Even more synchronicity…
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By ProfOzone
- Even more synchronicity…
- Created: Apr 27, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.15: Left Behind
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
If everyone ends up on the island for a reason, as synchronicity would suggest, then for Ben to know what that reason is he has to know what each crash survivor wants.
— ProfOzone
In previous posts I’ve pointed out how a synchronistic event might be perceived as the cosmos giving one what one wished for. The classic example: You’ve been thinking about a long lost friend lately and then suddenly she shows up on your doorstep. Synchronicity says there is a mechanism that allowed you to anticipate the event (you might call the anticipation “premonitions”, similar to those Desmond experiences). But you might also see the causal arrow traveling the other direction: Your wish to be reunited with your old friend was granted.
By this view, the bird didn’t fly into Walt’s window because he was looking at a picture of it in a book. Walt was looking at a picture of the bird in a book because it was about to fly through his window. Likewise, Walt could throw a knife like an expert because he could visualize that possible future and align himself with it. (Not unlike Desmond having premonitions of the near-future and changing his behavior in response to them.)
Ben told Jack he wanted Jack to want to help him. After he made that statement, I began to think of Ben as someone who was out to change the desires of others. But now I’m realizing that Ben just really wants to know what those desires are. Of course, the most obvious reason he’d want to know them is because the better he knows them the better he can manipulate them. But there may be another very important reason.
If everyone ends up on the island for a reason, as synchronicity would suggest, then for Ben to know what that reason is he has to know what each crash survivor wants. This is because what each crash survivor wants must be aligned with the reason they are on the island… or else synchronicity wouldn’t have brought them there.
For the people who have survived (and, perhaps more importantly, for those who continue to survive), the island often seems to be giving them what they want. John realized it right away because what he received from the island was so dramatic. But John knows that what worked for him is working for everyone else also. For most people on the island, the “island’s gift” plays itself out as lessons learned or opportunities for growth. But these are just a byproduct of the fact that, by the rules of the synchronicity, each of the survivors belongs there.
Ben’s first priority once he had all the requisite “lists” from the crash was to figure out what each person wanted more than anything in the world. Once all of that was figure out, he could divine the purpose of each person on the island. And once he knew that, he could predict with a satisfactory degree of certainly what each person would eventually do. And with that knowledge he could lay out a long and detailed plan wherein the crash survivors (and a number of “his people”) were mere pawns. A plan that would look positively prescient as it unfolded.
None of this means Ben doesn’t have to improvise sometimes. For example, he no-doubt knew that John’s link to the island would eventually lead him to the Flame Station and the submarine with the intention of destroying them both (because John’s link to the island will make him want to eliminate any possibility that someone will come along to make him leave or otherwise spoil his experience… remember when he knocked out Sayid?). Ben might not have known, though, that John’s faith would allow him to get “side-tracked” by the Swan Station. So, Ben addressed that issue personally and was eventually successful in getting John out of the Swan Station while at the same time knocking out communications for his own purposes AND restoring John’s faith.
What all of this implies is that everything that happens in the show is in service to how it will end. This may seem like an obvious point when stated so bluntly. After all, isn’t that statement true of all stories? Not the way it’s true with LOST. For while the plot moves us to the end in most stories (how will a conflict be resolved?), in LOST the end IS the plot. Most stories keep us asking, “How will they solve the problem?” while with LOST we keep asking, “What IS the problem?” And just like a masterfully designed puzzle, when all the pieces are finally together it is then that we’ll understand how they all fit.
Some have said this is just how life works, actually. That when you’ve finally reached the end of it you’ll understand what it was all for. All kinds of elements that seemed to be completely unrelated will suddenly make perfect sense.
And this is, in fact, how synchronicity does work. All the elements required for a single event to occur are pulled toward that event by a series of dramatic coincidences until the event itself comes to pass and proves that they weren’t coincidences at all. It proves, if you will, that “the writers” weren’t just making it up as they went along.
