[Note: This was posted at 7:34pm CST, on 4/16/09. A version without pictures was posted at 1:38pm CST, on 4/16/09.]
4/17/09 Addendum (10:02am)- Although J.J. Abrams has pegged Richard Alpert as RA, I'm still harboring some lingering doubts.... If Alpert used some ancient Egyptian incantation as part of the ritual which brought young Ben back to health after he'd been shot by Sayid, then Alpert would appear to have some distinctly THOTHian qualities to his character. Hmmm.... Maybe J.J. was saying that the character of Alpert is patterned after RA, in which case a THOTH interpretation may have some merit, as per the below excerpt from Wikipedia, Thoth was the "the heart and tongue of Ra as well as the means by which Ra's will was translated into speech." So Alpert could be Thoth, as he might reasonably be construed as a means for translating Ra's will into speech. If Ra is a discarnate sentience on the island, then Ra may be Jacob or a part of Jacob, in which case there may be multiple cases of persons able to serve a 'Thothian' function on the island, including John Locke. Perhaps this is the case, as the mantle of leadership of the Others has passed on down through the ages, including more recently from Charles Widmore to Benjamin Linus to John Locke, with each successive Other leader serving the Thothian role/function. And yes, that would indeed be frustrating to be able to play Thoth and then have those powers removed and passed onto another leader....
4/17/09 Addendum (10:08am)- Yes, another viable candidate for OSIRIS on the island is Alvar Hanso. That would make Horace Goodspeed Alvar Hanso's son, HORUS. And Horace's mother (ISIS) may be waiting in the wings, as yet undisclosed, with the surname Goodspeed. If this turns out to be the case, then whoever ends up playing the THOTH role (Locke? Alpert?) will advise ISIS regarding the proper words/incantation to use to bring OSIRIS back to life. This may be one of the biggest reveals yet to play out on Lost.... Namely, the bringing back to life of OSIRIS via magical/mystery Thothian incantation....
4/17/09 Addendum (10:18am)- And finally, given the predilection of the Lost creative combine for thoroughly entertaining new ideas and intriguing twists on prior archetypal plotlines, I would most definitely NOT be surprised to see the Empire Strikes Back disclosure from father (Vader) to son (Luke) be REVERSED in the Season 5 finale..... with one DR. MARVIN CANDLE playing the VADER role,
viewed for decades by his son as 'evil', and with MILES playing the LUKE role, only in the Season 5 finale it is NOT the father/Vader figure who discloses to the son; rather, in the case of LOST, the exchange will be reversed, with MILES/LUKE saying to his dying father CANDLE/VADER-- who is trapped behind a clear protective glass shield as the reactor radiation leak worsens ala Spock in Star Trek 2-- .... "Dr. Candle, you're my FATHER....!"
_________________________________________________________________________
MAY THE THOTH BE WITH YOU:
MILLENNIUM FACTIONS
AND THE FOUR-FOLD WAY
Congratulations on another great episode, this one from the dark (very Frank BLACK) side.... Yes, it seems that like Locke, Sawyer, Jack, and others on the island, Miles too has some deep daddy issues.... Who's your daddy? Of course, on deeper levels the daddy issue is a metaphor for our fallen/broken relationship with a higher being (substitute your favorite flavor of deity, here....) But I strongly suspect that this text and subtext will figure more prominently as the series heads to its inevitable denouement and finale in the Spring of 2010.
Like Hurley, I prefer The Empire Strikes Back to the Ewokian Return of the Jedi. And, in multiple postings spanning 2007 to present, like others I have mused about the timing and contents of the inevitable Lost homage to that iconic "I'm your father!" exchange between LUKE and DARTH VADER, at the end of the second episode in the original trilogy (now episode 5). Many of us have been casting Widmore in the Vader role, with Faraday or even Locke in the Luke role.
In addition to a likely Vader/Luke Empire homage, we'll see further proof in the Season 5 Lost finale that that old saw about sequels being worse than the original is not always true... cases in point: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Aliens, etc. In the season concluding episodes focused on the fabled 'Incident' (Lost episodes 5.16 and 5.17), I would not be surprised to see FARADAY, the DeGROOTS, DR. CANDLE, and others (ALVAR HANSO?) trapped in the 'incident room' with the reactor in meltdown mode.... not unlike Spock at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 
As Faraday said in the teaser for the 100th episode, "Any one of us can die..." Of course, more than one of us can die, too, and I'm not alone in wondering exactly who and how many will perish in the incident room. Is this the manner in which Dr. Candle, the DeGroots, Hanso, and perhaps even Faraday were transmuted from this Earthly plane of existence into the figuratively corporate yet literally discarnate sentience known as JACOB?
