the "mind" of the island

[Temis the Vorta]

Does the island have an intelligence and a will? There were a lot of clues pointing to this all along, such as the notion that you can't die until the island is "finished" with you.

But the island's intelligence or will didn't seem to play into the finale at all. All the mysteries stemmed either from natural phenomena on the island - weird energy from the white light - or from the battle between Jacob and MiB/Smokey - Jacob brought people to the island, assigned them numbers, etc.

Does the white light signify some sort of intelligence, or is it mindless mystical energy? Or is it purely a scientific phenomenon, even if beyond the understanding of mere human minds, and Alison Janney was just being poetic when she said it was where human souls come from (or whatever it was that she actually said).

Could the island have an intelligence and a will, but simply chose to be neutral in this petty fight between a couple of its inhabitants?

And where did the white light come from? Is it mystical or could it be explained by some pretty out-there science? Is it the repository of souls, a door into an alternate universe, the remnants of an intelligent asteroid that crashed eons ago, the power source for "ley lines" on the planet, or what?

 

[roliver]

Could the island have an intelligence and a will, but simply chose to be neutral in this petty fight between a couple of its inhabitants?

It's just another example of a pointless mystery that never meant anything and that the writers simply tossed aside in the end for some new stuff that also didn't really mean anything or make sense.

 

[Mallet]

Does the island have an intelligence and a will? There were a lot of clues pointing to this all along, such as the notion that you can't die until the island is "finished" with you.


Does the white light signify some sort of intelligence, or is it mindless mystical energy? Or is it purely a scientific phenomenon, even if beyond the understanding of mere human minds, and Alison Janney was just being poetic when she said it was where human souls come from (or whatever it was that she actually said).

And where did the white light come from? Is it mystical or could it be explained by some pretty out-there science? Is it the repository of souls, a door into an alternate universe, the remnants of an intelligent asteroid that crashed eons ago, the power source for "ley lines" on the planet, or what?

I get the feeling that, no there is no intelligence behind the Island itself.

I tend to think that it was just a way for people to describe something that they can not explain. In a sense it is just another way of saying "fate" or "destiny" or perhaps even "god".

People in the past obviously worshiped the island and the energy source. The Alison Jenny character obviously did. I think that either A) yes, it was the source of all "souls" so it was in effect a hole in to heaven or B) she was just being poetical when describing her "god", much like a christian would say god is the source of all souls or a Buddhist might say nature is the source of all souls.

Maybe it is all how you look at it?

Atheist Dhrama people looked at the light and saw strange energy pockets. Egyptians looked at it and saw Ra, the Sun God. Alison Jenny's character saw it as the fire from which all souls are created. Christian's might see it as a piece of heaven left over from creation.

Maybe all of them are correct.

But, given that the writers chose to show us the afterlife and the fact that there is a heaven, then we have to assume that in the Lost universe there is some sort of God.

And if there is a God then there is fate and or destiny as well in the Lost universe. Everything is not accidental.

So if there is a God, we can assume that the Island itself isn't intelligent, but that it is definitely "on God's radar" and it would be his will that people were describing when they make mention of the "Island" not being done with some one yet.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Hey, how about this: when Christian opened the door in the church and the bright light poured forth, what if we caught a shadowy outline of what lay beyond the door...the profile of the island.

That would have frakked with everyone!

 

[Ryan8bit]

But, given that the writers chose to show us the afterlife and the fact that there is a heaven, then we have to assume that in the Lost universe there is some sort of God.

They never showed heaven, and even the existence of an afterlife doesn't necessarily mean that God exists.

 

[Brent]

For all we know that "afterlife" that they experienced was created by the power of the Island. Where they were moving to next might not have been "heaven" but maybe just another level of existence, either again created by the island, or not.

I never got the impression the Island was intelligent. I do however believe that there is a great source of energy on the Island, I wouldn't say mystical, but more scientific. In the Lost universe, we were also told about other pockets of energy that exist at different locations around the world. The Island is just the greatest concentration of these energies. I don't think there is any intelligence behind it, only that it just ended up being that way, call it a symptom of an erratic electromagnetic field surrounding the Earth or something, heh.

Since people have been coming to the Island for thousands and thousands of years, those people attached religious and worship aspects to the energy since they didn't understand it. Temples were built, myths were formed.

Jacob made a mistake by throwing his brother in there, that made smokey. From then on he basically punished people for his own mistake, by bringing them to this Island or whatever. Everyone was on that Island paying for HIS mistake. No intelligence behind that, it was all Jacobs rules. Ben said to Hurley the rules could be changed now, that is how Jacob did things, but it didn't have to be that way, Jacob just took it all upon himself to do it that way.

