[Note: This was posted at 1:48pm, CST, on 3/26/09.]
3/27/09 Addendum: Special Note to those who may be inclined toward a strictly figurative interpretation of the relevance of Castaneda for Lost.... Don't forget one of the most important lines uttered during Season 5 to date, during the "LaFleur" episode. After Sawyer/LaFleur recounts for Alpert key aspects from his 1950s visit (with Locke et al.) to the island, and Alpert is justifiably mystified by this seemingly 'magical' knowledge, Alpert then asks LaFleur not 'Who are you?', but instead he asks "WHAT are you?" Go back and review the exchange.... He is asking LaFleur what kind of being LaFleur is, such that he would have access to that kind of seemingly 'magical' knowledge.... (Angel? Sorceror? Nagual?) Alpert might just as well have posed that very same question to Christian Shephard. And, he might just as well ask of himself: "What kind of being is the world's best rep for the 'Ponce de Leon' line of anti-aging and eyeliner products?" And what about Jacob....? Per my posting below, there is ample room on the island for both literal and figurative interpretations of the relevance of Castaneda for Lost....
3/28/09 Addendum: Hmmm.... Given the recent Castaneda tie-in, that fabled 'Hurley Bird' is looking more and more like it might be a Nagual.... This certainly would provide Alpert (and others?) with a quick and easy way to get around the island, perhaps even seeming to 'magically' appear and disappear, and providing a facile manner for circumventing the sonic fence....
_________________________________________________________________________
HE'S OUR YOU:
SHAMANIC NAGUALS, NARCISSISTS,
AND THE 'INCIDENTAL' COLLAPSE OF THE
SPACETIME CONTINUUM
Congratulations on another great episode from the Lost creative combine.... It was gratifying to see my prediction that Sayid would shoot young Ben realized.... Of course, this is yet another instance of a 'predestination loop', with Sayid contributing to the fall of a 'gentle Ben', another in a line of abusive acts helping to create the conditions for the development of the decidedly crafty and manipulative monster Ben whom Sayid so despised.... Hmmm.... I wonder where Sayid's bullet is lodged... perhaps somewhere near young Ben's spine?!
And I'm sure I'm not alone in relishing the delightful irony arising when Ilana/Zuleikha Robinson-- a close associate of The Lone Gunmen in that short-lived X-Files spinoff-- was hired to bring in Ben's 'Oceanic Lone Gunman', Sayid....
Part of me was hoping to see that it was Bob Newhart driving the DHARMA van, when LaFleur's crew brought Sayid to Oldham (William Sanderson) for interrogation.... I can see the script for the 5.10 episode parody now.... Oldham administers the electric koolaid acid truth test to Sayid..... who smokes Oldham's true identity out... "You're Larry, and they're really Darryl and Darryl... It was the flannel undergarments that gave you away..."
But seriously... I was very pleased to see gentle Ben slip Sayid a copy of Carlos Castaneda's classic A Separate Reality, further cementing the promise made by Darlton in their 12/28/08 interview with Doc Jensen, to keep the magic in the show and not reduce everything to science. 1 I graduated with a psychology major and a cultural anthropology minor from Saint Olaf College in 1981, so Castaneda's works are very familiar to me. Although the veracity of his claims remain a subject for debate, Castaneda's works provide a fascinating window of insight into planes of existence beyond our own western-culture-bound ken:
"In his books, Castaneda narrated in
first person what he claimed were his experiences under the tutelage of a
Yaqui shaman named
don Juan Matus whom he met in 1960.... Castaneda wrote that he was identified by don Juan Matus as having the energetic configuration of a "
nagual", who, if the spirit chose, could become a leader of a party of
seers. He also used the term "nagual" to signify that part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man, implying that, for his party of seers, don Juan was in some way a connection to that unknown. Castaneda often referred to this unknown realm as
nonordinary reality, which indicated that this realm was indeed a
reality, but radically different from the ordinary reality experienced by human beings who are well engaged in everyday activities as part of their social conditioning."
Of course, one of the most obvious connections to Lost involves the potential for leveraging the island's unique energy profile to access 'nonordinary realities':
"The main focus of the book [A Separate Reality] centered around Don Juan's attempts at getting Carlos to See, a practice best described as, in Castaneda's own words, "perceiving energy directly as it flows through the universe".