More on that, later... Back to Miles/Hoth.... Seven is, of course, a lucky number, but my favorite number has always been FOUR.... So it was with great interest that we witnessed the number four on the door of the deceased man with the dearly departed wife Kimberly, and on the island security camera capturing Kate and Sawyer in the act, saving young Ben. Yes, the number FOUR has significant relevance to Lost, ranging from surface plot contents to deeper themes resonating in and through the series to date:
"Four derives its significance from various sources. It is the first "composite" number; that is to say, the first number that can be created from multiplying numbers other than itself and 1, in that 2 X 2 = 4. The simplest solid object — a tetrahedron — has four sides; hence four denotes solid matter in general and the Earth in particular, as the Earth is a solid object bounded by four cardinal points (North, South, East and West). Time is another concept strongly associated with four, on the grounds that the year has four seasons and the month has (roughly) four weeks; Christian-oriented observers also note that the life story of Jesus is told in four gospels, each of which is in
turn linked to one of the four classical "elements" of fire, air, earth, and water. Specifically, the Gospel according to St. Matthew is associated with earth since his Gospel stresses Christ's incarnation in earthly form; water is accorded to St. Mark since his Gospel emphasizes the importance of baptism, fire is ascribed to St. John since his Gospel is the most "spiritual," and air is assigned to St. Luke since his Gospel is the longest.... In Chinese numerology (as well as that of other Oriental languages), the word "four" is a homonym of the Chinese word for "death". As thus, some hospitals do not have a 4th floor."
So it is not altogether ironic, nor is it by chance, that it's MILES who is linked to 
the number four in last night's episode, as he has been gifted with the ability to perceive human/earthly experiences through 'reading' or being attuned to reverberations of said experiences, as they are contained in and resonating through physical/material objects/vessels such as dead people. One interpretation of Miles' abilities is that he is able to read the residual resonances (albeit weak!) of the dead person's experiences, as previously contained and sustained through residual trace evidence left behind from the operation of the 'neural net' of their brain/mindwaves....
The ability to 'read' impressions/expressions of experience as captured in latent/residual resonances found in corpses or even in earthly, physical objects, is eerily similar to the intriguing field of inquiry called ARCHAEOACOUSTICS, focused on the examination and exploration of ancient sound waves (including voices!) as captured in physical objects like clay pots/jars.... Just ask DANA SCULLY, in that fascinating X-FILES episode:
So the opening image for Season 5-- the record playing and skipping-- may have an important second meaning.... It will indeed be interesting to see (or better yet, to hear) in a future episode that in addition to Miles being able to perceive a person's reverberating recording of their experiences up to the point of their death, if Miles can also perceive expressions of earthly human experience that have somehow been impressed into tangible, physical objects on the island. I'm particularly interested in what Miles would 'pick up' if he were to 'read' the TEMPLE, including Smokey's lair in the lower recesses, as well as the 
likely RA/OSIRIS altar (with life-giving liquid) in the upper levels.... Hmmmm.... Wouldn't it be cool if, in addition to reading dead people, Miles could read the minds of RICHARD ALPERT and others? Perhaps we'll learn he is able to do to. If not, I wonder if Miles can read the minds of the living, while they are asleep!
Some additional connections are necessary before we move from the number four to Frank Black/Millennium ties to last night's episode.... How interesting that NAOMI told Miles they wanted to hire him to find the person responsible for killing 'The deceased individuals residing 
on the island.' Of course, the most obvious interpretation is that she is referring to Widmore's desire to locate BEN, who helped kill members of the DHARMA Initiative. Here's hoping Miles has more of a filter on, or control over, his powers than Frank Black's daughter JORDAN did, as she witnessed a veritable parade of phantoms processing down the street in that marvelous MILLENNIUM Christmas-themed episode, featuring Darrin McGavin as Frank Black's father... Frank, the son of KOLCHAK, and both of them are Night Stalkers in their own regard.
