take him seriously when he says that he is “not a liar”.

Here are a few reasons why I think this explanation works and how it may explain some unusual things that have occurred. First, we know from Naomi and Anthony Cooper that in their time line the flight crashes near bali and there are no survivors. (Naomi could be lying but its too much to expect that both she and Cooper are both telling the same lie). We also know from Desmond’s flashes that there are multiple time lines or parallel universes in which things happen differently. There are one or more timelines where Desmond sees Charlie playing before it rains (Flashes Before Your Eyes), and there is at least one where Desmond is not there (Greatest Hits). And of course there are multiple times that Charlie dies but Desmond at least sees his mission as preventing those so that Charlie can die for the right reason. And finally we know from the Orchid video that the Dharma initiative was doing some sort of experiment that involved mucking with space time.

The island, however, seems to lie outside the alternate realities that are possible outside it, a or at least did before the hatch imploded. The people on the island are in some form of indeterminate state where both their future and their past is not decided. There are only probabilities of what will happen to them. Furthermore, the island appears to be anchored at least loosely to an earlier time from the time of the survivors, or perhaps to multipe times, such that events that occur on the island can alter future events.

I believe this explains both Locke and Rose’s “miracle”. That Locke becomes paralyzed and that Rose gets cancer are only one of many directions that their life could have taken. When they came to the island the various possibilities canceled themselves out and the wave function collapsed into a state where Locke is not paralyzed and Rose never got cancer. (Perhaps the island gives you something of a clean slate, physically at least, so that you enter the island in the best possible state of the various possibilities your life could have taken up to that point).

Locke was able to make this real somehow by creating a reality where Cooper was not alive to throw him out of the window because he was discovered earlier and killed by Sawyer. Hence when Sawyer asks him if he was in a wheelchair he says “not anymore” because he has changed his past. Furthermore, Locke cannot kill his father on the island in a way that actually changes his past, because there is no reality in the past in which that murder could have happened. As Cooper notes, before Locke came to the island he never hated Cooper; he wanted a relationship with him. Yes he could physcially plunge the knife into his father and kill his father on the island, but he wouldn’t really be killing Cooper in his reality in a way that would benefit him. But there was apparently a potential reality in which Sawyer could have found and killed Cooper before he pushed Locke out the window.

This may also explain Jin’s fertility. Juliet’s explanation about higher sperm counts may be hogwash but her essential point, that the island gives you the best of possible odds, is sound.

And when Ben tells Juliet that Rachel’s cancer is back and then that it is cured both are technically true. There is a reality in which the cancer comes back and she dies and one in which the cancer stays in remission and she gives birth. But it wasn’t because of anything Ben or Jacob did. Both alternative realities are real.

Similarly, while people can live on the island, the island has no existence except as a function of probable outcomes in the real world. Everyone on the island had to have their origin outside it and is defined by the possibilities of who they could have been and could be. So by definition no one can give birth to a child conceived on the island because it would be creating a new life independent of the possibilities outside the island. Indeed it would be almost godlike. And in a cruel twist the island punishes such hubris by killing the pregnant mothers.

Ben is therefore correct when he says the magic box is a metaphor. The island is really LIKE a magic box, but what it can contain is ultimately confined by possible outside realities, and the possibilities are not as limitless as Ben supposes.

I believe the Dharma initiative somehow discovered the island’s state and calculated an ideal outcome for the future if events occurred in a certain way on the island. Crucial to this was that the button be pushed, and Desmond doing so kept the island in its isolated state cut off from reality. That’s why he could not sail away (“bloody snow globe”) and why when Ben tells Michael just follow this heading and you will get home its literally true. Ie he will end up trapped in the area surrounding the island because that is now his home. Thus the statement that pushing the button saves the world is literally true, even though it does not mean what we normally assume the phrase means. Pushing the button preserves (a synonym for saves) the world of the island and keeps it isolated from outside reality and also saves the possibility of a particular reality that can happen if events unfold on the island in a particular way. The island not having a definitive location in space time might also explain why a plane from Kenya and a pland from Sydney both ended up on the island, or why a ship ended up a mile or more inland.

But when the hatch imploded the island lost its isolated state. The sky turned purple was the signal that the island was entering normal space time (perhaps it was some kind of doppler effect as the island “moved”). That is why the island was previously uncharted was found just a couple of weeks after the hatch imploded. (And why we don’t see the tagged birds, which are proof of contact with the outside world, until after the implosion). And its why Ben had to start blocking the signal. The implosion created the possibility of contact with the outside world.

The island came into existence in a reality where the plane crashed rather than one where for some reason the flight crew changed course and ended up on the island. Indeed it seems unlikely that the survivors could return to that reality because they are dead, but maybe they can somehow return to an alternate one where they never got on the plane. Perhaps in the reality in the flash forward Jack had never gotten on the plane because his father did not die and Kate had never killed her father and never became a fugitive. In any event the point is the reality in which they are rescued by Naomi’s boat is not the optimal outcome that “saves the world” so they have to go back replay the tape and get it right this time. (In fact I think there is at least a chance the show will end where it began, with Jack waking up in the jungle but with somewhat greater consciousness of what he needs to do this time.)

As for the various mystical explanations people give for things, the truth is that much of contemporary physics is as incomprehensible and counterintuitive to average people, as the world was to people for thousands of years. We just aren’t confronted by the strange implications of quantum mechanics in our everyday life. But those on the island are, and not surprisingly they often ascribe religious or or supernatural explanations to things they cannot explain.

And no I don’t have any idea how this can or does explain Jacob or smokey. I do think they are real in at least some sense, but their exact properties may not be that important at this point. M.C. Gainey suggests, for example, that the decision to make the Others suburbanites who are pretending to be hillbillies was not made until late in the second season. I think part of the genius of the show is that it is not dependent on the identify or nature of any one character except perhaps the island itself.

I don’t pretend this theory explains everything; just that it could explain a lot up to this point. In fact, in a twist Heisenberg would have approved, speculation on the internet may actually affect the reality of the show, as the writers could choose not go in directions that too many people have predicted. The show is still in an indeterminate state that is constantly being shaped as it is observed.

Key characters

Short Name	Full Name	Episodes	Theories
Dr. Christian	Dr. Christian Shephard		336
Jack	Jack Shephard	1.1, 1.5, 2.11, 1.11, 1.16, 1.20, 3.9, 3.22, 3.1, 4.10, 4.12, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13	1451
John	John Locke	3.3, 2.17, 1.4, 1.19, 3.13, 3.19, 4.11, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13	1229
Kate	Katherine “Kate” Austen	3.6, 1.2, 1.3, 2.9, 1.12, 1.16, 1.22, 3.15, 4.4, 4.12	711
Sawyer	James “Sawyer” Ford	3.4, 2.3, 2.6, 2.13, 1.16, 3.10	451

Key episodes

#	Title	Aired	Central character	Theories
3.22	Through The Looking Glass	5-23-2007	Jack	1251
3.21	Greatest Hits	5-16-2007	Charlie	171
3.20	The Man Behind The Curtain	5-9-2007	Ben	412
3.8	Flashes Before Your Eyes	2-14-2007	Penny	233

Key events

Theme	Relevant Episodes	Theories
Locke Can Walk		288
Michael and Walt released	2.23	287

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