On Lost we may have been serving witness to an auditory version of Castaneda's 'nonordinary realities', with the island's energy enabling us to begin to HEAR, i.e., to perceive patterns of higher order sentient existence, namely messages from extradimensional, ascendent, nagual entities such as JACOB..... To wit, Locke hearing Jacob's voice, and Sayid and Shannon (and others) hearing those eerie 'voices in the jungle'....
However, in order to fully appreciate the relevance of Castaneda for Lost, it is necessary to consider further lessons contained in Journey To Ixtlan, the follow-up to A Separate Reality:
"In
Journey to Ixtlan Castaneda essentially reevaluates the teachings up to that point. He discusses information that was apparently missing from the first two books regarding stopping the world which previously he had only regarded as a metaphor. He also finds that
psychotropic plants, knowledge of which was a significant part of his
apprenticeship to
Yaqui shaman don Juan Matus, are not as important in the world view as he had previously thought. In the introduction he writes:
My basic assumption in both [prior]books has been that the articulation points in learning to be a sorcerer were the states of nonordinary reality produced by the ingestion of psychotropic plants... My perception of the world through the effects of those psychotropics had been so bizarre and impressive that I was forced to assume that such states were the only avenue to communicating and learning what Don Juan was attempting to teach me. That assumption was erroneous."
In short, one of the profound functions and aspects of the island from a magical perspective is to provide a means for: (1) temporarily accessing, and gaining insights from, nonordinary reality; and (2) taking a more 'permanent' step by transmuting or ascending to existence in this higher order, extradimensional nonordinary reality-- Exhibit A= Christian Shephard-- all without the necessity of using psychotropic plants/drugs.
Indeed, viewed from within the realm of Castaneda's teachings, Christian Shephard and others (Alpert? Locke?) may be reasonably construed as shamanistic naguals who have ascended to a higher energetic (and existential) configuration on the island....
"Castaneda wrote that he was identified by don Juan Matus as having the energetic configuration of a "
nagual", who, if the spirit chose, could become a leader of a party of
seers. He also used the term "nagual" to signify that part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man, implying that, for his party of seers, don Juan was in some way a connection to that unknown."
"In
Mesoamerican folk religion a
Nagual or
Nahual (both pronounced [na'wal]) is a human being who has the power to magically turn him- or herself into an animal form, most commonly donkey, turkey and dogs,
[1] but also other and more powerful animals. The Nagual can then use his powers for good or for evil causes according to his personality." [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagual]
So the Castaneda perspective sheds some interesting angles not only on the nature and powers of the island, but also on the nature and powers of Christian Shephard and other important players (Alpert? Locke?). And per my recent postings exploring the likely Season 6 focus on factional conflicts rooted in fundamental dualities-- good vs. evil, free will vs. determinism, etc.-- the final part of the latter quote suggests that even if the island turns out to be a haven for a dark side Luciferian Brotherhood of the Snake, its powers may also be used for good, depending on one's personality and motives....
Journey To Ixtlan provides some additional insights into the nature of the island:
"'Ixtlan' turns out to be a metaphorical hometown to which the "sorcerer" or warrior or man of knowledge occasionally wishes desperately to return. This is because his elevated perspective leaves him little in common with ordinary people, who now seem no more substantial to him than "phantoms". The point of the story is that a man of knowledge, or sorcerer, is a changed being, and for that reason he can never truly go 'home' to his old lifestyle again." [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_Ixtlan]
How interesting that what we may have been witnessing on Lost to date is the ability of the island to serve not only as a unique spacetime portal to an 'Ixtlanic hometown' for extradimensional shamanic naguals like Christian Shephard, but also to serve a heuristic function in enabling persons like Locke to progress along a path of knowledge, to become a 'changed being', a sorceror, a shamanic nagual him/herself, in order to take up the mantle of leadership over a group of Otherly Seers:
"In the book don Juan takes Carlos on these various degrees of
apprenticeship, in response to what he believes are signals from the supernatural world, "The decision as to who can be a warrior and who can only be a hunter is not up to us. That decision is in the realm of the powers that guide men."
The book shows a progression between different states of learning, from
hunter, to
warrior, to man of knowledge or
sorcerer, the difference said to be one of skill level and the type of thing hunted, "...a warrior is an impeccable hunter that hunts power. If he succeeds in his hunting he becomes a man of knowledge."
