Life can often be frustrating. We can work hard, have faith, follow the clues, be good people, make sacrifices for the greater good, and still find ourselves in pretty dismal circumstances. When reflecting on our lives, we may wonder where we went wrong, or, if we are being punished for some reason. Perhaps something we did in a prior lifetime─karma that finally caught up to us.

From our limited perspective, it may sometimes seem that our lives aren’t amounting to much. But like It’s A Wonderful Life, we usually just don’t realize how many lives we’ve touched─lives that were made better because we were in them or at least helped influence them in some way. We might feel like failures, but in fact, may have succeeded without even knowing it. It’s just that there is a bigger picture going on behind the curtain that is more important than our own wants and perceived needs.

As Ben is told by Jacob at the end of “The Incident” it’s not about him. But it is about how he fits into the overall picture. That was why as Miles told Ben in “Dr. Linus,” Jacob continued to have hope for Ben right up until the very end. Hope that despite all of Ben’s hardships, much like the Biblical Job, he would keep the faith. So while Ben had given up on Jacob, Jacob never gave up on him. And this knowledge may have swayed Ben to return to Jacob’s side, despite his temptation from Jacob’s nemesis to join the dark side. Perhaps Ben had to go through all those hardships so that he could have the strong foundation to be able to make the tough choices he would need to make─choices that would drastically affect the lives of others.

In both his island life and parallel life, Ben had to make a choice between benefiting just himself or, someone else. And in both lives, he chose the more challenging, selfless path. Perhaps then, Ben is one of the good guys as he had claimed all along. So is there a message there? That whatever makes us who we are stays with us no matter what life situation we are placed in? Are there good souls and bad souls that will remain that way regardless of how their life turns out? Is there an inner-intelligence that determines what we are?

This question of what makes us who we are was the theme of the 1998 movie Dark City. In the film, a society of aliens has created an artificial world and placed Earthlings inside it with different professions and socio-economic backgrounds. Once the humans were comfortable in their respective lives, the aliens would change them around, complete with lifelong memories of their new life. Millionaires would become paupers, healers would become killers, cops would be criminals, and all of them would believe that this is what their life had always been. What the aliens were looking for was what stayed the same when they continually shuffled the people’s circumstances. Whatever this constant was, was presumed to be the soul, and this is what the aliens wanted to find. If you put people into different life situations, will the same people always be good while others are always evil? Or, will it depend upon the life situation they find themselves in?

This element of what makes people who they are is also explored on Lost as seen through the flash-sideways, enabling us to see what stays the same when the characters are thrown into different life situations. In both parallel worlds, Kate is running away from her problems, Locke is angry at the world, Jack is dealing with daddy issues, Sayid is a killer, and Ben devises intricate plans to suit his Napoleon-esque power-hungry ego. This all comes down to the characters’ nature. But can it be changed, or at least, tweaked?

In both versions of his life, Ben feels that he hasn’t been treated fairly and therefore, has not been able to live up to his potential. Despite this belief, he still ends up making a sacrifice for the greater good. In one life he does this by giving up his blackmailed principal position in order to ensure his student Alex’s future. In the other, he gives up the power offered to him by MIB/Locke in order to return to help the side that he felt was the good one─a side that will have him despite his past transgressions. So does this mean that the villainous Ben Linus actually has a good soul? Yes…we all do. But some of us just have to clear away the crud that life has thrown at us in order to find it. A theme of Lost has always been that no one is truly bad or good. They just do what they think is right as seen through the filter of life that they have experienced.

As seen in both timelines, the characters sometimes choose to do bad things, but usually it is the result of situations they are thrown into. Each choice they make helps determine who they really are─tipping the scale more towards the ego/selfish side, or the spiritual/selfless one­. Dogen believed that Sayid’s internal scale had tipped too far towards “evil.” But everyone can be redeemed. In fact, no matter which side of the scale we are leaning, the universe will continually challenge us to grow with experiences that require us to make a decision about who we are. These decisions don’t change our soul, but can help us to get in touch with it. In some parallel versions of our life, we have grown ourselves by making a majority of choices that went against our selfish nature. In others, we’ve stayed pretty much the same by making an equal number of selfish and selfless choices. And in others, we’ve tipped the scale entirely towards the selfish side by usually choosing for just ourselves.

Ben’s father Roger Linus is someone who lives life full of regret in both of his timelines. On the island, he’s tipped the scale entirely towards the selfish side, blaming his son for the death of his wife and becoming an alcoholic in the process. In the parallel timeline, Roger blames himself for leaving the island, and while still relatively negative and regretful, seems to have a better relationship with his son. Not shown on Lost, but existing somewhere in the multiverse is a version of Roger Linus that is even stronger. Here, there is no blame at all, but acceptance. This version was able to accept his wife’s death and play the challenging role of both father and mother to his son. In “Dr. Linus” when Ben complained to his dad about the way his life turned out, instead of agreeing and being regretful about leaving the island, this version of Roger Linus would have commended his son for completing his doctorate, dedicating his life to helping others, and being able to take care of him in his old age. This stronger version of Roger Linus would’ve told his son that he was proud of him, just as Jack told his son in his parallel timeline.

On Lost, it seems as though the decisions that the characters make on the island, influence their parallel lives. Island Hurely has risen above his belief of feeling like a jinx and is rewarded with good luck in the parallel timeline. Jack has taken a leap of faith by risking his life with Alpert and is beginning to accept that he has what it takes, enabling him to resolve his issues with his son in the parallel time. Ben’s selfless decision to return to Jacob allowed him to make another selfless decision for Alex. On the other hand, Sayid who has decided to kill on the island, eventually makes that same choice in his parallel life. Perhaps this is why he is not married to Nadia in this life, it is sort of his punishment because he does not “deserve” her. In both timelines, Sayid wants to be good but always makes the choice to kill. I personally feel that the choice was a bit unfair in the off-island timeline since he was kidnapped and Keamy had threatened his family, but hopefully, Sayid’s story doesn’t end there.

Overall, the message for us is that even though things may not appear to be going according to our plans, it is not our plans that necessarily matter. Despite how things may appear, we are part of a much bigger plan. Richard Alpert feels betrayed and misled by Jacob, dedicating multiple lifetimes to a plan that seems to have failed. Was all his hard work and dedication for nothing? Even if the plan doesn’t work out, the answer is no. The reason is because all his hard work was not ultimately about helping Jacob, but helping himself. Just as Jack thought that the lighthouse would be helping someone else, we come to learn that it was all for his benefit. Similarly, our journey through life isn’t about how we succeed in mastering the material world. It’s about how we succeed in mastering ourselves─overcoming our own selfish desires. And the better you do, the easier you’ll make it for everyone else.

If things have been particularly challenging for you, perhaps you just have more growing to do because you’ve taken on a more challenging role. Each time you are presented with a tough decision and make the more selfless, challenging choice, you’ll be presented with fewer of those types of decisions in the future. Make the more selfish choice however, and you’ll be presented with those same situations again and again.

If you want to know how you’re doing, just look at your own life. What parts appear to flow smoothly and what parts feel like a broken record? Why does Sayid continually have to make decisions about killing? So he can choose to walk away from it. Why does Jack always end up in situations that he feels need to be fixed? So he can accept something even if it’s broken. Why does Kate always have something to run away from? So she can choose not to and settle down. Why does Locke always have crap happen to him? So he can learn not to react and be grateful for what he does have. Why did Hurley always experience bad luck? So he could learn how to make his own luck. Why did Claire keep having her baby taken away? So she could really want to raise it on her own.  And why do you always have that same thing that always happens to you? Next time it happens and you’re about to act the same way you usually do, take the more challenging path. You’ll be one step closer to redeeming the main character of your life story.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

The song “Sundown” was inspired by Cathy Smith, Gord’s mistress at the time who he later claimed in interviews was “the one woman in my life who most hurt me.” Actually, Gord may have gotten off easy. Easier than John Belushi anyway, into whom Cathy injected a fatal drug overdose. So is the message of the episode “Sundown” that women are nothing but temptations that should be avoided? Not at all. In fact, the end of the episode hinted that the one hope the island has for survival is from a woman. But we’ll get to that later.

Metaphorically speaking, if the skeletons in the cave are Adam and Eve, and the island is Eden, and Jacob is God, who is the snake? If there was ever any doubt, in this episode it became clear that it is the smoke monster, or should we say, snake monster. He slithers about, he deceives by mixing truth with lies (promising Claire that he will retrieve Aaron from the Temple, yet, Kate is there so who knows), and now, we see that he is tempting the Losties with forbidden fruit. In addition to promising Claire that he will get Aaron back, he promises Sawyer the answer to the question of why he’s on the island, he promises Sayid to reunite him with his deceased love, and just like the serpent in Eden, he seems to be speaking the truth.

For the record, while I’m using the Adam and Eve myth as the morality parable it is most often associated with, to be clear, I do not subscribe to this perspective. The story of the Garden of Eden is ultimately not about morals, good and evil, or even temptation. It is about the creation of our physical universe with the tree of knowledge of good and evil representing opposites that exist in a physical world, as opposed to morality. It could have just as easily been the tree of knowledge of light and dark or up and down. The snake symbolizes time that also only exists in the physical realm. (Possibly because the snake sheds its skin. The symbol of the snake with its tail in its mouth is known as Ouroboros and represents the repeating cycle of time, not putting your foot in your mouth after succumbing to temptation.) Put it all together and the eating of the fruit is symbolic of the creation of our physical world. Period. The misinterpretation of the story that has formed the basis of the world’s patriarchal religions is pretty much responsible for most of the problems throughout our history—wars, ego, pride, discrimination, bigotry, self-righteousness, witch hunts, male chauvinism, etc.  But that’s a column for another day. Here, we are talking about temptation.

On the island, Sayid has taken a bite of the snake monster’s forbidden fruit—killing Dogen in exchange for the chance to be reunited with his beloved Nadia. Ah, what Sayid will do for a woman.  The writers are really trying to get us to believe that the flash-sideways are a result of the snake monster’s granted wishes. This may entirely be the case, but I’m not convinced. The major reason is that in Sayid’s flash-sideways, Nadia is indeed alive and in love with him, but married to his brother. Is this simply an example of the infamous genie/leprechaun  trickster myth—be careful what you wish for because you’ll get it but not as you want it? Perhaps, but for the first time in any Sayid-centric episode, Sayid resists the temptation.

As I wrote about in “‘He’s Our You’—How Proxies Play a Role In Our Lives”: “Throughout his life, Sayid has continually been revisited by a particular archetype—that of a strong, confident woman who is able to mesmerize and ultimately entrap him.” He is lured in by the ladies and then beat up by them. From Ilana and Elsa to Rousseau and Amira, Sayid kept repeating the same mistakes by falling for the temptation of lust or violence. But in his flash-sideways, Sayid finally falls for neither. Not only does he not commit adultery with Nadia and dishonor his brother, he also does not seek out revenge—it finds him. In this way, Sayid is redeemed. As far as I’m concerned, his final act of violence in the flash-sideways was in self-defense, as well as in defense of his brother’s family.

This does not seem to be the granting of a wish, but rather, a final test or result of passing his tests. He tells his brother that he is no longer a man who seeks out violence, and tells Nadia that because of what he’s done in his past, he is not worthy of her. Here, he has clearly passed, and is rewarded by successfully beating the bad guys and rescuing Jin. On the island though, it’s another story. While he tells Dogen that he’s changed, he’s still not quite there and has been lured by temptation. Off-island Sayid has been redeemed, but on-island Sayid still has work to do. Will Christian Shephard come to the rescue and much like Anakin Skywalker, trade sides in the end to overthrow the chief bad guy and save the rebellion…and himself? Perhaps. Or perhaps the savior will be someone completely unexpected—at least from the snake monster’s perspective.

“That boy is our only hope,” the ghost of Obi-Wahn laments to Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. “No,” Yoda replies, “there may be another.” It’s always kind of disappointed me that Return of the Jedi really didn’t play up on this comment by having Leia somehow use her Jedi powers to save the day. I think it would’ve been cool if she showed up the boys. As with Star Wars, in Lost, all the serious contenders for candidacy seem to also be men. Of the six infamous numbers, all seem to be men, and Kate’s name isn’t even anywhere to be found in the cave. Despite being described by the snake monster as Jacob’s cave, I’m still leaning towards the possibility that it’s his. At the very least, it doesn’t seem like the lighthouse and the cave would both be Jacob’s. Why would he need to write down the numbers and names twice? I’ve heard a theory that perhaps the lighthouses belongs to the Man In Black and that’s why Jacob wanted it smashed. Cool idea, but mythologically, if Jacob does represent light, it should be his while the underground cavern should represent dark, earth energy or the Man In Black.

Since we did not see Kate’s name on the cave wall, the implication is that she is not a serious contender for candidacy, and might not be a threat to the Man In Black’s loophole plan. But while the Man In Black “can picture every move that a man can make, getting lost in her lovin’ is [his] first mistake. Every move??? As in a game???? And like Gordon is he too making a mistake by underestimating a woman? The song also provides another hint: “Sometimes I think it’s a sin when I feel like I’m winning when I’m losing again.” I feel this is exactly where the Man In Black is at. Jacob has a loophole of his own, and like most villains, the Man In Black’s ego blinds him of the unsuspecting threat to his plan—Kate.

I’m not a big backgammon player, but I’ve got a mean Othello strategy. And I’ll tell you exactly what it is: let the other player take up the entire middle of the board so he thinks he’s winning, then, once he’s surrounded himself with himself and has no moves to make, use your edges to turn the tide and flip over all his pieces in mighty swoops.

At the very end of the episode, the Man In Black seems to be in a very good position. He’s killed Jacob, killed everyone in the temple who he hasn’t recruited, and even gotten a possible new candidate to join his team. He gives Kate an intrigued look, but then confidently leads his team to certain victory. Yet, just as Kate got Sawyer and Juliet to turn the sub around, I think she is going to begin to flip over all of the Man In Black’s pieces right back to white. I could be wrong, but I hope not because there is a very strong goddess energy in the air these days and I’d love to write a column about it. We just need an episode with that as the focus to make it happen.

The writers have actually given another slight hint that it might be a woman who tricks the Man In Black. Considering that up until now, all the Season 6 episodes have been following the same order of character-focused episodes as Season 1 (they’ve both focused first on everyone, then Kate, Locke, and Jack), many people assumed this episode would center around Sun since she was next in the lineup. The Season 1 episode with her was called “House of the Rising Sun,” and this Season 6 one was also a play on her name. However, it was all a ruse. The episode focused on Sayid and his love for a woman. I don’t think this title was chosen by accident.

The insinuation might be that just as we took it for granted that a woman would play a role as we expected, the Man In Black may be fooled as well. Kate, Sun, or possibly even Ilana, may give the Man In Black a challenge he wasn’t expecting. If so, that will be a great episode to talk about the goddess.

In the meantime though, what was the message of this episode for us? The theme was obviously about temptation—about making deals with the devil. We all have our weaknesses, and the universe (devil, Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, serpent, anti-Christ, whatever you wanna call it) will continually tempt us with whatever it is. Every time we resist, we get that much stronger to make the right choice the next time. However, when we give in, we reap the repercussions. Not to worry though, because either way, you’ll get tested again. No matter what your weakness, you will continually be tested until you successfully overcome it and then successfully pass the multiple retests. Why does the world work this way? Why can’t we just indulge in sex, violence, junk food, and alcohol whenever we want? Well, we can—the choice is ours. But without having vices in this world that we know we shouldn’t give into that often if at all, there would really be no challenge in living life. It would just be like the Garden of Eden where everything was handed to us.