So, in a way, Ben is like us. He’s watching events unfold and trying to predict where they’ll go based upon the motivations of the characters involved. Like us, he knows there is a specific ending on the horizon that all other events are conforming to even if nobody else but him realizes it. I don’t think it’s as the jewelry-store lady (Ms. Hawking) said. I don’t think the outcome is pre-determined. (If it was, there would be no need for Ben to intervene, to help OR hinder.) But the synchronicity is very powerful. Powerful enough to bring all of those “connected” people to that one place, alive in spite of a horrific plane crash.
This has interesting implications in terms of the science vs. faith debate. Because the extremes of these two perspectives are both a kind of determinism. The view of extreme materialist science is that all the future states of the universe were set in motion from the beginning and there’s nothing any of us can do about them. The view of extreme spiritualist faith is that all of us are bound by a destiny we cannot hope to change (and should not want to change). Either perspective might serve the purposes of Ms. Hawking or Ben, who obviously want the synchronicity to follow through to its resolution.
But what if, in the end, it is free will that prevails?
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | Benjamin Linus | 3.20, 4.9, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1714 |
if the writer’s say that everything can be rationally explained, then how is the island a psedu-santa claus, giving people what they want? sorry, don’t mean to be rude.
I really wasnt on board to the whole “synronicity” scenario, but the way that you put it this time certainly would make rational sense, and it certainly would solve alot of pieces.. but first a few questions… The first thing that comes to mind is how Juliet doesnt seem to really want to solve her dilema any longer and that what she truly wants in to exit…following this scenario wouldnt the synronicity of the island fall out of whack if she didnt truly want it to happen,, and it seems as if she’s growing further away from a solution rapidly Second in would seem to me that Kate would also prose a problem to this scenario, in her seeming deep desire to be with Jack. Desmond also desperately whats to be with Penny more than anything?
I’ts amazing. So the island makes wishes, but those must be genuine. That’s why Ben made Locke think he was afraid of his dad and then his dad was shown imprisoned. Ben wanted to cure his tumor and the island sent him an airplane (or…that’s why he wanted the tumor, cause the airplane was gonna crash). But if the others know the truth they may subconsciously want the island only for themselves, and so can’t give birth. So they bring juliet to make her desire she solves it, but she doesn’t really trust them so can’t solve the problem. Im not sure i got it right but i think it is a great theory.
an interesting theory… however i find it hard to believe that the last episode is going to be “everything just happened because they wanted it to.” that being said, i think that there is merit in the island giving them what they want, but i think that if it is, there will be a scientific explanation for it (like someone has the ability to control fate or something) cracking the entire thing up to strategic randomness seems like it would be a poor move on the writers part
Well, see… the island isn’t really giving people what they want. It just seems that way. Remember the example… you’re thinking of a long lost friend, and they show up. Synchronicity says you were thinking of the friend because they were about to show up. But it would be easy for someone to think the friend materialized as the result of thought.
The point is, something big is going to happen, and everyone who is on the island presently has some part to play in that big event. But if that’s true, then each person’s deepest desire must somehow be aligned with that event.
But, keep in mind, when any event occurs there are many roles. Main parts, bit parts… the role of some people might be to die so that a more important character learns something important. Obviously the ones who die didn’t want to die. But look at the teacher who blew up. Being a science teacher who wanted respect as a scientist, he wanted to be a part of an important expedition. That want led him to perform a very helpful service to John, Jack, Kate, and Hugo, but unfortunately for him that service had to include his violent demise. He was on the plane and survived the crash for synchronicity’s purpose (note, no science teacher on the flight or a more humble science teacher on the flight wouldn’t have fulfilled the same purpose… only one who wanted what our teacher wanted would do). Part of that purpose included his death.
Again, important point… synchronicity is out to make a certain event happen… NOT give people what they want. However, it makes sense that it will seem as though people are getting what they want in the process.
Synchronicity also isn’t teaching lessons or helping people grow. But it makes sense that lessons might be learned and people will grow as synchronicity completes its work.
