| [Note: This was posted at 1:04am CST, on 3/19/09.] NAMASTE: BUCKY BALLS, DARK SHADOWS, TIME LOOPS, AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER  Bravo on another great episode from the Lost creative combine! Among other things, I most certainly was pleased to see the continued blossoming of LaFleur as thought(ful) leader and it was gratifying to see the tough side of Jin channeled through the rent-a-cop role.... How interesting that, as in our own lives, our cherished castaways are flowering in surprising ways, when given the opportunity to do so, in a different place and time.... Sawyer's guile and cunning use of the (mis)truth in 2004 is certainly being put to good use as thoughtulness and improvisation, in 1977. (More on these time loopy transformations, below....) Of course, Radzinsky's model of a 'Buckminster Fuller' geodesic dome reminded us of the dome seen previously on the cover of Hurley's comic book.... But this may also be a not-so-thinly veiled reference to the concept of a Bucky Ball: Hmmm.... Will we learn, in a future Lost episode, that one of the weird and crucial aspects of the island's surrounding sphere of energy is that it exhibits buckyball wave-particle duality, enabling THE ISLAND TO EXIST IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE....? Surely the time loop theorists out there will be interested in this intriguing spatial twist.... One of my fond memories as a child, while growing up in Minnesota, was spending summers at the municipal pool, swimming for hours on end, punctuated by heated  moments of solar cellular bliss, listening to AM radio piped through a crude PA system as I lay on a warm concrete slab, soaking in the sun and the UV rays.... Blues Image's Ride Captain Ride, was one of my favorites, for sure, so it was a flashback down good 'ol memory lane, to hear that one again. I can still remember hearing the news of Mama Cass Elliot's death, issuing from the PA.... And-- you're not gonna believe this one, but-- I still have my 45rpm vinyl copy of Three Dog Night's Shambala, and here's the part that's cool in a flashbackward way, but eerie, as well.... My delight at having purchased the record waned quickly as I pulled it from the paper sleeve and placed it on my mother's record player.... Yes, my copy of that record, which I still have to this very day, SKIPS....!  Christian Shephard sure made a dark (matter?) entrance, emerging as he did from that DHARMic cabin doorway. (More on dark matters, below...) And how ironic to learn that Sawyer (with a little help from his friends) was responsible for saving Amy's life, who later would give birth to one of the great thorns in the side of the 2004 castaways, our good friend Ethan....  Hmmm.... The teasers for next week's episode showed Sayid donning his assassin role... Like you, I'm wondering if he recognized someone from the 'hit list' Ben gave him, whilst they were playing spy vs. spy on the mainland. Hmmm.... What if Sayid were to kill... young Ben, and Jack brings dead young Ben to Dr. Candle, who swears Jack to secrecy and takes him (and Ben) to the Casimiric experimentation chamber at the Orchid hatch. Dr. Candle places dead young Ben's body in the chamber and turns on the machine.... A warm glow fills the room, and Candle sends Ben through spacetime....  Unbeknownst to Candle and Jack, while they succeed in finding a dazed and naked young Ben outside in the jungle undergrowth, alive, the Ben they find is fundamentally different from the Ben they sent through the spacetime machine.... Unlike the gentle Ben they had come to know and love, this Ben is cunning, tough, and ruthless.... Ben's mirror twin image has been brought to life in their (1977) loop, courtesy of an inherent and unforeseen aspect of the very nature of.... the Casimir Effect....! DHARMy Of Darkness: One Helluva Dark 'Vader, Going Down....  HEMA Theory fans have noted my affinity for exploring both the Dark and Light side of the island's spacetime street over the course of more than two years of postings on Lost. Indeed, it was more than two years ago that I broached the distinct possibility that DHARMA, Desmond, Widmore, and others may be involved in a dark plot to leverage the island's powers in the service of the evil one.... As I observed back in my 2/18/07 posting "The Final Solution?", whose deeper agenda, after all, would it serve if DHARMA succeeded in using the island to help stop future cataclysms-- disease, starvation, overpopulation, weather catastrophes, etc.?  Well, none other than that dark ol' original smoky himself, Satan.... Why? Because the end of the world as we know it will set in motion a sequence of events culminating in the return to Earth of the Messiah.... So while the espoused goals of DHARMA may seem laudable, and the surface appearances of realizing these goals may appear to be heavenly, in reality it is in the best interest of Satan to hold the cataclysmic catastrophes at bay, thereby prolonging his reign over this flawed existence, using the island as a staging ground for housing his army of fallen angels and directing them to his own nefarious ends across space and time....  So it was with great pleasure, indeed, that I came across Doc Jensen's musings in his 3/18/09 column regarding our assumptions that control of the island by higher beings typically involves entities on the side of good.... 1 And he wondered if he was alone as it were, in considering that the island may instead be under the direction of someone from the dark side.... Doc, I'm so glad to see you broach this issue in your fine column as, for more than two years, I've been including both dark and light side 'takes' on the island and the show....  