As I mentioned in “Why LOST Can Be A Substitute For ‘Willy Wonka’” it’s like that scene in The Matrix when agent Smith tells Morpheus that humans rejected the first matrix program where everything was perfect. That program was our mythological Garden of Eden. And it was torturously boring. Much like the Man In Black, Satan isn’t truly evil. It just represents the challenge that enables us to see what we’re made of. The Garden of Eden is cool at first, but after a while it gets really old. There’s a great Twilight Zone where this crook gets shot and finds himself in Heaven. He can have everything he desires. At first, he loves it. But after several months, he begs to be sent to Hell instead. It is then that he is told that he’s already there.

So don’t hate the struggle. Embrace it. It makes life interesting. Without it, there would be nothing for us to overcome, nothing to resist, nothing to strive for. Still, while nobody gets to walk between the raindrops, there are those who’ve had charmed lives. Everything goes right for them and they rarely have to struggle. But you know what? They’re soft. There might be a parallel universe where you are such a person. Where everything has gone right for you. But judging by the way the world is headed now, I’d think twice before wishing you could switch places with that version of yourself. You are in a much better position for handling the challenges that may be heading our way.

Even if there aren’t too many of these global challenges, you are at least in a better position to handle whatever might come your way…personally.  And something will. Because you are a Lost fan. You are attracted to an intelligently written show about people with major issues in mysterious and dangerous surroundings filled with complicated questions. Lost is preparing you and other Lost fans for the future. So should time start skipping in our world, or multiple versions of ourselves begin showing up, or people begin getting bloody noses, while the rest of the world may panic, you’ll know what to do. And perhaps if you’ve grown yourself enough you can take charge and comfort everyone else by letting them know that they shouldn’t worry. You know exactly what’s going on. After all, you’re a Lost fan.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

The concept of parallel timelines is coming up a lot lately in various TV shows, films, and commercials. In the Season 8 premiere of The Family Guy titled “Road to the Multiverse,” Stewie and Brian explore a series of alternate universes. The episode reminded me of the nineties TV show, Sliders where Jerry O’Connell’s character leaps into various versions of earth along with three friends. Most recently is ABC’s FlashForward, which offers peaks into a future that apparently can be altered, rendering it as an alternate timeline. There have also been several commercials lately featuring doppelgangers of characters that exist in a happier existence because they chose to go back to school, save wisely, or buy a particular car. The insinuation is that if they don’t make these wise choices they will continue within their current, crappy existence. My favorite movie about alternate timelines is The Butterfly Effect from 2004 where Ashton Kutcher’s character continually changes moments from his past to yield unexpected results.  All of these themes could be teaching us how time may really work, and with the veil of our illusionary reality seeming to get thinner, we just might get to actually experience it for ourselves real soon.

According to most of the theories within the realm of quantum physics, time is an illusion, or at least, does not work in the linear fashion it appears to from our perspective. The basic idea is that every possibility that could’ve ever happened, may one day happen, or is happening all exist in one moment, and that what we focus on becomes our linear experience. The concept is most popularly known as the many-worlds or multiverse theory (hence, the Family Guy episode title). The theory holds that when there are options for an object to exist in multiple states, the universe reveals equally as many universes where that object can experience any one of those multiple options. Similarly, according to the concept of superposition, if we do not know the state of a given object, it actually exists in all possible states as long as we don’t look to see. Once we do, the object is then limited to that single possibility. (On Lost, Jack wonders why they’ve never seen the lighthouse—symbolic of spiritual enlightenment—before. Hurley responds that maybe they weren’t looking for it.) So, putting these concepts together and making it relevant for us: in any given moment there are as many parallel worlds as there are options to choose from, and wherever our mind goes, we go.

It sounds kind of confusing, but really, it’s no different than a video game. You can hold a video game disc in your hand. On that disc is all the programming that the characters within it could ever experience. Its entire life and all its life possibilities exist in one moment. As you play that game, you continually have the freedom of choice to select various paths and options that will lead to a new set of circumstances. Of course, all of these choices and circumstances have already been written into the programming code. But from the character’s perspective in the game, it all seems like a series of new experiences that have formed one path through its life. Should the character die, it’s game over from its point of view and those in that particular version of its reality. But as the game players, we can simply hit the reset button and play the game again. Perhaps if the character had memories or feelings, it might feel as though certain aspects of this second game seem vaguely familiar. It might recognize a major character on its journey or get a sense of déjà vu when it makes a particular choice it had made in the previous game.

The reason the video game metaphor seems to fit so well with our reality, is because this world may work similarly. The major difference is that we may be the ones playing our own characters’ game pieces without realizing it. How ironic that we may have had full control of our lives all along, but that since most of us tend to focus on worrying and negative outcomes that’s where we go.

Imagine you have an upcoming challenge to face.  Successful people tend to focus on the best-case scenario and imagine how they can get there. They also imagine possible hindrances to their objective, but they don’t dwell on them or worry about them. When most people have challenges however, this is exactly what they do. They imagine the worst-case scenario first, in order to prepare for it should it happen. They then imagine different ways they could deal with it. This creates a picture in their mind along with the emotions they would feel during such a scenario. What they don’t realize is that they are giving energy to this outcome, and thereby moving their game piece toward that reality.

This is what the law of attraction mentioned in The Secret is really all about. It isn’t magical thinking. It’s simply about experiencing the best version of yourself that already exists. It’s about leaping into the reality where things work the way you want simply by focusing on that outcome.  Much like the 1973 Mets, “Ya gotta believe!” You might not get exactly what you envision, but you will get that much closer. And maybe, by continuing to believe, you’ll eventually get there.

So if you wish your life were different, that’s your first mistake. You are focusing on what you don’t want rather than what you do. Instead of thinking about the negatives, think and act as though your life is as you want it to be and your mindset will carry you to that version of reality. Right now, there is a version of you that is totally fulfilled—focus on that, connect an emotion with it, live as though it’s already happened (there’s that leap of faith theme again mentioned in “Lost ‘316’ on Leaps of Faith & the Cycle of Life”). Do this and you just might begin to experience this reality, while your current reality will continue to exist for another version of yourself. Most likely, your thoughts will simply nudge you closer to where you want to be, but at least it’s a start. And once you get some momentum going, you might get to experience the very best version of yourself. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your life will be easy, but that you will be the most fulfilled. That you have come to terms with an illness or handicap, feel like the luckiest person in the world, or have patched up issues with your son.

From the beginning, Lost has focused on daddy issues. Perhaps these were simply leaked out from Jack’s consciousness all along. Perhaps everyone’s issues had kind of blended together creating a problem stew that had to be properly resolved for the characters to be redeemed. Those with the deepest issues led to events that showed up the most on the island and took the longest to resolve. Why did Jacob want Jack to see that mirror into his life in the lighthouse? Perhaps it wasn’t so much to make Jack feel watched, but to see how his life could be. Much like the ghost of Christmas Future referenced by Sawyer in “The Substitute,” maybe Jacob is just giving Jack a glimpse into a possible future where things can work out, or, remind him of his troubled past with his dad so he can deal with those issues from a new perspective—and let go of them.

Past or future—it doesn’t matter. It’s all an illusion that only exists in our head. The only thing that matters is right now, because it is from the now that we can set the course for our lives. Of course, while we do have the freedom to choose any version of our lives that have been written, we cannot leap into one that has not been. It’s just like those old Choose Your Own Adventure books I’ve mentioned before. You can choose any combination of adventures in the book, but you cannot choose an adventure that isn’t written in its pages. Similarly, you can chose to slip into a version of your life where you have a loving family or where you run a successful business or have become a famous writer, but there is probably no version of your life where you can fly or are a super villain or the richest person in the world. Chances are, it’s just not your path. But it might be someone else’s. Well, except maybe the flying thing. But then again, you never know.

In “The Lighthouse” Lost has planted a seed that encourages us to imagine what other versions of our lives might be like. What would we find by going down the rabbit hole or through the looking glass? This episode was filled with so many Alice in Wonderland references it almost became distracting. We’ve seen the storybook before, and the key hiding underneath the rabbit. Now, we’re getting tons of scenes where characters are looking at their reflections—in bathroom mirrors, in water, in lighthouses, etc. Perhaps in beating us over the head with the symbolism, Lost is simply trying to get us to take a look at ourselves. What kind of story are we creating for our lives? Is it one that is suiting us?

It would seem that Claire has created a story for her life where a group of bad guys have forcefully taken her child away from her. Does she really believe that story, or is it just one she has created to relieve guilt of abandoning her child? Someone mentioned to me that the scene reminded them of them of the film Memento, where Guy Pearce’s character comes to learn the truth about his quest, but decides to continue with his fabricated story in order to give him something to strive for. Similarly, we sometimes lie to ourselves to avoid cognitive dissonance. Unfortunately, these lies often become self-fulfilling prophecies that we create by the very means described above. Just as Claire has created an enemy out of the Others, we often think ourselves into troubled relationships and scenarios that are completely unnecessary and often even harmful. Lost simply seems to be asking us to take a good look at ourselves. Are you challenging yourself to be the highest possible version of who you could be? Is there a character on the show whose faults and issues seem similar to your own? Sometimes, we are too close to our own problems to see them for what they are. It’s easy to see what a control freak Jack is, or how Kate always runs from her problems, or how Locke creates his own troubles. But it’s much more difficult for us to see when we do the exact same thing.

So if there’s a character on Lost that you most relate to, just for fun, reflect on the possibility that perhaps you too share the same issues. If so, how might you go about correcting them? Then, do that. Stop being a victim like Locke and rise above your challenges. Face your fears like Kate will have to do if she will be redeemed. And stop trying to control every detail of life like Jack has done…until his conversation with his son. Lost has given us a cornucopia of character archetypes to choose from, so chances are, one fits you—or perhaps a combination might. Regardless, Lost gives us the tools to understand life and help make our own noticeably better. No wonder so many people see it as much more than just a TV show.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Lost

In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka chooses five children from around the world to partake in a tour of his glorious and magical candy factory. While each child believes that his or her prize will include a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate, in truth, Wonka is looking for a candidate to replace him as custodian of the phantasmagorical factory. Sounding familiar yet? If not, no worries because we’re just getting started.

Wonka’s nemesis is a rival candy maker known as Slugworth, who, we are led to believe, tempts each of the children with riches should they bring him Wonka’s newest secret candy, The Everlasting Gobstopper. This shouldn’t be too difficult because all of the children, save one, are spoiled, greedy, brats. The only one who isn’t, is Charlie Bucket who has had a rough life, but is a good kid. Helping Wonka run his factory is a group of strange helpers known as the Oompa Loomas. Despite never helping the children get out of life-threatening danger, the Oompa Loompas consider themselves to be the good guys by singing preachy songs about proper behavior.

So, plugging in our Lost proxies, we can imagine that the mystical candy factory is the mysterious island, Wonka is Jacob and Slugworth is the Man in Black. The Oompa Loompas are the Others and the children are the Losties. Which children they are depend upon which formula you use to plug in. If we were to go purely by archetype, then Shannon is the spoiled brat Veruca Salt, Hurley is the greedy Augustus Gloop, Ana Lucia is the loudmouth Violet Beauregarde, Sawyer is the sheriff wannabe Mike Teevee and Locke is the loveable loser, Charlie Bucket. For our purposes though, let’s just say rich girl Sun could also be Veruca and tomboy Kate could also be Violet. Poor little Desmond could also be Charlie Bucket, but we won’t give up on Locke just yet.

Okay, so I’ve now compared Lost to Willy Wonka, just as easily as I could’ve with say, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, or Star Wars. True, but we’ve already heard about those. And the new information we received in “The Substitute” really gives us a big clue that we can use Willy Wonka as a key to decode. The clue, is that of the concept of a candidate.

The idea of using a series of tests to pick a candidate to replace someone in a very important (and magical) position exists in many stories other than Willy Wonka. For example, after passing a series of tests in the final scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy is asked to replace the knight guarding Christ’s Holy Grail. Doing so would allow him to become immortal so that he could, say, later survive an atom bomb explosion by hiding in a refrigerator.

On Lost, we are led to believe that Jacob and his nemesis have been given eternal life so that they too can guard something of vast importance—an island that seems to defy the laws of the universe. Why are two people needed in this version of the myth? Well, Lost has set up that precedent numerous times, as explained by the button-pushing chore performed in the Swan Station. It’s basically to prevent you from going crazy. While it didn’t work for Radzinsky, (who killed himself leaving behind only a blood stain on the wall according to his partner Kelvin) perhaps the reason was because Radzinsky, as we have seen, was not up to the challenge. Radzinsky was impatient and angry and hadn’t grown enough to take on the challenge of sitting in a contained place and pushing a button every 108 minutes. What if the whole button-pushing thing was actually a test to see who could take on the responsibilities of the island? A test he failed. A test Kelvin failed. And a test that Desmond failed, but came closer than anyone else. Sorta like Charlie Bucket, who also failed by stealing Fizzy-Lifting drinks with his Grandpa Joe. But “so shines a good deed in a weary world…” Hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself.

In “The Substitue” the Man in Black tells Sawyer that he was once a man. Perhaps then, Jacob was too, and both died on the island to be resurrected as its protectors. Much like Locke not believing the button has to be pushed, the Man in Black has lost his faith that the island needs to be protected. And much like Locke, he is wrong, as we see in the parallel timeline with the island being underwater. A timeline where the Man In Black seemingly wins.

As I’ve written in my previous two columns from this season (“What the LA X Refers To” and “Tale of Two Kates”) , I still believe the events of the parallel 2004 timeline are really happening after the events we are seeing on the island in 2007—after Man In Black attacks the temple with Sawyer (and possibly Claire, Christian, and Sayid from the inside). Dogen has already said that the Man in Black will be coming to the temple. Why? Well, why build a temple to begin with? Why was Solomon’s Temple built and later, the Dome of the Rock in its place? Because both sit on hallowed ground where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac (the Biblical Jacob’s father) and Muhammad ascended to heaven. So the temple on the island also likely sits on hallowed ground or must contain a sacred treasure (something akin to the Ark of the Covenant?) that would allow the Man In Black passage back into our world. Perhaps it is the rejuvenating pool. Maybe Man In Black must kill Sawyer and resurrect him in the pool. Maybe his plan is to trick Sawyer into taking his place so that he can finally leave (just as Sayid the torturer is being tortured, Sawyer the conman is being conned). And what might this Man In Black do once he returns home? The end of the episode gives us a clue.

The Man in Black says he wants to get the “hell off” the island. Does Sawyer? “Hell ya.” Ladies and gentleman, should the Man In Black escape the island he will bring with him Hell on Earth. Perhaps not personally or even purposely. Perhaps in that parallel timeline, the changes in the Losties’ lives lead to a butterfly effect that alters the course of history and brings about the destruction of the world. Whether purposeful or accidental however, it all seems to be put into action by the Man In Black. And who, pray tell can stop him? Only the Christ. And who is the Christ? Well, there are many Christ archetypes on Lost: Locke, Desmond, and Jacob just to name a few. And all have good arguments to be the savior. Desmond was told by Eloise Hawking that the island wasn’t through with him yet, and he also sacrificed himself on the island only to be reborn naked (without sin). Locke has suffered in his life and also brought back from the dead (by Jacob and later physically by Man In Black). Jacob has been sacrificed, yet, we see what could be a young apparition or resurrection of him (much like the young Spock who is regenerated in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock) warning his nemesis about the rules.

