Mythology of Lost

The television show Lost includes a number of mysterious elements that have been ascribed to science fiction or supernatural phenomena, usually concerning coincidences, synchronicity, temporal and spatial anomalies, paradoxes and other puzzling phenomena. The creators of the series refer to these as part of the mythology of the series.

The Island

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Juliet arrives on the Island

The Island at the center of the show boasts a number of unusual features. It seems to "talk" to the characters according to Locke and Ben. It also seems that the Island has some form of consciousness, since it is able to prevent both Michael and Jack from killing themselves once they each make it off the Island. It also seems to call people to it, as Hurley believes once he makes it off the Island, and it directly called Locke to it multiple times during his childhood. Locke has accused the Island of killing Eko and Boone (calling him numerous times "the sacrifice the Island demanded").

The Island has an unusual supply of naturally occurring electromagnetism.

Many people have tried to exploit the Island throughout its history due to its special properties. People like Ben and Locke have also defended it from intruders and do not want anyone outside of the Island knowing of its location or its special abilities. Charles Widmore is desperately trying to find the Island and, according to Ben, exploit it, and has sent out a freighter crew to find it. However, in the episode The Shape of Things to Come in Season 4 during a confrontation between Ben and Widmore, Widmore claims that the island was previously his and that he will take it back from Ben one day.

The Island has extraordinary healing properties. Locke was paralyzed from the waist down before he came to the Island, but regained the ability to walk shortly after the plane crash. Jin was previously sterile but has now impregnated his wife, Sun (According to Juliet, males produce 5 times their normal amount of sperm on the island). Rose had cancer, but does not seem to anymore. Wounds heal extremely quickly on the Island, and things normally considered mortal wounds are capable of healing in a few days. However, disease and death can still occur on the island. For an unknown reason, Ben developed a spinal tumor -- the first such incident recorded on the Island -- although Juliet notes the coincidence that Jack, a spinal surgeon, arrived on the island soon after Ben's condition is diagnosed. Jack himself contracts appendicitis, which Rose observes is suspicious given that they expect their imminent rescue. In addition, Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko and Charlie, as well as many other less prominent characters, have died from sustaining lethal injuries. Juliet claims that women on the island who conceive there die from an auto-immune condition that causes the woman's immune system to reject the fetus as a foreign invader.

The Island is capable of moving through a station known as the Orchid. Doing so should be used only in case of a last resort since using it is highly dangerous and very unpredictable, which seems to indicate that the Island can end up anywhere after it is used, and moving the Island is capable of killing people if something unexpected occurs.

The Island seems to be a place filled with spiritual properties. Most people of the Island have heard whispers of deceased people talking amongst themselves. Deceased people often appear to people on the Island through visions, dreams, or appearing to them in a more solid form that they are able to directly interact with. Most of the whispers and visions of the deceased appear to people who have made a large impact on that person's life, although Locke may be an exception since he has had visions of Yemi, Christian Shephard, and Horace Goodspeed since he has not met any of them before he arrived on the Island. The Island may be able to extend this to the outside world, since Hurley sees Charlie off of the Island and Jack sees his father.

The Island can not be found by any standard means of navigating. The only known way to intentionally get to the Island is to follow a sonar beacon, which is most likely attached to the Looking Glass station, or to follow a satellite or radio signal to the Island. Apart from the people recruited there (Ben and Juliet for example), most people find the Island without consciously intending to do so. Desmond crashed on the island while on a sailboat race around the world, Rousseau apparently arrived when her research vessel crashed on the island, the real Henry Gale crashed in a hot air balloon, Mr. Eko's drug smuggling plane crashed while smuggling heroin (his dead brother Yemi was on board), the survivors crashed when Desmond failed to press the button, and the Hostiles (or the Others) arrived by unknown means. Once one arrives on the Island, it is nearly impossible to leave it unless you know a specific bearing in which to leave it, as Desmond discovered once he tried to leave the Island in his newly repaired sailboat. Michael and Walt did manage to escape the Island by boat, following a compass bearing of 325, and Ben has apparently been off the Island in the past as well. Daniel Faraday claims that the safest way to enter the Island is through a bearing of 305. Through unknown means, six of the survivors are shown to have escaped the Island in season 4.