From my 2/18/07 "Final Solution" posting forward, including the more recent 2/12/09 "Fate Worse Than Death", 2/26/09 "Bentham", and 3/5/09 "LaFleur" postings, I've been pondering both light and dark side angles, to be sure.... Indeed, Doc and others will be pleased to see that the bulk of the focus in the current posting lies in an exploration of the distinctly dark possibility that the island has been serving as a haven and home for a range of different dark sects, throughout the ages, led by... yes, some of the very same characters we have come to know and love on the show, including that ageless wonder himself... Tricky Dick Alpert! As you will readily surmise from the speed with which this week's installment has been posted after the airing of Namaste, I have been working on this material for the past few weeks, on and off as time permits, and thank goodness we are on Spring Break this week! Looking back, you will see that I have been carefully setting the foundation for the material below, focused on and beyond the dark Brotherhood of the Snake line of cryptocratic sects, spanning the millennia from ancient Egypt to present times.  This dark lineage traces its roots back all the way to the Fall of Humanity in the Garden of Eden, and thus it was no surprise when I heard Alpert ask LaFleur WHAT (not WHO) he was, my first thought was.... Alpert's a Nephilim, a fallen angel of the Lord, now serving Lord Lucifer, and his query to Sawyer/LaFleur is aimed at finding out if the latter is an angel (and if so, more importantly, what kind... fallen or not fallen....) Moreover, I proposed that the shooting of Paul was done by Others/Nephilim and was aimed at kidnapping Amy for purposes of mating/cross-breeding, to ensure the survival  of the hybrid Nephilimic fallen angel (who can walk through sonic fences) species.... And if the island is home to the Nephilimic fallen angels, then whose house is it, after all? You got it....Lord Lucifer, King of the Fallen Angels! Lucifer's Manhattan, Satan's Staging Station, the Garden of Gehenna.... After making the Nephilim connection, I continued to build out the foundation for a Brotherhood of the Snake view in the same 3/5/09 "LaFleur" posting by bringing the Nazi fascination with occult powers (and Antarctica) into the equation.... As you will see below, after my brief treatise/update on spacetime traveling which sets up key aspects of the Brotherhood material, the Nazis do indeed figure into the serpentine series of sects tracing their slippery slope all the way back to ancient Egypt, Atlantis, the Nephilim, and the Fall of Humanity in the Garden of Eden.... So Doc, I'm happy to say that we are indeed on the same dark wavelength, brutha... And interestingly enough, Doc's musings regarding the possibility that the DHARMA/Others clash was 'something of a scam' turn out to have rather direct connections to the Brotherhood sects, as one of their common tactics is to create confusion through manufacturing conflicts, making it easier for them to ride in on an 'apparently' white horse to restore lost harmony, when all along it was engineered in advance as a means of increasing their control over us...! Now.... changing gears somewhat to set the stage for the remainder of the posting.... Doc Jensen's 12/28/08 interview with Darlton contained some important clues regarding the nature and contents of the final season of Lost. In that interview, Damon confirmed that the foundation for Season 6 will be in place by the end of Season 5. 2 With this in mind, it's time to take stock of key themes playing out during the remainder of Season 5, as the Lost creative combine lays the foundation for a mind-blowing Season 6.... Locke, Please Touch That Dial!: Island Spacetime Tuner Redux- Faraday will resurface with further disclosures regarding the extent and nature of the island's powers. Per my prediction in the "Island Spacetime Tuner" posting, a future episode will confirm that in addition to enabling time travel, the island is capable of effecting spacetime travel, transporting matter (people, animals, objects, etc.) from the island to other locations (off-island), across time. Of course, this ability already has been irrefutably demonstrated in prior Lost episodes, what with the 'fossilized' DHARMA-collared polar bear discovered by Charlotte in Tunisia, and with Ben and Locke  exiting stage left (right?) as they were thrown in spacetime from the island, to the exit point in Tunisia. While I concur with many of the basic claims made on the excellent Lost 'time travel' and 'time loop' web sites to date, given the demonstrated ability of the island to move things across space, I strongly suspect that we need to employ a more comprehensive approach....  Viewing the island as a spacetime traveling device is not simply some minor semantical affectation; instead, it more accurately reflects the full range of the island's demonstrated powers to date. In short, in addition to serving as a time travel device, the island also serves as a space travel device, moving people, animals, objects (and perhaps more!) across space. The next logical step is to consider the intriguing implications of leveraging the island's time and space traveling capabilities together and in different combinations.  This is the perspective I was using when I proposed in an earlier posting this year that it might be possible to 'set' or 'tune' the device in such a way that the island travels by itself (apart from the Earth) in spacetime, ending up at some past or future point in time, at a location not on this Earth. One example of how this might be beneficial is if the island were to be moved in spacetime from the Earth, just prior to an impending cataclysm, to another 'host' planet, say, one near the Crab Nebula (nod to Damon!) Of course, one could simply use time travel and reappear in the future, post-cataclysm, on Earth. But this might be problematic if a not-so-conducive-condition for life were still lingering on the planet (deadly gamma rays, post-asteroid 'winterizing' debris in the atmosphere, etc.)  I used the phrase 'spacetime tuner' not simply as metaphorical homage to the 'record skipping' Season 5 opening scene; 'spacetime tuner' captures the distinct potential for using the island's demonstrated space- and time-traveling powers in a controlled and calculated manner, charting and setting a desired course in spacetime so as to arrive at a chosen place at the proper time. This is the next logical step in leveraging the island's powers, a step actually taken centuries earlier, with the design and installation of the device to which the Frozen Donkey Wheel is attached....  