[Throughout the book Castaneda portrays himself as skeptical and reserved in his explanations of the phenomena at hand, but by the end of the book Castaneda's rationalist worldview is seen to be breaking down in the face of an onslaught of experiences that he is unable to explain logically."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_Ixtlan]
Hmmmm.... How eerie are the parallels in the stages of apprenticeship noted by Castaneda above, with the phases of heuristic experiences/learning through which Locke has progressed on the island, to date.... Locke has indeed progressed from the HUNTER to the WARRIOR, and now to the shamanic nagual SORCEROR, ready to ascend to the head of the band of OTHERLY SEERS....
The next two sections of this posting will add some key pieces to the explanatory foundation I've been building over the past few weeks, a foundation focused on the nature and contents of the probable factional conflicts figuring prominently in Season 6. Having laid this groundwork, I'll conclude with my current thoughts regarding the nature of The Incident that will figure so prominently in the Season 5 finale....
I Can See For (I Am) Miles: The Collapsing Spacetime Continuum-
Doc Jensen and others have disclosed a key plot element playing out in the remaining Lost episodes: Miles will issue a warning to Faraday that he foresees an impending collapse of the spacetime continuum....2 Most obviously, this raises some intriguing and nontrivial implications regarding the nature and contents of the Season 5 two-part finale, focused on The Incident. (I'll explore these implications from a scientific angle in the final section of this posting, below....)
Building on the foundation I've been constructing in my recent postings, we must not overlook the broader social and philosophical contexts within which the science and magic are playing out, especially when we consider Darlton's promise of a more grounded and character-driven Season 6. Following this lead, in my 3/5/09 "LaFleur" posting, I began exploring the basis for faction-based Season 6 conflicts grounded in a 'good vs. evil' theme, noting some parallels between: (a) Richard Alpert and the Others, and (b) the Nephilim, fallen angels following Lucifer. In addition, I proposed a potential connection between the documented Nazi obsession with the occult in general, and their desire to find the Lost City of Shambala and locate a portal to the hollow inner Earth in Tibet and in Antarctica.
I fleshed out this 'good vs. evil' view on faction-based Season 6 conflicts in my 3/19/09 "Namaste" posting, invoking and examining the Brotherhood of the Snake as an eerily relevant and powerful means of connecting the dots between a range of different elements on the show, including: the ancient ruins and artifacts, psychokinesis and other 'magical' powers, the importance of island-enabled spacetime travel in empire-building activities conducted on the mainland (including recent incarnations of empire as business corporations), the existence and operation of powerful sects tracing their roots back to ancient times (indeed, all the way back to the Garden of Eden), and more....
So what does the potential collapse of the spacetime continuum have to do with all of this? Much more than may at first meet the eye, as in addition to a 'good vs. evil' basis for Season 6 factional conflicts, I strongly suspect that the 'free will (choice) vs. determinism (fate)' duality will play an important role as a thematic underpinning of these very same factions and conflicts. And, interestingly enough, a rich mine of insights into the latter is available in two sci fi games with 'CONTINUUM' in their title....
First in line for our consideration is the 1993 single player computer game called 'The C.H.A.O.S. Continuum'. Consider the intriguing parallels among this game and Lost:
"The game takes place in a parallel continuum during the year 2577 on Saturn's moon,
Titan. During this time, colonists who are living in a protective biosphere shell on Titan called New Eden Colony, have discovered a silicon-based material called Azryan matter which allows them to build powerful neural network computers and experiment with distorting the
space/time continuum.... After this discovery they construct a sentient orbital super-computer called "C.H.A.O.S." (an acronym for cybergenetic holistic autonomous orbiting server) which is intended to be a refueling stop for deep-space missions. After the discovery of Azryan, a quartz-like substance found only on Titan, plans change to make C.H.A.O.S. the most powerful supercomputer ever created. The operating system of this server is the self-perpetuating Azryan Core Neural set which is capable of replicating itself to expand its capacity to unlimited amounts. The C.H.A.O.S. station manages colony operations and also conducts scientific research which is fed to the colonists through biogenetic implants in their brains."
The island, with its outer energy shell and idyllic tropical setting, is indeed not unlike the "New Eden Colony" contained within a "protective biosphere shell." Per my prior postings, I'm still wondering if it is possible for the island in Lost to serve as a protected environment for its inhabitants, were it to engage in spacetime travel beyond the Earth, to another galaxy (nod to Damon's Crab Nebula quip in a prior interview, here....)