Entering or leaving the Island itself is extremely dangerous, especially if one has been exposed to a high amount of radiation or electromagnetism. Doing so under these circumstances can lead to one's consciousness traveling through time, eventually leading to one's death unless a "constant" (proposed by Faraday on Lost and seemingly a literary allusion to Michael Faraday's electromagnetic physics 'constant') can be found between the present and the destination time period. Whatever barrier there is between the Island and the rest of the world distorts time and is difficult to get through, producing a great amount of turbulence for planes, boats, or even submarines. This barrier may explain Daniel's fourth season claim that the light on the Island is "wrong" and does not disperse correctly.

The Island is many miles across, and it takes at least two days to go from one end of the Island to the other by foot. There is evidence that at one point the Island had an active volcano which may now be the Crater drawn in Rousseau's map. There are at least two mountain ranges on the Island, located on the east and west sides of the Island respectively. Small streams are found throughout the Island, which is explainable by the large amount of rainfall seen throughout the series. Boars, frogs, chickens, horses, cows, and polar bears (brought by the DHARMA Initiative to study) apparently inhabit the Island (though some of the animals seen may have been hallucinations or visions). Offshore there is a smaller Island called Alcatraz by Ben (often referred to as Hydra Island by fans, due to the location of that particular station). Due to colossal ruins, statues, and an unseen temple, it is likely that the Island was inhabited many years before the Hostiles arrived.

The Monster

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Eko confronts the smoke monster

The monster has been described by Lost producer Damon Lidelof as "one of the biggest secrets" of the mythology. It was introduced early on in the show. On the night after the crash, the survivors hear a loud, unidentifiable sound coming from the jungle and witness trees being torn down in the distance. The next morning, while discussing the sound the monster made, Rose commented that, "I keep thinking, there was something familiar about it." This possible connection between the monster and Rose's past has not been explored, so Rose and the monster may share no connection whatsoever. Jack, Kate, and Charlie saw the power of the monster up close when it ripped the pilot from the cockpit of the plane they crashed in and left the mangled body in a tree, all without being seen on-screen. In "Walkabout", Locke also had a direct encounter with the monster but was spared. When Michael later asked Locke if he had seen it, Locke lied and claimed that he had not. Locke later told Jack, "I looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful."

In "Exodus, Part 2", Danielle referred to the monster as a "security system" whose purpose was to protect the island. Later in the episode, Locke's second encounter provided the first on-screen glimpse of the monster: a tendril of black smoke accompanied by mechanical-like sounds. In "The 23rd Psalm" Charlie and Eko had a confrontation similar to Locke's. As Eko stared down the monster, the black smoke briefly flashed images of Eko's past. John Locke then stated that when he first saw the monster, it appeared as a "bright light" which he described as "beautiful," to which Eko replied, "That is not what I saw." In "The Cost of Living", the monster killed Eko by slamming him repeatedly against nearby trees and the ground. In another unseen appearance, the mechanical sounds of the monster can be heard during the episode "Exposé", right before Nikki is bitten by a "medusa spider", the same species as one of Arzt's research spiders, and in the episode "Special" when Michael is talking to his wife you can hear the monster for three seconds. In the episode "Left Behind", the monster appeared twice. It is unseen by the audience in the first encounter, when it released a series of bright flashes near Juliet. The monster appears on-screen during the second encounter, where it is revealed that it cannot penetrate the Others' sonic wave fence. It is important to note that in this scene, the Monster appears to split into three entities, which is perhaps why DHARMA refers to it as Cerberus. Juliet tells Kate that the Others don't know what the Monster is, but they know it doesn't like their fence. When Locke holds Ben at gunpoint in "Confirmed Dead" he asks Ben, "What is the Monster?" and Ben, like Juliet, says that he doesn't know.