In prior episodes we saw how this spacetime tuner was thrown off axis by Ben, producing the famous 'record-skipping' phenomenon... While we were quick to identify the temporal aspects of this phenomenon, for some reason we appear to have been quick to forget that the island is also moving through space, on Earth! Recall the Foucault Pendulum swinging in its arcs across the floor of the Lamp Post station... So when Ben pushed the FDW off-axis, the island's existence in space and time-- as well as its ability to move across space and time-- were thrown for a loop, as it were, producing spacetime 'record-skipping'....  So isn't this just some minor semantical issue with little or no bearing on the nature and contents of the show? Absolutely not, as it is dangerous to ignore the island's space-related powers, just as it would be to overlook its time-related powers. For example, knowing that the island has not been stationary, but instead has been tracing arcs along the South Pacific, helps explain why those Portugese 'researchers' at Penelope's Antarctic station were able to hear the message... the island was in range of their equipment, as it was tracing a spatial arc in their vicinity.  Imagine leveraging the island's spacetime tuning ability to send people and objects across space and time, with intent and fine-tuned precision.... Is this how Ben (and others) may have been able to build up empires of wealth and industry on the mainland? How powerful a weapon that would be, to be able to pick and choose exact places and times at which to appear, in order to build an off-island empire. Consider how tempting that knowledge and access to such power would be..... for Ben, for Charles Widmore, and others....  And how intriguing is this..... What if the Earth's energy pockets-- including the twelve nodes on the energy grid (a.k.a. the 'vile vortices')-- could serve as spacetime entry and exit points, just as we've witnessed is the case with the Tunisian location, serving as it is.... as an exit point from the island...? Hmmm.... are the energy pockets/nodes, functioning as spacetime entry and exit points, dotting the surface of the Earth, powered in no small part through accessing the energy grid?  Are the nodes/pockets/vortices on the Earth's energy grid entry and exit points in a terran spacetime transit system? In a future episode, will we witness the power of the Uluru/Ayers Rock 'hot pocket' as an entry or exit node? Is this where the other DHARMA polar bears ended up? In addition to electromagnetism, is the transit system powered in part through leveraging 'mini-black-hole' phenomena, proposed by some to exist on this island Earth? And is there any necessity which dictactes that a particular node/pocket/vortex MUST always be an entry or an exit point? I f it is possible that an entry point may also, under some conditions, serve as an exit point, might this help to explain the presence of the Black Rock ship on the island? If it is possible to use energy grid pockets as entry and exit points of transit, that might help to explain how Charles Widmore (and others!) to build their financial/industrial empires... Just imagine having access to the power of a spacetime transit system on Earth.... Now imagine the infinitesmally greater power available through tapping into a spacetime transit system spanning the galaxy and beyond, across the known universe! Time will tell, if Faraday and/or others have succeeded in learning how to scale the spacetime traveling powers of the island up to sufficiently cover the entire globe. If so, it should be possible to move the entire Earth, forward and backward in time, and across space.... The Empire Strikes Back (And Forth), Across Space And Time- A second, related, theme playing a crucial role in Season 6 was suggested above: A clash of the empire builders.... We have already caught fleeting glimpses of this  important theme in prior Lost episodes. While Charles Widmore may be the first one that comes to our mind, we don't forget Alvar, Magnus, and the rest of the Hanso clan.... Of course, we most certainly must not overlook good 'ol (bad 'ol?) Benjamin Linus in our growing list of Lost empire-builders operating, as he does oh so well, behind the scenes in a shadowy realm of intrigue, espionage, and assassination. Yes, Ben does always seem to be the 'man  with the plan'.... I have no doubt that he has employed his intimate knowledge of the island and its considerable powers to no small advantage in the mainland material world, as a decidedly effective means of building an empire of wealth, power, and control. It's easy to operate behind the scenes as an island-enabled puppet master, when you have access to a spacetime tuning device allowing you to 'dial in' where and when you wish to be, at exactly the right place and time to make a figurative killing in the financial markets, and literal killings in the shadowy 'spy vs. spy' wars for control of the world....  Using the island to travel to future times and places certainly would provide Ben with a strategic edge as a financial planner and empire builder. And this power most certainly would afford him considerable advantage in foresight, making him appear to be the 'man with the plan': (1) to secure wealth (just ask Miles!), (2) to protect the castaways, and (3) with the help of an elite team of trained assassins (including Sayid), to 'surgically' remove selected targets. Hmmm... is Ben using the spacetime traveling powers of  the island to gain future knowledge and influence future events, or is he really (as some have surmised) from the future, serving as a televisionary equivalent of Star Trek Entreprise's 'Crewman Daniels', an agent from the future using the island's spacetime traveling powers? 3 Spacetime pedigree aside, one thing's for sure.... more and more, Ben is looking and sounding like a tangible, corporeal Course Correcting Agent, and time will tell if he is indeed working in the service of FATE, or otherwise....  