I was just thinking about Desmond and the Elizibeth, and something came to me. Desmond left the Island in the Elizibeth and sailed due west and ended up back at the Island. He claimed the Island was in a snowglobe. I've always assumed this was because the magnetic properties of the Island screwed with his compass, causing him to sail in a circle. But he was gone for all of Season 2, that was like what, a month? Couple of weeks at least. He would have had to have sailed in a pretty big circle to take that long to end up back at the Island.
In The Constant, it doesn't look like the barrier that they flew through that caused Desmond's trip is very far off shore, and its safe to assume that Desmond didn't follow the correct bearing when he left in the Elizibeth so perhaps his lengthy absence was due to time dialation similar to Daniel's rocket. But why didn't he experience any mental time traveling when he was in the Elizibeth?
Well, are we sure he didn't? I think we can be reasonably sure he didn't. He certainly didn't appear to be expecting anything to happen when he was in the chopper. He was certainly confused when he first traveled in Flashes Before Your Eyes. So for the sake of this post, I will assume he did not time travel in the Elizibeth.
So why didn't he time travel? I think it is the same reason Sayid and Frank didn't, he hadn't been exposed to a heavy dose of radiation yet. At first I assumed the radiation that Desmond had been exposed to that caused him to travel in The Constant was the three years of exposure in the Swan Station. But it seems clear that it was the failsafe event that was the source of the exposure. When he set sail in the Elizibeth, he hadn't turned the fail safe key yet. After he turned the failsafe key, he started having Flashes and then later when crossing the barrier, he traveled.
This is interesting, because all of these elements seem to tie in together. You have the Swan Station that is like a cork in the bottleneck of some sort of energy the Island produces. The failsafe key blew that cork, which triggered the Purple Sky. The Purple Sky was a diffuse form of the energy the Swan was holding in all that time, the same energy that doused Desmond, being at ground zero as he was. The side effect of being drenched in this energy and leaving the Island is a form of time travel. The side effect of physically leaving the Island at the wrong bearing is a literal form of time travel. And then we have the Orchid which is possibly associated with either teleportation or time travel, or an amalgum of both.
In summary, it seems that various aspects of the Island are related to each other and are facets of one single phenomenon. The bearings, the magnatisim, the Swan, its all the same thing. Maybe that's what Candle was talking about when he mentioned the Casimir effect.
In The Constant, it doesn't look like the barrier that they flew through that caused Desmond's trip is very far off shore, and its safe to assume that Desmond didn't follow the correct bearing when he left in the Elizibeth so perhaps his lengthy absence was due to time dialation similar to Daniel's rocket. But why didn't he experience any mental time traveling when he was in the Elizibeth?
Well, are we sure he didn't? I think we can be reasonably sure he didn't. He certainly didn't appear to be expecting anything to happen when he was in the chopper. He was certainly confused when he first traveled in Flashes Before Your Eyes. So for the sake of this post, I will assume he did not time travel in the Elizibeth.
So why didn't he time travel? I think it is the same reason Sayid and Frank didn't, he hadn't been exposed to a heavy dose of radiation yet. At first I assumed the radiation that Desmond had been exposed to that caused him to travel in The Constant was the three years of exposure in the Swan Station. But it seems clear that it was the failsafe event that was the source of the exposure. When he set sail in the Elizibeth, he hadn't turned the fail safe key yet. After he turned the failsafe key, he started having Flashes and then later when crossing the barrier, he traveled.
This is interesting, because all of these elements seem to tie in together. You have the Swan Station that is like a cork in the bottleneck of some sort of energy the Island produces. The failsafe key blew that cork, which triggered the Purple Sky. The Purple Sky was a diffuse form of the energy the Swan was holding in all that time, the same energy that doused Desmond, being at ground zero as he was. The side effect of being drenched in this energy and leaving the Island is a form of time travel. The side effect of physically leaving the Island at the wrong bearing is a literal form of time travel. And then we have the Orchid which is possibly associated with either teleportation or time travel, or an amalgum of both.
In summary, it seems that various aspects of the Island are related to each other and are facets of one single phenomenon. The bearings, the magnatisim, the Swan, its all the same thing. Maybe that's what Candle was talking about when he mentioned the Casimir effect.
