LOST on Earth's Mirror Matter Moon

Please know that a more current version of this theory can be found on the main page of this blog: mirrormattermoon.blogspot.com

or, Through the Looking-Glass Via Theoretical Physics — Not in Portland... In Starboardland

Some physicists have argued that a complete universe needs to have two sides — two sides that exist in parallel but are normally invisible (or dark or black) to each other — two sides where the matter operates in the same way, but where stars and planets formed in different patterns. The two sides are different according to "mirror reflection symmetry," where, basically, left and right are reversed on the very small scale of particle physics. Our side (Portland) has "left-handed" particle interactions, and the other side (Starboardland) has "right-handed" particle interactions. In the words of Locke in Episode 1: "... Two sides... One is light... One is dark." Note which hand each stone is in.

This outlandish theory proposes that the island is on a tiny moon on the "other side" — a world "on the other side of Earth," as the producers suggested recently. Because the moon was trapped by Earth's gravitational field when Earth was forming, it continues to orbit the gravitational center of Earth (which is invisible and can be passed through without much friction). Days are shorter because it rotates faster than Earth, it's invisible because it literally is, the smoke monster shows what happens when our world and the island world interact with each other, the island is literally all there is except for the surrounding ocean, and Benjamin Linus is supposed to be on the right-handed moon because Benjamin means "son of the right hand" and Linus was a son of Apollo. John Locke is the savior of this little world. Note the cross formed by his right eye and the cut he received when he arrived on the island.

So that's it, really. The super-short version is: It's a show about dark matter, that trendy science stuff you saw on the Discovery Channel. Of course, that's not quite right. Below is the geeked-out, super-expanded, way-too-much-information version. (Hardcore fans like me need specific answers to everything.) It's not what would be shared directly with the audience. On the actual show, I think we just need two elements to be explained: (1) the idea of mirror matter or dark matter and (2) a visual like what's above. [Auf Deutsch? Hier — Vielen Dank, simutiger!]

Carlton Cuse: ... from Marvelo815: "So I was thinking… Does the island move? How does Eko's short range plane … go from Africa to somewhere near Australia? Maybe the island is forever moving..."

Damon Lindelof: I think that's a fascinating thought. And I couldn't possibly answer that question 'cause if we were to reveal something so ginormous as the fact that the island was moving … they would fire us instantly. And also, it would be much cooler if we would reveal something like that in the show. [from the LOST Podcast, Nov. 6, 2006; Thanks to Soother17 for finding this gem]

A key element of this theory is that the island can move (certainly in space, at least). The model currently on this page might still work as written. But I think it can now be simplified and updated to better match the show. I'll update it when the evidence dictates (thankfully, I think it could be greatly shortened in the process). But, the gist would probably be that the island (the moon) is "anchored," very near or at sea level. Could it be released, only to drift and be re-anchored near Tunisia? In the meantime, you might find the Kerr metric fascinating. Regardless of the explanation for the show, I continue to think the apparent arrangement of wormholes (the bearing nonsense) is inspired by that type of space-time anomaly. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. Cheers and happy reading — Mike

Mirror Matter • The Moon • Magnetic Fields • DHARMA Initiative • Entry and Exit • The Orbit • Locations on Earth • Timeline • Smoke Monster • Clairvoyance, Psychics, and Ghosts • Whispers • Self-Reflection • Further Evidence & Subtle Clues • Wrap-Up