And how interesting to consider the potential plot connections concerning the discovery of a material used in building a sentient device ("neural network computers") and experimenting with "distorting the spacetime continuum"! The first and most obvious connection is that the black-rock-infused unique energy profile of the island enables DHARMA to similarly conduct experiments involving the spacetime continuum. Exhibit A is found in the Orchid hatch film depicting the results of sending a rabbit through spacetime (more on this, below!)
A second intriguing connection is the potential for the black-rock-infused island to serve as a basis for developing a form of sentience. One line of thought in this regard is that the unique nature and properties of the island may have naturally led to the development of the island as a sentient entity. I've explored this possibility in different guises during my prior postings, including a GAIA-based view of the island as a naturally evolved global neural network, regulating weather and other aspects, with distributed neural nodes/synapses located at the energy pockets (vile vortices) comprising the Earth's energy grid.
Another potentially less benign interpretation is that the island sentience is not GAIA, but rather is FATE or destiny, with the island serving the purpose of regulating the integrity of the spacetime continuum, ensuring it stays on track through necessary course corrections, achieved via Smokey and other means....
A second line of thought is that via human contact with the island, the island's unique matter/energy profile was unleashed, amplified, and leveraged, in no small part due to the installation and operation of devices, ranging from the ancient Frozen Donkey Wheel to the equipment deployed at the DHARMA hatches (especially the Swan and Orchid hatches). An unintended effect of these devices may have been the establishment of the conditions for sentience on the island... perhaps what we've been witnessing as JACOB. One intriguing surmise is that in the late 1970's Faraday will set up and operate equipment on the island in order to help stop the collapse of the spacetime continuum, only his attempt will backfire and will actually lead to the famed Incident. (More on this, below....)
Of course, the notion of a "sentient orbital super-computer called C.H.A.O.S." strikes eerie chords with the Valis connection noted in an earlier season of Lost. A final interesting connection relates to the sphere of energy surrounding the island and its potential effects and uses:
"The remaining scientists trapped in the New Eden Research Sector build a time-probe which they leave in New Eden that can be remotely controlled from another dimension. The scientists then use a prototype Interphase Field Generator to create a bubble in an alternate continuum which allows them to jump to another dimension and time. Soon after this C.H.A.O.S. takes control of the Field Generator causing the scientists to become trapped in their time/continuum bubble... The trapped scientists are able to make contact with the player in the current time and give him remote-control over the time-probe which they left in New Eden in order to stop the rampaging station and allow the trapped scientists to return to their dimension."
In a future Lost episode, will we witness Faraday attempt to save the island (and the Earth?) from dire consequences associated with the collapse of the spacetime continuum, through setting up and operating equipment designed to generate a similar kind of "bubble", moving us to another dimension and time? It will indeed be interesting to witness the degree to which The Incident involves an attempt by Faraday (and others?) to avoid the negative consequences of an impending spacetime collapse, an attempt which ironically will lead to some of the very same problems which led to the threat of the spacetime collapse, in a delightfully fate-ful and circular manner, as what happened, happened....!
The Collapsing Spacetime Continuum, Part Deux: Season 6 C0ntinuum Factions?
As interesting as the C.H.A.O.S. Continuum parallels may be, a larger and even more relevant set of connections is found in a 1999 sci fi multiplayer game called C0ntinuum. Along the way, we will see some very intriguing linkages to a range of different Lost characters (Desmond, Faraday, Widmore, etc.) as well as some deeper insights into the factional conflicts and dynamics likely to play out in Season 6. Here we go....
"Unlike other time travel games (and fiction), which usually depict time travelers as either lone explorers or as an all-powerful "
time police",
C°ntinuum assumes that time travelers (
spanners) would eventually evolve their own society, with its own laws, rules,
slang, groups, art movements, and the like. Time travel would color such a civilization in the same way that any other major technology (such as
television or the
automobile) has changed the human race.
C°ntinuum states that the core question of the game is "If you could learn to span time at will . . .
what form of civilization would you be entering?"
