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The island is not in our space and time



WHERE IS THE ISLAND?



Since the beginning of one of the smartest, most complex, and mysterious shows in television history, fans have pondered the question: Where is the Island? (Or in Charlie’s words, “Where are we?”) In the last episode titled The Economist, it is clear that fans and Charlie has been asking the WRONG question. The question should be:

WHEN IS THE ISLAND?



I have long suspected since the end of season 2 that the Lost Island and its immediate surroundings exists in a sort of pocket dimension separate from our own, especially when Desmond describes it as a “snow-globe” and when Ben gives Michael a very specific heading in order to escape the island. It is clear that it is difficult to leave this place. The specific directions for escaping the Island were brought into focus again when Daniel warns the pilot about how to fly the helicopter out. I also knew that “time” is a theme of the show as we have seen with the writer’s use of flash-backs, flash-forwards, hidden anagrams related to time, Desmond’s powers, and the vast amount of “time-travel” theories out there.

But the episode The Economist, solidifies that we are not simply talking about space and time alone, but we are talking about space-time. Daniel Farraday’s experiment confirms that the Island is in another parallel dimension that is at present 31 minutes BEHIND the real world. But something subtle happens when he compares his watch with the watch in the canister fired from the ship in the real world. First, he acts surprised and worried at the time difference. But take careful note, dear reader, that he is NOT surprised that there IS a time difference, he is surprised of the LENGTH of the difference.

How do we know this? Very simple, really. The fact that there even was a time keeping device in the canister and the fact that he compared the times to begin with MEAN that the very purpose of this experiment to begin with was to measure the time difference. That must mean he and the ship already KNEW that a difference existed and planned to measure it. Therefore, his surprise MUST be directed at the 31 minutes.

Now let’s answer the question: “Why would he be surprised and worried about this 31 minutes?” Very simple again, because he was expecting something OTHER than 31 minutes and that the length 31 minutes has to have some negative implication because he is not just surprised but also stressed about it.

Now let’s answer the next natural question: “What time WAS Daniel expecting then?” Ahhh, dear reader, this is where you MUST be a fan of Lost to surmise the answer to this question. I will make an assertion that the time difference he was expecting to see was, in fact, 108 minutes!

Still with me? Good. As all fans know, 108 minutes was the time interval in which you had to press the button in the hatch or else “The World Would End.” We have always wondered what exactly this button does and how would it cause the world to end? I submit that this button maintained the force that kept the Lost space-time dimension stable. Whether this was some type of electromagnetic force, I will leave up to others to figure out. In “stable” meaning the Lost world would be maintained at a steady 108 minutes behind the real-world and its space-time dimensional integrity would remain.

So what happened? Why is it now 31 minutes? You fans must already be with me. The hatch exploded and took the mechanism for maintaining this space-time dimension with it. Since this explosion, the Lost Island dimension has been deteriorating and therefore has been slowly catching up with real-time! Therefore, when Daniel Farraday checks his watch the Lost Island dimension is only 31 minutes behind, it has LOST 77 minutes! If you are a Lost fan, you will recognize now the significance of our little Mittelos anagram as well as another great meaning for the title of the show itself!

THE WORLD ENDS



Losing 77 minutes explains Daniel’s surprise when he checks the two watches. But what about his worry and stress? In order to answer this question, we must ask what will happen when the two timelines (Lost dimension and real world) ultimately and inevitably converge? Well, let’s just go back to the old consequence of not pushing the button. “The world would end”. This is reasonable to assume that when the two timelines converge, it is more like a car wreck in space-time, destroying the Lost dimension at the very least (the real world too at the very worst).

SO LET US RECAP THE BASIC THEORY HERE:



• The Island and its surroundings exist in another dimension in space-time which had been exactly 108 minutes behind the real-world • It is difficult to get into and out of this dimension. Only a few individuals and shadow organizations know exactly where the “fold” or connection exists between the two dimensions and how to traverse it • The button or more specifically, the electromagnetic machinery it controlled served to maintain the stability of the Island Dimension • Since the destruction of the Hatch, the Island Dimension has been deteriorating and is now “catching-up” to the real-world or real-time. At the time Daniel Farraday checks his watch, the Island Dimension is only 31 minutes behind and has “LOST TIME”…77 minutes to be exact • The Island Dimension will be destroyed when it inevitably converges/collides with the real world-real time, which will make for a very exciting final season and also, I predict, how Lost will end.