As I mention in The Myth of Lost, in mythology, whenever we see ghosts, they usually speak the truth, and ghosts of children nearly always speak the truth. When Man In Black first sees what could be Jacob, the young boy is barefoot and has his arms spread out in a crucified Christ pose revealing bloody hands. He shows up first as his nemesis tries to recruit Richard and then as he begins to recruit Sawyer, seemingly to remind him that he cannot kill either one of them. Those are the rules. They must make the choice of their own freewill. Of course, this theme is right out of the Bible, which also teaches that we are given the freewill to make choices on our own. Despite Man In Black’s insistence to the contrary (as he explains to Sawyer in the cave), it is becoming increasingly clear that Jacob is the one who represents freedom of choice, though, much like the Man In Black, does offer little nudges here and there to fit his own agenda.

So, of Desmond, Locke, and Jacob, who do I think will save the world? Who do I think will most likely take on the role of the Messianic figure and sacrifice himself for the good of humanity? While I think all three characters will have a role, I believe it will be Locke. There are two clues as to why I believe this. The first was in the much talked about Lost Supper promo pictures taken of the cast. In all three pictures, Locke is sitting in the middle of the table in Jesus’ seat. When I first saw the picture, I thought that since Locke was dead, the image was actually of the Man In Black in Locke’s body. Having been given a taste of this season though, I now feel that it is actually Locke in that position. Yes, Locke who has been buried on the island and beaten down in his parallel life. Either way, I think he will rise to save the day. Why? Once again, we turn to our friend, mythology.

If there is one thing Lost teaches us, it is that we should not underestimate the power of a proxy. A proxy is basically a metaphor, or yes, a substitute, for a particular character—one that can be replaced for another because it has similar qualities (See “‘He’s Our You’—How Proxies Play a Role In Our Lives” for more). Through the character names it has given us, the allusions to books and movies, and its own storyline, Lost has taught us that stories tend to repeat themselves, and themes set up by one story are likely to show up again in another. While Lost does break the rules and surprise us every once in awhile, I highly doubt that they will go against one theme that they’ve spent their entire six seasons reinforcing: Suffering characters who rise against their challenges are, in the end, redeemed. On Lost, the redemption oddly seems to be death, but that’s an argument for a different column. The point is, they overcome their issues and can be at peace.

This theme exists throughout mythology—a hero is someone who suffers. And the more he suffers, the more he grows. The old adage is whatever doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger. One only has to look to The Odyssey, Clash of the Titans, Star Wars, The Ten Commandments, The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings, and your own life to see that this is true. And who does Lost go out of its way to show us has suffered more than any other character? John Locke. “Chin up, “Hugo tells him in the parallel timeline, “things are gonna work out.”

Cut To: Dead Locke on the beach.

The juxtaposition is humorous, but the message wasn’t really for Locke at all, it was for us. The writers know what they are doing, and things aren’t as they appear—both in the show, and in our lives during these trying times. Suffering will help make Locke, and us, stronger.

In any dimension, Locke’s life is hard mostly because he makes it hard. He became a paraplegic because he continued to harass his father who he knew was a deranged criminal. He stayed in a crappy job that had a crappy boss that no one was forcing him to stay at. Even in his parallel life, couldn’t he have asked his fiancée to pick him up from the airport? If not, he at least could’ve asked someone for help when the wheelchair platform got stuck. But no, he was too proud. He was also too proud to park in a handicap spot. And too headstrong to admit he couldn’t do a walkabout or work on a construction site. Quite simply, Locke’s ego gets him in trouble and is responsible for much of his misfortune. Locke’s handicap is the universe’s way of teaching him not to be too proud—to reduce his ego. Pride is Locke’s real handicap.

As mentioned in The Myth of Lost, Locke needs to learn to accept his paraplegic state. Insisting to Helen that he won’t call Jack and her ripping up his card is a first step, but it wasn’t for the right reasons. At that time, Locke doesn’t want to attempt to get help because he doesn’t have faith, not because he’s cool with his situation. Like island Locke before he lost his faith, Locke needs to believe in miracles as Helen tries to convince him of. Helen is good for Locke. Just like Helen of Troy, she may be the inspiration he needs to go to war with his ego, which he’ll need to do if he’s going to live up to his potential.

As with all the characters on Lost, life is hard. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be a challenge and we’d find ourselves pretty bored. In The Matrix, Agent Smith echoes this truism when he tells Morpheus that humans rejected the first matrix program where everything was perfect. We are here to be challenged and to grow.

On Lost, Man In Black tells Sawyer that candidates have three choices. First, they can do nothing. This would make them the metaphorical zombies of our world, just going through their daily lives without growing until they die. The second choice is to accept the job, using the rules of society to rise to the top. Unfortunately, this choice often leaves one blind to the hidden truths of our world, and one is often left following rules, religions, or subconscious patterns without daring to go beyond and ask the deeper question—what lies beyond? The third choice is to leave the rat race behind and seek your own truth. While this option is often the toughest and the most ideal for one’s destiny, it is often taken on prematurely, before one has grown using the challenges of society.

The trick then, is to start out playing by the rules and growing as they challenge you so that you can later break them and seek your own truth and meaning. On Lost, Jack begins as a man of science, playing by the rules, but has slowly taken on the qualities of a man of faith. Locke became a man of faith on the island, but is now retracing his steps in a parallel life to relearn the rules he always dismissed so that his faith can become even stronger later in the game. It is very difficult to find someone who excels in both the material rules and the spiritual seeking, and perhaps that is why the island’s candidacy requires two people. Two people who can keep each other balanced on the metaphorical scale—or, the real scale seen in Jacob’s cave…or, was that really the Man In Black’s cave? It is more fitting of the dark energy to be underground. Usually light energy is high up, in say, a lighthouse. But I’ll leave that until next week’s episode to discuss. For now, let’s just take the Man In Black’s words with a grain of salt.

In order to become the highest version of one’s self then, it would seem that there is a sequence to reaching enlightenment. First, one needs to follow the rules of the game. Then, one needs to be challenged while playing the game. This makes the player stronger and able to overcome increasingly more difficult challenges. Continually being beaten down by life must cause one to lose his ego, but if one is not completely beaten by life, he or she will grow their faith. This makes the player bigger than the sum of his parts. Only then can he break the rules of the game for a purpose greater than the self. This is redemption. This is destiny. This, is Locke’s destiny. And I’m not telling anyone what the Locke character can or can’t do, I’m just saying that this is how it goes according to the myth that Lost, up until now, seems to be following.

Like most “bad” guys, i.e. Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars, Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, etc., the Man In Black underestimates the power of faith—in this case, Locke’s. Man In Black and many Lost fans believe Locke’s story is over. He’s dead and buried and was scared and confused when he died. Even in his other dimension, Locke the substitute teacher doesn’t offer much of a threat to the Man in Black’s dastardly plans. Yet, did little Frodo offer much of a threat? What about the “pitiful rebellion” in Jedi? Did anyone ever think that poor little Charlie Bucket stood a chance at winning a golden ticket, let alone inheriting the entire Wonka empire? In the end, Charlie’s challenges that had beaten him down and crushed his ego enabled him to shine much like a little candle in a dark room. Charlie’s inner peace gave him the strength to resist the temptation of riches from the Everlasting Gobstopper, and so he returned it to Wonka. Wonka, in turn, soon reveals that it had all been a ruse. That Mr. Slugworth really worked for him and that it was all a test. A test concocted to find the perfect candidate to take over for him and look after the chocolate factory and the Oompa Loompas. The curtain had been pulled back at last.

Much like Charlie Bucket, Locke must make up for failing his test. All it takes is one act that can redeem him and thereby, redeem everyone.  Perhaps Jack faces a similar challenge, and he and Locke will take the place of the Man In Black and Jacob. Or, maybe Locke will arrive on the island with Helen back in 1977 and die there, becoming Adam and Eve to be reborn and start a new world.

Even if any of these scenarios are even close, there are still so many questions. If Locke is still close to his dad in the parallel world, are we to believe that he became handicapped from some other reason? When Locke was wheeling down the halls in the high school, was that young kid he spoke with supposed to be Walt from 2004 who obviously had to be recast? Why wasn’t Kate one of the numbers? Is it a men’s only club? If so, does that mean that the 42 is Jin and not Sun? Were the numbers the Losties all along, or was Jacob just keeping track of them by their seat numbers on Oceanic 815? Either way, why do they show up everywhere? Do they signify markers where each Lostie has to go, i.e., the Swan Station? Are the whispers the dead souls on the island, and the reason bodies had to be buried was because the souls would possess them? If so, has the ghost of Rousseau possessed Claire? Is the reason why Claire seemed to recognize Jin because she is actually Rousseau? If the show is ultimately about finding a candidate, what really was the purpose of DHARMA on the show? Is there still something else going on or a major twist planned?

There are still many, many questions left on Lost, and while some will be answered, much as with life, I expect most will not be.  But more importantly, I think the show has played a greater part in helping us solve our own mysteries and co-create our own lives. We may never get to fully understand exactly why the numbers appeared everywhere, why everyone was connected, or what a snozzberry is, but who cares? We are the music makers. And we are the dreamers of dreams.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

In the February 4th “Official LOST Audio Podcast,” Damon Lindelof insists that the “flash-sideways” we’re seeing in Season 6 are in fact not alternate timelines. In other words, they do not have any lesser value than the other timeline and both are of equal importance. For this reason, I will refer to events of the flash-sideways as occurring in a parallel timeline. This does not necessarily mean that the events are happening along side each other. As I pointed out last week (in “What the LA X in ‘LA X’ Really Refers To”), it is entirely possible that this off-island timeline will occur after the island storyline ends and what we are seeing is the resolution of the characters in the show.

Of course, it’s also possible that the two timelines are occurring alongside each other. If this is the case, it is likely that these ripples in time will eventually merge once the flash-sideways events of 2004 catch up to 2007. This may cause a continual loop that leads to the Losties (and the world) being stuck in time (similar to the Star Trek TNG episode “Cause and Effect” written about in “’Follow the Leader’—Can Changing One Moment Change Everything?”).

Whether the flash-sideways is occurring alongside the other timeline or will occur afterwards, since time is an illusion anyway, the mythological message is similar. The island can represent a realm where you create the story of your destiny, after which, you’re born into a life where you get to experience it. So, whereas in most of my mythological interpretations of the show, I describe the island as a metaphor for our world on earth, in this case, I’m reversing it by saying that the island could also be seen as a metaphor for a heavenly realm where we write the story of our lives. That’s the beauty of mythology: its metaphors lend itself to many interpretations as millions of Lost fans can attest to.

Imagine if before we are born, our soul (energy, karma, light, essence, player of the video game of life, etc.), decides on the story it wants to experience in this lifetime. It chooses the people and events that will help it to grow past the issues it had experienced in its last lifetime.  So, the people who are the closest to you will likely challenge you with your biggest issues since these issues will take the longest to resolve.  That’s why, as they sing in the Broadway play Avenue Q, “The More You [Love] Someone the More They Drive You Crazy.” Your family, loved ones, and coworkers are put into your life to help you overcome your biggest issues.

Some faiths even claim that we continually get reincarnated with the same set of souls lifetime after lifetime. So your best friend now could’ve been your father or mother in a previous life. Your lover could’ve been a teacher or competitor. Your boss could’ve been an enemy on the battlefield. We keep coming back with these same souls to work out these issues, just as the Losties seem to be doing in their parallel timeline, and these connections and experiences have all been planned in our soul story from the start.

From a narrative perspective, this spiritual metaphor is easier to understand if the flash-sideways is happening after the events of 2007 because it’ll give us a sense of closure. Yes, Kate started out on the run in this new timeline, just as before, but in “What Kate Does,” we see her do something that goes against her nature. Instead of running away from a problem she has created, she endangers herself by trying to make it right. By coming back to help Claire and going with her to the hospital, she puts her own life at risk for someone else. That’s redemption. Getting into the cab that was occupied by Claire is, of course, no accident. It is fate pulling the strings to enable Kate to experience a test she was always meant to have.

Speaking of “pulling the strings,” Heroes fans may have recognized the cab driver from that scene as David H. Lawrence XVII who plays “Puppet Master” Eric Doyle on the series. Doyle is a villain who can control people’s actions, and he especially likes doing so to the cute blonde on the show, Claire (the cheerleader). Was this a purposeful hint from the Lost producers or one of those happy coincidences set up by the puppet masters of our universe? Either way, the message is once again that Lost is simply giving us hidden messages that reveal truths about our world.

If our life story really is all planned out before we come to this world, it really could explain some of the more bizarre mysteries we experience here. As stated above, when we recognize some of the key players from our destiny we can get a sense that we already know someone the moment we meet them.  This could also explain love at first sight—your soul is instantly recognizing someone from your future that you are destined to have a soulful connection with. The soul doesn’t experience time, it is eternal, so it can recognize another soul from a future time or a past life. It may also just resonate with meeting someone from your predetermined chosen path—someone who is meant to help you successfully navigate it.

Another weird phenomenon this may explain is déjà vu. What if the phenomenon happens when you experience an event that your soul had planned to experience—particularly, a key event that would be pivotal for your destiny? Remembering this event as it occurs brings about a sense of déjà vu. Using Lost as an analogy, perhaps Kate got déjà vu helping Claire with her pregnancy. And if she goes on to help deliver Aaron, the feeling may really resonate. On Lost, the reason is because she has already helped deliver Aaron on the island. In life, it’s a metaphor for an event that was destined to happen—a person’s soul created a scenario to help eliminate their own selfish behavior by one day unselfishly helping someone else. Once this event actually transpires, you get déjà vu. Judging by Jack’s expression after he stares out of the window of the plane in the parallel timeline, the show is acknowledging this phenomenon. And if Sawyer and Juliet eventually go Dutch over a cup of coffee in the parallel timeline, perhaps they will have the feeling too. At the very least, it might be love at first sight. (Sorry Skaters and Jaters.)

Being that we seem to live in a realm of freewill however, what happens when we don’t successfully make the decision that will lead to our redemption? What happens when a young pregnant woman gives up the baby she was meant to raise herself or a former torturer keeps following orders to kill other people? Well, in the case of Claire and Sayid, you become taken by the dark side; possessed by a desire to do for the self alone. You do not make the hard choices; you are controlled purely by life circumstances and react to them. In a word, you become a zombie. Damon and Carlton had jokingly threatened that Season 7 would be the zombie season, but it would seem that it may have been Season 6—despite Sayid’s denial at Hurley’s accusation (a little head nod to the fans).

Once you’ve been taken by the dark side, can you escape? Yes, but often it will require much harder sacrifices than what was originally required, if only because after sinking further down you have that much further to climb up.  Sometimes, you sink so low that the ultimate sacrifice is required, as Anakin Skywalker found out in Return of the Jedi. Most of the time though, the challenges, while difficult, are not overwhelming and the universe will continually offer you opportunities to take them on. But the harder you fight against these challenges, the more aggressively the universe will throw them back at you. In other words, what you resist, persists.