The Continuum, the main spanner civilization, extends through the whole of human history (and beyond, although the post-Human society of the enigmatic "Inheritors" borders on both sides). A primary focus of this civilization is to increase the knowledge and acceptance of time travel by the human race, so that when time travel is discovered and announced (approx. 2250 AD), humans will be ready for it, and moving into the next step in their evolution (becoming Inheritors). Another focus of the Continuum is the complete documentation of history."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C2%B0ntinuum]
A "spanner" is anyone who travels in time, and we've witnessed quite a range of 'spanners' on the show to date (Ben, Locke, the castaways....) One of the more intriguing aspects of the C0ntinuum role playing game (RPG) is the notion that one of the first things you'd do if you had access to time travel is to visit the future in order to obtain a better time-traveling device, one that fits inside your body, enabling you to travel through time without the burden of some external device. Viewed from this perspective, all but one of the Lost 'spanners' has traveled through time with the aid of an external device or means: the island (this includes the FDW and the Orchid hatch devices/equipment, located on the island.)
The sole exception, of course, is DESMOND, who has been 'retuned' by the Swan hatch explosion such that he is able to experience fleeting flashes forward and backward in time. According to the C0ntinuum RPG, the change in Desmond can be construed as one step in the evolution toward a form of human being called an Inheritor:
"Eventually, humans evolve into 'Inheritors', who are, notably, spanners from birth."
It will indeed be interesting to see if Charlie Hume, inherits the ability to flash forward and backward in time, from his father. More intriguing is the possibility that young Charlie will surpass even father Desmond by possessing the ability to function as a self-contained time-traveling device, a "spanner from birth." Time will tell....
Lost aficionados will recall the scrambled search for "Frag Codes"-- a 'basket-ful' of Lost easter eggs-- during 2006. The 'frag' concept has a distinct and distinctly relevant meaning in the C0ntinuum RPG, especially with regard to the resolution of time paradoxes:
"The game's solution to the issue of time travel
paradox is the concept of
frag. The universe does not tolerate paradox caused by time travelers, nor are
parallel worlds created by paradox. Instead the universe begins to "erase" those for whom the paradox exists. (The frag concept appears to be based partly on the ideas in
Alfred Bester's "The Men who Murdered Mohammed".) Too much trying to change history (too much frag) and time travelers become something not quite real anymore. Frag can also be generated on purpose, a tactic in "time combat". The Continuum society is partially built upon the repair of paradoxes that affect its members.... To explain frag by example, using the
Grandfather paradox, a Narcissist might decide to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. If he "succeeded", he would return to his own time to find his grandfather alive. (The Continuum would step in to "repair" the murder.) The Narcissist would then begin to fade out of existence due to the conflict between his own memories and actual history. He has been "fragged"."
So on this view, the attempts by Desmond to save Charlie Pace from his inevitable, eventual, 'fated' demise would most definitely engender some dire repercussions in the eyes of fate/destiny, as each attempt to change what happened would generate more 'frag' or a larger store of 'bad temporal karma' with the fate-gods-that-be.
For those of us who have been wondering exactly how the Smoke Monster judges those whom it confronts-- Ecko, Locke, etc.-- one distinct possibility raised by the C0ntinuum RPG is that Smokey is a time/fatecop who is assessing us not only in terms of whether or not we are supposed to remain in the spacetime continuum, but also in terms of how much 'frag' we have generated to date, i.e., how much of a problem we've been to the continued integrity of the ongoing spacetime continuum (destiny, the fateline....)
So one way to get on Smokey's bad side is to linger longer than you are supposed to, and you are thusly removed (pick up the pace, Charlie!)... Another way is to build up enough 'frag' through repeated attempts to change the time/fateline, that you are deemed enough a threat to warrant summary removal from the spacetime continuum.... It will be interesting to see what happens if Ben, as some have predicted, submits to Smokey's judgment in a future episode.... Will it be time to remove Ben from 'the game'? Will Ben be judged to have built up so much bad temporal karmic 'frag' that it is time for him to go?
On a deeper level, the C0ntinuum RPG speaks to the free will vs. determinism duality in a manner directly relevant to factional Season 6 conflicts in Lost. At the heart of the C0ntinuum RPG are two factions polarized by their opposing views regarding whether or not the timeline can and should be changed:
"The Continuum- The society of time-travelers who believe that the timeline cannot (and thus should not) be changed. Whether this is true or if it is this way because the Inheritors want a stable existence is unclear.... Narcissists- The members of the society that opposes the Continuum, believing that the timeline can and should be changed. In the
Nªrcissist 0.7 playtest document, they are shown to also believe in a continuous
multiverse, and their efforts to escape into it via time travel lead to their being called
Crashers; their poor reputation is shown to be the result of the Continuum perceiving this as only attempts to undermine the stability of reality.... The Continuum civilization has "time criminals", called "
Narcissists", so called because they seek to remake history in their own image. The Continuum has members trained to "repair" damage caused to the course of history by the Narcissists."