Dharma obviously saw the scientific potential of the energy, there is power there that can bend space and time, but it is a natural power IMO, no intelligence at all.

I do believe the afterlife everyone experienced was created by Hurley using the power of the Island, that is my theory.

 

[Mr Light]

I'd say throughout the entire series they demonstrated that the Island itself has a will and consciousness outside of Jacob and MIB. We learned the Island is the source of all soul/life for humanity/Earth, so I guess you could call that God, or a god, if you wanted to.

 

[McCoy]

Maybe moving on to the next stage is actually rejoining the island light and then becoming a new soul in a new body. Something you can't do until you've worked out your old issues. And so the cycle continues.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I do however believe that there is a great source of energy on the Island, I wouldn't say mystical, but more scientific.

I assumed it was rational and science based all along, but when the writers started veering into the Jacob/MiB/earth mother Alison Janney stuff, it seemed like they wanted to make it all fantasy/mysticism based.

Which really doesn't mesh well with the more obviously science based stuff: time travel, all the fussing over vectors for entering the island. The more I think about it, the more I think they really made a major misstep in S6 by going too mystical.

Maybe moving on to the next stage is actually rejoining the island light and then becoming a new soul in a new body. Something you can't do until you've worked out your old issues. And so the cycle continues.

And in that case, it's the island that allowed these people to work out their issues better than if they'd stayed in the real world. They had to confront their deficiencies, rely on others for help, bond with people very different from themselves that they might not otherwise have. Most of the characters who found love, wouldn't have done so if they hadn't met their one true love on the island. So the whole point of the island, the mythology, etc was to get these characters to a place where they could enter the light.

Or that's my assumption. That does seem to be the point of it all, but it wasn't really hammered home, was it?

 

[KottenFutz]

To me the island was a parable, a representation of Earth itself and our place and purpose in the universe. It's all a mystery, and humanity is always trying to solve mysteries, not always to find the answer but to ask more questions, gaining endless knowledge, and move our own existence forward (hopefully) as a result.

A big theme of Lost, I found, was about how connected we all are without always realizing it. How we all live with each other, and affect each others lives with our own actions either selfish or charitable. How what we do in this life affects so many others. But it's also about power and the corruptive force power tends to have on humanity, so it's about exploiting it for selfish gains, or protecting it as a force of nature to benefit all humanity... and the grey area in-between. The “light” of the island and the “darkness” it holds at bay is the allegorical source of this balance that we all experience within ourselves.

We as a race will never know what it’s all about, but we try. We attempt to find the answers thru science and make discoveries that benefit us all, or give us the ability to destroy ourselves. We try to answer the questions thru religion, putting a face on the faceless in an attempt to understand it as we find comfort and faith in its definition, or allow it to be an instrument of control. It’s these choices that we are presented with in every step of our survival.

The real questions become: Do we hold ourselves back out of fear, possibly ruining ourselves in the folly of our own limitations? Or do we overcome it and move forward to find the answers we seek? The knowledge gained by overcoming our own impediments moves us towards a better existence, as Jacob said: “It only ends once, everything else is just progress”. Do we live together, or die alone? And do we hope to be rewarded with all the knowledge upon our death in the next life, or do we just die, fade to black, finding comfort in the acceptance that we did our part? Following the source for answers leads us to other questions we never would have asked ourselves otherwise, and only makes us better for the journey.

So, to me the island's secrets will never be answered, it's the journey towards that unreachable enlightenment that is actually the most enlightening.

 

[Trippy]

Hey, how about this: when Christian opened the door in the church and the bright light poured forth, what if we caught a shadowy outline of what lay beyond the door...the profile of the island.

That would have frakked with everyone!

I don't have the screencap (I'll try to find it) but in doubleohfive's av, he has the overhead 1. screenshot of Christian opening the door, and our losties looking at the light. Many symbols are shown in the tableaux:

1. our losties are seated an arranged to make a cross.
2. the door Christain openes is rounded on top, so once the light streams in, the losties, light and door make an ankh
3. the light that comes in hits the floor on the sides, but not the middle, much like how the light came from the waterfall (when UnLocke and Jack were peering down at Desmond)

Cool, hunh?

 

[doubleohfive]

Here's the screencap, in case anyone's interested:

 

[Assimilated Tom]

The more I think about it, the more I think they really made a major misstep in S6 by going too mystical.

Agreed. After wating "Across the Sea", I said, "OK, so they're the bodygaurds of the All Spark from Transformers?"

Lame.

It seems like the writers fell into the serialized fiction trap of making everything BIGGER all the time. The show was way better in Season 1 when there were some strange things on the Island that you assume could be scientifically explicable, and the characters just coincidentally had interlocking backstories.