The whole zombie resolution opens up a lot of possibilities on Lost. Is the reason why Richard Alpert has never aged because he was a zombie all along? Are Claire, Yemi (Mr. Eko’s brother) and Christian Shephard also zombies? If so, why would zombie Christian go through the trouble of wading out to sea where Jack saw him standing in Season 1? Was it just for the creepiness factor? His body couldn’t have been there because the “Missing Pieces” episode (acknowledged as canon) showed him on the island already before Jack even woke up. And, more importantly perhaps, how did he appear to Jack off island in the hospital in Season 5? On the other hand, since the smoke monster can take the form of the unburied dead without the need to posses the body, has he just taken the form of Christian, Claire, and Yemi? Has he also taken the form of the people who were the Adam and Eve skeletons from Season 1? Is that who Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking are? When we first saw Jacob’s enemy, aka, the man in black, was this his original appearance, or was he simply taking the form of a dead person too?

So far, Season 6 seems to be bringing up more questions than it’s answering. Every time it answers one, it gives us three more. Whether or not we ever get any satisfying answers to Lost, I think the show has been more than redeemed in the answers it has given us about life. Helping us to understand why we’re here is really the biggest question that the show is helping us to answer. Sure, most of the wisdom is only coming through on a subliminal level, but it is coming through. And, this wisdom is helping to make us stronger so that we will be able to better navigate the challenges in our own lives. This is why most fans feel that Lost is more than a show. It’s a guide to our own redemption.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

My first thought was that Jack’s plan will have failed, and that the X stood for an error—that the Losties would not be getting back to LA (as in LA? Survey says: X!) Then I thought that maybe both possibilities would exist—that an alternate reality could occur where the Losties both would and would not get to LAX (theory #3 of the “Season 6 Spoiler-Free Theories” post). This twin realities possibility has been a popular theory for the last nine months and did seemingly come to fruition with this episode. Still, I think the genius of the title name is that it has many meanings and that it’s main implication is not quite as apparent as the others.  I’d also thought about the possibility of LA X, translating into “The X”—as in X marks the spot, or “the wrong choice” for Jack.

Now that I’ve seen the episode however, I think that the true meaning of the “X” is that of a variable in an equation. It is the unknown. A possibility that can go multiple ways.  Thinking back to “The Variable” episode, what was it that Daniel Faraday said that the variables were in the equation of life? He said that they were us. And what do we now see in the “LA X” episode? We see two versions of the characters. One version where they were able to resolve their issues and one where they haven’t. One where they are struggling with challenges, and one where they have overcome them. One where they are motivated by greed and one by good. One where they are consumed by dark, and the other by light. One where they are dead, and another where they are alive. One where they have had it easy, and one where they have had it hard.

The message here is clear. Each of us has the potential to become the best version of ourselves or the worst…or, somewhere in between. This is our freedom of choice. Yet, while it is our choice, we are also often the victims or benefiters of our circumstances. So both fate and freewill have a hand in our destinies.

The duality theme has run through Lost since the beginning, and I’ve written about fate versus freewill and the good versus bad aspects of ourselves numerous times in relation to Lost and other recent films. The theme of whether or not we are actually the bad guys, or the dual sides of our personalities has been especially popular in films lately. District 9, Avatar, and other films have all explored the possibility of us being on the wrong team or learning to revaluate who we think our enemies are.

One version of this theme also explores the dark sides of our personalities—the beast within us so to speak. Surely, there will be those who saw the many trailers of The Wolfman that aired during this episode of Lost as a complete coincidence and those of you who, like me, saw something more. (There is also the fact that this episode came out on Groundhog’s Day, the day when a hibernating animal affects the future positively or negatively depending on whether or not he can see his shadow self.) Yes, I’ve been accused of being a bit apophenic in my world view, but I’ve just experienced far too many serendipitous occurrences in my life to believe they are completely random. There is something bigger going on. Something that the universe is trying to tell us, or that our collective unconscious is trying to tell ourselves. It almost seems that much like the Losties, we too may be given a choice about who we want to be, and there may not even be a right or wrong answer. So far, which reality is the better one for the Losties—the one where they are on the island or the one where they are in LA? To some extent, it depends which character you’re talking about, but even still, some of the answers aren’t so clear-cut.

To me, the island seems to be the version of life that explores fate, whereas LA seems to be more about free will. And something tells me that these two dichotomies will be merging together. After all, the LA Losties are in 2004, while the others are a bit over three years ahead of them (so technically, it isn’t really a flash-sideways, more like a flash up-and-over—like a knight move in chess). Regardless of whether or not the timelines eventually merge however, the dual timelines offer all kinds of juicy possibilities.

For most of Lost, many of the so-called “shippers” have wondered who Kate will end up with—Jack or Sawyer. Perhaps the answer is both—Jack on the island and Sawyer in LA.  Will John Locke end up dead or alive? We can see both. We can see two versions of Jin and Sun’s relationship. A bad luck Hurley versus a good luck Hurley. A Jack who was a man of science who converted, and a Jack who was mostly a man of science but open to faith (he tells Locke in LA that nothing is impossible, so perhaps this Jack was more swayed at having fixed his former wife’s spine?) We might also learn if Shannon was better off using men, or getting to know true love before dying, and if Charlie would be better off as a living drug addict or a dead man who sacrificed himself for others.

Speaking of sacrifice, one new question that Lost presents us with in this episode is why didn’t Jacob fight back? Ben asks Smokey the Locke, “why did he let me just kill him?” To which his manipulator replies, “I guess he knew that he was beaten.” Deep down, all of us know that there is something more going on here. Why did Jacob let Ben just kill him? Let’s refer to our old friend mythology for a clue.

“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine” Ben “Obi-Wahn” Kenobi tells Darth Vader in Star Wars. Once in his spiritual form, Obi-Wahn is able to guide Luke to destroy the Death Star. In The Lord of the Rings Gandalf the Grey sacrifices himself to save his friends and is transformed into the more powerful Gandalf the White. So, knowing how muchLost pays tribute to Star Wars and other mythology, it is highly probable that Jacob is sacrificing himself for the greater good and will eventually be returning in a more powerful form as well. The message for us (as discussed in “Choosing to Sacrifice for the Sake of the Island”) is that by challenging ourselves we grow into stronger people, better able to handle the challenges of the future.

While Jacob’s enemy has certainly come up with a long con to find the loophole that could defeat Jacob, perhaps Jacob’s con is even longer, or at least, more involved. Perhaps the reason why Christian’s body is missing in the alternate timeline is because Jacob plans to beat his nemesis at his own game—taking Christian’s body from that realm in order to put his plan in effect.  Whatever the details, it’s probably safe to assume that Jacob’s story isn’t over. And that he has a plan too.  And that his plan will likely work. Maybe this is what Juliet is referring to when she posthumously tells Sawyer that, “It worked.” Yes, the implication is that Jack’s plan to prevent Oceanic 815 from ever crashing worked, but perhaps the real meaning refers to the bigger picture. In fact, perhaps the alternate timeline isn’t happening alongside the other, as their juxtaposition would suggest, but will happen after.

After Jacob wins, he may offer the Losties a chance to have lived as though none of this ever happened. Certainly, he will allow them to choose for themselves, as seems to be his modus operandi. And perhaps, we will never know what choice they make, for that will be the moment that Lost will cut to black for the last time—leaving us to spend the rest of our lifetimes pondering over which realities would be better for which characters. Will fate be better for the Losties or pure free will? This is one of the major questions of the show and the crux of the argument between Jacob and his nemesis. With this kind of ending, I can see why Lindelof and Cuse do not want to do a movie or spinoff series. The rest of the story will be up to us—both to discuss, and incorporate into our own lives. We will still be a bit lost, but at least we’ll be able to see the many paths before us, and hopefully chose them more wisely this time.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

I experienced the original Star Wars during its initial theatrical release and have no doubt in my mind that it completely changed my life. Had it not been for that movie, I would’ve very likely become an accountant like my father before me. I was just a kid when I saw the film, yet, something about its themes of destiny and a universal Force to help us achieve it deeply inspired me. In fact, it inspired an entire generation. A generation that was meant to step up to the plate and guide our world so that we could defeat an evil empire of greed, materialism, pollution, and abuse of power. Yes, a movie was meant to inspire us to do this.

While this idea might seem a bit ridiculous, if you think about it, artists, writers, musicians, and poets are a lot like the modern day shamans of our society. Shamans have the ability to receive the messages of our world that are hidden deep within our collective unconsciousness. The most skilled shamans decipher these messages for the rest of their tribe to understand. Centuries ago, the shamans would gather their clan around a fire and explain universal mysteries in the guise of stories. Members of the clan would then pass down these stories from generation to generation, creating the legends of their people, and thus, its collective rituals and mythology. These divinely inspired stories form the foundation of just about every classically themed story we tell today, from The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, to The Matrix and Lost. The messages of these newer stories serve the same purpose as the stories that were told hundreds and thousands of years ago: to reveal hidden truths about our world and our place in it. The only difference is (I realize I’m plagiarizing from myself right now so I’m going to cite the rest, which is from The Myth of Lost.)

The only difference is, instead of sitting around a flickering fire to experience [these] stories, we now view them from the flickering light of movie screens or TV sets. We still prefer to be in the dark to receive our myths—partly because we’ve been doing it for thousands of years and it has become ingrained in our psyches, and partly because being in the dark matches our state of mind before we are enlightened.

Once we begin to hear the stories that are encoded with subliminal truths about our collective destiny, they resonate with a part of us that had been forgotten. The result is a story that deeply moves a tribe and inspires those who are in tune with its message to act in line with his or her individual destiny. As I wrote in The Myth of Lost:

Star Wars did this for a lot of people—a story about how a simple farm boy with big dreams goes through a series of challenges to unlock his destiny, using a mysterious force in the universe to help guide him to success. In case you didn’t know, the simple farm boy is you (whether you’re simple, have ever worked on a farm, or for that matter, are even a boy). We all have longings to play our part in the universe, so that movie resonated with society and created a sensation.

The seed was planted with Star Wars, and began to take root with the two other films in the series that followed: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But those inspired by the messages of these movies would have to wait sixteen years for the final segments of their instructions, for it would take that long until the Star Wars generation was at an age where they could act on them.  Unfortunately, something went catastrophically wrong. A hidden and dark power corrupted the download we were all meant to receive from former chief shaman George Lucas. Appropriately, the message resulted in a film titled The Phantom Menace. After waiting sixteen years for this movie, I, along with millions of others who had consciously or subconsciously changed their lives to align themselves with the wisdom of the original Star Wars films, was completely devastated and at a loss for meaning and purpose. Of course, like most others, I didn’t realize this at the time. I was just really disappointed. It was only much later when I began to realize how wrong the message of the movie really was. Because early Lucas is one of my childhood heroes, I was rather kind in my analysis of what went wrong with the films as described in The Myth of Lost:

When George Lucas wrote Star Wars, he was channeling the myth of the coming spiritual awaking which resonated with an entire generation that is now helping to bring it about. When he wrote the three prequels, however, he was telling more of a political allegory (i.e., Gulliver’s Travels, which is about the incessant bickering of humanity and all its stupid rules and laws) than a great mythical truth. Episodes I-III of the Star Wars saga tell the tale of what happens when culture gets so caught up in propaganda, bureaucracy, and what it views as morality, that it turns a blind eye as a madman rises to power with hopes of taking over the world. Now, I have no doubt whatsoever as to why George Lucas was channeling this story when he was—it was a moral lesson that society needed to hear to warn us about the times in which we currently live. I just don’t think it was a message on par with the original Star Wars, especially since it ended on a negative note for the hero. A true myth should never do that. The aim of the myth is to uplift and inspire. Taken as a whole, all six Star Wars episodes do this, but the first three episodes just don’t do it as well. They focus more on special effects than story, and this was why there was such a backlash after they came out. There are a number of simple changes these films could have undergone that would have made them as powerful as the earlier films, but that’s a discussion for another book. My point is that sometimes shamans lose their way.

After watching all seven parts of Mike’s Phantom Menace review, I now realize that it would take more than a few simple changes to fix that mess of a movie. I would take a complete re-write. I understand that Episodes I-III ended at a point that was the middle of the larger Star Wars story, and that this ending had to feature the fall of Anakin Skywalker so that he could be redeemed. But that point of the story is exactly where ABC’s Lost is right now (Season Five Finale) in the character arc of John Locke. We are being led to believe that he is either dead or evil, and have to wait over nine months to find out why. But I am still rooting for Locke’s resurrection and redemption.  I am still completely on board with the character I most resonated with and fully anticipate that he will succeed. At the end of Revenge of the Sith, I didn’t give a shit about Anakin Skywalker because the character had never been properly developed. It would have been completely possible for Episode III to conclude with the fall of Anakin, but for the entire audience to walk out of the theater feeling bad for him but knowing, just as I do now about John Locke, that he would be redeemed.  Let me just say that if Lost also drops the ball on this, we are royally FUCKED.

I understand that to many people Lost is “just a TV show” and Star Wars is “just a film,” but I hope that at least some of you out there will sense the truth in what I’m writing and understand the greater implications of these myths for the world. Even if their purpose isn’t to guide us, they are absolutely reflective of the times we live in and the times to come.  Somehow, something went dreadfully wrong between the time that The Matrix came out in March of 1999, and The Phantom Menace in May of that same year. What happened was so wrong, that it corrupted the timeline we live in and most of the mythological messages to follow, including the second and third parts to The Matrix series. (I explain what I believe is the proper mythological ending to the The Matrix trilogy in The Myth of Lost and you can read it here on pages 8-9).

For those of you who watch Lost, you are probably aware of the quantum physics concept of multiverses also known as the many-worlds theory. The idea is that there are an infinite number of possible realities that exist at any moment, but we only experience the ones we notice. In other words, where your mind goes, you go. And the more people who have a collective idea about something, the more powerful the change in direction can be. In Lost, the main characters realize that the current timeline they exist in has been fraught with nothing but a series of hardships all because of one incident that led to their plane crashing on a mysterious island.  They conclude that by changing this incident, they can put their timeline back on its proper alignment and thus properly fulfill their destinies.  This idea has completely resonated with millions of viewers around the world. Why? Because it’s the subliminal message about the world we currently live in! We have been corrupted by an incident that subliminally devastated the destiny of an entire generation leaving us utterly LOST. That incident was caused by or solidified from The Phantom Menace.

I would now like to give a brief overview of the chain of events that came about from this horrific incident. Please note that NOTHING that I am writing about is politically, socially, or economically based on anything that has happened on a physical level. It is all a reflection of energies that occur on a spiritual level, or, if you are a more scientific type, within the unseen, subatomic particles that build our physical reality and are influenced by our societal mindset. So when I mention a person or event in a bad light, it is not that person or event which is “bad,” but the version of them that exists in the reality we are currently experiencing. With this in mind, have a gander of the series of events that occurred after The Phantom Menace was released:

1. After sixteen years, a hopeful generation who’d been inspired in their youth by a series of films to change the world (much as their parents and grandparents had done) will finally experience the newest chapter in the saga due out in May 1999. While this inspiration originally occurred mostly on a subconscious level, no one can deny the deep connection the Star Wars films had with its fans. Unbeknownst to most, this connection was based on the mythological messages hidden within the story. With the newest film, millions of fans around the world would be receiving subliminal updated instructions beginning with Star Wars Episode I.