Given what we've witnessed on the show to date, Daniel Faraday would most certainly qualify as a card-carrying member of the Continuum, considering his expressed view of time as a street and his statements regarding our inability to change what happened....
At the other end of the spectrum are Narcissists who fervently desire to use the island's powers for their own self-interested motives (Hanso, Widmore, etc.) and to change fate/time. Exhibit A for the latter form of Narcissists would most certainly include the DHARMA Initiative, with their expressed interest in finding ways to circumvent the predictions of doom and gloom as per the Valenzetti Equation.... Anyone who attempts to change the time/fateline, for whatever reason, is generating 'frag' and is thus subject to course correction via Smokey and other 'fatecop' means (consider the multiple instances of gun misfires surrounding Michael.... demonstrating a non-Smokey frag/fate/timecop variant.)
It will be interesting to see if Season 6 factions form along lines demarcated in the following manner.... Narcissists who would change fate, for selfish reasons, including Hanso, Widmore, DHARMA and all other sects in a line running back to the original 'dark side' Brotherhood of the Snake', seeking to thwart the end-of-the-world Valenzetti Equation predictions and, by do doing, preserving their status quo as behind-the-scenes 'emperors' of a flawed and sinful world. This is Lucifer's realm, with his fallen Nephilimic angels, and he does not want the end of the world as he knows it, to come, as this would signal the impending arrival of the Messiah....
And in the other corner, The Continuum, comprised of those who are working to safeguard the continued integrity of the spacetime continuum, the very stability of reality. This side/faction includes Faraday and other 'unfallen angels' seeking to ensure that the fated fall of Lucifer's dark and sinful realm proceeds as it has happened and will happen.... enabling fated arrival of the Messiah.... Time will tell, but I suspect that Desmond has been learning his lesson about 'frag', and that he will in the end be a convert to The Continuum and a force to be reckoned with... Look out Jean-Claude van Damme, here comes the real time/fatecop... Des....
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge? No, A Looping Spacetime Compaction!
In true C0ntinuum RPG form, I'm now wondering if in the remaining episodes of Season 5, we'll witness Faraday's 'Continuum' faith tested as he wrestles with thoughts of changing what happened.... Certainly when facing the impending collapse of the spacetime continuum, per Miles' warning in a future episode, it is indeed tempting to ponder ways to save the world through pulling a Slipshank:
"Slipshank- A time-travel technique where your future self gives your current self something. This accrues a small amount of Frag until you actually perform the action. For example, a spanner sitting in front of the television may be thirsty, but not want to get up. She may then reach under the chair, find a beer, and drink it. It is now necessary for her to, at some point in her yet [future], get a beer, travel back in time, and place it under the sofa, and she will have a small amount of frag until she does."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C2%B0ntinuum]
Will Faraday's future self give his 1977 self something-- information, a piece of equipment, or?-- enabling the 1977 Faraday to install and operate a device aimed at avoiding the collapse of the spacetime continuum? Even more interesting is the potential for Faraday to try to save the world through pulling a Gemini incident:
"Gemini Incident- Encountering yourself. This is risky, because if the event happens differently the "second" time, there is potential for paradox and frag."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C2%B0ntinuum]
Hmmm.... Will we learn, in the final episodes of Season 5, that the true meaning of the word Incident lies in a spacetime event where Faraday meets himself and generates paradox/frag? Certainly the double-bunnies in the Orchid Hatch video could engender a 'Gemini incident'.... What triggered the Incident? Was it an overload at the Swan Hatch reactor? Or was the Swan Hatch overload first triggered by a spacetime rift event occurring miles away, at the Orchid Hatch, as the double bunnies rubbed their noses together and an ensuing Casimirically-charged event left our good Dr. Candle with less than a full complement of appendages....? (Nod to the X-Files Dreamland two-parter, in which we witnessed a copilot fused with a boulder....)
