Lost Theory

Edit: Well the most recent viewing of Lost leaves this theory pretty banged up, although, the part about Ben could still be true, but now I'm not as sure as I was about his character. We'll see what happens. As Jason said in one of the comments below, half the fun of watching this type of show is having theoretical conversations about the show.

I am a huge fan of the television show Lost and I have been developing a theory about the subject matter of the show. If you are not completely caught up on the show then you may want to stop reading here, for what I am about to type will obviously spoil your enjoyment of the show.

I want to lay out the two pieces of data from the show that are very conflicted, which have led me to my current theory. I call it the Wardrobe Theory.

First of all, there are conflicting stories about the actual airplane and the passengers of Oceanic 815. In seasons 1 & 2 we saw the airplane break apart, with pieces landing on the island and various people surviving the crash. However, the last two seasons we have heard that all of the passengers on Oceanic flight 815 in fact died, and recently we have seen news coverage of a fully intact plane, submerged, with all of the passengers dead inside.

This leaves us with two versions of what happened.

1. The entire plane went under water and all of the passengers onboard perished.
2. The plane broke apart and quite a few individuals survived.

At first glance, both of these versions of reality cannot be correct, but maybe they can be.

My proposal is that the island is a point of contact between two parallel worlds. We could call them world A and world B, and the island is some sort of wormhole or intersection between the two.

Following this theory, in world A the plane takes off in Australia and breaks apart over the island and passengers survive. In world B the airplane does not break apart but travels through the intersection of worlds to crash land in the ocean in world A.

The reason I call this the wardrobe theory is that one of the recent characters names Charlotte Staples Lewis is a play on the name Clive Staples Lewis, who is more affectionately known as C .S. Lewis, who of course, wrote the Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe. In this book, the children find a wardrobe that allows them to go into another world, all the while no time in their home world ever passes.

This theory can explain why we have two different versions of the plane and fate of passengers.

This theory opens up the possibility of some sort of time fluctuation as well as Desmond's "consciousness" travel.

This theory may also explain why mothers are dying on the island. It could be that the island is actually a real location in world B and some condition in that world is hostile to pregnant women from world A.

This theory also posits a reasonable motivation for the 3 experts (Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles) to investigate the island and or world B. Daniel Faraday is there to uncover all the scientific information; Charlotte is there to investigate the humanity, and Miles the spirituality.

This theory also makes sense of the reference to Steven Hawking, who did a lot of study on wormholes. If you don't remember the reference, think of the jewelry lady who talks to Desmond about the determinacy of the future; her name was Ms. Hawking.

Furthermore, the entire show is filled with many other references to philosophers and scientists. Generally speaking, many of the scientists referenced in the show studied in the area of space-time continuum, and some scientists within the context of quantum mechanics posit many world theories. Philosophers, also engage in modal logic, which centers on possible world semantics. Though the two ideas (possible worlds and alternate worlds) are not synonymous, it is not a stretch to think the writers of the show have been in contact with these ideas.

Finally, I think that Ben is really the good guy or rather the lesser of two evils. In general, he is an important and powerful person, who is keeping this island a secret from those who would exploit it. For Ben, the end justifies the means, and so he is willing to lie, cheat, steal, and murder in order for the greater good to be accomplished. That is why he killed the Dharma people, why he is currently so slippery, and why he is having Sayid hunt other people down in the future.

I would love to see your ideas about this theory: where its weak spots are, what is doesn’t explain, or any other thoughts about it. I hope you are enjoying the show as much as I am.

Here is a link to a website that details some of the connections between the characters of the show and their real life referents.