However, in the episode "The Shape of Things to Come", it becomes apparent that Ben knows more about the Monster than he has let on. After becoming enraged over the death of Alex, Ben disappears into a hidden room, which looks like an ancient stone door covered with hieroglyphs, only to emerge several minutes later covered in a dark ash like substance, telling the others they need to be as far away from the attacking mercenaries as possible. The Monster then suddenly arrives, seemingly summoned by Ben, and proceeds to attack and incapacitate all of the mercenaries. In this appearance, the Monster is larger than it has ever appeared and has electricity coursing through it. It slithers on the ground causing the Barracks to rumble and consumes the hiding mercenaries, extending a hand-like tendril to draw back a man running from it. However, next episode it's revealed that the mercenaries survived albeit badly shaken. When questioned about an injured man, the lead mercenary responds that he was, "thrown 50 feet into the air by a black pillar of smoke".

The May 26, 2006 official Lost podcast claimed that viewers have seen the monster after "The 23rd Psalm" without realizing they were looking at it, which has led to fan speculation that the Monster actually is, or is at least responsible for, some of the manifestations that have appeared to the characters. In the March 21, 2008 official Lost podcast, Damon Lindelof said that manifestations of the Monster included Yemi, the Medusa Spider that bit Nikki, and some of Walt's appearances while he was not with the Survivors, although they were in more of a joking manner so they may have not been serious. Also, the producers have often hinted that the black cloud of smoke is not a monster in the traditional sense, and have confirmed that it is not a cloud of nanobots.

In January 2007, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse asked fans on Yahoo! Answers what they thought the monster was. They later picked their "favorite answer... not that's it's the right answer [sic]." The response they chose suggested that the monster was "originally a highly advanced security system designed to separate participants of the DHARMA experiments" and frighten them with smoke and loud noises to prevent them from wandering outside of their hatches. "However, the electromagnetic force of the island...mutated it - in the same sense that Desmond experienced time travel and can now see the future after [his] exposure) and made it malevolent and able to physically [interact with things]." The respondent also theorized that the monster could be "turned off" if the survivors found a control room for it. The producers restated that the answer could be "somewhat right, totally right - or completely off-base", but they thought it was "very cool and intriguing."

The Numbers

The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 appear throughout the series, both in sequence and individually. They were broadcast from the Island's radio transmitter, and it was this message that apparently drew Rousseau's expedition there. Although she later changes the message after the deaths of the rest of her team, the digits had also been heard by other people, eventually making their way to Hurley, who used them to win a lottery. After those around him suffer a series of misfortunes, he begins to believe the numbers are cursed. In the episode "Numbers", it is revealed that Hurley heard the numbers from Leonard Sims, a patient at a mental hospital. Sims had received them from Sam Toomey, with whom he had served in the U.S. Navy, at "a listening post monitoring longwave transmissions over the Pacific" 16 (one of the numbers) years earlier. The numbers are prevalent throughout the modern-day island, as they are engraved on the hatch of the Swan station, appear on medicine bottles, and constitute a code that must be entered into the Swan station's terminal. The sum of these numbers, 108, has become significant in connection to the DHARMA Initiative, and is the amount of time in minutes between entry into the station's computer as well as the time on Claire's clock during her flashback.

According to the DHARMA Orientation video in the Lost Experience, the Numbers represent the core factors of the Valenzetti Equation, which claims to accurately predict when humanity will be extinguished.

The DHARMA Initiative

Main article: DHARMA Initiative

A large number of DHARMA workers were slaughtered by the Others at some point before the series began, hinted to be in 1992 during season 4, in a sequence known as "The Purge", as revealed in "The Man Behind the Curtain", although it is currently unknown whether or not there were any survivors. It has been confirmed in a podcast by the writers that Kelvin Inman was indeed a member of the DHARMA initiative who survived the purge, so it is possible that there were more survivors in isolated stations. However, some assume he was simply referring to Ben Linus who is revealed to be a surviving DHARMA worker who betrayed DHARMA and helped plan their extinction.

Visions

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Boone, as he appears in Locke's hallucination

On the Island, numerous characters experience auditory and visual hallucination-like phenomena, including apparent visions and messages from deceased family members. Both Jack and Eko receive visitations from dead relatives whose bodies are present on the island. Similarly, Locke converses with the deceased Boone during a vision quest in "Further Instructions". Previously, he received a similar vision, directing him to the site of a crashed airplane, while Boone was still alive. In the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain", Ben sees his deceased mother on the island twice as a child, and this eventually leads him to join "the Others".