Cheat Sheet. I don't want to leave anything out, so I continue to add details (usually points of circumstantial evidence) as they arise and as the show continues. So this is long and will only continue to lengthen. Here is the connective tissue and some key elements. Light vs. Dark sets up: Moral ambiguity — light and dark, good and evil depend on which side you're on An epic, abstract tension between opposites that must coexist — matter vs. mirror matter, good vs. evil, fire vs. water, yin vs. yang, black vs. white in chess or backgammon Character development — "We are interested in exploring how good and evil can be embodied in the same characters and the struggles we all have to overcome the dark parts of our souls" Each side is the other's spirit realm — ghosts can appear on the side opposite their death; Psychics on Earth can view, project, summon, possess, etc. on the island. Look at the shoes: Dead on light side (Earth) = appear on island with white shoes; Dead on dark side (island) = appear on Earth with black shoes. Also notice that we're only shown apparitions in Jacob's cabin from the left side (4 times so far). [this needs to be revised a bit] Mirror Symmetry sets up: Symmetry in the narrative — flashbacks give way to flash-forwards at the halfway point Memory flipping direction (remembering the future) Many deliberate references to left-right reversals and the inclusion of mirrors and mirroring A fundamental connection to Bad Twin An orbiting moon of mirror-matter solves the geo-spatial problems: Why it's so very hard to find How Yemi's plane could crash on the island Flight 815's crash near Fiji The brief aurora astralus near Bali Why Egyptians have an old history on the island How the Black Rock could end up in the middle of the island The changing shape and behavior of the smoke monster Traveling around in circles Mirror Matter explains really bizarre elements and comments: The giant foot (after Foot, who is on Earth) — thus, the single white shoe in the first scene and the symbolic use of shoes The obsession with Lewis Carroll references Damon's comment that the show would end "just outside the Crab Nebula" Why Ana Lucia's shirt switched from white to black "The Looking Glass station controls communications between one world—the world of the island—and the mainland." Dark = Black = Island = Right = Mirror Matter (~Dark Matter) Light = White = Earth = Left = Our Matter If you just read that, you'll miss the finer points. For those, keep reading.

Mirror Matter

Mirror matter (aka shadow matter or Alice matter, after Lewis Carroll's works) is a hypothetical form of matter that is not antimatter, though it may account for what we call "dark matter." While mirror stars and planets have been proposed, we would hardly be aware of their existence without the aid of careful measurements. The key is that "our" matter and mirror matter don't interact all that much, which allows mirror matter to exist in an almost parallel universe, and mirror matter is invisible to the eye (unless the eye is composed of mirror matter).

According to Australian physicist R. Foot, "Mirror matter... would be completely invisible to us! If you had a rock made of mirror matter on your hand, it would simply fall through your hand and then through the Earth, and it would end up oscillating about Earth's centre."

The particle interactions of mirror matter are "right-handed," whereas the particle interactions of our matter are "left-handed." So the two types of matter don't talk too much, save for a couple of exceptions, the most interesting of which allows the electromagnetic force to be felt across the "worlds" through the sharing of photons. Gravity, however, transcends the two opposing forms of matter, and so gravitational fields are shared across the two "worlds."

This theory is hard-science-inspired, but it's absolutely science fiction. The book of theoretical physics from which I've borrowed (and butchered) this info can be found here. That book seems to be the key source of info for the show. A review article covering the real, un-doctored physics can be found here.

The Moon

The idea is that the inhabitable moon — a small planet if you're more comfortable — has only ocean, the island, and the little island with the Hydra station. That's it. Juliet: "So they have a boat — sailing in circles will keep them busy." A moon also gives a reason for the Apollo Bars made of dark chocolate.

The small size — where the island is able to cover several time zones on the moon — means daylight will last longer or shorter than normal if you cross time zones while you walk across the island. It also — with some wild speculation — allows for a region that is dark for half of the year, just like the areas on Earth near the poles. What time it is depends on what time zone you're in.

More importantly, the moon is always in motion, oscillating about Earth's center, in an elliptical orbit. As the moon reaches the extremes of the elliptical orbit it slows dramatically and nearly breaks above sea level. From the perspective of the those on the island, it's not exactly clear that the moon is orbiting anything, as the surrounding body of Earth is invisible. Nothing weird like streaking stars would occur because the motion is absolutely miniscule compared to the distance to the stars.

The sun in the sky? It would be Nemesis or another mirror matter star at roughly the same location as our sun. In fact, there's a video by Speaker (a LOST insider) that features a dark sun.

An initial guess at the time for one rotation of the moon is 23 Earth hours. That means that for every 24 days on the island, 23 days pass on Earth. If you leave the island and spend 23 days on Earth, 24 instead of 23 Island days will have passed when you return; you would have lost one day. In one year ~365 days pass on Earth and 381 days pass on the island. That's 16 extra days per year in the island calendar.