2. Instead of channeling the myth this generation is meant to hear, Lucas is corrupted by some dark, unseen influence, and vomits forth an ego-based movie littered with an overabundance of special effects and a convoluted “story” that he appropriately titles, The Phantom Menace.

3. Devastated by the atrocity forced upon them and missing the message they’d so longed for, those who had been inspired by the original Star Wars myth bottle their resentment. Some even experience complete denial and force themselves to like it in order to avoid any traumatizing cognitive dissonance. These repressed feelings slowly leak out into the cohort’s collective psyche leading to feelings of confusion and hopelessness.

4. The generation that had helped shape the Internet and create much of the dot-com boom is now left soulless. This causes them to focus mostly on the material aspects of the Internet, instead of its much more important spiritual benefits that they were meant to usher in as per the message of Star Wars.

5. As per the precedents set in the Biblical Tower of Babel story and continued throughout history (the sinking of the Titanic, et al), using only ego to create something causes the massive Web structure of the dot-coms to immediately begin to collapse. This leads to fear, which leads to panic, which leads to irrational thinking.

6. As the stock market begins to tank in 2000, people decide to vote with their fear at the U.S. presidential ballot box. What was supposed to happen was environmentalist and overall group-hug type guy Al Gore was meant to win, but due to the overall confusion being felt at the time, a few hundred people incorrectly filled out the misleading voting ballot in Florida, enabling George Bush to become the next president. As is predicted in spiritual texts, it only takes a handful of people to tip the balance in any direction. This is known as a critical mass, and in 2000, this critical mass immediately put us on the wrong path to humanity’s enlightenment.

7. In 2001, George Bush takes office and immediately puts corporate greed and American materialism ahead of world peace and environmental prosperity. He does this through a bullying American policy and disregard for the unique differences and beliefs of other people.

8. This forceful energy instigates an energetic backlash in the form of Islamic hatred that brings about the world-shifting destruction that occurred on 9/11. This is the symbolic beginning of Armageddon.

9. America reacts in turn by attacking the entire Muslim world. Not satisfied with just attacking the perpetrators who caused the events of 9/11, Bush rallies the country to follow him into Iraq, practically tricking Congress to allow him to do so. Seen as a savior to many Christian Fundamentalists, perhaps time will reveal the Biblical character Bush was really embodying in our timeline, once we are far enough away from it to be able to judge objectively.

10. Making a threat that would eerily be mimicked by the Jedi-turned Sith Anakin Skywalker, Bush announces to the world that, “you are either with us, or you are against us.” (Was Bush to Cheney as Anakin was to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine—revealed to be the dreaded phantom menace?) Not looking to upset the belligerent mega-power, most of the world joins Bush’s personal vendetta.

11. The war for oil combined with a stock market benefiting from it eventually lead to a gluttonous nation focused on materialistic gizmos and superficial pleasures. It is official: we are completely on the wrong track. While many feel this realization deep in what’s left of their souls, most feel helpless to do anything about it. They try to satisfy their subliminal unhappiness with bigger houses, more luxurious cars, and more lavish lifestyles.

12.This focus on the purely materialistic, leaves our world without a stable soul on which to truly create, and much like The Tower of Bable, the Titanic, and the World Trade Center, our illusionary stable market once again sinks, this time, affecting the entire planet.

13.Almost as if coming out of a deep slumber, the world begins to awaken from its daze and immediately votes for change in the form of an American president who is different from anything we’ve ever had before, to help us deal with something we’ve never had to deal with before.

14.Unfortunately, still in an “outside savior” mindset, the American people do not change themselves but expect the president to do it all for them. They do not heed his message that “we are the change we’ve been waiting for.” In other words, there is no personal Messiah who will come to rescue us—WE are our own saviors. This misunderstanding only furthers our direction on the wrong path, and as the captain of the ship that is America, Obama is carried along with it and also goes astray.

15.Thinking that their misfortunes are based entirely on the superficial stock market and broader economy, which in truth is based on absolutely nothing but consumer mindset, the world anxiously watches to see when things will improve. All the while, the American government dishes out billions of dollars to banks so that they may give their fat cat executives huge bonuses for completely failing at their jobs. This money brings an energetic push in the wrong direction, furthering our fall on the dark path.

16.Now, millions are losing their jobs, their homes, and their former lives. Health premiums skyrocket, quality of life plummets, and all the while Americans believe themselves to be the victims of a world gone wrong.

17. However, glowing on the flickering silver screens around the nation, shamans who have managed to keep their connection to our collective message are channeling more truths for the world to hear. They tell us that WE have become the bad guys and have to change our ways. These messages come in the form of films like District 9, Avatar, and on TV, Lost.

18. Now, we are once again at a crossroads. We can stop focusing on all that’s wrong with the world and start focusing on what’s right. We can stop being brainwashed by the “news” and our presumed need for keeping up with the Joneses, and instead just try to make a difference in our own lives. If everyone changed his or her own life, the whole world would change. Stop worrying about everyone else. Change yourself and the world will follow. At the very least, you will jump into the timeline where the world is more in line with your thoughts. How can you do this? Fulfill your destiny! Do what you love. Even if it’s only as a hobby, or on the side. Even if it means not going out to dinners as much or skipping the bar or missing a ball game. Use your personal superpower to help change the world and get us back on course. We need you because if you don’t do it, who will?

In Lost, the castaways try to prevent an incident from the past in hopes of changing a series of events that led to their plane crashing and their lives becoming miserable. As of this writing, the effect of having tried to do this is yet to be revealed.  I don’t know how it will go on Lost, but I have an idea of how it works in our world, and usually Lost perfectly reflects that. Changing the moment when you went astray can help realign you back on course. While we probably can’t go back in time and inspire Lucas to write the Star Wars prequels that fans were meant to experience, we can all put our energies towards a different vision. As a symbolic gesture, I am voting that all of us annul this reality’s version of Star Wars Episodes I-III, and begin a petition for them to be rewritten and remade. Whether or not it ever really happens is irrelevant.

What is important is that our generation recognizes that we have gone astray. We have not fulfilled our role in this world. We must put energy back into the vision we had after seeing the original Star Wars, after seeing the first Matrix, and hell, even after seeing The Wizard of Oz for the first time. Let these films inspire us and help us to remember who we are. Let us look to District 9 and Avatar—beyond the spectacle­—but to their message on how we have become our own worst enemy and what we can do to change.  Let us stop putting the blame on everyone else and start looking at what we can do to help bring about the change we’re looking for. We still have a chance to get back on track, before bringing about outcomes foretold by modern day shamans in the many apocalyptic films coming out of late. Let those myths serve as warnings. Let us not focus on 2012 as a time of dread, but a time of new beginnings. A time for us to once again connect with the message of our soul.

To join the petition to annul Star Wars Episodes I-III and have them remade, click here.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Something I’ve long been fascinated with is how movies and TV shows with similar themes always seem to come out at the same time. While some of this can be explained by Hollywood’s copycat formula of success stories (vampires are back again thanks to Twilight and True Blood) or current fads (notice the plethora of 3-D films lately — especially in animation?), what I’m talking about goes a bit deeper. I’m referring to the tendency of certain story themes to come out in very close proximity to one another.  It’s as if there’s some kind of new information that humanity is ready to learn that’s buzzing around our collective unconscious. And writers, artists, poets, and even musicians — all being the modern-day shamans that they are — pick up on it and translate it into messages for us mere mortals to subliminally interpret.

I first noticed this tendency back in the late 1980s. I remember thinking how odd it was that all these adult/child switcheroo movies were coming out at the same time.  There was Like Father Like Son, Vice-Versa, 18 Again, Big and a few others. It’s easy to assume that after the success of Big, Hollywood just jumped on the switcheroo bandwagon, but actually, Big came out after those other films. Looking at our superficial society in the late 80s, perhaps the message of these films was to help us get back in touch with our inner-child. (With the more recent 13 Going on 30 and 17 Again in these stressful times, perhaps it’s time for a reminder.)

Then, in the late 90s we had a ton of cities-getting-destroyed movies. There was Independence Day, Armageddon, Deep Impact, and Godzilla just to name some. Could this have been some kind of subliminal warning about 9/11? More recently we’ve had disaster films like The Day After Tomorrow, The Happening, and The Day the Earth Stood Still (remake) where nature seems to fight back against humanity.  In the wake of An Inconvenient Truth, is this some kind of wake-up call to begin taking better care of the planet? Interesting how all those movies relate to a time, i.e., a “day” or “happening.” The message seems to be that we need to get moving now or face the consequences.

Within the last couple years, superpowers movies — either with superheroes or ordinary people gaining super abilities — have been off the charts. Last summer alone, a new superpower film seemed to come out nearly every week. Is this a hint to some kind of new evolution coming for humanity? And what’s with all the time-travel themes lately? This year alone we’ve had the theme creeping into Lost and the new Star Trek movie, and there was also Land of the Lost, and of course another Terminator film. Interestingly though, the theme of the new Terminator didn’t relate to time travel as much as the question over what defines humanity. With technology becoming so advanced, that is an issue we are likely going to have to deal with in the next fifty years if not sooner.

My point in bringing all this up is to demonstrate that the similar themes and concepts of movies and TV shows are not just coincidental. There are real messages for us to pay attention to. So after watching Knowing and noting its many similarities to Lost, I began to wonder what the message was and if it could give us a hint about the conclusion of the show, or possibly even what’s to come in the real world.

Both Lost and Knowing contain apocalyptic themes. Early on in Lost, it wasn’t particularly obvious, but there were hints. Many fans noted that The HANSO Foundation was an anagram for NOAHS…as in the ark that saved life on earth. In Knowing (I need to give away some spoilers here so stop here if you don’t want ‘em) there were alien crafts that captured all species of life on earth to bring them to safety (I believe this also happened in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still as well). Getting back to Lost, there’s also the fact that Oceanic Flight 815 might refer to Genesis 8:15, where God tells Noah to rebuild civilization after the flood.

So is the whole point of Lost about saving humanity (or a select group of humans) from the end of the world? Is that where the story is going? While I’m not sure yet if this theme will be contained within the actual story, or just within the moral of the story, the show does seem to be heading in this direction.  I spoke a bit about cataclysm theories in The Myth of Lost — especially as they relate to the numbers. What if the numbers are not just a serial number of the Swan Station but a date for the end of the world — 4/8/15 at 16:23:42? While this theory has been around for a while, in light of the events of the season five finale, and a very similar use of a sequence of numbers in Knowing, it does give it new weight. The apocalyptic undertones of season five and Knowing also shed new light on another aspect of the Lost mythology.

Early in season one, we see two skeletons referred to as “Adam and Eve.” Surely, this nickname, which seemed like a joke at the time, was no accident. Will the old humanity be destroyed only to bring in a new Adam and Eve to repopulate the world (Aaron and Ji Yeon perhaps)? Is this the point of Lost, or simply another one of its hidden messages about the real world? In Knowing, the Adam and Eve theme is shown almost literally — with a tree of knowledge and everything. This is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — a theme Lost focuses on quite often. Who is good? Who is evil? What is right? What is wrong? If you look deeper at the Biblical good and evil mythology, it’s not really so much about morality as is commonly interpreted, but about the material world we live in: a world of right and wrong, life and death, up and down, physicality, time, and the senses. These are aspects that did not exist in the Garden of Eden until humanity ate the forbidden fruit. It’s all an allegory for the creation of the physical universe. A world where we can experience ourselves as separate beings who seemingly have the freedom of choice to live life as we want.

According to all these media messages however, this world, as we know it may be coming to an end. On the one hand that could mean that the veil between our physical/illusionary world and the infinite world beyond may be thinning. On the other, it can be a warning that our days living on this planet may be numbered. Either way, it would seem that Lost, Knowing, and similar stories are telling us that humanity may be in for drastic changes.  We will probably end up stronger when this cleansing is complete, but getting there is going to involve a lot of growing pains for many of us. And those who cannot deal with this new world may not be coming along. Already, we see how the old greedy paradigms are failing, the selfish people are falling, the cheats, liars, and assorted scoundrels are being busted, and those who represent the flashy epitome of ego are dying.

Yes, there are certainly a lot of clues out there in stories beyond Lost. But one thing that Lost has taught us is how to look for them.  In fact, I think that has been one of the more important purposes of the whole show — to teach us that the clues of the universe are all around us — not just on Lost. As we move ever closer to Lost’s final episodes, that knowledge is reassuring indeed. The search for clues will not end with Lost. Regardless of its solution, the show has opened our eyes to a whole new beginning.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Much like Jacob’s tapestry featured at the beginning of “The Incident,” Lost has woven a story filled with symbolism, mythology, and mystery. As Jacob says at the end of the two-part episode, “It takes a very long time when you’re making the thread. But I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it?” Well, I guess it’s the point when you have a moneymaking TV show and you need to keep audiences involved long enough to get to syndication and sell tons of merchandise. But most of the best stories I know are brilliant in their simplicity. This includes most nursery rhymes, tall tales, fables, and myths. Of course, you also have your Lord of the Rings and your Alice in Wonderlands, so there is hope for Lost to stand the test of time. Just like these other complex stories, Lost weaves together many themes that have helped to make it so meaningful. This is especially true in its final episode of the season.

Once again, the main theme of the episode, the theme of the fifth season, and perhaps the theme of the entire show is that of fate versus freewill. Is life a constant, and “whatever happened, happened” or are we the variables, as Daniel Faraday came to believe, with the freedom to choose? Jacob seems to represent this freedom. He specifically reminds Hurley and Ben that they are free to choose their paths, bails young Kate out of her crime, doesn’t stop young James from writing his letter to Sawyer, tells the insecure Jack that sometimes things just need a little push, and gives his blessing to the tumultuous marriage of Jin and Sun. Does this make him good or evil? Based on his white shirt compared with his opponent’s black one, we are being led to believe that he is good. After all, he’s allowing the freedom to choose. But as with many of the characters of Lost, I don’t think that either of these two beings is good or bad. Like Ben and Widmore, they just have different beliefs — issues to be worked out, as Jacob said. These issues seem to set the seed level for every character in the hierarchy below them.

Regardless of whether Jacob is on the side of good or evil though, I would say that he represents the guardian angel motif. This guardian angel can look out for us like Cinderella’s fairy godmother or the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, or, it can be a troublemaker like the trickster fairy, Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, whose mischief challenges us to become stronger. All throughout the flashbacks, we see how Jacob allows the Losties to choose their path, yet, he gives them little nudges along the way to help them stay on it — for better or worse.  By bailing Kate out of her crime, did he teach her that she could get away with it, or encourage her to avoid it with her promise? By pulling Sayid aside, he saved his life, but allowed Nadia to be hit by a car. By telling the insecure Jack that sometimes things just need a little push, was he easing the argument he’d just had with his father, or setting up his tendency to always push things too far? Really, it’s up to the recipient of Jacob’s help to decide because he’s allowing them the freedom to live their life as they wish. He’s just occasionally intervening to guide them in the general direction of their destiny. This is actually in line with my own beliefs about fate and freewill.