I would not at all be surprised to see Faraday wrestling with himself, in Gemini Incident form, over what to do in order to save the island from an impending collapse of the spacetime continuum.... And that whatever Faraday ends up doing, he learns that to stop the collapse of the continuum will result in The Incident:
"The Incident was an electromagnetic anomaly that apparently caused a catastrophic event that resulted in the DHARMA Initiative establishing the Swan station's protocol. The Incident was first mentioned by Dr. Marvin Candle in the Swan Orientation film. ("Orientation") The Incident occured due to a system failure of the Swan reactor in the Incident Room.... During the Swan Orientation Film, Dr. Marvin Candle mentioned that there was "an incident" which resulted in the creation of a protocol that required a code to be entered every 108 minutes. The incident involved a leak in the containment associated with an electromagnetic anomaly. The leak caused an unspecified charge to build up within the anomaly. As the charge built up, the magnetic field associated with the anomaly grew. After 108 minutes, the magnetic field was large enough to damage the Swan station. This incident most likely occurred before 1980, the production date of the film....It is unknown exactly what caused the incident to occur or what kind of damage it caused. The protocol was created so that the magnetic anomaly could be discharged every 108 minutes, thus preventing an electromagnetic catastrophe. Failure to comply with this protocol leads to a system failure. There is a failsafe mechanism in place below the floor of the computer room that will destroy the Swan and permanently and safely seal the electromagnetic anomaly."
[http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Incident]
Here is what I now believe has led to The Incident.... We have seen some undeniable signs of temporal/time loops operating on the island. Although the Castaneda reference might be construed as a hint that these loops are not the physical form of time loops but instead are the conscious form-- the latter involving sending a person's consciousness (but not their body) through time-- I now feel that the signs are indeed pointing to the operation of physical time loops on the island:
"In a physical time loop (rarely seen in the media), the spacetime loops around to form several closed timelike curves. Since the time in that region is looped, you could only escape it by leaving the affected area. Also, there would be an infinite number of copies of any matter in the area, unless an object left the loop. In that case, there would only be as many copies of that object as many times it completed the loop. This type of time loop cannot be ended or destroyed." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_loop]
My current view is that the island's unique energy profile has been affected by the presence of devices on the island (FDW, etc.) in such a way that actual, physical time looping has been occurring on the island. On this view, the voices heard by Sayid, Shannon, and others may actually be faint echoes of persons talking while other time loops are playing out, simultaneously, on the same island. In short, the island area/region is generating multiple physical time loops, with some potentially intriguing (and dire?) consequences, if the last sentence in the above quote proves true for the island inhabitants....
And how interesting to consider the following, especially in the context of the very real possibility of physical time loops operating on the island:
"In general relativity, it is assumed that spacetime is curved by the presence of matter (energy), this curvature being represented by the Riemann tensor. In special relativity, the Riemann tensor is identically zero, and so this concept of "non-curvedness" is sometimes expressed by the statement Minkowski spacetime is flat. Many spacetime continua have physical interpretations which most physicists would consider bizarre or unsettling. For example, a compact spacetime has closed, time-like curves, which violate our usual ideas of causality (that is, future events could affect past ones)."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime]
Hmmm.... What if the impending 'collapse of the spacetime continuum' is the result of multiple physical time loops operating on the same island, producing 'bizarre and unsettling' consequences such as future events influencing past events.... And will we learn that the island is experiencing an increasingly 'loopy' and compacted spacetime, threatening to collapse the very spacetime continuum, locking the island in infinite loops of spacetime recursion, isolating our cherished castaways from the 'mainland street of spacetime', forcing them to endure an eternity of spacetime loops.... And is this not one person's version of a living.... HELL....!
These are the kinds of issues I expect Faraday will be dealing with when we finally get to witness the fabled Incident in the Season 5 finale.... Will Season 6 involve more than factional conflicts among the good vs. the evil, between those championing free will and those guarding the integrity of the fateline....? Will Season 6 involve a Sisyphean struggle to break free from the very real and dire consequences of living on a spacetime compacted island and enduring the living Hell entailed in an eternity of spacetime loops....? And what better Sisyphean fate for those Narcissists who would manipulate spacetime for their own self-interested gain....
Time will tell....
Dr. Todd J. Hostager
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ENDNOTES:
1. Please see the interview at:
2. This 'tease' for the 5.12 episode is found in the following article:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20257373,00.html