The march of time is identical — time is synchronized. According to the rules of our show, a communication between sat phones is not affected by temporal distortion, but if you were to send a radio broadcast and/or a telegraph message, it would be affected by temporal distortion. [from the producers in an interview in Popular Mechanics] That tells us that there is minimal, if any, difference in the "present" on and off the island. The difference between the events learned over the sat phone are probably no more than a 48 hours off from the events described over morse code. It seems the time distortion is due to something that happens when you cross between worlds. Perhaps a better argument is that it was learned eventually over the sat phone that the helicopter arrived. If island present were somehow shifted, it could never catch-up with the helicopters arrival. Island time could be jiggling a bit, but there's nothing in science to hang that idea on, making it a hard sell.

That reversed yin-yang thing is Iapetus, a weird moon of Saturn with a light and dark region. Interestingly, there's speculation that it's the best candidate for a mirror matter body in our solar system (the visible exterior would be a coating over the mirror matter interior). The moon proposed here would look more like a tiny Earth.

Magnetic Fields and the Moon's Core

A moon capable of supporting life would need a lot of things going for it, including an outer core of molten rock to sustain electric currents and provide a protective magnetosphere. The electromagnetic fields of the moon would necessarily be different from those on Earth.

It's long been thought in pseudo-science circles that magnetic fields have healing powers (remember the guy Isaac that Rose visited in Australia?). The field might also explain the birth problems. For example, fetuses might develop too fast for the womb to manage, making the the fetus more and more unrecognizable to the mother's body.

It is the core that also supplies the ingredient missing from Foot's book (it's missing, no doubt, because it would be science fiction): The unique EM activity generated by the core is necessary to allow matter to switch to mirror matter and vice-versa. Thus, the island acts as bridge between the "light side" and "dark side" of the universe.

Aurora australus is mentioned in Foot's book in a section entitled "Are mirror worlds opaque?" The details aren't perfect, but the idea would be that the atmosphere of the moon (which might contain a tiny amount of normal matter) can sometimes spawn a brief, low-altitude aurora as the moon passes near the ocean's surface (and the moon's magnetosphere crosses into our atmosphere). An very brief aurora australus was seen over the Sunda trench in the online game preceding Season 4.

DHARMA Initiative

DHARk MAtter Initiative? And the true center of the Dharma logos? The yin-yang, perhaps the most universally known symbol of opposing, yet complementary, light (yang) and dark (yin) elements.

On a different world you have different physical constants. DHARMA's mission was two-fold: Ensure the moon has long-term habitability (tweak weather patterns, adjust the ecosystem with predators, exploit the geothermal activity for a sustainable power source, etc.); and, try to address the Valenzetti equation on a world with different constants.

The Namaste gesture symbolizes a peaceful meeting of the left and right hands. However, as Ben said, "one side had to go."

Entry and Exit from the Moon — Updated to Little Wormholes

Historically, wormholes are thought to let you pass into a mirror universe. The ideas are not really the same, but the evidence seems to be converging on wormholes. The island has a natural Casimir effect, which is probably sci-fi shorthand for "expect wormholes between the island and Earth to be a central part of the story." Plus, Lewis Carroll used an early version of the concept when devising his "looking glass" world.

I'm not thinking of big swirling tubes, but rather small windows, which the chopper could have passed through when it passed through the storm cloud. In the process, matter flips to mirror matter or vice-versa. There might also be certain locations in the EM field (or would it be the Casimir field?) of the moon that are most likely to spontaneously open such windows.

Getting on the island would be a matter of being near it when it passes by you — the right location and timing. A wormhole could form briefly like a net and shift you to the moon (hopefully not 2,000 feet above the water). There wouldn't be much shifting in space here, but rather just shifting from one "side" to the other.

What there seems to be, however, is a bit of temporal messiness. Perhaps the mouths of the wormholes can be dragged around a bit before collapsing, allowing for a bit of random time shifting when you enter or leave the moon. Clearly, whatever is happening, Daniel is struggling to understand it.

To get off the moon, the idea would be that you wait for alignment, and then pick the correct trajectory so that you make it through a wormhole and end up, say, right-side up in the air if you're in a helicopter.