In my last column, I wondered if there’s, “a general path that life wants us to take, and when we drift, it nudges us back in the general direction we’re meant to go.” I later stated, “We have freedom of choice when it comes to the details. But ultimately, life will steer you [towards your destiny].”  I went on to say that we just might get to see this message played out during the fifth season finale. We did. But not in the way I thought we would. I thought we’d get to see it through the incident itself. This may turn out to be the case for season six. In this episode however, we saw the theme play out through Jacob.

At the start of “The Incident” we learn that Jacob has brought the Blackrock ship to the shores of the island in hopes of proving his adversary wrong. This adversary, who we’ll call Essau since he was Jacob’s adversarial brother in the Bible, believes that when left to their own devices mankind is evil. “They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt — it always ends the same.” To which Jacob replies, “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”

Watching this scene, I was reminded of the film Trading Places, where brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke make a one-dollar bet over whether people are born bad, or if it’s a result of life circumstances. Using two unwitting characters (played by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy) as the pawns in their twisted game, the brothers manipulate the characters’ lives to see which of their theories is correct. Considering the opening scene of this episode, and all the times Lost has alluded to games, the insinuation seems to be that all the turmoil that has occurred on the island, and perhaps the world, is the result of a little game. A game played with human lives by two supernatural beings. Perhaps the reason the show is called Lost isn’t because the characters are physically lost or mentally lost, but because they are pawns in a game that will be won or lost with their lives.

So who are the two players of this game? Since Jacob lives within the four-toed statue, it seems that we are meant to think that this is him. While the identity of this statue, finally revealed in this episode, will probably be debated for the next nine months, it definitely looked like it had the face of a crocodile.  Along with its Egyptian garb and two ankhs, the statue is most likely, Sobek, the Egyptian god of fertility and repairer of evil that had been done. Since Jacob appears to be attempting to repair evil, this fits him well. We also know that eventually his statue will crumble and that this likely coincides with the time when women on the island can no longer conceive. From this perspective, Jacob would appear to be good since babies and those who repair evil are good things. Speaking of which, isn’t this Jack’s MO — his obsession with fixing things? Could he be related? Perhaps Jack, Christian, and Claire are offspring of Jacob, explaining why the latter two were able to live in Jacob’s cabin — assuming it ever actually was Jacob’s cabin and the people Locke saw inside actually were Claire and Christian.

At the very least, Ilana, Bram , and Richard seem to think Jacob is good.What lies in the shadow of the statue? Some Latin phrase that apparently translates to, “He who shall protect (or save or watch over) us all.” But how do we even know that Richard and company are good? If they are all demons that are to be saved, that doesn’t speak well for Jacob. Even if they are good, Jacob lies in the shadow of the statue. Perhaps that phrasing is intentional. If there’s anything that Lost teaches us, it’s to never assume anything. We do get at least one other clue though — Jacob’s tapestry. At the top is a quote from The Odyssey in Greek which translates to, “May the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires.” Surely, it is a benevolent god that would wish such things. Then again, doesn’t the realm of desire belong to Satan? Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but the point is, thanks to Lost’s many plot twists, we really can’t know anything for sure. But we can speculate, and that’s half the fun on this show. Maybe Lost is tricking us with the white-shirted Jacob and his black-shirted killer and Jacob is the one who’s evil. Sure his followers claim to be the good guys, but as Frank Lapidus pointed out, usually those who insist they’re the good guys, aren’t.

Perhaps some insight can be gleaned by looking at Jacob’s opponent. Who exactly is this guy and how come Jacob didn’t mention his name? Well, if Jacob is Sobek, according to the popular vote on the Lost boards, that would make the other guy Seth — the Egyptian god of chaos and infertility. This would again explain the problem pregnancies assuming he comes to power after the statue crumbles. So, maybe Seth is actually the bad guy after all, or maybe they both are, or maybe it doesn’t even really matter. In fact, I’m not so sure that any of this will ever be spelled out for us, or if any of it is even relevant to the ultimate plot.  Like Trading Places, Lost is about the pawns, not the players. The pawns are who we are meant to relate to. We may all be a part of God, but in this illusionary world we live in, we’re just the characters playing out the game of life. The best we can hope for is to win.

Fate, freewill, gods, and games, and I’ve only just scratched the surface of the themes in this episode. At risk of turning this into a tome, I’ll just quickly reference two more. The first is one I haven’t really discussed much before and that is the theme of science versus spirituality. Besides fate and freewill, there is a sub-question that this episode seems to ask: Is it the experiments of DHARMA and the advancements of science that moves humanity forward, perhaps even saving us as Radzinsky claims? Or is it the work of supernatural guides like Jacob and our faith in God that saves us? Yet another timely topic as this theme is explored in the book and film Angels and Demons that comes out this week. Specifically, the story asks whether science and spirituality are polar opposites, or, if they are in fact telling us the same thing. Just as with the yin and yang, faith and freewill, or Jack Shephard and John Locke, I believe each completes the other. This may, in fact, even be the lesson for Jacob and his killer. Neither of them is right or wrong.

The final theme I’d like to bring up from this episode, is one I’ve covered quite a bit and pretty much makes up the bulk of my book. This is the theme of redemption. Are we brought into this world to overcome our issues? According to the mythology of Lost, the answer is, “yes.”  This is how we win the game, or at least, get out of it. From the very beginning of the series, we’ve seen that all of the characters have major life issues. Through a series of challenges, the island helps them solve these issues, and once they do, they die. In this episode, it was Juliet’s turn to burn. Before arriving on the island, Juliet was timid, afraid to stand up for herself, and, as we learn from a flashback featured in this episode, confused about her parents’ divorce.  Her parents tell her that just because two people love each other, doesn’t mean they should be together. Young Juliet doesn’t understand but her mother promises that one day she would.

In “The Incident,” Juliet calls the shots on the sub, knocks out a crewmember which leads to her being able to escape with Sawyer and Kate, and then helps convince Sawyer and Kate to help Jack after all. She definitely solved her whole timid thing. Then she comes to terms with her relationship with Sawyer, realizing that love isn’t enough, fully conquering her remaining issue. And that’s when she died. Or at least, seems to have died. Again, you can never assume anything with this show. Still, looking at the arc of her character, her solved issues, and her red shirt, I think it’s a sure bet that in this timeline at least, Juliet is gone.

For the most part, Lost seems to be sticking with the precedents it established early in season one. However, I do question the personification of freewill and fate in the forms of Jacob and his opponent respectively.  Up until now, the writers have treated fans as though we are smart enough to pick up on these themes through metaphors such as time travel and through the choices of the show’s characters. To express them in the forms of ancient Egyptian gods seems to bring them closer to the realm of a fairytale. For me, this makes Lost’s storyline less relevant to today’s audiences. Most of us cannot relate to the myths of Egyptian gods as well as we can relate to the mythology of say, The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. So why go there? The idea that fate is a result of the rigidity of our timeline or the programming of a video game — I totally get that. The idea that it is the result of one Egyptian god killing his brother who had the opposite view, not so much. If anything, it seems to be taking a step backwards.

We already have tons of Egyptian, Greek, and Nordic myths that cover these themes. A good mythological story updates them so modern audiences can understand how they pertain to their lives. Even if Jacob isn’t a god, he’s still living in the statue of one, doesn’t age, creates hieroglyphics, and can resuscitate the dead. As fascinating as all this has been, I want to see Lost bring the story back to themes and characters I can relate to. I don’t care how fantastical the story becomes, as long as all the themes are consistent with one another. Egyptian god statues, Biblical names, creatures named after Greek mythology (i.e., Cerebus the smoke monster), time travel, ghosts, Buddhist concepts, book and movie references, and spiritual themes all seem to be a bit much. I know that mythology all borrows elements from one another, but they don’t usually take a little bit from everything and jumble it together. For me, the only way Lost can successfully navigate its own convoluted myth and come to a satisfying conclusion is if there is something bigger going on. Something else beyond Jacob — a twist that puts everything in perspective. While it seems increasingly unlikely that the show is going there, I’ve still enjoyed the ride and have definitely learned a lot.  Still, if I don’t get some major answers next season, I’m going to be disappointed.

Many fans point to how many answers we got this season — about Rousseau, DHARMA, and how the Oceanic Six got back to the island. Great, but none of that really has to do with the mythology. Even the mythological answers we got just raised more questions. Locke was dead, then alive, now dead again — but what’s the story behind this doppelganger of his? Ilana is working for Jacob. So, who is she exactly and why did she have bandages all over her face? Is she someone we’d recognize who’d gotten plastic surgery? We see the statue is an Egyptian god, but who built it, why, how did it get destroyed, and why does Jacob have to stay there? Is he that god, if not, how does he have powers?

There are still thousands of questions. I don’t expect Lost to answer them all, but I expect answers to the big ones, and I haven’t even mentioned the smoke monster, the numbers, Christian Shephard, Desmond’s time traveling, Walt’s powers, the food drops, the eyeball close-ups, everyone being connected, Kate’s horse, Hurley’s friend Dave, the pregnancy issues, the whispers, the polar bears, the Hurley bird, Libby, Mikhail’s revivals, the Black Rock, Henry Gale, the skeletons with the black and white stones in their pockets, and the basic origins of the island. To me, these are big questions and if they are not answered directly, I feel like I should be able to figure them out from the solution Lost leaves us with.

So, getting back to my original question, what if Lost concludes without meeting our expectations? Has it all been worth it? In the immortal words of Aerosmith I’d like to remind everyone that “life’s a journey, not a destination.” We’ve learned so much on this journey — that we’re all connected, there are no accidents, and the universe gives us clues to help us on our paths. Even if you don’t believe any of these themes, the show contains real wisdom that can help us with our own life challenges — wisdom we’ve learned through the perspective of the characters and through the lessons of the episodes. No matter how Lost ends, I believe that if we listen out for the whispers, overcome the smokey monster of self-doubt, and use our connections, we will succeed on our journey through life. Even if the ending of Lost leaves us more lost than ever.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

In the 1998 film Sliding Doors, Gwyneth Paltrow’s character splits in two different directions all depending on whether she manages to catch a train.  Interestingly, the two realities never coalesce. In fact, as the story progresses, the separate versions of her life split further and further apart, and end up in two entirely different places. While I enjoyed the movie and the perspective it brought up, to be honest, it didn’t sit entirely right with me. Is life really just a collection of random events with an infinite number of pathways all dependent on an infinite number of decisions we make at any given moment? Or, is there a general path that life wants us to take, and when we drift, it nudges us back in the general direction we’re meant to go? I prefer the latter explanation, if for no other reason than it is much more forgiving than the former. It gives me comfort to believe that one little mistake is unlikely to mess up my entire life, and if it does, the mistake is unavoidable. It also gives me comfort to think that we are being guided toward some ultimate purpose.

This fate versus free will question has been one of the major themes of Lost and has really come to a head in the last couple of episodes. And despite indications to the contrary, it has already given us its answer-fate wins. Whether that perspective allows for some freedom of choice wiggle room (aligning with my own beliefs) remains to be seen, but the show has already indicated to us that fate will win out in the end, and whatever happened, will happen. In other words, Faraday was right to begin with and his newer “variable” theory is not. How do I know? Well, for starters, he’s dead.

Faraday went to the Others camp in hopes of changing what had happened. Unfortunately, fate wouldn’t let him. If this were any other show, that would be the end of it. Since this is Lost however, there are a million different ways his plan can still take effect: he can be brought to the temple and reincarnated, the smoke monster can free him temporarily from the afterworld or duplicate his likeness, his thoughts can be channeled via Miles, he can be rescued through time travel, or, Jack can be inspired to take his message to heart and continue Faraday’s plan on his own. While I won’t be surprised if any of these methods lead to Jack and company setting off Jughead, I can tell you it will not make a lick of difference for the end result. As many Lost fans have gathered, if anything, Jughead is more likely to cause the incident that led to the current sequence of events than stop it. Even if it doesn’t, even if the explosion of a hydrogen bomb manages to somehow defy physics by, in Faraday’s own bizarre words, “destroy the energy” (most physicists agree that energy cannot be created or destroyed), it will still amount to no change.

Think about it. If Jack manages to set off the bomb and it prevents the incident so that the Swan station numbers never have to be pressed, then Desmond can’t inadvertently cause 815 to crash. That means 815 lands but Jack and the gang will never be sent back to the island to prevent the incident that caused it to crash. I can picture all the 815ers carrying about their lives in 2004, when suddenly there is a ripple and all these weird things start to happen sort of like in the Ray Bradbury story, “A Sound of Thunder.” Only here, Jack’s actions will cancel themselves out. So, there will eventually be more ripples causing Jack and company to come back to the island in 1977 to be given another chance. Assuming he doesn’t remember having done so already, Jack may prevent the incident again. If so, the same thing will happen-all the 815ers will be stuck in a loop until the incident is allowed to occur. This could go on and on until, perhaps, Jack has a déjà vu and gets a sense that he keeps doing the same thing again and again. He may still do it anyway, until the déjà vu gets stronger and stronger, acting like feedback on itself. I don’t know about you, but whenever I get déjà vu, it’s usually a déjà vu of my remembering something where I also had déjà vu. It’s because an event is continually repeating, including, my remembering that the event has already happened.

There was actually a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled “Cause and Effect” that covered this very theme. In it, the Enterprise is caught in a time rift and the crew keeps making the same choice to get out of it. The ship, along with the crew, are all destroyed but then loop back to the same moment where they made the wrong decision. Eventually, the android character, Data, notices a strange sequence of numbers in the cards he’s holding during a game of poker that soon show up everywhere. Data comes to believe that it’s his subconscious talking to him from one of the previous loops. Repeating numbers? Perhaps we aren’t seeing the first time the Losties have gone through this series of events, perhaps it has been going on for an eternity and the universe, aka, the island is giving them clues on how to get out of it and get time flowing again. Maybe this loop extends further back than the 815 crash and explains why all the Losties are connected-the universe is conspiring to bring everyone together so that things can happen as they are meant to.  Interestingly, this Star Trek TNG episode also brings up themes of mysterious whispers and characters getting headaches, just like Lost.

It truly is amazing what messages mythically-themed stories-and Lost in particular-are sending us. If you think about it, Lost can be teaching us exactly how the world works-even if it’s only subconsciously. In fact, “Follow the Leader” brought up this very point throughout the episode, although, even this was sent subconsciously. As I mention in The Myth of Lost, “mythologically speaking, being underwater (especially in the ocean) is symbolic of dreams and the subconscious. That’s why the planet Neptune-named after the Roman god of the sea-represents our dreams and subconscious in astrology.” In fact, it’s not just being underwater-being underground also represents the subconscious.

In “Follow the Leader” we witness people swimming underwater to reach underground tunnels. There, they find the underground bomb that could set off this loop. We also see the love triangle of Sawyer/Kate/Juliet (or “Skatiet”) head underwater in a submarine (water also represents love and emotion). Since the sub passengers have not been knocked out for the journey, as is the custom, I would actually be very surprised if they are able to make it back to the mainland. Not just because it would mess with my main Lost theory, but also because it sort of messes with the mythology of the show. Why did they always have to be knocked out before if it was never necessary? Yet, I digress. The point is that all these underwater and underground scenes are a heads-up from the shamanistic powers of the writers that the story is giving our subconscious a juicy download about how the world really works. Will the variable win out over the constant? I say no, and here’s one last reason why: Miles.