Back to Season 6.... As Darlton lay the foundation for a final season clash of the titans, I would not be surprised to see additional 'movers and shakers' of the industrial empire appear on the show. Why? Because for all of our peripatetic synaptic perambulations and creative conjectures to date, focused as many of them are on cosmic cataclysms, apocalyptic annihilations, and magical (trans)mogrifications, I suspect the 'ace' up Darlton's sleeve may in fact turn out to involve a more 'conventional' character-driven battle between warring empire-factions, with Charles Widmore in one corner, and (Ben? Or some other new character?) in the other corner, duking it out for control over the island's decidedly valuable powers of Manhattan.... But will this mean that the magic and science are gone? Not by a longshot... Since we will learn the real secrets behind: (1) the ancient artifacts, including the FDW, the four-toed statue, the temple, and more, (2) the modern magnates, including Charles Widmore, the Hanso-atic league, Benjamin Linus, and additional corporate/emperor players-to-be-named in later episodes, and (3) how the island connects these seemingly disparate elements, all in a delightfully delicious and satisfying way.... As we will see.... it all goes back to.... The Brotherhood of the Snake.... The Brotherhood of the Snake is a cryptocratic line of occult practitioners of the dark arts, operating under a myriad of different names, in a range of different guises, for literally thousands of years.... And one of these faces/facets is The ILLUMINATI:  "The Illuminati are the top players on the International playground, basically belonging to the thirteen of the wealthiest families in the world, and they are the men who really rule the world from behind the scenes (yes, they are mostly men, with a few exceptions). They are the REAL Decision Makers, who make up the rules for presidents and governments to follow, and they are often held from public scrutiny, as their action can't stand being scrutinized. They are connected by bloodlines going back thousands and thousands of years in time, and they are very careful with keeping those bloodlines as pure as possible from generation to generation. The only way to do so is by interbreeding. That is why you so often see royalties marry royalties, for example. Their parents decide whom to marry.... Their power lies in the occult, (magic) and in economy - money creates power. The Illuminati own all the International banks, the oil-businesses, the most powerful businesses of industry and trade, they infiltrate politics and education and they own most governments - or at the very least control them." Ben's island stash of world cash and passports.... Widmore's callous and facile exhumation of bodies to fake a crash of Flight 815 at the bottom of the ocean... And so on, and so on.... What if on Lost we are witnessing simply the latest installments in a vast, active range of epic struggles for power and control of the world, raging for millennia between factions whose names and costumes may change, but the song remains the same.... The Brotherhood.... I would not be surprised to learn on Lost that while the names and faces of the sects/factions/corporations fronting The Brotherhood have changed through the milennia, the names and faces of those in charge of the groups have remained the same, over the eons.... Perhaps it's not so surprising, after all, to see Richard Alpert defying the aging process so obviously. And maybe all of our jokes about Alpert's eyeliner were not so disposable, after all. Maybe the 'eyeliner' is a hint from Darlton regarding the true ancient connections to the island.... from Atlantis to Egypt, forward. Now that eyeliner starts to look more familiar, as we consider the images we've seen from ancient Egypt.... Would it really be that much of a leap to picture Alpert in pharoahic regalia, and just a bit more eyeliner, HORUS? Is this just one more in a line of guises, spanning millennia, for that handsome, age-defying, silver-tongued devil, LUCIFER? And, when we finally see whose features are chiseled into that four-toed statue, will our eyes behold Alpert's youthful visage? " The Secret Societies have been present in the history of man for a very long time. It all started thousands of years ago with the "Brotherhood of the Snake", a secret society that goes back all the way to the time of Garden of Eden. The Illuminati consider Lucifer being their God and the Old [1].gif) Testament God Yahweh to be ours. Their opinion is that Lucifer gave man occult knowledge, while Yahweh tried to suppress the same for jealous reasons. Yahweh was more interested in controlling us than letting us have "free will", according to them. From this viewpoint Luciferianism was developed and is practiced within secret societies up until this day.... Out of the original Brotherhood came Freemasonry, the Rosicrucian's, The Knights Templar, Ordo Templi Orientis, Knights of Malta, Skull & Bones and more. Some people may object and say that Freemasonry, for example, is a charity organization and even a Christian society. Yes, that's what we're told and that is what most members of the secret society believe. The vast majority of people involved are good people, who are ignorant of what is practiced on the highest levels; unaware of that up there in highest places is worship of the dark forces, practiced in very dark rituals, including human sacrifice. Their God is Lucifer, and their interaction and control are the keys to what is happening in the world of today. " How interesting to consider that as we delve further into The Brotherhood of the Snake and its various incarnations throughout history, the more we see how this shadowy subtext strikes chords with decidedly dark overtones, resonating on and through core themes in experienced in our lives and explored on the show: good vs. evil, free will vs. control/fate/determinism, magic/occult vs. science, etc. And how interesting to ponder additional connections to Lost, through examining the origin