Back to Miles.... While he likely has learned to have greater control over his powers than Jordan Black, 
I'm still wondering if he would clap his hands over his ears to try to shut out the inevitable cacophony of dead souls speaking, were he to visit the DHARMA mass grave site.... While the obvious 'Widmore hiring Miles to find Ben through talking to dead DHARMAns' interpretation may ultimately prove to be true, given the Lost creative combine's predilection for playing with our projective powers and ploppling plot twists in our laps, like magical mystery manna from the heavens above, I suspect that a deeper, darker, and larger subtext may be revealed in a later episode.... In particular, I wonder if Widmore has hired Miles to attempt to gain greater control of the island-- and, indeed, the Earth and the entire Universe proper-- through using Miles to read the minds/experiences of the ancient dead residing on the island, all with a mind to ascertain....
THE NAME OF GOD....!
Here's where the number four comes into play, again, intersecting as it inevitably does with the ancient Egyptian god THOTH....
"In the Jewish religion, the number four is significant because of the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God which is so holy it is never spoken."
"
Tetragrammaton (from the
Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning '[word of] four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen. grammatos) "letter"),
[1] refers to
יהוה, a name used by the
Hebrew Masoretic Text to refer to the
deity of the
Israelites. The
Jewish conception of God holds that this is one of several
names for the deity.
יהוה is composed of four Hebrew consonants, and it occurs 6,828 times in the
consonantal Hebrew text of both the
Biblia Hebraica and
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, despite not appearing at all in the
Song of Songs,
Ecclesiastes, or
Esther.... These four letters are usually transliterated from Hebrew as IHVH in
Latin, JHWH in
German,
French and
Dutch, and YHWH in
English. This was variously rendered as "
Yahweh" or "
Jehovah", since in
Latin there was no distinct lettering to distinguish 'Y' from 'J', or 'W' from 'V', and the Hebrew does not clearly indicate the omitted vowels. In English translations, it is often rendered in
small capital letters as "the L
ORD", following
Jewish tradition which reads the word as "
Adonai" ("Lord") out of respect for the
name of God and the
commandment not to take the name of God in
vain." [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YHWH]
The number four in last night's episode may be cluing us in to the REAL agenda behind bringing MILES to the island.... To use Miles' power to speak to the ancient dead residing on the island, all for the (un)expressed purpose of finding the true name of God which, when uttered, has the power to MAKE, UNMAKE, AND REMAKE THE UNIVERSE!
Does Widmore or some other nefarious party desire to remake The Creation in his/her own image? Does this person want to take the 'daddy issue' theme to its logical conclusion... giving ALL of us profound 'daddy issues' by rewriting the whole of Minkowskian spacetime existence in their image....?
And yes, the THOTH connection is significant and profound in this regard.... In addition to Thoth's distinct connections to COSMOLOGICAL issues such as the nature and origin of the Universe and our existence within it, a second equally relevant connection lies in the important roles played by symbols, words, names, etc. in influencing the fundamental course and direction of our experience and very existence:
"
Thoth, pronounced
/toʊθ/, though variations are accepted (his
Greek name derived from the Egyptian
*ḏiḥautī, written by
Egyptians as
ḏḥwty), was considered one of the more important
deities of the
Egyptian pantheon, often depicted with the head of an
Ibis....He was considered the
heart and
tongue of
Ra as well as the means by which Ra's
will was translated into
speech.
[3] He has also been likened to the
Logos of
Plato[3] and the
mind of God
[4] (see
The All). In the
Egyptian mythology, he has played many vital and prominent roles, including being one of the two deities (the other being
Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat.
[5] He has further been involved in
arbitration,
[6] magic,
writing,
science,
[7] and the judging of the dead... Thoth has played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths. Displaying his role as arbitrator, he had overseen the
three epic battles between good and evil. All three battles are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods. The first battle took place between Ra and
Apep, the second between Heru-Bekhutet and
Set, and the third between
Horus, the son of
Osiris, and Set. In each instance, the former god represented order while the latter represented chaos. If one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other. Thoth was also prominent in the Osiris myth, being of great aid to
Isis. After Isis gathered together the pieces of Osiris' dismembered body, he gave her the words to
resurrect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus. When Horus was slain, Thoth gave the
formulae to resurrect him as well. Similar to God speaking the words to create the
heavens and
Earth in
Judeo-Christian mythology, Thoth, being the god who always speaks the words that fulfill the wishes of Ra, spoke the words that created the heavens and Earth in Egyptian mythology."
