Lost Discussion Group: One Pill Makes You Larger, and One Pill Makes You Small

Could it be that the flash forward in the season 3 finale was the result of the Casimir effect? Realizing the impending infliltration of the island, Ben unleashes some kind of super wacky magic (not to get to technical) and time rips apart? That's why Jack wants to get back, to undo the effect and set the "future" straight?

And who is riding the bicycle?

Bizarre. I still have no clue where this Hanso/Dharma stuff is going, and this latest video is just one more thread in a tapestry that seems as large as a football field.

If the space-time continum is at play, does that mean that, perhaps, by crashing on the island, the Losties "escaped" death? In other words:

1. The island (adrift in space and time) appeared and caused their crash due to Desmond not putting in the numbers.

2. "Unlocked" from its state of fluidity in time and space temporarily by the electronmagnetic surge, the falling plane crashed into the island as Desmond re-entered the code.

3. Once the code was re-entered, the plane split - the plane of the Losties landed on the space-time limboed island, while an "identical" plane crashed into the ocean, killing all aboard in the linear world of time and space. Thus, Naomi's comment about the plane being found with no survivors.

4. Dharma/the Others still have a powerful means of blocking the island from sight/discovery, but Charlie disabled it.

I guess that's all really sci-fi nerd like of me, but I'm trying to grasp the significance of this video in the Lost mythology. Maybe Jack/Kate/etc. in the future are "divorced" from the true path they had to take in living on the island - in the "linear time-space" world they "escape" to, their lives are in ruins because in that world they already died in the plane crash. Their true purpose was to be on that island.....

(Now that I mention it, this whole theory sounds a little bit too much like Brigadoon....and maybe that's what Lost is about?)

Chaddog great points. That would explain several things. I agree with James about it being the same rabbit esp when they uses phrases like "shift" and "9 mins."
Of course the whole thing could be a goof or a tease to give us something to talk about during this long long break.
Perhaps the island being adrift in time and space would then mean that Jacob is also (further?) adrift as well, thus his ethereal nature. Along this line of thinking too then Walt's abilities may be related to shifting time and space "him being where he should be able to be" etc and Ben allowed him to go because he may be able to help Jacob which would knock Ben out of power...wow that turned in to pure conjecture quickly. Come on February!

@chaddogg: your hypothesis #3 is especially tempting.

Also, the fact that Marvin/Edgar was very anxious that the "two" rabbits be kept apart, suggesting disatrous consequences if the time-shifted artifact and the original came in contact, may have something to do with whatever cataclysm that entering the numbers was supposed to forestall.

Now the reason that it would be disastrous is beyond both my actual scientific knowledge and my sci-fi nerditude.

I guess we call this the evil Brigadoon theory of Lost, then, huh? It's an island that is separated from our normal concept of space and time, but still connected in a minimal way (i.e. the others/Dharma can get off and on from it without huge consequences, but only via one path, etc.) Occasionally it appears in real life, and can capture (and displace in often tragic ways) other individuals (such as Desmond and the Losties).

Since it's adrift in time, occasionally "figments" or "phantoms" from the past (Jack's dad, Kate's horse, Walt, etc.) can pass through the island and "commune" with or effect the inhabitants. Perhaps Jacob is one of these "phantoms," and a force trying to reconcile the time-adrift island with the regular world (thus Ben's mistrust of Locke, who could "ruin" the island).

If this was a type of alternate universe, and the Losties got "split" in the crash, it could mean that in "real" time, if they were to return, they would return as "shells" of their essential selves. For some, this would be good (Kate, who seems to have lost her wanderlust and criminal tendencies and has settled down to a BMW driving life), for others it is bad (like suicidal, drug abusing Jack, who is no longer a leader, but happens "accidentally" to save someone). Whoever was in the coffin may have died because they could not deal with this dychotomy.

So the rabbits? Animals that have "travelled" across the time void, making two entities that, if they come in contact with each other, could destroy each other too.

Did anyone else notice the single frames embedded throughout this video? I, apparently having nothing better to do, took screen shots of all of them and posted them on my blog.

http://www.allmyliesarewishes.com/20070803/lost-the-orchid-station-orientation-has-hidden-messages/
(also the link on my name for this comment)

I won't presume you'll all click through, so I'll summarize my much more verbose analysis here.

The first image was of Gerald Degroot, one of the founding members of Dharma. We first saw him in the Swam orientation film. Does this suggest we'll learn more about the origins of Dharma this season?