Miles never grew up on the island. His father, Dr. Chang, practically forced them to leave. The reason Dr. Chang did this, we eventually learn, was so that his family would be safe from the incident. And the reason he knew about the incident was because Miles, Faraday, and inadvertently Hurley, convinced him that they were from the future. So, the effects of Jack and the gang’s time traveling have led to results that can already be witnessed, namely, Miles having been taken from the island as a baby. Even if there was no evidence though, Jack cannot prevent the incident from happening because the effects of this action are what enable him to do so. In other words, this isn’t just a paradox, it’s a looping paradox where the results are needed to create those results. The closest Jack can come to making a change, is to set off some massive looping feedback. Perhaps, this is what the incident is-and it will continue until Jack loops to a time where he does not set off the bomb. It is possible that Jack prevents the incident, or gets everyone killed, and this may be how the episode ends. But this result will eventually be rendered moot because whether Jack is dead or stops the incident, he cannot come back to the island to cause this very result. So, it must loop back again.

To bring this column full circle, if you could get a redo for a certain decision you made in your life, where would you be? I believe you would be in pretty much the same place right now. You are in the career you are meant to be in-even if you hate it and should probably leave it for something else. You are in the relationship you are meant to be in-even if it is doomed to failure. It’s all learning lessons designed to help us experience ourselves in certain ways we are meant to experience. We have freedom of choice when it comes to the details. But ultimately, life will steer you on the course you are meant to go. It will give you the challenges you are meant to overcome. And it will keep doing so until you either overcome them-or don’t. Chances are though, you’ll get to play again in your next life. If you didn’t succeed, you’ll be given a similar set of circumstances once again. And if you do succeed, you’ll come back at a more advanced level with harder challenges.

I think this is the ultimate message of Lost that we just might get to see during “The Incident” or not until a year from now. If it’s the latter, do you have the patience to wait? If not, don’t worry. This game of life is impossible to lose.  If you don’t get it in this lifetime, you’ll get it in the next. And we’ll all be there to help.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

For diehard Lost fans (aka you and me), “The Variable” didn’t really offer anything we didn’t already know or suspect. Eloise Hawking admits to being Daniel’s mum.  Okay, we knew that. Charles Widmore claims to be Daniel’s father. Okay, most of us suspected that. Daniel reveals that the young Other named Ellie who he’d met on the island in the 1950s is, in fact, his mother Eloise. Yeah, we were all pretty much taking that one for granted. The mystery that wasn’t answered however, is how the strapping and attractive Widmore and blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hawking produced a scraggly, dark-haired, goofy guy named Faraday?

Even if we suspend disbelief for the casting mismatch, where the heck did the name come from? Was Daniel named for Michael Faraday, the British physicist known for his work with electromagnetism? In fact, since Widmore has acknowledged that John Locke was named for a philosopher, does that mean all the characters who share names with famous people were given those names for a reason? We had always assumed that the character names were just little hints of the writers, but now it’s beginning to seem like the reasoning may be more integral to the plot. Are Daniel Faraday, John Locke/Jeremy Bentham, Mikhail Bakunin, Danielle Rousseau, Charlotte Staples Lewis, and the rest just players in some little game? Are they pawns that can be sacrificed for a desired outcome? Or are they variables whose actions can directly affect the outcome of the fate of the world? While Lost is hinting at all three possibilities, from a mythological perspective, it is the latter option that has the most relevance for our real lives.

The “variable,” as Daniel reveals in this episode, is “us.” Us, as in the viewers—people! “We think, we reason, we make choices, we have free will,” he goes on to say. “We can change our destiny.” Personally, I feel that you can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to view time as a straight line that doesn’t allow for paradoxes and that “whatever happened, happened,” then destiny is set in stone. However, if you look at time as I do—as an infinite number of possibilities and that we “jump” into the one our mind is attracting, then yes, I believe we can change our path. All we have to do is change our mind. While this is admittedly easier said than done, the repercussions either way go way beyond the fate of one person. As Lost shows us, we are all connected. For this reason, the choices we make not only affect our lives but the fate of the entire world.

Every single day of our lives, we make choices based upon our personal interpretation of our experiences. Most of the time we make choices to avoid pain and gain pleasure. And usually we make choices that are more likely to benefit us in the short term, than the long term. The reason is that the long-term choices are usually more challenging and less certain than the short term ones. With every variable that life throws at us, we can choose to take the easy path and do what we want, or take the more challenging path and grow ourselves so that we are more likely to succeed at our destiny. Unfortunately, since most of us have taken the easy way out over the last several decades, the result is the rather crappy scenario we must all deal with right now.

Think of each person on the planet as a gear in a huge universal clock. If just one gear doesn’t do its job, it messes up the entire mechanism. Conversely, the more gears that grow themselves, the easier it will be to get the mechanism to flow smoothly. Viewed from this perspective, every single life is important in effecting the fate of the world. And the more people that know this, the quicker we can make a difference. The more people who step up and challenge themselves, the more likely we will benefit as a society. And will all those who step up be personally rewarded? Not in the material sense. These challenges will require sacrifice.

As a young child, Faraday wanted to play music, but his mother insisted that his gift was science and that this was the path to his destiny. So, Faraday gave up music for physics which has seemingly resulted in his death—death at the hands of his mother. Why would his own mother, who was apparently aware of this tragic outcome, point him directly towards it? She must believe that Daniel’s sacrifice is for a much greater good. That his death was not in vain. That he sacrificed his love of music, his romantic relationships, his mind, and ultimately his life for a reason.

Mythologically speaking, the cherubic Ms. Hawking represents our guardian angel or fairy godmother. She is our gut instinct that guides us on our path for better or worse. It remains to be seen why Daniel’s scientific contributions were so important to the fate of the world that they were seen as more important than his own life. I do not believe that the message here is that we are all doomed, or that all our work will be for nothing. Instead, the message seems to be that we are all going to have to make sacrifices if we want our world to move forward.

Right now, almost all of us are being forced to make sacrifices because we haven’t volunteered to make enough on our own accord.  Many of us have been greedy but because of the recent economic downfall we now must learn to be more fiscally responsible and less materialistic.  Many of us have inadvertently abused our planet but because of severe climate change, we now must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and move towards renewable sources of energy. Had we stepped up to these challenges in the sixties and seventies when they were first presented to us, we wouldn’t be in this predicament right now. If only we had chosen mutual respect and spirituality over the excesses of the “me” generation, what kind of world would we live in now? What if we could go back in time and prevent the assassination of Martin Luther King or Robert Kennedy? Or somehow convince the world to change? Could we affect the outcome, or would the world have simply course corrected because it was our fate to learn the hard way?

Regardless of whether or not we could change the past, because we were selfish in recent times, now, we must pay. Since so many gears in our universal clock didn’t grow themselves, it’s now going to take much more effort from all of us to get this clock ticking properly again. The lesson we’ve all hopefully learned is that when given a choice in life, we should choose the more challenging path—the one that will enable us to grow. We should be proactive, make sacrifices, and choose to take a leap of faith because if we don’t, the universe will choose for us. It’s the sacrifice “the island” demands.

While I believe that we do have control over the outcome of our lives and, through our connections, the path of the world, I’m not sure yet if Lost is on the same wavelength. It seems to me that this variable is what Ben and Widmore are fighting about. Is Ben one of the good guys? Is Bram on the team that’s going to win? Does the island “course correct” to ensure a certain fate? If the variable can be changed, Lost’s message is that any one of us can affect the fate of the world. However, if it turns out that whatever happened, happened and dead is dead, the message is that we’re all just pawns in some big, and probably sick, game.  Since I also believe that the media channels real messages and Lost in particular has tapped into some pretty big truths, it isn’t just the fate of Lost’s characters that will be decided in the season’s final episodes. It’s ours. Can we as humans change the path that the world is going? Do we have any say in our ultimate destiny? Tune in to Lost to find out.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

In many ways, I feel that Some Like It Hoth validated my interpretation of myths in the media. I believe that these myths subliminally provide us with information to help us solve our everyday issues and fulfill our lifelong destinies.  Who says watching TV is a waste of time? Before I even get into that though, I first want to explore the more obvious theme of the episode. Like pretty much the entire Lost series, this episode dealt with daddy issues and how most of the characters are not dealing with theirs.

First we had Miles who had grown-up daddy-less and led to believe that his father abandoned him and his mother when he was just a baby. Hurley mentioned that his father had left when he was just ten, but they had recently reconciled and he was glad they did. This episode also featured Ben’s father who is so concerned about his missing son, he takes to drinking beers on a swing set and then goes back to mopping up floors. We all know how that relationship winds up. Then there’s Howard Gray, a man who hires Miles to find out if his dead son knew he loved him. At first, Miles takes his money and tells the father what he wanted to hear, that he did. Later however, he gives him his money back and tells the father that, “if you wanted your son to know you loved him, you should’ve told him when he was alive”—harsh words but an important reminder for the viewing audience.

From Sawyer, Locke and Jack to Kate, Ben and Walt, Lost has covered daddy issues many times before, to the point where it’s pretty much one of the major themes of the show. So why spend a whole episode on it? Reconcile with your father—we get it! Actually, I think this theme was used for a deeper reason, and, as is usually the case, this reason can be deciphered from the episode’s title.

The “Hoth” of “Some like it Hoth” relates to the icy planet in The Empire Strikes Back. Icy—just like the father/son relationships depicted in this episode. While some like their relationships “hot” as we know the expression is meant to be, Miles prefers to have a cold relationship with his dad because of what he will allegedly do to his family. Of course, The Empire Strikes Back itself is probably the granddaddy of daddy-issue stories. Actually, Oedipus Rex is more of the granddaddy, Empire may be more of the big daddy. And let’s not forget Hamlet, Chinatown, and even The Wrestler—man, is there a daddy-issues prerequisite to being a writer? Maybe. Or maybe they’re just channeling the myth from the great-great granddaddy of daddy issues—the Bible. “Father, why have you forsaken me?” I don’t know kid, but perhaps 2,000 years of storytelling can help you figure it out. Seriously though, that’s a seed-level story that spawned millions more like it. And we know Lost deals with Biblical themes.

Hoth is only part of the hints we get from the episode title. The other is the movie title that is being spoofed—Some Like It Hot. In the 1959 film, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are two funny guys who witness a murder, similar to Miles and Hurley discovering the corpse of DHARMA worker, Alvarez.  In the movie, the two characters go undercover to avoid being discovered by the murderers, similar to how Miles and Hurley must continue their charade as DHARMA employees. Just like in the movie though, it looks like the jig is up when at the end, Sawyer’s plot is discovered by the nosey, Phil. After the weasel-like Phil admits to not telling anyone else, Sawyer punches him in the face and lots of laughter ensues.

The Lost connections don’t end there either. Do they ever? Just as everything is connected on Lost, so it is in the real world. I can’t wait to find out how many of these connections were actually planned by the writers and how many were planned by the universe. For this next one, I would bet it’s the latter. In addition to being a very funny Marilyn Monroe movie, “Some Like It Hot” is also a hit song by the 1980s supergroup…wait for it…The Power Station. As in, the building of the powerful Swan station in this episode. Even weirder, the group took its name from the Power Station studio in New York City where it recorded it’s first album. The name of this recording studio today? Avatar Studios. Avatar, as in a god that incarnates into another form on earth. A Richard Alpert type if you will. Then again, isn’t there another definition of an avatar? Isn’t it also a graphical image of a real person that exists on the Internet? An image that you might use with any identity you choose, say a Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, or Edgar Halliwax? What conclusions can we draw from with this little free association with the universe, hmmm? On second thought, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions lest the Lost powers that be decide to pay me a little visit.

Getting back to the daddy issues and the title of the show, so…what’s my point? My point relates to Hurley using The Empire Strikes Back to illustrate to Miles the repercussions of not talking things out with your dad—you get your arm chopped off, metaphorically speaking. (Then again, as Tom Mohan, leader of the NYC Lost Meetup Group pointed out, considering that Hurley watched Empire over 200 times, shouldn’t he have remembered that Luke found out Darth was his dad after he got his arm chopped off? Okay, we’ll let that one slide.) Just as Hurley used Empire to help convince Miles to make up with his dad, we can use Lost (and other myths in the media)to help us with our own life challenges. Subliminally, Lost is helping us deal with our own life issues. No wonder we’re so addicted.

Hurley represents the fans. He is us. By explaining life via the mythology of Star Wars, the real message is that we can use Lost’s wisdom in our own lives. And the more you study media myths, the better you’ll get at deciphering them. While right now, in the words of Hurley, “my power is better than your power,” if you continue practicing, perhaps one day you’ll be able to repeat the words of Darth Vader to me: “The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner, now I AM THE MASTER!” Just be prepared to prove it.

In Two Weeks: Will “The Variable” prove to be an event that can change everything? The one thing that can have a domino effect on the outcomes of every event that followed? Is it this variable that Ben and Widmore are fighting for? Or am I just taking stabs in the dark like the polar bear prediction from last week? Find out next time on “Lost In Myth”!

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

When we had last left Lost, Richard Alpert was carrying a dying young Ben into the temple in hopes of bringing him back to the land of the living—assuming that’s where they even are. The scene seemed very familiar to me and I was racking my brain to remember why. An Egyptian-looking guy who may be a god (the never-aging Richard Alpert’s initials are RA which just so happens to be the name of the Egyptian sun god) was carrying a young boy into a temple to meet with a god of the afterworld. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before. Then, it hit me. It was just like a scene out of The Ten Commandments!

After the tenth plague, Rameses (a king who is worshipped as a god) carries the limp body of his son to a temple and places him on the altar of the falcon-headed Sokar—the Egyptian god of death. Unlike Ben, the boy is not resuscitated. Perhaps Rameses would’ve been better off using the jackal-headed god of the afterlife Anubis (seen kneeling in the hieroglyphics before the smoke monster in “Dead Is Dead.”) What’s particularly serendipitous about this scene comparison is that The Ten Commandments is about the exodus of Jews from Egypt that is commemorated on Passover, on which “Dead Is Dead” aired during the first night of. “Dead Is Dead” continues the story of young Ben, revealing that he has been brought back to life—reborn, just as Locke has been. Even more serendipitously, this theme fits in perfectly with another event that occurred the same day “Dead Is Dead” aired—a rare, astronomical and important spiritual event.

It takes the Earth approximately 365.24 days to circle the sun. Because of this odd number, our planet is in a slightly different position on any given day than it was the year before. (As seen from our perspective, the sun is in a slightly different position in the sky from year to year.)  In fact, it takes about 28 years for the Earth to come full-circle and return to the point where it started. Kabbalistically speaking, that day happened on Wednesday April 8th—the day that “Dead Is Dead” aired. The spiritual interpretation of this event is that it signifies where the Earth was in relation to the sun when the universe was created. Because of this, many believe that on this day our world is in tune with an energy of being reborn, giving all of us a clean slate or “tabla rasa.”

As many Lost fans may recall, “Tabla Rasa” is the title of the first season episode where we learn that Kate was a fugitive but had been given a clean slate on the island.  In “Dead Is Dead” it is Ben who is pardoned by the smoke monster and allowed to start again, this time to follow the orders of Locke. Just as on Lost, there are no accidents—everything happens for a reason. This once-in-28-years phenomenon along with the freedom themes of Passover and even the resurrection theme of Easter all coinciding with this episode’s similar themes are the universe’s way of letting us know that the seemingly magical rules on Lost island also apply in our world. And this brings me back to what those rules are telling us.