An image of Walt appears to Shannon on a number of occasions during Season Two, and is later seen by Sayid, just prior to Shannon's death. In "Man of Science, Man of Faith", a water-drenched Walt appears before Shannon, and whispers, incomprehensibly, something that sounds like reversed speech. Walt is seen twice more by Shannon: the first time, he again speaks in reversed speech (which, according to Entertainment Weekly, sounds like, "They're coming and they're close."). When Walt appears a second time, he puts his index finger to his mouth and makes a "sshhh" sound right before Shannon pursues him to her death. And finally, in the season finale of the third season ("Through the Looking Glass"), Walt appears standing over Locke as he lies bleeding in a pit. Locke wakes up and attempts to shoot himself, but Walt tells Locke to "put the gun down", and "get up" because he has "work to do".

Hurley experiences visions of Dave, an imaginary friend whom he had seen before while in a mental institution. Dave goads Hurley into briefly believing that the Island itself is his hallucination, and that he can only reawaken to his real life (in the mental institution) by leaping from a cliff.

Kate receives two apparent visitations from her past: the seemingly channeled message from her deceased stepfather, spoken by Sawyer while in delirium; and later, an appearance of a black horse which she believes is the same one that enabled her escape from custody. It is worth noting that the horse was seen by Sawyer as well, and both he and Kate touched it and concluded that it was real.

In a Missing Pieces episode, Jack's father Christian is shown interacting with Vincent and directing the dog to "wake Jack".

Desmond apparently has the power of precognition, first discussed in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".

There has also been an occasion when a living person (apart from Walt) on the island was seen as a vision. A few days after they crashed, Boone sees a vision of Shannon being attacked by the "monster", leading him to try to rescue her; he fails and Shannon dies. He is shocked, however, when Locke tells him Shannon is alive and well. This particular vision though, was due to a hallucinogenic ointment made by Locke and smeared into a wound he gave Boone on the back of his head. He wanted Boone to have a vision so that he could transcend any mental restraints, such as his attachment to his stepsister Shannon, and be free to move on. Upon Boone's return, Locke exclaims that he "did not know it would make him see that," speaking of Shannon's death. It should be noted, though, that the sights and sounds of the "monster" experienced in the hallucionation are the same as in real life; dispite the fact that Boone never actually saw or heard the monster before this.

Sayid sees a cat that looks remarkably like one belonging to a woman whom Sayid had previously tortured, prior to the crash; it seems likely that this is not a vision, but merely a similar cat.

In the future, these visions are seen to be capable of taking place off-island. The most recent example is in "The Beginning of the End"; Hurley, after leaving the island, has visions of his deceased friend Charlie, saying "they need you". These visions convince Hurley to resubmit himself to his old mental institution. The off-island vision occur again when Jack sees and hears his father sitting in a lobby chair at the hospital where he works in "Something Nice Back Home".

The Black Rock

A slave ship containing dynamite is found inland on the Island. Its origins, former occupants, and especially how it ended up in the middle of the island are all highly debatable at this point. Penelope's father, Charles Widmore, is seen bidding on "Lot 2342" to buy a journal once owned by Tovard Hanso, the log belonging to the same ship.

When Ben confronts Widmore in "The Shape of Things to Come" this painting can be seen beside where he sleeps.

Miracles

Some castaways have expressed the belief that they have been miraculously healed since the crash. Prior to his arrival, Locke was confined to a wheelchair, but regains the use of his legs immediately after the crash. He tells Walt that a miracle happened to him ("Pilot, Part 2"). Locke also makes a miraculously fast recovery in the episode "Through the Looking Glass", after being shot and left for dead by Ben in the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain."

Similarly, Rose had been dying of cancer before crashing on the island. After the crash, she feels as if the cancer has "left her body" and credits her cure to the island ("S.O.S."). Sun becomes pregnant, despite the fact that a doctor had previously (secretly) declared her husband Jin to be medically incapable of fathering a child. She informs Jin of the true diagnosis, although she does not tell him about her recent affair (in Korea) with her English teacher, Jae Lee. Jin declares that the conception is a miracle ("The Whole Truth"). In the episode "D.O.C.", Juliet reveals that men on the island have five times the normal sperm count, explaining why Jin was able to impregnate Sun.