If, as many of us have surmised, THOTH is ultimately revealed to play a central role in Lost, it will be a profound and foundational role, to be sure. If we learn there is truth to the notion that names and words carry great power on the island-- perhaps even to the extent that Thothian knowledge may impart the ability to cast spells or even to remake existence-- then MILES may indeed prove to be a vital resource in 'divining' this knowledge through reading the minds of the ancient dead residing on the island.... (A quick aside... I know I'm not alone in wondering what Miles would perceive were he brought to the CAVE, to read the minds of the 'ADAM and EVE' skeletons....)
Hmmm.... Is THOTH the equivalent of JACOB, the voice that Locke is able to hear, much to the consternation of poor 'ol Ben? Or, since J.J. Abrams has stated that Alpert is RA (R.A.), is JACOB more akin to the dead and dismembered OSIRIS, with LOCKE now playing the role of THOTH, serving as a mouthpiece for the will of RA and a channel for accessing powerful names, words, and spells that are able to resurrect the dead?
Indeed, if JACOB turns out to be a discarnate sentience incorporating the mind of GERALD DeGROOT, who lost his life in the INCIDENT, thus realizing the William 
Gibson dream of immortality through uploading or imprinting one's mind to a system comprised of electromagnetic patterns, then we may eventually serve witness to LOCKE/THOTH speaking some arcane incantation to cause the disfigured, decayed, and dismembered body of Gerald DeGroot to be reconstituted and reinstated to life on this Earthly plane, with Locke playing the role of THOTH, Gerald DeGroot as OSIRIS, and Karen DeGroot as ISIS.... And in a time-looping reveal not unlike what we saw last night between Miles and Candle, we may learn that the DeGroots had a son they named Horace.... Horace Goodspeed as HORUS?!
RA= Richard Alpert
OSIRIS= Gerald DeGroot (or Alvar Hanso?)
ISIS= Karen DeGroot (or Ms. Goodspeed?)
HORUS= Horace Goodspeed
MAAHES= John Locke (knife-wielding warrior, BEFORE Ben killed him)
THOTH= John Locke (enlightened, spell-casting magician, AFTER resurrection)
THOTH= Miles Straume (a Thoth alternate?)
TAWERET= Juliet Burke
SEKHMET= Ilana (channeling Ana Lucia!)
MA'AT= Eloise Hawking
I always figured Alpert for more of an Anubis type, as he does not display the RA-like trait of aging, but if J.J. Abrams says he is RA, then he's RA.... Per the above list, I strongly suspect that Locke has achieved a profound transition from the 
knife-wielding warrior god that is MAAHES (Locke before Ben killed him), to a THOTHian mouthpiece for expressing JACOB's will and for speaking names/spells that unleash great power/effects on the island...
"Maahes (also spelled Mihos, Miysis, Mios, Maihes, and Mahes) was an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war,[1] whose name means "he who is true beside her". He was seen as a lion prince, the son of the goddess Bast in Lower Egypt and of Sekhmet in Upper Egypt and shared her natures. His father was told to be a human unnaware of Bastet's/Sekhemet's intentions to conceive. Maahes was a deity associated with war and weather, and was considered the protector of matrilineality and of the high priests of Ammon, as well as that of knives, lotuses, and devouring captives." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maahes]
As you can see, MAAHES fits the bill for LOCKE before Ben killed him on the mainland.... a warrior, linked to KNIVES(!), as well as the WEATHER(!) Look for Locke's ability to hear JACOB to play an increasingly important role on the island, as he completes the transition from MAAHES to THOTH. How ironic that the 'fatherless' LOCKE may ultimately end up playing the role of Thoth, implicated in no small way as the COSMOLOGICAL FATHER of our Universe-al existence....
Paint It Black, Frank: Whose Side Are You On?
Chris Carter's Millennium is one of my all-time favorite shows, especially the controversial love-it-or-hate-it Season Two. Me, I absolutely loved the Season Two revelations regarding the Millennium Group's true purpose and Frank's ongoing trials and tribulations during his initiation into the Group. One intriguing element during that season was the explicit focus on tracking down and securing a range of powerful religious artifacts, including the Hand of St. Sebastian and a gun-jamming, bullet-stopping, 'magical' piece of wood taken from the very Holy Cross on which Christ was crucified....