There were actually dozens of interesting parallels in “Dead Is Dead.” One was Ben not killing Penny because he didn’t want to leave her son motherless just as he’d been. This reminded me of Sawyer not scamming a family who had a son because he didn’t want to be like the monster that had ruined his own family. Just as Luke realized as he looked down at his own robotic hand after chopping off Vader’s, we are sometimes tempted to become the thing we hate most. But I’m not going to focus on this theme, or the parallels of Widmore as Satan being cast off the island for his sins, or the conclusions to be drawn from Alex growing ever-so-much hotter in the afterworld. Instead, because of the title of this episode, I’d rather focus on when dead really is dead.

Dead certainly isn’t dead for Locke, who is the same as he’s always been, according to his own assertion to Sun. Death also was not to be the fate of young Ben who was saved due to the island’s mysterious powers. He was also not killed by the smoke monster, which decided to give him another chance to make things right. His dead daughter Alex told him so. Alex probably is dead, but allowed to appear thanks to the smoke monster. This may also be the case for Christian Shephard who was referenced but not seen in the episode, but is known to be wondering around despite having died. So what exactly is going on here?

The moral of the episode, and possibly the entire show, seems to be that when it’s your time to leave this world, no matter what you do, as Desmond said, “You’re gonna die Charlie.” Charlie did ultimately die, as did Danielle and Alex just as Widmore had wanted. For them it may have taken awhile, but death eventually caught up to them. Caesar was shot, and judging by the fate of his namesake, is likely also dead. Desmond on the other hand, despite getting shot by Ben, is alive. So apparently it is not his time to go. The reason for this, as Christian Shephard might say, is that he’s still got “a lot of work to do.” In fact, Eloise Hawking told him so in one of his flashbacks when she promised, “the island isn’t done with [him] yet.”

So is dead really dead then? According to Lost (and movies like Final Destination), only if it’s your time to die. If you still have unfinished business to do, you’ll live. This perspective of life pretty much takes us out of the equation when it comes to matters of life and death. It’s actually pretty comforting to believe in it. When someone we love dies, it’s hard not to wonder, “what if.” What if he hadn’t taken that flight, or eaten that food that got him sick, or what if we’d caught her disease earlier? Sometimes we feel responsible. According this viewpoint though, the end result is out of our hands. There is simply nothing that we could do. Even if we had prevented one source of death, another would simply come up in its place. Just as people have proxies, perhaps life situations have proxies too.

On the other hand, perhaps you know someone who’s had several close calls or even near-death experiences. Maybe you can remember some time from your own life when you thought you were a goner for sure—that logically, you absolutely should’ve died or been very severely hurt. You can think that you were just lucky, or, look at it from a different perspective—the perspective of the universe. Like the island for Desmond, the universe isn’t done with you yet. It just may be that you have a very important role to play in the movie of your life, and there are many characters that are depending on you to complete it. Or, put another way, you are an invaluable gear in the universal clock, and without you, the whole mechanism comes to a screeching halt. The point is, you weren’t just lucky, you are needed, and you have work to do. Use the clues that Lost teaches us to look for and begin to piece them together to find your true calling. What is it that you are meant to do? How do you fit into the universal scheme of things? Figure it out and achieve it and the person who needs you to succeed will be able to do what they are meant to do. This in turn will enable someone else to do their job and others to do theirs and so on. This is why one person can be so important. The fate of the entire world just might rest on your very capable shoulders. Good luck, we’re all counting on you.

Next Week: Will “Some Like It Hoth” finally reveal what we’ve all been suspecting the polar bears are for—to turn the donkey wheel and get zapped to Tunasia? We shall see…

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

For those who don’t know, the Mayans were astrological masterminds and their incredibly precise Long Count calendar ends on December 21st, 2012—a day that coincides with a very rare cosmic event. On that day, the winter solstice sun will line up with the center of the Milky Way galaxy (as seen from the perspective of the Earth) for the first time in nearly 26,000 years.  The Mayans thought this was a pretty big deal. In fact, they pretty much revolved their entire culture around it.

Anyway, since we’re getting rather close to that date, I figured it was about time I asked the question.  As usual, the song that woke me up the next morning didn’t disappoint. While I was kind of expecting to hear Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” or R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” the answer sort of surprised my pessimistic musings.  The exact lyric that woke me up was: “Some day, we’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun. Some day when the world is much brighter” from The 5 Stairstep’s “Ooh Child (Things Are Gonna Get Easier).” (I find that the oldies stations work the best at giving me messages, probably because I admittedly know more oldies songs.)

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Whether or not this has any relevance to what is going to happen in 2012, I don’t know. I have to admit, though, it at least made me smile and gave me a much needed boost of confidence to continue on my path. After all, if we all knew that the world was going to end, anything we do now would seem kind of pointless.  While it all may be a trick or could mean that climate change may finally cook the Earth with the rays of the beautiful sun, I’m leaning on the side of optimism here.  My initial impression was that the universe would like me to continue doing what I’m doing. And considering that you’re reading this, it probably wants you continue what you’re doing too.

Since this is supposed to be a column about Lost, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with the show, and specifically, its most recent episode, “Whatever Happened, Happened.” Allow me to explain. From the most apparent perspective, the title of the episode relates to how time travel works in the Lost universe. It is non-paradoxical, meaning you can’t change anything. So, whatever happened, happened. While this may be exactly how time really works in our world (which I disagree with since I believe in multiple parallel timelines, or multiverse theory), I think the theme of the episode is actually a metaphor for something else—destiny.

I believe that we all have a definite destiny that, like non-paradoxical time, cannot be changed. However, I also believe that there are many ways to get there and most of us, ultimately, do not.  I like to think of destiny as the fate of our highest selves, the life course that would bring us the greatest joy but involves us overcoming our deepest fears.  When we are on this path, our life goes relatively smoothly. When we aren’t, nothing seems to go right. When we are experiencing the latter, from our perspective it may seem like we’re total losers or that the universe hates us. The truth is though, there is a much bigger picture and at the moment, we are just temporarily coloring outside the lines. In other words, while your life may seem like it’s falling apart, you are more likely just being given room to start living a better one—one more in line with your true destiny. The universe is simply doing what it can to get you out of your own way.

After four and a half seasons of always trying to fix things, Jack finally came to this realization in “Whatever Happens, Happens.” Deciding he wasn’t going to fix Ben this time, he tells Kate that maybe the island just wants to fix things itself. That maybe, “I was just getting in the way.” Bingo! Yes, Jack was never meant to fix Ben even the first time! The island, a.k.a., the universe, was continually giving him things to fix so he would have an opportunity to so, “no.” Finally, he has!

I believe that Jack was never supposed to fix anything at all and was not meant to leave the island until he learned this. Similarly, Kate was not meant to raise Aaron forever, only until she could learn to be responsible and not run away. Sawyer was not meant to be with Kate until he could learn to commit to one woman, which he has with Juliet. Young Ben was not meant to die, because he must grow up to teach these lessons to everyone else. Just like the characters on Lost, we will struggle until we learn to conquer ourselves. We will struggle until we realize our destiny and work towards it, rather than against it.

If only we could be like the Maya, and know our destinies from the moment we were born. One of the Mayan calendars known as the Calendar Round combines their circular 260-day Tzolkin calendar with their circular 365-day Haab calendar together as two interlocking gears. Each day (one of the gears) represented a different energy to the Maya. Since the two calendars each had a different number of gears, they would interlock at varying points over time. The combination of the two gears that connected on the day you were born represent your destiny. So for me, those two gears might have been “spirituality” and “media” (in modern terms) since I believe it is my destiny to combine and interpret these energies.  For you it might be “music” and “napping” or whatever it is you do best.

While we aren’t Maya, I still believe it is entirely possible to figure out our respective destinies. For starters, if you keep hitting brick walls in your life, change direction. As they say, “Out of rejection, comes direction.” Yep, they really do say that.  One that I made up (since these rhyming motivational declarations seem all the rage lately) is, “Challenge yourself to grow, then life will flow.” Let life happen for you. Get out of your own way as Jack said. Leave a space and let life do its thing. This doesn’t mean you should do nothing, it means to stop doing what isn’t working. Einstein supposedly said: “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”  According to destiny, what you think you want (mind), and what you actually need (soul), may be two different things.

So, how can you figure out your destiny? Once you know what it isn’t, think about what it might be. What gives you the most pleasure? Something that you’re good at and gives you the most energy? Something you enjoy sharing with others. Okay, besides sex. Is there a talent you have or a hobby or something you dreamed of being when you were a kid? If so, it’s likely related. Next, look at your life. What is it that your parents do? Your mom is an art teacher and your dad a doctor? Perhaps you are meant to teach art therapy. Your mother is very religious and your dad is a scientist? Perhaps you’re meant to bridge the two philosophies. Your birth parents are hippies and your adoptive parents are accountants and your adoptive dad got divorced and remarried to an attorney and your adoptive mom now has a lesbian relationship with a waitress and your stepbrother is a circus clown? I’ll let you figure that one out, but you get the point. We all have a destiny, and if we listen to the whispers, act in spite of our fears and conquer the murky monster of doubt, we will succeed in fulfilling it. And something tells me the characters of Lost will succeed at fulfilling theirs too.

Next week: Does Richard Alpert carrying a dying Ben to a temple remind you of anything? How about Rameses carrying his dead son to the Egyptian god altar of Sokar in The Ten Commandments? Is dead really dead? Find out next week!
Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Technically, since these episodes all deal with the opposite of the characters they supposedly represent, they are variations on the “he’s our you” theme I’m looking to explore here. For a more direct comparison, a later Seinfeld episode actually provides a better example. In “The Junk Mail, “ we are introduced to a character named Frankie Merman who was Jerry’s friend from summer camp and, because of his sidekick role, is referred to as “the summer George.” (In what seems to be a strange coincidence, the episodes of “Bizarro Jerry,” “Mirror, Mirror” “Spookyfish” and even “The Junk Mail” all premiered during the month of October. Presumably, the idea of alternate versions of ourselves is kind of creepy and therefore air as Halloween episodes.)

Since the Seinfeld characters are so familiar to us, the show itself makes for a good metaphor of the “he’s our you” theme. Even before either of these Seinfeld episodes aired, I often referred to one of my friends as “the George Costanza of my Seinfeld life.” I had a Kramer too, and an Elaine, which pretty much made me Jerry. All these characters are archetypes. Archetypes are perfect examples of a personality type or group. They are the prototypes from which copies are based. Star Wars also works well in exploring how archetypes fit into our lives, which is why I used its characters to compare the mythological relationship of Lost characters in last week’s column.

In our real lives, archetypes give us a lot of clues. Besides providing insight about a person’s challenges and opportunities, our relationship to that person also tells us something about ourselves. If you look at your own life, you will likely see certain personality types who have continually challenged you. From a spiritual perspective, the purpose of these characters is to help you overcome, or at least deal with, the issues they bring up for you. When you successfully do so, these characters will either fade from your life, or, the grating part of their personality will. Sometimes however, characters leave us before we are able to solve the issue they were meant to help us fix. When this happens, a new character playing the exact same role will enter our lives to replace the first. Using Lost terminology, they would be a proxy, or substitute, for the previous one. This is how you know whether you’ve solved a particular issue—if the person who challenged you with it leaves your life, but another pops up in his place, you haven’t.

Have you ever noticed how some of your friends always seem to date the same types of people? Either someone who is lazy and expects his or her partner to do everything, or perhaps someone who is demanding or even abusive. Or, maybe you’ve noticed this pattern in your own relationships. Perhaps you’ve worked a number of different jobs, but always have an obnoxious boss, or a boss that doesn’t respect you or overworks you. You may keep switching jobs, but until you step up and stand up for yourself, you will continually find yourself with the same boss. One will just be a proxy for another.

These roles play out with our friends too. If you have a friend who’s always sponging off of you, even if you manage to get them out of your life, if you don’t put your foot down other spongers will enter your life. Ignoring the person by not returning their calls or emails is not dealing with the issue. You must communicate. It can be as simple as telling the person that while they mean a lot to you, you cannot continually support them with money, time, or whatever. Of course, their reaction may not be so simple, but hold your ground. Be caring and respectful, but expect the same of them. If they don’t change, then you can cut them out of your life. How can you tell you’ve done all you could do? If you are not revisited by another sponger, then you did.

Now, what if the challenging archetype is someone you can’t get out of your life—a close family member or lifelong friend? Interestingly, the people who are the closest to us in our lives are often put there to help us deal with our most challenging issues. That’s why these are the people who often drive us the craziest. Their purpose is to help us overcome problems that could take a lifetime to solve—or even more than a lifetime. In fact, these are the problems that we’ve likely carried over from a previous carnation to deal with in this one.*

Like a gigantic puzzle, the universe somehow arranges for every person to meet the exact person who can help him or her to grow. And just as that person is challenging you, you are challenging him. This is why drama addicts are surrounded by people who push their buttons, why submissive types attract abusive partners, and why givers attract takers. And each of these archetypes will continue to attract the exact archetype that can help them to grow until they no longer need to.

Throughout its fifth season, Lost has illustrated the “he’s our you” or “proxy” concept from many different perspectives. It’s shown us how the returning Losties on Ajira 316 had to act as proxies for the missing survivors of Oceanic 815. More subtly, it has depicted new characters as proxies for original ones, for example, Caesar seems to be the new Jack. In “He’s Our You,” Sawyer points out that the torturer Oldham is DHARMA’s Sayid. This is the obvious reference to the title, but there is a deeper reference in the episode as well.

Throughout his life, Sayid has continually been revisited by a particular archetype—that of a strong, confident woman who is able to mesmerize and ultimately entrap him. In “He’s Our You,” that woman is Ilana, a bounty hunter who seduces Sayid at a bar and then captures him in order to bring him to justice. Ilana is a proxy for Elsa, the woman Sayid tried to get information out of and fell in love with, never suspecting that she was trying to get information out of him. Elsa was a proxy for Rousseau who captured and tortured Sayid on the island in order to get information. She in turn was a proxy for Amira whose husband tricks and then beats Sayid until he will admit to torturing her. And of course, Amira is a proxy for Nadia who Sayid was supposed to torture but became so smitten by, he aided in her escape. In each of these cases, women have been Sayid’s one weakness—his kryptonite. Perhaps it is because of Sayid’s culture, which does not respect women to the level that they could compete with a man. Sayid will continue to experience this seductress proxy until he learns to see women as equals—seeing them for their inner as well as their out beauty. Ilana makes this issue clear when she tells Sayid that she is not a “professional” prostitute, as he had assumed, but a professional worthy of more respect.

So who are the proxies of your life? What are the archetypes that keep repeating over and over again? Confront them or change the way you deal with them. Then, watch them change or disappear. If you actually enjoy having the proxy continually entering your life, ask yourself if you are taking advantage of them in some way. What you might not realize is that you could be the irritating one that the proxy is trying to get rid of. Without realizing it, you may be getting energy from them at their expense. The best thing to do, in this case, is to be proactive and change yourself so that they won’t have to leave. Then, you can have a mutually beneficial relationship, which in the long run, will be better for both of you.

*See last week’s “Namaste” column.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Myth-of-LOST/34096821137

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Lost-Solving-Mysteries-Understanding/dp/0595484565 and barnesandnoble.com: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Myth-Of-Lost/Marc-Oromaner/e/9780595484560