The second image was of a large skyscraper that was also in the Swan orientation film. In that, the voiceover referenced the study of a 'utopian social' something (audio distorted) that Dharma was seeking to study. It was also the building which we see Alvar Hanso standing in the window of. More foreshadowing?

The third image was the text 'God Loves You Like He Loved Jacob' that we saw in the brainwashing video in room 23 where Karl was being held captive. It would seem like this is a Dharma video the Others were using which raised a question I can't believe I haven't thought of before: If Jacob is the leader of the Others, why is he referenced in a Dharma video. Are they talking about the biblical Jacob? Seems too coincidental.

My mind is successfully blown.

Wow, that link really screwed up the formatting for my comment. Whoops!

In the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau, God chooses Jacob to be the leader of Israel even though Esau was the first born rightful heir.

Here's an interesting sentence I found on a Bible study site: "God loving Jacob and hating Esau has nothing to do with the human emotions of love and hate. It has everything to do with God choosing one man and his descendants and rejecting another man and his descendants."

Could that mean a religious force is behind the Initiative that implies Dharma folk are the Chosen People?

I categorically discount any kind of "the Island is in a parallel universe" theories. Seriously, how did you think future Jack's return interview went:

St. Sebastian HR employee: "So, Jack-B, can I just call you Jack, it says here that you have the same education as our Jack who died and whose corpse they just dragged out of the sea."
Jack: "Yep."
St. Sebastian HR employee: "Well, that's handy for us, you can just take his old office and start on Monday, despite that every government and University physics department on Earth would keep you in custody for the rest of your life for testing, and that confirmation of parallel universes would frankly shatter everything we know about morality and free will (see Niven's "All the Myriad Ways" to start with)."
Jack: "Great, see you at 8 am then."

Hogwash.

My theory is that the Island just happens to have a higher than normal zero-point energy level; as a result, electromagnetic effects are different than usual, as well as the possibility of wormhole "echoes". I expect Lost will continue to play around with our preconceptions of cause-and-effect; for example, it could be that Kate's Island horse is real and the horse Kate and Marshall Mars saw (in the past!) is just a visual echo of the Island horse. It also provides the showrunners with a convenient out for power generation for the various Dharma toys on the Island (e.g. Smokey).

@Justin:
Wow, that is interesting - we have not seen Jacob connected to Dharma. Here's my take:
One of the known values of the Valenzetti Equation (aka the Numbers) is human (over)population. The Lost Experience is filled with mentions of plagues, quarantine ships, etc. I still stand by my theory that Dharma is gearing up to forcibly alter the Numbers by releasing a superplague to kill off vast sections of humanity. The Jacob brainwashing is standard policy for the Dharma employees, to condition them to believe that they are the chosen ones that will (and more importantly, should) live through Dharma's reboot of civilization.

So why are the Others using it? Well, first off, why does anyone assume the room 23 movie is Others-made at all? Everything else in the Barracks is old Dharma property, and nothing in the room 23 movie dates it from being filmed after the Purge. My guess is the room 23 film is old Dharma property; Ben just altered the point of the movie from philosophically linking to biblical Jacob to unconditionally following Island Jacob (and his disciple, Ben). Especially since Island Jacob's name probably isn't Jacob at all, but Magnus, http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Magnus_Hanso .

@Tom Shaw:

Wow, I thought I'd read pretty much everything on Lostpedia but I missed the Magnus Hanso page until now. Thanks! Very interesting stuff there.

If we believe that the name 'Magnus' is significant to the real-life alchemist Albert Magnus, there are definite parallels to M Hanso in what we know about Jacob so far. Life Extension, immortality, control of electro magnetism, other-worldly particles and matter, the creation of an 'Android' that possesses a soul - all clues to the questions of the Others not aging, smokey, and the hallucinations from the Losties' pasts.

Albert Magnus's story centers around the philosopher's stone which, in my opinion, creates a wonderful plot device. I see a plot line developing that has everyone on the island battling for control over a thing which, thematically, serves as a combination of the holy grail, Rosetta Stone, and excalibur - all literary themes that would fit perfectly into the Lost canon.

The next question is, have we met a character with the name Aquinas yet? An anagram? If not, I wouldn't be surprised if we met him/her this season.

I really think that whatever the explanation, it's going to be understandable and plausible enough for someone who has little to no background in physics. So i would discard to idea of a lower zero point energy level. I think the casimir effect reference was there simply to make us look it up. After all, i know we wouldve come up with that if they didnt state it explicitly.

Also I really really badly been wanting to know what the hell with the smoke monster