LOST-Theories.com

I know hippies. I’ve hated them all my life. I’ve kept this town free of hippies on my own since I was five and a half. But I can’t contain them on my own anymore. We have to do something, fast!

— MountainDew

This is my first theory and only the first part. I have a general outline of the rest of my theory but I haven’t really finished it up yet and I wanted to post this introduction. Hopefully some comments will help me with the completion of the rest of the theory so please feel free to offer criticism or advice.

What’s Up With The Island? The clue with the Casimir Effect was really helpful for me in discerning what was strange about the island. The physics behind the Casimir Effect are pretty complicated, but basically the island can be imagined as a vacuum in space-time. Now, I believe that island slows down time, but for different values for different coordinates entered on the island. For example, the plane entered the island at one set of coordinates, Desmond entered the island on another set of coordinates, and Magnus Hanso’s boat entered on a different set. The different sets of coordinates are equal to a different magnitude of time slowing down.

Chapter One: The Original Inhabitants of the Island For thousands of years an ancient civilization inhabited the island. The people were similar to humans, but different at the same time, as exemplified by the four-toed statue. We have also seen more evidence of this civilization from the ruins that Ben is tied too and the mention of the temple that the hostiles are hiding out at. The civilization was destroyed, however, when a giant meteor hit the island (we see this from the crater on the map).

Chapter Two: Magnus Hanso Arrives on the Island In 1881, Magnus Hanso captained the Black Rock to the Island from Papua New Guinea. I’m not sure why, but for any reason the ship set sail east instead of west like it was supposed to, to get to Africa. Whatever set of coordinates Magnus arrived on the island, it slowed time down a lot for those who landed. I think this explains the whole Richard Alpert theory. We first see him meet Ben in what could be 19th century clothes, and we also notice that he doesn’t age in the thirty odd years it’s been since then. I think, therefore, that the “hostiles” are actually the remaining crew of the Black Rock and perhaps others that landed on the island in the past. Their time has slowed down so much that they have barely aged since 1881 when they crashed on the island.

Chapter Three: News of the Island Spreads to the Mainland Somehow, either Magnus or another crew member, managed to get off the island with the Captain’s log. The log was passed down to Magnus’s son, Alvar, who we found out from DJ Dan was born in 1894 in Denmark. Alvar is either the son or Grandson of Magnus Hanso. Once Alvar was of age, he read through his father/grandfather’s log, which recorded the coordinates to the island and also spoke of special properties that the island had.

Chapter Four: Alvar Hanso and the Hanso Foundation Alvar Hanso raised money buy selling munitions to various resistance movements during World War II. Once Alvar had enough money, he started the Hanso Foundation based in Copenhagen, Denmark, whose aim was to research ways in which to “improve human life” and “promote well being”. The foundation focused on a group of different projects, including the “Mathematical Forecasting Initiative,” the “Electromagnetic Research Initiative,” and the “Life Extension Project”. Alvar believed that these goals could be accomplished by using the island’s special properties, so he set out to create an organization to study the island’s special properties – The Dharma Initiative. We know that Alvar Hanso is still alive and that would make him roughly 113 years old. He is able to survive so long because his time spent on the island throughout the years slowed his aging. While on the mainland he ages like a normal man, but while on the island, if he takes the proper coordinates, he will age extremely slowly. The original goal of the Dharma Initiative had failed and Alvar decided to seek different avenues. One of these routes as the ARG showed was the ‘Life Extensions Project’ that featured Joop, an orangutan that is currently 107 years old.

Chapter Five: The Dharma Initiative In the early 1960’s, Alvar learned about the Valenzetti Equation. The Valenzetti Equation, developed by Princeton scientist Enzo Valenzetti, “predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself.” The core numbers of the equation are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. Alvar realized that this equation was extremely important and brought this issue up to the U.N. Security Council in 1967, but they would not listen to the warnings. Alvar decided to take matters into his own hands and created the Dharma Initiative in 1970 with the help of Gerald and Karen DeGroot. The meaning of dharma is usually taken to mean the natural order of things; something that is infinite and spanning both material and spiritual worlds. The Dharma Initiative was set up as a quasi-idealist group of scientists with the goal of changing one of those core numbers and thus changing the course of history. Stations were set up in locals all throughout the world, places that possessed strange or supernatural powers. We know that “The Island” was one of those places, as well as Tunisia because of the evidence of polar bear skeleton with the dharma tag Charlotte Lewis found there. The Dharma Initiative defined their plan with six different ‘objectives.’ These objectives include psychology, parapsychology, electromagnetism, zoology, meteorology, and utopian social…[the rest is not known]. Electromagnetism allows for time and space manipulation, a phenomenon seen on the island. Meteorological events are also likely triggered by electromagnetism. We also know that they researched the effects these locations had on animals because of all the animal cages and tanks in The Staff. The scientists hoped that by experimenting in these different fields they could perhaps change one of those numbers.

Chapter Six: The Incident and the Smoke Monster I believe that the smoke monster was originally a Dharma-made security device but after the incident they lost control of the monster and thus quarantined if off on the other side of the island using the sonic fence. There is a mechanical apparatus used to transport the Monster underground but the apparatus cannot be detached completely from the cloud of smoke at any time. On the blast door map we see that Kelvin and Radzinsky have referred to the monster as Cerebrus, which is the name of a three headed mythological security beast (think Fluffy in Harry Potter). It was also revealed by the producers that many of the visions people have (Walt, Christian Shepherd, Kate’s horse, Yemi, etc…) are all manifestations of the monster. There have been a number of theories as well that mention Nikola Tesla and his theory of the Tesla device. Tesla was a famous scientist who studied electromagnetism in the early 20th century, and one of his ideas was a device that could photograph people’s thoughts – almost like filming memory. The smoke monster is an example of this device. The random flashes of light seen coming from the monster when it confronts people is an instance when it is photographing people’s thoughts, downloading information that it might want to use at a future date. It is then able to project images of these thoughts in front of people, which explains the visions they have. The smoke monster also serves as a judgment device and thus executes those it deems unworthy or guilty (such as Eko). In effect, the three parts of Cerebrus are the judge, jury, and executioner. It is the ultimate reality of Karma. The thing that it is guarding is the ultimate secret of the island. The monster travels through Cerebrus Vents (seen as CV on the blast door), which are underground vents such as the one John Locke was dragged into. After the incident, however, Dharma lost control of the monster and it escaped into the wild and Dharma had to block it off. I also think it might be that the black smoke is just dust affected by the magnetism of the actual creature inside.

Key locations

Theme	Relevant Episodes	Theories
4-Toed Statue	2.23	60
The Black Rock	3.19, 1.24, 1.9, 1.23	60
The Temple	3.22, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13	56

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