Take a second and think of one character on the Island that has displayed the capacity to know of events before they happen, or of events they really couldn't have logistically known about. Go on. I'll wait for you. Pick and hold on to the first one that comes to mind.
Got one?
OK. There's a good chance you thought of Desmond. His capacity to glimpse flashes of the future is well known. Possibly you thought of Locke. He seems to be able to predict rain and had a vision of a bloodied Boone before his fatal accident. You might have thought of Walt. He touched Locke and suddenly became aware that Locke was trying to open the hatch and warned him against doing it. Walt clearly knew something he couldn't really have known about, and possibly even glimpsed the future of what could happen. If you thought of any of those characters I can't argue with you.
Anyone else? Well, you could make a case for Rose; that she 'knew' her husband Bernard was alive on the other side of the Island. Maybe that's pushing things, though. That could have just been pure hope masquerading as certainty. Let's deal with concrete facts.
Some other characters and instances you might not immediately think of:
Claire. In her diary, that Charlie read when she had been kidnapped, Claire wrote of how she had dreamed about a 'Black Rock'. This was before the ship in the jungle had been found.
Boone. When Locke left him tied in the woods (drugged?) he had an experience of freeing Shannon and running from 'the monster'. Boone had never encountered 'the monster' at this stage (and he never would).
Hurley. When he dreamt he was in the Swan Station larder, where Jin told him he was speaking Korean, on the milk carton was Walt as a missing person (before Hurley or anyone else from the fuselage section knew Walt was missing).
Mr. Eko. Had a vision of a deathly Ana Lucia appearing as she looked when she had been shot, who informed him he had to look for a question mark (something Ana Lucia knew nothing of!) that only Locke knew about. At that instance Mr. Eko had no idea Ana was dead nor how she had been killed.
Got one?
OK. There's a good chance you thought of Desmond. His capacity to glimpse flashes of the future is well known. Possibly you thought of Locke. He seems to be able to predict rain and had a vision of a bloodied Boone before his fatal accident. You might have thought of Walt. He touched Locke and suddenly became aware that Locke was trying to open the hatch and warned him against doing it. Walt clearly knew something he couldn't really have known about, and possibly even glimpsed the future of what could happen. If you thought of any of those characters I can't argue with you.
Anyone else? Well, you could make a case for Rose; that she 'knew' her husband Bernard was alive on the other side of the Island. Maybe that's pushing things, though. That could have just been pure hope masquerading as certainty. Let's deal with concrete facts.
Some other characters and instances you might not immediately think of:
Claire. In her diary, that Charlie read when she had been kidnapped, Claire wrote of how she had dreamed about a 'Black Rock'. This was before the ship in the jungle had been found.
Boone. When Locke left him tied in the woods (drugged?) he had an experience of freeing Shannon and running from 'the monster'. Boone had never encountered 'the monster' at this stage (and he never would).
Hurley. When he dreamt he was in the Swan Station larder, where Jin told him he was speaking Korean, on the milk carton was Walt as a missing person (before Hurley or anyone else from the fuselage section knew Walt was missing).
Mr. Eko. Had a vision of a deathly Ana Lucia appearing as she looked when she had been shot, who informed him he had to look for a question mark (something Ana Lucia knew nothing of!) that only Locke knew about. At that instance Mr. Eko had no idea Ana was dead nor how she had been killed.
I was tempted to include Charlie in this list - with his religious visions of Aaron in peril - but I don't feel these were true indicators of knowledge before knowledge was possible. Arguably, Charlie became the reason Aaron was endangered and didn't foresee anything. So, in the rigour of concrete evidence, this one doesn't count. But even discounting Charlie, that's a fairly sizeable list. So now let me show you where I am headed with this. Stick with me.
The German psychologist Minkowski, in 1908, theorised that there was a static universe where time was non-consequential - it was the observer that created a sense of linearity, of events occurring one after the other. In short, the passing of time is merely the way our brains assimilate our lives; we simply can't process the idea that everything happens at once. And I haven't just plucked the name Minkowski out of the sky. Minkowski is the name of the person Jack speaks to on the satellite phone during Through The Looking Glass and The Beginning Of The End. This suggests, at least to me, the static universe concept is not to be taken lightly.
It may also be a giant red herring. Don't think I haven't considered this. But I'll let doubt rest for my purposes here.
What I find interesting is the characters that displayed 'powers' of extra-awareness did so whilst they were asleep. Claire dreamt Black Rock. Hurley dreamt Milk Carton Walt. Eko dreamt Dead Ana Lucia. Does the sleep state relax consciousness into more easily accepting the concept of space-time as a whole? And is space-time more acutely perceptible on the Island than it is anywhere else?
Both Boone and Locke, when under the influence of Locke's mysterious drug paste, were given what Locke took to be a closer communion with the Island. But perhaps what Locke took to be a closer communion with the Island may actually have just been his consciousness in a more receptive state to space-time as one.
Think of the Island as an enormous facilitator, situated at a point where the right magnetic or atmospheric conditions allow for consciousness to be heightened, or more attuned, to space-time in a non-consecutive, non-linear sense. So long as you're on the Island and you attune your consciousness to be more receptive, bingo: you're channelled into a different state of awareness. Maybe a collective consciousness. Maybe just flashes of time happening all at once.
"Only fools are enslaved by time and space," goes the message in Room 23. (Again, strapping a person to a chair and bombarding them with loud noises and images may create the same state of consciousness that permits heightened awareness of space-time.) This brings me to Desmond. He who was exposed to electromagnetism at close quarters, like overdosing on these Island properties. His is a mind that has traversed both space and time. Isn't he living concrete proof that this theory is correct?
Well, don't answer right now. You just take a while. Sleep on it. I'm sure everything will become much clearer.
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