My latest lost theory...

**Michael Crawford** · April 10th, 2006, 01:22 PM

My current Lost theory - this may ramble a bit, since I'm just getting my head around it and seeing what fits and what doesn't.

The magnetic force on the island accentuates the inert psychic talent of anyone. I haven't decided if the magnetic force is alien in nature or natural, but either way, it was there before our friends from Dharma showed up.

Dharma came along and started their various experiments on the island. They realized the psychic potential of the magnet, and that even regular folks could use it. Tapping into this force is why Jack saw his father, Hurley saw Dave, Boone saw Shannon's death, and why Locke can walk...Walt has tapped into it to project himself to Shannon to warn her. But if regular folks could use the island this way, just think what would happen with the truly psychic could do.

So Dharma brought the super psychics. And unleashed a destructive force they couldn't contain. The subconscious, the id, has many evil thoughts, just waiting to be released. The island's power gave those thoughts form and power, and they destroyed themselves. This is also what happened to Danielle's party - the sickness. Just as Hurley's Dave tried to convince him to kill himself, the people of Dharma and Danielle's party unleashed characters from their minds that convinced them to destroy themselves and the rest of their groups. That is why Danielle had to kill them.

The Others understand this. They are made up of survivors of Dharma and survivors of crashes like Alex. They believe they are 'good', because they have the purist thoughts (or so they believe). They learn this through the use of a mind reading machine of some sort (like the Cerberus) that allows them to determine who in a crash is 'good' and who is 'evil'. The drug is key here though - they are injecting themselves with a drug that inhibits their psychic ability. Both Claire's baby and Walt pose real threats to them, because their psychic ability is strong enough to destroy them, and that is why they want them so badly.

The only reason Henry is back around is Claire's baby. If they could gain control of the child, they'd leave our survivors alone now, but as long as the baby is there, they pose a threat to the Others survival.

I toyed around with a couple other ideas in this vein - what if the Others aren't 'real', but are all projections of alter egos of our party? Ethan for Charley, Henry for Locke, etc. Interesting, but I rejected it - for now.

Where did the food come from? This is a very weird development. What if the island can generate it? Fans of the classic film Forbidden Planet may notice a LOT of similarities with that story (and my theory). Likewise, Forbidden Planet was a variation on the Shakespeare play The Tempest, which was set on an island as well. In Forbidden Planet, the underground machinery which powered the psychic ability had given the only human smart enough to control it (or so he thought) the ability to create Robby the Robot. Robbie was able to manufacture just about anything necessary. Is Cerberus like Robbie, an early invention of the Dharma Initiative as they were just learning how to use the powers that eventually got out of their control? And is Cerberus the one responsible for the food, and not a plane drop at all?

BTW, in my theory, Henry is actually telling the truth about the numbers and the hatch. They were nothing more than a Skinner-like experiment, and may have been an early version of the psychic inhibiting drug - by having to focus on the necessary task, they were less likely to create their own monsters.

And speaking of the numbers, they are like Pi or Phi - numbers that show up in geometry or nature that are part of a repeating pattern or constants that explain mathmetical relationships. The set of 6 numbers in Lost are similar, with no actual explaination, but with a shown relationship to psychic behavior.

If the show is heavily influenced by The Tempest, then Cerberus isn't the thing killing folks. Cerberus seems more like Ariel in the original, or Robbie in Forbidden Planet. Instead, what is killing people - when it's not natural causes like Boone - is the images from their own minds.

Well, that's my theory for today. Wait til tomorrow, and I'll change my mind again. [img]smile.gif[/img]

**Andyman** · April 10th, 2006, 01:37 PM

Wow. I very good theory and very plausible. Even if it's not correct I think the series writers should adopt it.

BTW-did you just happen to see "Forbidden Planet" this weekend and was that the catalyst to your theory?

**sculpey** · April 10th, 2006, 01:39 PM

Pretty good theory. I think the magnet holds part of the key to the story and it quite possibly has been around longer than the project itself. The producers have said the island has a history that predates what we've been shown, and Magnus Hanso might be involved in all of this.

**Andyman** · April 10th, 2006, 01:43 PM

So how would this theory work out with the plane crashes? Is it the "psychic desire" of the others to bring in more people?

**KillerKanuck** · April 10th, 2006, 01:47 PM

Originally posted by Andyman:
So how would this theory work out with the plane crashes? Is it the "psychic desire" of the others to bring in more people?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Could be that actual magnetic pull of the island that brings down any plane that flies too close to the island? [img]graemlins/thinking.gif[/img]
Of course that really wouldn't explain the balloon crash, would it. [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img]

**Michael Crawford** · April 10th, 2006, 01:56 PM

Or perhaps the magnetic force actually pulls in people mentally, rather than in a traditional sense. If you think of psychic energy like magnetism or gravity, then enough psychic energy could drag someone in. If it's Desmond or Gale, it's just one man in a kayak or balloon, but with enough people on 813 with some ability (and Walt and Aaron with lots), the force was enough to crash the plane. Remember, the plane isn't a common event - every other crash since the Black Rock apppears to be small.

And I'd seen Forbidden Planet many times as a kid, but did see it again this last week, and was shocked by how similar the underground power center and bunkers were.

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ April 10, 2006 10:57 AM: Message edited by: Michael Crawford ]</font>

**Andyman** · April 10th, 2006, 02:05 PM

That's why I jumped onto your theory so quickly having seen some of Forbidden Planet this past weekend and putting it fresh in my mind. There are quite a few parallels to that movie.