of the Illuminati: " The Christian viewpoint on this is that the Illuminati in fact are decending from the fallen angels and the Giants that walked the Earth. Those Giants, according to the Bible, [Genesis, Chapter 6, verses 1 through 4], were the hybrid offspring of those fallen angels, who together with Lucifer were "cast out of Heaven" and came down to Earth. The fallen angels then interbred with mortal women here on Earth, and their offspring were the Nephilim, the Giants that walked the Earth. Thus, they were the results of a divine/mortal sexual union. The Nephilim are, according to the Bible, believed to be the descendants of famous rulers, outstanding leaders and mighty warriors who lived here before the Deluge." [http://www.illuminati-news.com/moriah.htm]  This view certainly connects to and resonates with the 'angel' clues planted by Darlton in the 'Bentham' episode, and my 2/26/09 and 3/5/09 postings regarding angels and their relevance for the remainder of the unfolding saga of Lost, especially my 3/5/09 posting "LaFleur", in which I explore how The Nephilim may shed some light on understanding the actions and intentions of Richard Alpert and the others. Hmmm.... the picture now coming into sharper focus is one in which the island has been serving a crucial and valuable role throughout the ages, as a literal and figurative power base, for a line of sects/factions/ groups/corporations devoted to channeling the island's energy to achieve their desires to control and direct humanity and the world, from antiquity forward:  "So what are the true goals of the Illuminati? The main goal is to create a One World Government and a New World Order, with them on top to rule the world into slavery and dictatorship. This is a very old goal of theirs, and to understand it fully, one must realize that this goal isn't of a kind that's supposed to be obtained within one lifetime; it has been a goal that slowly is to be reached over a long period of time. However, they have accomplished more in this direction during the last few decades than they have done in hundreds of years, due to industrialization and the Information Technology Era." [http://www.illuminati-news.com/moriah.htm] "At the core of most theories, a powerful and secretive group of globalists is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an autonomous world government, which would replace sovereign states and other checks and balances in international power struggles. Significant occurrences in politics and business are speculated to be caused by an extremely influential cabal operating through many front organizations. Numerous historical and current events are seen as steps in an on-going plot to achieve world domination primarily through secret political gatherings and decision-making processes." While some would be quick to dismiss these notions as mere 'conspiracy theory' fictions, it is sobering to consider how many of the events presaged by New World Order 'whistleblowers' have come to pass or are looming on the horizon. 4 Indeed, there is a growing concern among these 'whistleblowers' that we are headed down a path to controlled lives as slaves (for some who still live) and annihilation (for the majority who will die), culminating in that magical Mayan, dawning-of-the-age-of-Aquarius year, 2012. This is a vision of a dire future cataclysm borne not of some cosmic calamity looming large for our planet-- an asteroid, a gamma-ray burst from WR 104, etc.-- but rather from our own flawed nature and desires (for power and control), channeled by  and through various cryptocratic groups working for ages, behind the scenes.... Thus we can see that the more 'grounded' and 'character-driven' storyline driving Season 6 may very well involve the distinctly dire and real threats to our continued survival as beings exercising free will and choice, threats arising from factions of some ages-old sect (equivalent in functions and forms to The Brotherhood), battling it out on the island and the mainland, all for ultimate control of the island as both a literal and a figurative base of power from which to launch the final solution to achieving the New World Order.... Shambhala, Secret Sects & Vril-ity: The Nazi Connection, Part Deux- In my 3/5/09 posting "LaFleur", I explored the intriguing possibility of a Lost tie-in to Nazi occult activities, with particular emphasis on their travels to find the lost city of Shambhala in Tibet, and their adventures to the Antarctic in search of an entrance to Agartha, the lost hidden world contained within a hollow Earth. While hollow Earth theories have largely been discredited, in the context of the current discussion it is interesting to probe further into the beliefs underlying and driving the Nazi obsession with these matters:  "The first element of Nazi occult beliefs was in the mythic land of Hyperborea-Thule. Just as Plato had cited the Egyptian legend of the sunken island of Atlantis, Herodotus mentioned the Egyptian legend of the continent of Hyperborea in the far north. When ice destroyed this ancient land, its people migrated south. Writing in 1679, the Swedish author Olaf Rudbeck identified the Atlanteans with the Hyperboreans and located the latter at the North Pole. According to several accounts, Hyperborea split into the islands of Thule and Ultima Thule, which some people identified with Iceland and Greenland.... The second ingredient was the idea of a hollow earth." 