How interesting that last night's episode mirrored some key plot elements from Millennium..... One of the more interesting plot elements in the second season of that show was the disclosure of a factional rift within the Millennium Group proper, between the Owls and the Roosters:
"In Season 2, the Millennium Group is shown as divided into two factions - the Owls and the Roosters. A civil war is shown to be occurring between The Owls (who believe in a scientific natural form of Armageddon) and The Roosters (believing in a religious Apocalypse). The Owls believed that if a theological event did not occur in 672 days, a secular Millennium would result - leaving them in control. Most in the group believe that the best solution is that the Old Man unites the factions. The Millennium Group utilized the following phrase to indicate their membership to members and candidates: 'This is who we are' which also served as a tagline in the series titles... Later in the season, the Old Man would explain that in the waning days of World War II, the Nazis began a secret project known as Odessa, in which high-
ranking SS officers fled to countries south of the equator. One of these men, Rudolph Axmann, helped defeat their greatest enemy, Communism, in the 1980s. Now Odessa had turned its attention towards the Millennium Group and the Old Man in searching for many of the artifacts related to Judeo-Christian religious belief including the Hand of St. Sebastian and a wooden piece of the true Cross of Jesus Christ."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(TV_series)]
As per my Brotherhood of the Snake postings and predictions this year, last night's episode confirmed that the Lost creative combine is laying the groundwork for faction-based conflict in Season 6. And, as in classic television shows like The Prisoner and Millennium, don't be surprised if we are kept guessing, in the dark, for quite some time as to who is who, which side is good and which is evil, and which side will ultimately win out in the series finale at the end of Season 6. So, did Miles make the right choice before he was so unceremoniously tossed from the van?
Miles' van-tastic confrontation with the anti-Widmore faction, costing him the life of his La Vida taco, mirrored Frank Black's confrontations with members of the Owls and Roosters in Millennium. All along, I've suspected that we may see ELOISE HAWKING revealed as the Lost equivalent to R.G. Armstrong in his compelling performance as The Old Man in Millennium, a wise leader with broad knowledge spanning the depths and purpose of the organization, one who trained new initiates in the ways, means and arcana of the group....
And Miles' use of that weird 'dust/ghost-buster' appliance in a prior episode-- showing him the money-- certainly echoes one of the key aspects of the Millennium Group, namely its access to advanced knowledge and technology, ahead of our current levels by decades or more.... I wonder who/where Miles got the 'dust/ghost-buster' device from....?
As I speculated in my 2007 and 2008 postings, I would not be surprised to learn that groups associated with the island and vying for its powers are intent in part on securing access to advanced knowledge and devices which, ironically, may have been part of the everyday lives of an ancient people (Atlanteans? Lemurians? Mu-ites?) Certainly with all of the plot twists Darlton and crew have sprung on us in the past, our intense focus on ancient Egyptian ties will not constitute the end-all/be-all of explanatory framework undergirding the show....
No, I suspect that the Egyptians weren't the first (and of course they aren't the last) to visit and exploit the island. As per my postings from 2007 to date, the ancient Egyptian stone structures and the more modern DHARMA hatches and buildings are but two examples of how humans have made contact with and utilized the island, to date. So fans of other angles of attack on interpreting the island's past, present, and future-- Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, etc.-- don't lose heart! If anything, the Lost creative combine has a demonstrated, proven track record of surprising plot twists involving creative ways of expanding our understanding of the show through enlarging the temporal and spatial scope and scale underlying our interpretive schemas....
Accordingly, I would not be surprised to see the Season 6 factional rifts and battles played out against a larger, cosmologically-oriented, fate-of-the-universe focused tapestry... Hmmm.... I've been wondering if the Frozen Donkey Wheel's effect in moving the island through time is directional, i.e., since Ben moved it one way, and it skipped off-axis, and Locke subsequently moved it back on-axis, what would happen if Locke or someone else were to move the FDW in the opposite direction.... Would the island move forward in time?
Will we see Aaron, Ji Yeon, Charlie Hume et al. on the island in some future time, decades ahead? And, if so, will THIS comprise the ultimate, universe- determining showdown that some of us have been anticipating?
And what about an expansion of the Lost plotline along a SPATIAL dimension? HEMA fans will note my recurring surmises based along this line... Will we see the island appear in the Atlantic Ocean? Will we learn that the island is a part of a terran wormhole transit system, with entry/exit points found at the 'vile vortex' nodes on the Earth's energy grid? (Is there a hidden, double-meaning to Sawyer's comment last night about 'Being off the grid'?)