Juliet, by the way, was brought to the island by choice, not synchronicity. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been swept up in synchronicity’s flow.
Hope that helps.
If this were true who is privvy to its existence, I assume that Ben/Jacob are, Is Juliet? Because if she is does she know a way to disrupt the flow? All of this makes me think back to the part about her telling Sayid that if she told him everything she knew he kill her.. It could be a double edged sword … Ben would want her dead too! if she knew and was seeking the Losties assistance in disrupting this “flow” Her motives would certainly be suspect to Ben wouldnt they? Or does Ben believe he can (or the flow can) still keep her on the islands path
Since she was brought to the island by choice could that make her the islands achilles heal? Interesting
I like the theory. But somehow I think it makes perfect sense and that you’ve solved the mystery that is LOST and then at the same time, I’m more confused than I have ever been in my life. Love it, though!
In the example of the friend, you wanting the thing can be interpreted as the cause of the thing happening. You then assume the losties deepest desires can be interpreted as the cause of their role in some event (=you assume the show is one synchronicity example, as the one of the friend), and Ben wants to know the desires to know the event, or change them to create an event. There’s no free will in the sense that what you desire can always be interpreted as a cause of something that is gonna happen, so it can be said that’s why you desired it, not because you had a choice.
Well…i think the relationship between you thinking of him and him appearing is just chance, and probability is the reason in real life it doesn’t happen often. But it’s just that on the island probability doesn’t work, entropy doesn’t work…
I think Ben thinks that the heavy future event that is causing the synchronicity is nearly inevitable. Given that, I think he’s mostly focused on his own role… that is, he needs to read the signs and figure out what he’s supposed to do. Like with the tumor. That was a sign. He had to figure out what it meant, and he knew what it meant as soon as he found out a spinal surgeon was on the plane. All of Ben’s schemes, I think he’s just doing what he thinks he’s supposed to do given the signs. Well, and I also think he sees himself as someone who needs to “correct” the flow once in a while, which means he does have to have some sense as to where it’s going. As to who else is aware of what the “heavy future event” is, I don’t know if anyone other than Ben knows. But I presume that at least he does.
And the writers know, of course. :-)
Thanks for the kind words, kat… but I wish the original post wasn’t so darn confusing! :-) Sorry all… I’m only now realizing how tricky all of this is to explain… but it really isn’t nearly as complicated as I’ve (regrettably) made it sound.
ProfO You put things so eloquently! And you know how I feel already about this theory! Simply marvelous, darling!
:-)
I love this explanation of the underlying concepts for this universe. I think it does rest on these understandings of time and synchronicity. My only quibble is that I just don’t think Supermanipulative is a very good superpower. That’s Ben’s superpower? That’s like my mom’s superpower! I think Ben is more powerful than that. I also think he’s about to die.
So let me see if I followed this correctly. Ben is a skilled manipulator, who easily assesses people and situations and the best way to use them for his grand scheme by as Alex said making them do something while thinking it is their own idea. And all the while he believes his is interperting for them what they were really meant to do. So, he is not the type to make lemonade just cuz life sent him lemons, rather he always planned to make lemonade and so the island sent him a plane full of lemons. Am I understanding correctly?
pocket: :-D Well, he may be better at seeing the signs than others. I’d say that ability of his is very impressive. He’s like a really skilled fortune teller! :-)
chefgirl: it’s more like he knew the universe wanted to make lemonade so he’s not surprised to find a plane full of lemons dropping onto the island. And he’s a lemon himself, as the fact that he got the tumor demonstrated. Now, Ben might think, if he can tap into the flow of things just right, he can prevent the lemonade from getting made. Or he can make the lemonade just the right amount of tartness or sweetness that he wants. He has an agenda, I think, in regard to what the universe is doing. But he knows he can’t just interrupt it or push it along or whatever. He’s got to tap and tug at it in very subtle and specific ways to arrive at the outcome that he wants.