Despite his apparent death when John Locke pushes him through the invisible security fence surrounding the Others' encampment in the episode "Par Avion," Mikhail Bakunin later returns and stops the internal bleeding of the helicopter pilot, Naomi. He claims she will be fine in about a day, much to Charlie's surprise. That being far less than the normal recovery time for such an injury, Mikhail states that "things work differently" on the island. In the episode, "The Man Behind the Curtain," Mikhail tells Ben that the fence had not, in fact, been set to a lethal level, seemingly explaining away his brush with death. However, in the Season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass," Mikhail is shot through the chest with a spear gun by Desmond and again seems to have been killed. Mikhail, however, undergoes another miraculous recovery, revives (off-camera), and swims out of the station, then blows open a porthole, flooding the control room and killing Charlie.

The Others appear to operate on the assumption that cancer is impossible on the island, or at least within their own population ("One of Us"); Ben Linus appears deeply shocked when told he has a tumor on his spine.

The island does not appear to heal all people equally. Richard Alpert says in "The Brig" that Locke's spine healing itself is not a normal event, even by the island's standards; it is a sign of Locke being somehow "special". The effects of this specialness can apparently extend to other people; after his spinal surgery, Ben is paralyzed for over a week, but regains the feeling in his legs immediately after coming in contact with Locke, and is able to walk (with the aid of a cane) only days afterward.

Pregnancy

Apparently, any human female who conceives on the island dies before the baby is born. Other species of placental mammals like the wild boars do not die due to pregnancy. Several women have already given birth (Danielle, Claire), who had conceived before coming to the island. The Others have known about this for a long time and had enlisted the help of Juliet, a fertility researcher, to help find out why this happens. Because of this property of the island, it was believed that Sun was doomed to die within 6 months (based on statements by Juliet in "D.O.C."). However, a fourth season episode, "Ji Yeon," reveals that she is able to leave the island in time to give birth successfully.

The Ruins

In the episode "Live Together, Die Alone," while at sea, Sayid, Jin, and Sun sight what appears to be the remnants of a massive statue — a large, four-toed marble foot broken off at the ankle, standing upon a rock in the surf. Sayid remarks that he does not know which is more disturbing: the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that the foot has only four toes. Many fans are also puzzled by the origins of the statue, and some have compared it to the Colossus of Rhodes. Further ruins are revealed in "The Brig" when the Others tie Locke's father to the broken base of a large, stone column. Though they look ancient, the age of these ruins has yet to be confirmed. Toward the end of Season 3, Ben tells Richard to continue leading the rest of the Others to 'the temple', and in the episode "Meet Kevin Johnson," Ben sends Alex, Carl, and Rousseau to The Temple before they are ambushed, suggesting that there is another set of ruins somewhere on the island. It is possible, however, that "The Temple" is simply the name of an unknown Dharma station. In addition, in the episode "The Shape of Things to Come," after Ben's daughter is killed, Ben summons the smoke monster in a secret chamber hidden in his closet whose door contains what appear to be hieroglyphics and is made of stone.

Executive producer/writer Carlton Cuse has revealed that the four-toed statue will be further explained in Season 4.

The Sickness

Rousseau claims to have killed her team because they had caught a mysterious disease, which necessitated their executions. She claims the Others were the carriers of disease. A mysterious vaccine is provided by DHARMA food drops and is taken regularly by Kelvin and Desmond in the Swan Station, and administered to Claire by Ethan after her kidnapping. It is not known whether Kelvin and Ethan were deceiving Desmond and Claire about the necessity of the injections. It is also possible that the injections given to Claire are unrelated to the vaccine taken by Desmond and Kelvin, in light of the reason for Claire's kidnapping. It is possible that the "illness" could be the time-warping effect experienced by people travelling to the island, or the cabin fever Captain Gault mentions after Regina commits suicide.