Now that we have established the BASIC theory, let’s apply it to some other situations and play with it a little.

I'm not really versed in wireless communication but it is still reasonable to assume that if people and objects can travel back and forth through time, so can communication.

I do have an explanation for your good point mentioning the 4-toed statue and the ancient pirate ship. It could have been the case that a long time ago the island DID exist in the real-world. And therefore you have pirate ships, statues, etc. In the future Dharma is researching time travel and essentially causes the island to slip back in time. (Maybe they wanted to be completely undisturbed as they performed their research). This also explains the POLAR BEAR fossil with the Dharma insignia that gets unearthed. They essentially sent that polar bear back in time as an experiment.

This could also explain why its discovery by Charlotte is so significant, because she was actively looking for it because she knew about that experiment somehow.

So what happened with the Oceanic 815? How did it crash? Why are there two of them, (one in the Island Dimension and one underwater in the real-world)? Let’s talk about these one by one:

THE PLANE CRASH



How did Oceanic 815 enter the Lost Dimension? There are two theories and both work. First is that the plane just flew into the small “fold” in space that allowed entry into the Island Dimension, by happenstance or deliberately. (This goes into the Fate/Destiny vs. Science themes that I do not wish to explore here.) Second is that the plane flew over the island, in the real-world but was pulled into the Lost Dimension forcibly causing it to crash. This “pull” was initiated by Desmond forgetting to press the button and therefore causing a temporary weakening of the dimensional integrity of the Lost Dimension because as established above, the button maintains the stability.

Let’s explore this idea a little further. So not pressing the button must cause a very quick reintegration of the two time-lines, which as I asserted above, would destroy the dimension. During this temporary convergence of the two time-lines, Oceanic 815 entered the Lost Dimension (because the two time-lines were becoming one). But Desmond managed to quickly press the button and re-establish the stability (must be electromagnetic force), saving the Lost Dimension. So a careful observer may ask “If not pressing the button makes the two time-lines quickly converge, then how is the Lost Dimension still around because the hatch is gone and no one is pressing the damn button?!”

THE HATCH FAIL-SAFE



How you quickly forget Desmond heroically activating the fail-safe! Obviously, the fail-safe is there for a purpose. The purpose is that in the event of a catastrophic convergence of the two time-lines leading to the destruction of the Lost Dimension, one can throw this switch and release all of the electromagnetic force at once which can maintain the Lost Dimension for a period of time. Because of the sheer amount of force, the machinery is destroyed in the process but the Lost Dimension lives at least for a while until researchers and scientists can escape to the real-world. This explains why the Lost Dimension did not instantly collide with the real-world (as not pressing the button would do), but is just gradually catching up to the real-world (because the massive energy from the fail-safe, and its slow dissipation.)

Let’s now explore the subject of how there are 2 planes....

IS IT THE SAME PLANE OR IS IT A FAKE PLANE?



I recognize there are two schools of thought out there. One says it is a fake plane that is staged by some massive corporation or shadow group to deceive and hide the truth. The other says it is the same plane. Let’s talk about the first possibility for a second. The fake plane theory could be true, but I hope it isn’t because I feel this is the lazy way out and the Lost writers are just more clever and smarter than that. I think we can all agree that if it were to turn out that it was a fake plane, we would all be disappointed about it. Now many of you can point out that in the episode Confirmed Dead, Frank Lapidus is convinced that the body of the pilot is different from his friend who he knew was flying the plane. This definitely gives some credence to the fake plane theory and my only response is that the writers could be throwing a red-herring at their fans, knowing that this theory is out there.

So with that being said, I don’t want to debate those two theories here. I do want to explain how it is possible that it could be the SAME EXACT plane though by playing with the BASIC theory established above.