It's like a spacecraft entering the Earth's atmosphere. If you enter the atmosphere at too steep an angle, you'll burn up; if you enter it [at] too shallow an angle you'll bounce off and back into space. And I think that that analogy is a good one for how you have to get on or off the island. [from the producers]

It seems DHARMA figured out how to exploit the Casimir effect to better control the formation of wormholes. I'm not sure if Ben waited for his position on the moon to be aligned with a spot right above the desert, or he was able to dial-in coordinates in space and/or time. I like the first idea because it forces Ben to re-use the same remote locations, instead of zapping himself directly to a preferred location. The Orchid could be used to get off the island. You might be out of luck in getting back so easily.

Perhaps Adam and Eve are Penny and Desmond, finally reunited, only to find themselves in the past and dying at the time of their conception on Earth.

The Orbit (ver. 1.1)

One key assumption of the initial guess at an orbit is that the moon must intersect the coordinates in the Sunda trench given in the online game and a possible flight path from Sydney to LA. An orbital period (one loop) of 4.8 hours does just that. (96 min would work as well, but 4.8 hrs uses the numbers.)

Note: An actual, simplified calculation (that is, one we might expect the writers to use, had they wanted to) puts the time between locations on Earth at 42.23 minutes. That's pretty nifty. For now we'll stick with 144 minutes, as a 4.8 hour period works well enough. It makes a great fall-back, however, should the orbit need more flexibility.

Note 2: Adding precession to the orbit might let the moon reach more latitudes, making the orbit both more realistic and able to reach, say, the Sahara near Tunisia and Ayers Rock in Australia. We'll see how the show goes with the teleportation business. A pit stop by the moon would make an otherwise un-special part of the desert important. But misrepresenting gravity already gives me a headache. So I'll keep the orbit as simple as possible for now.

[Thanks to lostmio for pointing out the flash animation on oceanicflight815.com; the glow in the screenshot nicely captures the atmosphere of the moon, which would pass above sea level on Earth as the moon reaches each end of the ellipse]

The overall story here is that the moon has been "collecting" people, when their location and the natural fluctuations of the moon and Earth are just right, for a very long time. The people collected throughout history who have survived constitute the Others. We'll see that two of the locations fall on land, in Africa, one in Ethiopia at the southeast outskirts of the old Egyptian Empire, and one in Mozambique.

Locations on Earth that the Moon Slowly Glides By Every 144 Minutes

If the speed of the moon's movement is sinusoidal, it should be nearly stationary at each of these points for roughly less than 4 minutes (based on some quick computations).

1. Fiji "Crash" Site 175°46'49.31" W, 11°10'42.24" S

Flight 815 shifts to the moon — and disappears, with its instruments failing — six hours in at about 10:55 pm at this location. That corresponds to 3:16 pm (or 15:16; thanks ufgatorphil) Swan/Island time. Then it flies around for about an hour (The Pilot thinks: 500 miles in the reverse direction = 1,000 miles off course at 500 mph) and gets pulled to the island by the Swan at 4:16 pm Swan time. By having the plane shift to the moon when the instruments failed, we can explain the daylight outside the plane prior to the crash.

This spot falls on a direct flight path from Sydney to LA. Even if this theory is completely wrong, it blows my mind that the Sunda coordinates point to a location exactly 72° due west of a spot that intersects the flight path.

... after "picking up" Flight 815 at about 3:16 pm, the moon then swings toward the other side of the earth, but meanwhile, the earth rotates 36° counter-clockwise... and 2 hours and 24 minutes later (at 5:40 pm) the moon slows and reaches the other extreme of the ellipse in...

2. Atlantic North 31°46'49.31" W, 11°10'42.24" N

About 1,000 miles off the coast of Africa. This could serve as the spot the moon "picked-up" the beechcraft with Yemi aboard. If they flew east or southeast, then the spots in Ethiopia or Mozambique are the best candidates.

3. Sunda Trench 112°14'10.69" E, 11°10'42.24" S — from 112.2363 and -11.1784 from the online game (converted from the decimal notation)

The brief aurora astralus was seen about here. Presumably the Black Rock sank here or at the Fiji location, shifting to the moon on its way down, and "landing" in the jungle.

4. Hydrothermal Vents 103°46'49.32" W, 11°10'42.24" N

Falls exactly on known hydrothermal vents on an oceanic ridge. More on this below. It's also a good candidate for the supply drops. Note the location on Naomi's phone. Near Fiji? No.