Time Passage

After the episode "The Economist" it seems apparent that something is wrong with time on the island. Time on the island is moving separately from time in the "real world." In this episode, a missile is fired from a boat toward the island. According to Daniel Faraday's calculations, the missile does not reach the island when it should; it is 31 minutes, 18 seconds later than expected. Also, in the episode "Confirmed Dead," a polar bear is uncovered in an archaeological dig; some viewers have theorized that this is the same polar bear Sawyer shot in Season 1. In "The Constant", it has been revealed that time moves at the same rate both on and off the island, but it is only during the travelling between the two that the difference occurs. Doc Ray's body washes ashore in "The Shape of Things to Come"; Jack orders Daniel to ask the freighter, via radio, what had happened to the doctor. However, the people onboard respond that the doctor is fine, and is on the freighter "right now." In the same episode, Ben has to ask a Tunisian hotel clerk to confirm that the year is 2005 in the off-island timeline, implying both that time on the island flows very differently, and that Ben is unable to calculate the difference precisely. Two episodes later in "Cabin Fever", the doctor is finally murdered. His death occurs after his body washes up on shore.

The Whispers

At various times, whispering voices are heard by the characters, with no visible source of origin. Rousseau claims that these voices are of the Others, though it later becomes evident that this is not necessarily the case. It may be that the content of the whispers is linked to the characters' pasts; for instance, in the episode "Outlaws", when Sawyer encounters the whispering, the phrase "It'll come back around" is clearly recognizable. The same exact phrase is spoken during that episode's flashbacks. The whispers also seem to have a connection with the visions; before Ana Lucia shoots Shannon as she is chasing an image of Walt, they hear the whispering around them. In Season 3, there is whispering before Walt shows up at the mass grave, and before Richard, one of the Others, appears before a young Ben. In "The Beginning of the End," Hurley is found staring at Jacob's cabin, listening to whispers. When those whispers are slowed down you can hear, "It's me, Nikki" and "Is it Desmond," leading some to theorize that the whispers could originate with dead people on the island. Juliet also hears whispers on her way to the Tempest in Season 4.

The "Magic Box"

The "magic box" is mentioned by Ben to Locke in "The Man from Tallahassee" as an attempt to explain how Anthony Cooper, Locke's father, arrives on the island. Ben asks Locke to imagine a box that can deliver anything your mind could wish for. Later, Ben explains that Locke himself brought Cooper to the island by means of the box and his seemingly strong connection to the island. Cooper explains to Sawyer that his arrival on the island was by means of what appears to have been an elaborate kidnapping, but which Cooper, himself, believes to have been his death. The whereabouts of this mysterious "box" or portal have yet to be disclosed by the Others; considering that it is mentioned possibly as a metaphor by Ben, it may not exist as an actual, physical box. Sawyer is seen reading this novel "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien's in Season One. In the novel, the characters find an other worldly location where they can produce any item they wish, from weapons to gold. The producers have indicated that there are several allusions to the novel within the writing of Lost.

Crossovers

Prior to their arrival on the island, both major and minor characters had occasion to interact, often unknowingly, sometimes affecting each others' lives. These crossovers are revealed through characters' flashbacks, and are typically obvious only to viewers. Some intersections are quite noticeable, with different characters conversing with each other, but most often the characters are oblivious to these crossovers, which take the form of other characters' appearances on televisions or as glimpses in the background. The crossovers become more frequent in the final episodes of the first season, as all the characters approach each other before arriving at the airport, and finally boarding the airplane.

For example: Sawyer converses with Jack's father in a bar before boarding the plane; Hurley's accountant buys him the box company that Locke had worked for; Hurley can be seen on a television in one of Jin's flashbacks; and Jack is asked to choose between performing operations on his future wife (whom he hadn't met yet) or Boone's and Shannon's father/stepfather.

The show's producers have always said that there was a reason characters appeared in each other's flashbacks. Damon Lindelof has stated that these are not "Easter eggs," but rather a larger part of the mythology of the series.

Further reading

• Kaye, Sharon M. Lost and Philosophy: The Island Has Its Reasons. The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series (1 ed.). Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1405163151. Retrieved 2008-02-07. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |origmonth= ignored (help)