As I asserted earlier, Desmond’s failure to press the button temporarily caused the two timelines to merge violently. This caused OCEANIC 815 to essentially be in two timelines at once (because at that very moment both timelines were pretty much one). Desmond corrects his mistake by pressing the button very late re-establishing the separation (of 108 minutes) between the two timelines. In doing so, Oceanic 815 is wrenched into the Lost timeline while ALSO staying in the real timeline. It was COPIED! Both planes crash, one into the sea in the real timeline killing all aboard and the other on our beloved Island with our favorite characters surviving.

I think a lot of people have wondered about the instantaneous communications between the Island and the outside world and how to explain this. My only response is that if we all agree that there is a fold in space or a known method of traversing the two timelines then someone who "crosses" over essentially travels through time (backwards if going from the real-world to the Island or forwards vice-versa).

Since we know there are people (Ben, The Freighter Four) who have knowledge of this "wormhole", "gateway", etc. then they would design their communications to go through it. So essentially their communications would travel through time and would seem instantaneous. This is highly probable because we've seen that with Ben and the others, only specific stations could communicate to the outside world (i.e. the Looking Glass). And I think we can all see the significance of the name of this station! One may also assume that the cable that runs to the Looking Glass may not just be power to that station, but a communications pipeline. The Freighter Four utilize the satellite phones and are constantly messing with the frequencies. So agian, they could be utilizing their knowledge of the "wormhole" to get their communications to work in real-time.

"There was kind of a time-shift that obviously occurred ... this rocket was launched and it was synchronized with Faraday's watch but in fact when it arrived, the digital clock had a slightly different time, which would suggest that there was some sort of time fluctuation that occurred in that rocket's journey from the freighter to the island. And I think that's something which is pretty important"

BASIC THEORY UPDATE



Thanks for everyone’s comments on the Basic Theory as they have all been extremely helpful! I would like to respond to a few insightful observations from the group, specifically:

A. Differing interpretations of Daniel’s reaction B. How can the Island Universe and the real world communicate in real-time? C. The BASIC Theory is too complex and long and tries to answer everything D. How BASIC theory addresses other Island mysteries E. Finally, most importantly, we know it is now 31 minutes behind, but was it necessarily 108 minutes behind before the hatch explosion or could it have been more? Maybe even much more?

A.

Differing interpretations of Daniel’s reaction – Many posters have observed that Daniel’s reaction to the payload may contradict the assertions in the BASIC theory. I agree that some interpretations of his reaction definitely do bring some assertions into question. However, I think we can all agree that his reaction is ambiguous and that there are many interpretations for it, so it does not definitively contradict the theory. For example, here is a possible list of interpretations for his reaction:

When it doesn’t arrive – 1. He is genuinely surprised and was expecting it to arrive immediately because he doesn’t know about any possible time-shift (I don’t think this is true which I’ll explain below). 2. He is genuinely surprised and was expecting it to arrive immediately because he did not believe there to be a time-shift at that time, or that the time-shift should not have affected the payload (either because of the position of the ship or the method in which they delivered the payload should have followed the exact heading) 3. He is intellectually surprised that it doesn’t arrive immediately now having observed the timeshift for himself for the first time. But was not completely UNEXPECTING it not to arrive. (He exclaims “HA!...that’s weird”. A scientist expressing intellectual curiosity?) 4. He is not surprised at all but just exclaiming some half-hearted reaction for the benefit of Jack and Lapidus (who probably doesn’t know about the time-shift since he needs to be briefed on the specific heading). Daniel says “HA!...that’s weird….” But he doesn’t seem to be really bothered by it.

I think we can discount #1. Why? Again, because of the nature of the experiment in the first place - Two clocks, synced before Daniel arrives and a quick comparison of the two. The whole purpose of this experiment is OBVIOUSLY to measure or detect if there is a time difference. So he MUST know that there is at least a POSSIBILITY of a time-shift.