5. Mozambique 40°14'10.69" E, 11°10'42.24" S

LOCKE: "Slaves... this ship must have been en route to a mining colony... probably set off from Mozambique." This may have been (or still be) a secondary "seed" location (after Ethiopia) for the Others.

6. North of Crash 175°46'49.31" W, 11°10'42.24" N

This and the Fiji Crash site are at nearly the same longitude as Howland Island, the destination of Earhart and Noonan when they disappeared. If they did end up on the island, they would have switched over at one of the two locations.

7. Off Brazil Coast 31°46'49.31" W, 11°10'42.24" S

8. Off Vietnam Coast 112°14'10.69" E, 11°10'42.24" N

9. Americas South 103°46'49.32" W, 11°10'42.24" S

Based on the tectonic activity in this general area and the calculation that the surface of the island was upside down at the time, this is the most likely source for the monster that grabbed the pilot on Day 2, and the monster that broke through the ground and took pictures of Eko on Day 50.

10. Ethiopia 40°14'10.69" E, 11°10'42.24" N

This is on the outskirts of the old Egyptian Empire. A pleasant surprise prediction of the model is that the island would have been nearly right-side up here (a quarter of a mile underground) about the time Eko was killed. If anything approximates the form of the monster that killed him, I think it was an excavator. (Picture below.)

This spot offers a place that could have been "used" in the past by Egyptians. People on the outskirts of the Egyptian empire—at a sacrificial alter or tomb, for example—could have been "grabbed" the moon. Caves would allow you to reduce a potential 1,000-foot free-fall once you've shifted to the moon. (I doubt they had parachutes.) Likewise, an entry point that precisely aligns with one of the highest points on the island would reduce the potential fall.

The hieroglyphs in the Swan would then honor the earliest inhabitants of the island. Not only is the underworld sacred in Egyptian mythology, but also clearly represents where the island is with respect to the Earth.

... Then back to the Fiji site 2.4 hours later...

The Timeline (ver. 1.1)

We assume the island rotates about its axis in 23 Earth hours. [This came about after Beir noticed a discrepancy between the day count and the iteration count for the radio broadcast.]

We can estimate relative orientations between the island and the surface of the Earth based on a 3:16 pm shift time and the time 815 presumably shifted at the Fiji location.

We assume the closest the surface of the island gets to sea level is 0.2 miles (sea level to sea level). This keeps it below the reach of sunlight penetrating our oceans.

• Day and Time refer to days and times on the moon. Because the days only last 23 hours, the "clock" starts at 12:30 am and ends at 11:30 pm. (11:30:59 –> 12:30:00 am)
• Orientation refers to the orientation of the island (the Swan in particular) relative to the ground on Earth. 0-90 and 270-360 mean the island is upright but tilted, potentially up to 90°. 91-269 mean the island is upside down. 180 means it is exactly upside down.
• Depth can be approximated because we're estimating the diameter of the island to be 3.8 miles. If the island is near 0 or 360°, it's also at its highest point — 0.2 miles beneath the surface. If the island is near 180°, it's upside down and at its lowest point — 4 miles down, which is often at or near the floor of the ocean.

The timeline only shows what happens every 144 minutes, when the moon slows near the ends of the elliptical orbit and gets within 0.2 miles of the surface of Earth (sea level). The rest of the time it is gliding through Earth beneath its crust.

The model says the start of Christmas Day should coincide with the evening of Day 98 (not Day 95, as a 24-hour-day timeline would predict).

The temporal symmetry that seems apparent in the show. [Thanks to HearingVoices and jane_eris for throwing out very similar ideas.]

Some evidence that the end of Season 3/Start of Season 4 is a turning/reversal point:

• The flash-forwards suggest the high point of the characters' lives was before the call to the freighter — it's certainly going downhill. Is it all downhill from here?
• Flash-forwards began replacing flash-backs at the very end of Season 3
• Forward is the name of the guy who introduced the term 'mirror matter'
• Finale of Season 3 was titled, "Through the Looking Glass"
• Premier of Season 4: Hurley crashed into a set of mirrors (seriously?!)
• One definition of Kahana, the freighter, is 'turning point'
  
• Premier of Season 4 was titled, "The Beginning of the End," suggesting Seasons 4-6 really are the second half of the story

Smoke Monster

No, it's not really a smoke monster. Instead, mirror matter theory offers an explanation.