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If you want to grok Desmond's experience on the Elizabeth after he fled the Swan, a nice corresponding example that we know a lot more about is Michael's raft. Remember that Michael, Jin, Sawyer and Walt traveled so far from the island that they could no longer see it. After Walt was kidnapped, Jin floated back to the island on his own. Michael and Sawyer clung to remnants of the raft and also managed to drift back to the island. But while they were adrift, it was ocean in every direction.
Perhaps the snowglobe differs depending on the direction. Frank piloted the helicopter on a bearing of 305 and hit the barrier relatively quickly (though admittedly a helicopter is far faster than a raft or sailboat). But that's a relatively northward direction. The raft would have been headed out from the beach camp, which means it went to the south, which is where the Elizabeth came from when it brought Desmond back. So perhaps the edge of the snowglobe is farther from the island in the south than it is in the north.
I bet the "time bubble" is enclosing on the island and it was once much larger before the hatch blew up. I think that it's just getting smaller and smaller as days go by. The producers said that there will be another purple sky this season so we can only guess what's gonna happen in the "snowglobe."
Maybe the injections Desmond took while staying in the Swan helped keep the magnetic exposure minimal to none. So, when he took off in season 2, he was okay, but once he turned the key, he got a massive dose and began experiencing flashes.
This just occurred to me...what if the Orchid is offshore somewhere? That would explain why no one's encountered it yet (although that could also just be cuz it's a big island), and it would fit well into the fact that we'll almost certainly be seeing it by the end of this season, the same time as when we know some of them are leaving the island. Just a thought. I mean there was the Hydra island, so we know everything doesn't have to be on the island.
Teleportation through space and time are certainly tied closely together, via relativity. And common sense- if you try to move through time at a 'fixed location' (a difficult concept in itself) the entire earth, the entire solar system, the entire galaxy has moved in the interim. If you tried to go forward in time you would end up in a different location (probably deep space or in the center of the earth if any appreciable amount of time elapsed) than you started from, unless you corrected for it, in which case you are also teleporting through space.
This is interesting considering the 'mishap' in the Orchid video, and possibly explains Ben's injuries (did he fall from the sky some distance perhaps?)
Mark, if one were to use a time machine to move through time but not space, then the time traveler would have had to been in a state of absolute rest, with all motion in the entire universe relative to him/her. That is not allowed by relativity, which holds that there is no absolute rest, so therefore, our time traveler must be moving in space relative to something. I would submit the sun as a possibility. This means that the traveler would indeed find himself in space if he were to jump 6 months in time. It would impose an interesting limit on time travel in that case. You would want to only jump in yearly incriments lest you find yourself in space. But I would advise against jumping from the surface of the earth as there may be some slight fluctuations in the relative distance of the earth to the sun throughout the years and you could find yourself halfway in the ground due to a flucuation of only 3 feet!
So, I would propose the following scenario:
Build a time machine and put it in a space ship. Jump 6 months whereupon you will find yourself in space. fly toward the sun enough so when you jump another 6 months you will be in orbit. now, safely in orbit you can jump in yearly incriments all the way to your destination year, and then land in the conventional manner.
BTW, I am making use of this whole concept in my new story TRICKSHOT, so hands off!
Well the Casamir Effect is a topic of quantum physics that
has connections to wormholes and time travel. Seems the Orchid
was used to study the presence of the CE on the island, and
possibly also was built on a point of concentration, like the
Swan was built over the leak in the EM, thus effectively making
the Orchid a portal of sorts.
Do we in fact KNOW when he left the island? We know when he left the hatch, but do we ever see him again before he shows up on the boat?
Michael: The producers said that there will be another purple sky this season so we can only guess what's gonna happen in the "snowglobe."
When and where did they say that Michael?
just checked up 'the casimir effect' on wikipedia. its pretty long so i just scrolled through most of it, but goes on about how "the Casimir effect can be used to produce a locally mass-negative region of space-time, and suggested that negative effect could be used to stabilize a wormhole to allow faster than light travel."
also goes on about how it creates an electromagnetic field. it says a load of stuff but i couldnt be bothered to read hardly any of it. its too late.
so how did the oceanic flight get to the island? what bearing was that on? i know it wa pulled in by the magnetic force but was it on bearing 305?
also if the swan was so important for the snowglobe effect, why was none of the others doing anything more to prevent the purple sky?