#2-4 are all equally possible interpretations and could all still work with BASIC theory. In addition, every fan of Lost should know that the writers have a tendency of playing with our expectations by presenting a situation in a certain light but actually having a different point of view underneath.

So let’s recap the following facts that I feel are not in dispute:

1. The experiment’s purpose was to measure a possible time-shift 2. Daniel’s reaction to the payload not arriving can be interpreted in multiple different ways. This in combination with the Lost writers’ penchant for misdirection means we cannot definitively debunk the BASIC theory (yet). 3. When it finally does arrive, however, Daniel was definitely worried and not expecting 31 minutes time difference 4. There is a time-shift between the Island Universe and the real world.

B.

How can the Island Universe and the real world communicate in real-time? – Many posters have made the keen observation that communications between the Island and the Freighter occur in real-time. How is this possible because of the time-shift? Again, we do not know the real nature of the Island Universe yet. But it is reasonable to assume that if one can travel between the real-world and the Island, then communications can do the same. It would be just like talking across time-zones. For example, if Daniel talks to Regina at 11:30 Island-time, then Regina’s clock would say 12:01, but they would still be talking in real-time because the communication can traverse the barrier between the two worlds. Now it may take special knowledge of the nature of the Island Universe and the barrier to get the communications to work. And this is indeed the case, we already know that it takes a lot to communicate, including only being able to communicate from certain stations (like the Looking Glass), and having special satellite phones tuned to certain frequencies that constantly need to be adjusted.

Several other posters have noted that the Economist was 30 minutes late in calling Elsa, which means he must have been on the Island when he called. This is such an interesting observation and really made me look at this again. However, upon repeated viewing, it would seem that she did not say he was 30 minutes late, rather that he was supposed to call at “10:30”. In addition, Elsa told him to “Leave the hotel and meet me at the safe house” (in order to interrogate Sayid). This must mean he was in the vicinity.

C.

The BASIC Theory is too complex and long and tries to answer everything – It was never my intention to have a complex theory, which is why I called it “BASIC” Theory. I feel the more and more complex a theory gets with more and more caveats, the less likely it is to be true. After watching Lost for many years, I had different ideas that were floating around that just coalesced for me after The Economist. So if you feel it is too long and complex, I apologize, but one major reason why it is long is that I’m trying to lay out strong evidence that supports it. There are many other themes and mysteries that are out there that may or may NOT relate to the BASIC Theory. I feel it is a simple theory, the core of which is the Island Universe is lost in time and separate from the real world

D.

How BASIC Theory addresses other Island mysteries – As noted above, BASIC Theory is not meant to answer every island mystery. There are a huge number of things out there like the Monster, Jacob, the Two Planes, Healing and Aging, Fate and Destiny, Super Powers (precog, etc), and more, that the BASIC Theory does not yet directly address. However, I do think that some are related to it and others are not. It is my hope that for the ones that are related, we can start explaining them through the Theory. I took a shot at one (the Two Planes). I’m taking another shot soon on one of the others (Precognition), which I’ll post later. You guys have also been posting some, specifically, relating the Two Planes sub-theory to healing (Locke, Rose, Jin). Those have been great reads and are very interesting!

E.

Finally, most importantly, we know it is now 31 minutes behind, but was it necessarily 108 minutes behind before the hatch explosion or could it have been more? Maybe even much more? – Wow. Many people have posted this and I confess now with mounting evidence that it definitely is possible that it wasn’t just 108 minutes behind but could have been more. The 108 minutes was a cool concept but for the sake of not locking ourselves into a specific time, let’s tweak the constant time of 108 minutes behind and just say X days behind. In fact, it may not even be a constant X days behind but a changing/fluctuating number. While this may eliminate the cool factor of having a nice 108 minutes, it allows for the PRECOGNITION and FATE/DESTINY sub-theory to work a lot better which I’ll post shortly.