In 1910, the Thule Society was formed by Felix Niedner. Eight years later, Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorf (say that fast, three times!) brought his shadowy past to bear on the development of this group, by starting a Thule Society branch in Munich: "Sebottendorf had previously lived for several years in Istanbul where, in 1910, he had formed a secret society that combined esoteric Sufism and Freemasonry. It believed in the creed of the assassins, deriving from the Nazari sect of Ismaili Islam, which had flourished during the Crusades."  Hmmm.... Why do I suspect that a chance meeting of Ben and Rudy in a bar somewhere would go very well indeed, as they would definitely have some things in common, to talk about! (Ben to Rudolf: "Yeah, Rudy... I have this one guy (Sayid) who... You should see him in action... He's just got these killa moves...") Anyway, continuing the story of the development of the occult underpinnings of the NAZI party in Germany: "In 1919, the Society spawned the German Workers Party. Starting later that year, Dietrich Eckart, a member of the inner circle of the Thule Society, initiated Hitler into the Society and began to train him in its methods for harnessing vril to create a race of Aryan supermen. Hitler had been mystic-minded from his youth, when he had studied the Occult and Theosophy in Vienna. Later, Hitler dedicated Mein Kampf to Eckart. In 1920, Hitler became the head of the German Workers Party, now renamed the National Socialist German Worker (Nazi) Party."  Yes, now you're probably thinking what I'm thinking.... Wouldn't Hitler fit in nicely with the plans, purposes, and aims of The Brotherhood? Here I am indeed proposing that the Nazi Party-- rooted as it was in the mystical beliefs and practices of the Thule Society and the Vril Society-- would most certainly make for a relevant and intriguing minor plot tie-in to Lost, part of a larger Season 6 storyline involving modern-day factions within The Brotherhood, battling for control over the island as a means to realize their broader dream of exercising control over humanity and the entire world.... In addition to playing a key role in the mystical beliefs undergirding the Nazi Party and their obsession with the occult, the concept of VRIL helps to explain why the Nazis were so keen on gaining entrance to the hollow Earth, in the first place: "After serving as a general in the First World War, Haushofer founded the Vril Society in Berlin in 1918. It shared the same basic beliefs as the Thule Society and some say that it was its inner circle. The Society sought contact with supernatural beings beneath the earth to gain from them  the powers of vril.... In 1871, British novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in The Coming Race, described a superior race, the Vril-ya, who lived beneath the earth and planned to conquer the world with vril, a psychokinetic energy. The French author Louis Jacolliot furthered the myth in Les Fils de Dieu (The Sons of God) (1873) and Les Traditions indo-européeenes (The Indo-European Traditions) (1876). In these books, he linked vril with the subterranean people of Thule. The Thuleans will harness the power of vril to become supermen and rule the world.... Germany sent annual expeditions to Tibet from 1926 to 1943. Their mission was first to find and then to maintain contact with the Aryan forefathers in Shambhala and Agharti, hidden subterranean cities beneath the Himalayas. Adepts there were the guardians of secret occult powers, especially vril, and the missions sought their aid in harnessing those powers for creating an Aryan master race. According to these accounts, Shambhala refused any assistance, but Agharti agreed. Subsequently, from 1929, groups of Tibetans purportedly came to Germany and started lodges known as the Society of Green Men."  Yes! I'm sure you caught the same key phrase that I did.... vril is a psychokinetic energy! Even the most cursory fan of Lost will recognize the relevance of vril to the show (see especially my postings from 2007 in this regard, including "HEMA Science"). Hmmm.... secret sects seeking to use occult powers to expand their empire and control the world.... It does sound a bit familiar.... Setting the empirical veracity and scientific truth of their mystical belief-systems aside for a moment, isn't it interesting to consider the documented fascination, by a range of different groups of people throughout the ages, with using magic/mysticism (especially in darker forms) as a means of acquiring power for use in controlling other people and the world? And how interesting  that as science is working to expand our knowledge base, it is helping demystify the 'magic' in our world, probing further into the dynamics and bases for teleportation, intuition, psychic powers, psychokinesis, and more. Of course, it is no surprise to find these very phenomena incorporated in Lost.... In summary, while I would not be surprised to see the Nazi connection made explicitly on the show, if this does not happen, don't be surprised to see other sects/societies cited in a broader storyline of Brotherhood-type groups existing in a line from ancient times to present, spanning from the group responsible for erecting the four-toed statue, to modern sects fronted by corporations (Hanso, Widmore) and shadow groups running black ops in the background (Ben/Sayid). Countdown To New World Order: The Final Island Showdown- As you might correctly surmise from the posting so far, despite my continuing fascination with the intersection of science and magic on the show, bridging quite naturally to realms of sci fi, given the promise of a more 'grounded' and 'character-driven' Season 6, I would not be surprised to see a series finale focusing on key themes (good vs. evil, free will vs. fate, etc.) channeled not through some science- or sci fi-related crisis, but instead through a more human guise, with science/magic sci fi in the background, and human drama in the foreground. Hence, my thoughts above regarding a potential focus on a historical line of Brotherhood-like groups vying for control over the island as a literal and a figurative base of power....  