And as I've addressed in several postings to date, will one of the great and grand reveals involve a disclosure that the island is part of a galaxy- or even a universe-spanning wormhole system? Was Damon right when he made his Crab Nebula reference? And will the Season 5 finale include the following plot development as element that has been promised to overshadow even the death of a cherished Lost character: All along, the island has not been on Earth, but instead it has existed and operated on some planet in a galaxy far, far away....
And will we learn that the turbulent boundary area tracked by the DHARMA Lamppost station, moving along the surface of the Earth, is not the island itself but instead is one end of a wormhole that transports you to the island (an entrance.) And moving the FDW causes one to travel along another wormhole connected to the island, this one sending you back to Earth, depositing you in TUNISIA....
More On (The Number) Four: Kabbalah, Gematria, Buddhism, And Beyond-
The number FOUR figures quite prominently in a range of additional ways to Lost. For example,
"Kabbalah distinguishes between 'four different "worlds" or "planes,"[1] based on the verse in Isaiah 43: 7: Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
- Atziluth (אֲצִילוּת), or "World of Emanations"; on this level the light of the Ain Sof radiates and is still united with its source.
- Beri'ah (בְּרִיאָה) or "World of Creation"; on this level is the first concept of creation ex nihilo however without any shape or form. This is also where the Highest Ranking Angels are to be found.
- Yetzirah (יְצִירָה) or "World of Formation"; on this level the created being assumes shape and form.
- Asiyah' (עֲשִׂיָּה) or "World of Actions"; on this level the creation is complete, however it is still on a spiritual level. At a later stage there is the 'physical Asiyah' comprising our physical world with all its creatures."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_worlds_(Kabbalah)]
Again we see the prominent use of the word 'plane' to denote different types or forms (levels) of existence, connecting to airplanes, in Lost. More importantly, 
the number four figures in an interesting way in the practice of GEMATRIA, associated with Kabbalah:
"Gematria or gimatria (Hebrew: גימטריה, gēmaṭriyā; Greek: γεωμετρία, geōmetriā) is a system of assigning numerical value to an alphabet. The word "gematria" is generally held to derive from Greek geōmetriā, "geometry", which was used a translation of gēmaṭriyā."
In this system, the number four is assigned to the letter "D" or "DALET":
"Dalet (dāleth, also spelled Daleth or Daled) is the fourth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ד, Syriac ܕ and Arabic dāl ﺩ (in abjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value is a voiced alveolar plosive ([d]). The letter is based on a glyph of the Middle Bronze Age alphabets, probably called dalt "door" (door in Modern Hebrew is delet), ultimately based on a hieroglyph depicting a door.... In gematria, dalet symbolizes the number four. The letter dalet, along with the He (and very rarely Gimel) is used to represent the Names of God in Judaism. The letter He is used commonly, and the dalet is rarer. A good example is the keter (crown) of a tallit, which has the blessing for donning the tallit, and has the name of God usually represented by a dalet. A reason for this is that the He is used as an abbreviation for HaShem "The Name" and the dalet is used as a non-sacred way of referring to God."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daleth]
Hmmm.... How interesting that the 'four on the door' leading young Miles to the dead man in the apartment also represents the NAME OF GOD.... Per my surmises above, perhaps we will learn that Miles in fact was fated to serve in the role of traveling to the island and 'reading' ancient dead residents to ascertain the name of God in all its power and glory, as well as additional spells/incantations capable of leveraging the island's unique energy properties.... And Locke may be able to access some of the very same powerful names/words/spells through his ability to hear the word/will of JACOB....