PRECOGNITION, FATE, AND THE BASIC THEORY



One of the more curious and interesting “mystical” aspects has been precognition. One of the reasons why I am isolating this specific “super-power”, is because it seems to be prevalent in multiple different characters and that they seem to “pick it up” or learn it as opposed to it being innate. The other more important reason is that I feel that I can make a stab at applying the BASIC Theory to it. How does it relate you may ask? Well, simple really; isn’t precognition just knowing what’s going to happen before it happens? Well, if you think about it, according to the BASIC Theory everything that occurs on the island, technically already happened in the real-world (because the island is behind real-time (whether it is 31 minutes or 108 or some other length of time X). So when Daniel Faraday sees the payload arrive at the Island; in the real-world, it already arrived 31 minutes ago.

Taking that premise then, one can make the assumption or a leap of faith that it may be possible for individuals to “sense” the real-world while in the Island Universe. This could either be subconscious because of some type of deep connection (Locke), due to being in the center of some sort of space-time ground-zero (Desmond), or learned through practice, as shown in last week’s episode, Eggtown (Faraday).

Please note that the idea of Desmond not actually predicting the future but “remembering” the past is not new. Many many posters have observed this as a possible explanation. I am just applying the modified BASIC theory to further solidify other’s ideas on this matter.

I agree with you that the Losties are definitely in some type of parallel universe. And I also agree that having just one spot on the earth be running in different time would be weird (however, time is relative so technically, depending how fast you are traveling, your perception of time WILL be different from someone else traveling at a different speed...although at earthly speeds, this difference is infinitesimally small. However, I do not think that we are talking about string theory or the 11 space-time dimensions because these dimensions are not a physical concept and would be incredibly difficult to visualize let alone comprehend.

Rather, I think we are looking at the Many Worlds theory where at any point in time, an infinite number of parallel universes are created. For example, in one universe, I responded to your post, but in another universe running parallel to ours, I never responded to your post. I believe that the Island Universe could be one such parallel universe and in this universe the time has become screwed up.

I also agree that this Universe would be one of the most prized discoveries in human history and powerful people would do anything to control it.

LOCKE



We all know that Locke is a strange guy. He senses/feels things and seems to have a very deep spiritual connection with the Island. He talks as if the Island is an entity and that there is a pre-destined, inevitable purpose to all the things that are happening. His favorite phrase is “[You, I, We] were meant to do this.” He believes in fate and destiny. Outside of these macro-ideas of his, we have also seen him accurately predict weather, in fact, he has been predicting weather since Season One. The writers have made a point to show him predicting weather periodically in each season on a consistent basis. All of these interesting character traits have made him a perfect foil for Jack who is grounded in reality, substance, and science. As a result, Faith vs. Science has been a major theme established by the writers, and in my view, has just up-to-this point been a cool, intangible concept.

But let’s just take a step-back and ponder the possibilities. What if…WHAT IF there is an actual explanation for Locke’s feelings and predictions and that the explanation had to do with the BASIC theory!

We all know already that Locke is a spiritual guy who believes in fate and destiny even before he got to the Island. When he got to the Island, he was healed and this bolstered his already strong faith and beliefs to insane levels. What if his personality and his faith is the catalyst which allows him to sense the real-world and therefore real-time? Not in a tangible way but in a sort of intangible, amorphous type of way. So Locke can’t really see clear visions (like Desmond), but feels/senses the real-world (which means he senses the FUTURE of the Island Universe by remembering the PAST of the real-world). So if in the real-world, it started raining, he would feel this, and therefore exclaim in the Island Universe “Storm’s coming…”. Again, to Locke, this is just a feeling, and he believes it’s a sort of connection or even communication.

If you guys are still with me, I want to extend this concept even further into radical territory. Locke’s favorite phrase, again, is “[You, I, We] were meant to do this.” He’s definitely said this before he entered the Island Universe, but at that point he really was operating on faith alone. Since he’s been on the Island, his beliefs have been strengthened and his faith consistently validated. So if he can actually sense the real-world, then he would be able to feel that something had occurred or that an action had been taken. This feeling again translates to Locke as fate. So he feels that someone did something (in real-time) and that means they were meant to do it! Again, I just want to reiterate that in Locke’s mind, these are all strong feelings coming from the Island which validates his faith.

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