Along these lines, I would not be surprised to see Aaron or some other castaway child being played off of the adults as a hostage, exerting influence for self-interested gain. One example might be the kidnapping of young Charlie Hume, with Desmond in hot pursuit over the course of some future episodes, tracking Charlie back to the island, where Widmore (or some other corporate or shadow emperor) will use Charlie to get to Desmond, forcing Des to use his abilities to gain access to the island's power source. If this 'warring sect' scenario does indeed play out among battling modern guises of the groups struggling for milennia to gain control of humanity and the Earth, I would not be surprised to see one or more of the 'castaway kids'-- Aaron, Charlie H., and Ji Yeon, perhaps even with an assist from Walt-- step forward to manifest profoundly unsettling and decidedly superior psionic powers, rendering the battle moot, ending the ages-old struggle for control of the island, ushering in a  new world order without the shadowy and suffocating hands of Brotherhood-like groups operating to stifle our freedom and our ability to exercise our own free will.... Cut to the final scene.... Castaways and kids commingling in joyous exultation with (ex-)corporate types, up and down that oh-so-fine and glorious island beachline... Crashing waves, sun and sand.... and Aaron reaches over to hold Ji Yeon's hand.... Claire, Sun and Jin exchange smiling, knowing glances... And the world is again renewed through the hope embodied in each new generation....  While this scenario would certainly be interesting to see, I'm now wondering if even this take has focused on too grand a scale for a Season 6 employing a grounded, character-driven approach, as we've been told to expect. Hmmm.... As HEMA Theory readers will attest, one of the archetypal exemplars of classic television invoked by me in the same breath as Lost is The Prisoner, that televisionary masterpiece from the 1960's. Of course, aspects of The Prisoner have already been applied to Lost by a number of bloggers, including the not-so-coincidental similarities between our good 'ol friend the Smoke Monster, and the low-budget weather balloon wonder that is the tangible arm of the security system in The Village, known affectionaly (and functionally) as Rover.  While pondering the likes of a more character-driven series finale, I was once again struck by the power of the finale in The Prisoner, especially since it so surprised and shocked the audience out of their expectations. So, too, I suspect that Darlton have been plotting a similarly juicy and thoughtful twist for us all, at the end of Season 6 in 2010. As you may recall, in no small measure was the power of the finale to The Prisoner derived from its twist-of-audience-sensibilities through revealing that, all along, the show was about a great many things, but at the heart of it, the show was really about the protagonist's (antagonist's!) inner struggle with his own base self, his animal, instinctual, darker side... the id, if you will, to his ego....  During its initial run in Britain, when the audience was largely applying a secret agent cognitive schema to make sense of the show and predict who Number One would be, quite naturally they were shocked to learn that, all along, Number Six was battling with himself... Number One was the base, animal, instinctual, darker side of the self.... I would not at all be surprised if this underlying template were at work in the minds of the Lost creative combine, yielding a far more character-driven and personal finale than the bulk of our musings would indicate....  So how might Darlton and crew 'resolve' the show along these lines, helping to heal and enlighten the audience, not unlike what the island has been doing for the castaways, to date? Let's look at the available tools for dealing with a 'Prisoner'-like finale.... How might they represent the different sides of the characters, how these sides might be reconciled, and how it might be possible to go out with a 'bang', not unlike the Number One rocket's white glare...?  What's that...? Do I hear the excellent Jason Hunter's Time Loop Theory riding to the rescue? Yes, indeed.... In the Orchid Hatch video, we have already witnessed the ability of the island's powers to be applied in sending a living organism through time, enabling the sent copy to appear copresent with the original. Speculation by some is that the 'double bunnies' may have rubbed noses or otherwise touched, producing a pronounced spacetime 'kaboom', leading Dr. Candle to lose part of an appendage, and perhaps even catalyzing events leading to the famed Incident.What we may see in the series finale is a second incident or some other such critical event at the Orchid hatch, resulting in a profound form of temporal convergence, namely a Time Loop Conjunction (TLC)... Only this TLC will prove to be not so tender, loving, and caring, at least at the outset...  If time loop theory is indeed operating on the show, then it is interesting to construe the different loops as existential opportunity sets enabling characters on the show to try out new choices, show other sides of themselves, try on new personas, and observe how the effects of these choices ripple outward and forward (even backward!) through the Minkowskian spacetime of our existence as social and spiritual beings in the material world (nod to Sting). Exhibit A, of course, would have to be Sawyer and his 'That 70's Show' flowery book-of-the-night-club reading thought leading doppelganger, LaFleur. We've certainly seen sides of him bloom over the past few episodes, that we hadn't suspected were capable of blooming....  So instead of a battle royale (sans cheeseburgers) on the beach between modern-day emperors and their warring 'secret sect' factions, I'm now wondering if Lost will take a more overt cue from The Prisoner and reveal the deeper agenda addressing the fact that each of us, in the course of our own lifetimes, will confront our own crises and conflicts, and that instead of pointing the finger outward, we need to follow the example of Ghandi and first wrestle with the evil that resides within ourself.... How might this play out in an entertaining and heuristic manner, all without devolving into heavy-handed preaching and cloying sentimentality?  