The number four also plays a significant role in BUDDHISM, shedding some very intriguing light on the trials and tribulations of the Flight 815 passengers, especially one John Locke:
"The four stages of enlightenment in Buddhism are the four degrees of approach to full enlightenment as an Arahant which a person can attain in this life. The four stages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahant... An ordinary person, or puthujjana (Pali; Sanskrit: pṛthagjana) is trapped in the endless changes of saṃsara. Doing good or evil as influenced by his desires and aversions, an ordinary person is born in higher or lower states of being (heavens or hells) according to their actions. As these persons have little control over their minds and behaviors, their destinies are haphazard and subject to great suffering. The ordinary person has never seen and experienced the ultimate truth of Dhamma, and therefore has no way of finding an end to his predicament."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment]
As such, the ongoing travails experienced by the FLIGHT 815 passengers (and others who have landed on the island can be construed as a form of LOOPING not only through TIME, but also through LIFE, doomed to repeat life cycles over and over again, without end, carrying over one's karmic balance sheet, from one life to another, on a Samsaric WHEEL OF LIFE:
"Samsara or saṃsāra (Sanskrit: संसार) is the cycle of reincarnation or rebirth in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and other related religions... According to these religions, one's karmic "account balance" at the time of death is inherited via the state at which a person is reborn. During the course of each worldly life actions committed (for good or ill) determine the future destiny of each being in the process of becoming (evolution or devolution). In Buddhism, at death the underlying volitional impulses (Saṅkhāras) thus accrued and developed are carried and transmitted in a consciousness structure popularly known as the soul which, after an intermediate period (in Tibetan called the bardo), forms the basis for a new biological structure that will result in rebirth and a new life. This process is considered to go on until the person achieves moksha."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara]
"In Indian religions, Moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष mokṣa) or Mukti (Sanskrit: मुक्ति), literally "release" (both from a root muc "to let loose, let go"), is the liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth or reincarnation and all of the suffering and limitation of worldly existence." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha]
How is it possible to liberate oneself from this endless life cycle? Will we learn that these concepts help explain a broader yet-to-be-disclosed subtext for the series? Here we return to the Buddhist notion of the Four Stages of Enlightenment, with eerie undertones connecting to the John Locke experience, playing out on Lost:
"The first stage is that of Sotāpanna (Pali; Sanskrit: Srotāpanna), literally meaning "one who enters (āpadyate) the stream (sotas)," with the stream being the Noble Eightfold 
Path regarded as the highest Dharma. The stream-enterer is also said to have "opened the eye of the Dharma" (dhammacakkhu, Sanskrit: dharmacakṣus). A stream-enterer is guaranteed enlightenment after no more than seven successive rebirths, and possibly in fewer. The stream-enterer can also be sure that he will not be reborn in any of the unhappy states or rebirths (an animal, a preta, or in hell). He can only be reborn as a human being, or in a heaven..... The second stage is that of the Sakadāgāmī (Sanskrit: Sakṛdāgāmin), literally meaning "one who once (sakṛt) comes (āgacchati)". The once-returner will return to the human world only one more time, and will attain Nirvana in that life." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment]
Yes, this does indeed call forth some interesting parallels to the path we've seen play out in the life and times of John Locke (or perhaps more appropriately, the LIVES and times of John Locke.) Has Locke 'opened the eye of Dharma' the 'eye of God' on the chalkboard of the DHARMA Initiative's schoolhouse? And is not the reappearance and resurrection of Locke a signal to us that he is now-- as a 'once returner'-- engaged in the process of making the transition from the Second to the Third Stages of Enlightenment?
"The third stage is that of the Anāgāmī (Sanskrit: Anāgāmin), literally meaning "one who does not (an-) come (āgacchati)". The non-returner does not come back into human existence, or any lower world, after death. Instead, he is reborn in one of the worlds of the Rūpadhātu called the Śuddhāvāsa worlds, or "Pure Abodes", where he will attain Nirvāṇa; Pāli: Nibbana; some of them are reborn a second time in a higher world of the Pure Abodes, but in no case are born into a lower state. An Anāgāmī has abandoned the five lower fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth. An Anāgāmī is thus partially enlightened, and on the way to perfect and complete Enlightenment."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment]
Is the island a unique energy/electromagnetic environment enabling corporeal humans to move along the four-fold stages of enlightenment, providing as it may, a physical/energetic basis for transitioning between planes of existence ala William Gibson's dream, to discarnate 'third stage' sentience, ultimately achieving 'fourth stage' NIRVANA? Is JACOB in the third or fourth stage?
And what if the island's powers were to be used and abused in some way/shape/form, such that instead of individual persons making the transition from physical to energy-based beings-- existing on higher-order, extradimensional planes-- an incident of such catastrophic proportions was inadvertently unleashed, resulting in large portions of the world's population vanishing into the thin air of Dharmic Enlightenment?!
Time will indeed tell.....
May the Thoth be with you,
Dr. Todd J. Hostager
P.S. For my thoughts on where/when Faraday may have been during his hiatus, please see my 2/27/09 "Faraday's Travels" posting.