Zeb
05-27-2008, 01:23 AM
So, here's my take on the grand explains-everything (more or less) theory: The Island is a god.
Not that the physical land mass itself is divine. That's "the island". The divinity is "The Island". The Island is a transcendent spirit that manifests primarily within the spatial limits of the island - although it can reach beyond when it needs to.
Of course, as has been the trend for deities during the last couple of thousand years, it has multiple personalities. It's not a trinity, though, but a duality - The Island is split right down the middle between Light and Dark. (Not good and evil, though - more on that in a minute.)
Yes, The Island is schizophrenic. That alone explains a lot. It's also not firmly anchored in linear time; The Island's awareness is "smeared" across a much larger lenth of time than is the case for humans. For us, the "present moment" is pretty well confined to a fraction of a second. For The Island, it can be minutes, or hours, or days when its mind(s) start to wander. Which means, of course, that the poor mortals who are within The Island's sphere of influence will also experience some pretty bizarre temporal distortions.
The Island's awareness extends both into the past and the future. It's limited by the Heisenberg principle, so its awareness becomes fuzzier the farther away from the "present moment" it looks. But The Island can see all of the possible outcomes of choices made at the present moment - in other words, it can see all of the possible futures that diverge from this present moment, within a limited length of time. It can also see all of the possible pasts that could have led to the current moment - again, within a limited length of time.
What, you think the past is fixed? That's just a result of your limited perception. The Island is not so limited. There are lots of paths that could have led to the current moment, and as far as The Island is concerned, we travelled all of them. Don't think about it too much, or you'll wind up crazier than Desmond.
Speaking of Desmond... Whatever the hatch explosion did to him, it gave him and Island-like sense of time. He may have even merged part of his awareness with The Island itself. It's more than one human brain can handle, of course, so he sees it filtred through "visions" that come and go.
With me so far? Now for the fun part.
As I said, The Island is a duality - it has twin personalities, one Light, one Dark. Now, the two personalities aren't at war with each other; they're opposite sides of the same coin, and need each other to exist. Alas, that's not how it is for the humans who interact with it.
Ben, Widmore, and Locke are all aspiring to be the High Priest of The Island. And given their upbringing within the Cartesian mind-set ofWestern culture, they can't help but translate Light and Dark into Good and Evil. And, compounding the error, they see the two sides of The Island as inevitably locked into a war to the death. Ben and Widmore have chosen what they perceive to be the opposing sides of this war. And, interestingly, each sees himself fighting for the Good side, making the other inevitably Evil. Widmore probably believes he's as much a good guy as Ben does. Locke... well, he's within Ben's orbit for the moment, but he's not committed to Ben's "side" yet. So it may be possible for Locke to transcend the Ben-Widmore conflict and see The Island for what it truly is. Time will tell.
Now, as for all of these ghosts, visions and smoke monsters that keep popping up, they're all the result of interactions between the unconscious minds of the people on the island and the unconscious mind(s) of The Island. For example, Christian was pretty strongly on Jack's mind when the plane crashed, so "Christian" manifested itself out of a stray bit of The Island's consciousness. "Christian" is a part of The Island that has gained a bit of independence - it has access to all of The Island's knowledge, but has its own agenda, which is filtered through the personality of Christian Shepherd. "Charlie", as seen by Hugo, is another such Island-avatar.
There's a lot more to this, but I'm running out of concentration. Best to stop before I wander too far.
Not that the physical land mass itself is divine. That's "the island". The divinity is "The Island". The Island is a transcendent spirit that manifests primarily within the spatial limits of the island - although it can reach beyond when it needs to.
Of course, as has been the trend for deities during the last couple of thousand years, it has multiple personalities. It's not a trinity, though, but a duality - The Island is split right down the middle between Light and Dark. (Not good and evil, though - more on that in a minute.)
Yes, The Island is schizophrenic. That alone explains a lot. It's also not firmly anchored in linear time; The Island's awareness is "smeared" across a much larger lenth of time than is the case for humans. For us, the "present moment" is pretty well confined to a fraction of a second. For The Island, it can be minutes, or hours, or days when its mind(s) start to wander. Which means, of course, that the poor mortals who are within The Island's sphere of influence will also experience some pretty bizarre temporal distortions.
The Island's awareness extends both into the past and the future. It's limited by the Heisenberg principle, so its awareness becomes fuzzier the farther away from the "present moment" it looks. But The Island can see all of the possible outcomes of choices made at the present moment - in other words, it can see all of the possible futures that diverge from this present moment, within a limited length of time. It can also see all of the possible pasts that could have led to the current moment - again, within a limited length of time.
What, you think the past is fixed? That's just a result of your limited perception. The Island is not so limited. There are lots of paths that could have led to the current moment, and as far as The Island is concerned, we travelled all of them. Don't think about it too much, or you'll wind up crazier than Desmond.
Speaking of Desmond... Whatever the hatch explosion did to him, it gave him and Island-like sense of time. He may have even merged part of his awareness with The Island itself. It's more than one human brain can handle, of course, so he sees it filtred through "visions" that come and go.
With me so far? Now for the fun part.
As I said, The Island is a duality - it has twin personalities, one Light, one Dark. Now, the two personalities aren't at war with each other; they're opposite sides of the same coin, and need each other to exist. Alas, that's not how it is for the humans who interact with it.
Ben, Widmore, and Locke are all aspiring to be the High Priest of The Island. And given their upbringing within the Cartesian mind-set ofWestern culture, they can't help but translate Light and Dark into Good and Evil. And, compounding the error, they see the two sides of The Island as inevitably locked into a war to the death. Ben and Widmore have chosen what they perceive to be the opposing sides of this war. And, interestingly, each sees himself fighting for the Good side, making the other inevitably Evil. Widmore probably believes he's as much a good guy as Ben does. Locke... well, he's within Ben's orbit for the moment, but he's not committed to Ben's "side" yet. So it may be possible for Locke to transcend the Ben-Widmore conflict and see The Island for what it truly is. Time will tell.
Now, as for all of these ghosts, visions and smoke monsters that keep popping up, they're all the result of interactions between the unconscious minds of the people on the island and the unconscious mind(s) of The Island. For example, Christian was pretty strongly on Jack's mind when the plane crashed, so "Christian" manifested itself out of a stray bit of The Island's consciousness. "Christian" is a part of The Island that has gained a bit of independence - it has access to all of The Island's knowledge, but has its own agenda, which is filtered through the personality of Christian Shepherd. "Charlie", as seen by Hugo, is another such Island-avatar.
There's a lot more to this, but I'm running out of concentration. Best to stop before I wander too far.