Some event, perhaps even a second 'incident', generates a TLC resulting in multiple copies of Lost characters existing in the same proximal spacetime on the island..... Character copies observe each other from a distance, figure out what happened and, in groups sharing the same time loop, devise plans to kill the copies from other time loops, for sake of their own survival and the continued integrity of their time loop. This is an epic battle for the continuation of their version/facet of the character, and the nature of the loop within which they were existing. So it's personal and existential, all at once.... One of the minor castaway characters sees its mirror twin and decides to try the flaming arrow bit on one of its copies, thinking that by not touching the other self, it will avoid annihilation. That doesn't work, as all copies of the character experience the same flaming death..... Confusion spreads among the ranks as characters come to grips with the growing realization that killing the other time loop copies/facets/sides of yourself is suicide....  Lines form in the sand, as character copies face off with each other on the beach.... A snarling, sneering Sawyer hurls searing epithets and saucy nom de plumes at LaFleur, who quizzically stares down the dark black hole centering the cold steel barrel of Sawyer's rifle.... A South Pacific islander  standoff... When finally the line is broken as LaFleur plucks a flower from Juliet's hair and carefully places it in the barrel of Sawyer's rifle.... Sawyer's sneer breaks form, to that patented an ear-to-ear grin of his, as he steps forward to embrace his other side/self. No kaboom.... No Earth-shattering, cosmos-wrending cataclysm... Simply a peace that passes all understanding, which has fallen throughout all, along the line.... For now they have realized that, all along, the island was serving as a literal means of observing and learning about the various facets which comprise their selves, and our selves, each of us..  The real climactic battle has now been revealed for what it has been shown to be, all along.... the battle between good and evil, free will and determinism, rationality (science) and intuition (magic), and on and on.... As Robert Pirsig so aptly revealed in his classic work, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, learning is a journey of self and other discovery, with rich insights made available and observable through wrestling with inherent, fundamental tensions residing in us all. And the trick is not to annihilate these intrinsic existential dualisms, but rather to embrace them as a core aspect of our beings, as a valuable source of insights into our conflicted and resolved natures..... The true path to personal enlightenment is not to deny or ignore our dualistic nature; embracing inherent dualisms is the first step in transcending baser aspects of our own nature, through acknowledging they exist within us, and that we can choose to fight the good fight of overcoming our own demons and flaws.... How much easier and less threatening it is to avoid embracing our own dualistic tensions and instead point our fingers at others.... So, in the closing moments of the series finale in 2010, we may indeed serve witness to those time looping copies embracing each other, then collapsing back into one person with a flash of brilliant light.... Taking a moment to get their bearings, the now 'whole' castaways break into smiles and hugs as the full weight of their personal and collective journeys of island-enabled enlightenment begins to sink in....  .... but in the background, we begin to hear a siren signalling something is amiss at the Orchid station.... Closing the TLC has generated a rift, a tear in the spacetime fabric that must somehow be closed... Desmond grabs a satellite phone and implores Pen to send as many helicopters as she can, to the beach, so they can leave the island. Watching the copters with baited breath, Jack reaches into his  tattered backpack and retrieves a curious-looking device, which he hands to Locke.... "This is something Faraday put together for us, just in case. Whatever you do, don't press that button until we are far enough away from the island. I'll let you know...." Locke nods his  head in agreement.... The choppers land and are quickly boarded.... As the island fades from view, Jack catches Locke's attention with a barely perceptible nod and, in response, Locke reaches into the pocket of his army surplus camos and pushes the button.... Off in the distance, a glowing flower of billowing energy bursts outward and upward.... Locke shoots a knowing glance back to Jack, who cuts to the quip... "Looks like Jughead finally gets to meet Veronica, Betty, and Archie in comic book heaven!" Locke's comeback... "I just hope they aren't playing 'Sugar Sugar' in the soundtrack, right now...." Final cut... The castaways are seated on stage in a hangar, during a final televised debriefing session.... The Q&A session is underway, when a columnist/reporter from Entertainment Weekly-- Jeff 'Doc 'Jensen-- steps up the microphone and asks the castaways "So, what did you learn?" 5 Jack is first to respond.... Then Kate..... Sawyer..... Etc..... And finally the microphone is handed over to Locke who, with tears of joy streaming down his face.... As a dearly devoted Lost aficionado you are readily able to fill in the lines of these final, closing responses, in your own unique way, based in no small part on what you have learned while watching our intrepid band of spacetime traveling castaways.... Namaste.... Dr. Todd J. Hostager ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENDNOTES: 1. Please see Doc Jensen's 3/18/09 great (as usual!) column at: 2. Please see the interview at: 3. For more information on Crewman Daniels, a temporal agent from the 31st Century on Enterprise, please see: 4. Please see the following for more information on New World Order predictions for our future, including those actions/goals which are completed, those which are planned, and those which are currently in progress: 5. Here I am, of course, referring to Viktor Frankl's masterwork of heuristic growth in a harsh context (a Nazi concentration camp) in the classic Man's Search For Meaning. One of the goals he set for himself, in order to make it through that hell on Earth, was to learn something, so he could bring his insights back to the 'mainland' world.... | |