Foot proposes a way for the two types of matter to interact... "kinetic mixing" via the exchange of photons:

"If there is a photon-mirror photon transition force, then now an ordinary electron can actually interact with a mirror electron. ... The net effect of the transition force is to make mirror electrons interact slightly with ordinary electrons."

Let's spin this to imply that light (photons) will facilitate interaction between matter and mirror matter. This will be strongest when photons in our world are present (and overlapping with) the photons present on the island. But the moon is deep within the earth—rarely even approaching its surface.

What would produce light at that depth in the ocean (or underground in Africa)?

Answer: Bioluminescent sea creatures, mining equipment in African mines, and subs and little robots like the ones Naomi mentioned.

The point: The smoke is light from our world "kinetically mixing" with photons on the island. The smoke always takes the shape of clouds of light: faded at the edges and often drifting — just like what happens when a current pushes ocean debris through the light emitted from subs and deep sea robots.

This predicts the smoke should:

• Always approximate the shape of light from a realistic source in the ocean or in a mine.
• Only ever appear for about 2 minutes (so far this is true), as the moon needs to be brushing one of those locations (within reach of a light source) for this to work.
• Only appear at some multiple of 144 minutes since the last time it appeared.
• Be able to appear in multiple spots simultaneously if there are multiple light sources.
• Respect the orientation and depth of the island.

Let's look at the position and orientation of the island at some moments when the smoke monster has appeared (this stuff and the remaining incidents are noted in the timeline above).

• The timeline says about the time the pilot was yanked out of the cockpit, the island was exactly upside down at the bottom of the ocean at the Americas South location. Deep sea subs routinely go on scientific missions to the ocean floor in this region of the ocean and they all have hydraulic arms at their bow that could grab the pilot. So the arm grabs the pilot and then drops him when the moon moves away from the area (taking the ability to interact with the island with it).
  
• Day 50, before noon. Eko is photographed while Charlie is in the tree. The island happens to be in exactly the same position as it was when the pilot was grabbed. So it makes sense that submersibles might show up again. Because the island is upside-down, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) would be launched from the bow of a sub and then descend, breaking through the ground of the island.

• Eko's death on Day 72. The timeline says at 11:52 am the island was nearly upright (12°) and briefly overlapping with Earth 0.24 miles below ground in Ethiopia. So here's the best guess for what killed Eko: an excavator-like mining machine with lighting in the cabin and strung throughout its arm. The operator sees a ghostly person, flips out, and attacks it.

• Juliet and Kate photographed in the jungle. This happened sometime at night between Day 82 and 83. Here the monster POV beautifully captured the view through the camera at the front of an ROV — it zoomed down, took photos with a strobe, and then pulled back using reverse thrusters. Unlike before, where the smoke popped up, here it glided down, suggesting the sub was nearly upright. The model says the island was 26° from upright at 1:16 am on the morning of Day 83 at the Fiji site. So it makes the most sense to attribute the visit to a sub and ROV near Fiji.

• Smoke at the sonar fence on the morning of Day 83. Here it wasn't a submersible, but the light emitted from the tentacles of an agitated giant squid near the hydrothermal vents.

Some ROV and Squid "Footage"

These are all wrong in many respects (wrong type, wrong depth, wrong speed, wrong lighting; fake squid), but I thought it would be fun to include some videos. Hopefully, you can imagine at least some overlap with the monster experiences on the show.

ROV 1 (with flashes) | ROV 2 | ROV 3 | ROV 4 | ROV 5 | Fake Squid

The smoke monster(s) Ben "summoned" from within the Egyptian room?

If you're not too schooled in deep sea marine life and assume things basically get bigger as you go deeper, you might imagine that they were giant eels, or giant Thermarces cerberae. The "snatch and withdraw" behavior when the mercenary was grabbed somewhat mimicked that of a feeding eel. If you make the eels electric, then that might explain the electrical discharges.

I'm on the fence between this possibility (which depends on the writers' knowledge of deep sea life) and the alternative explanation at the bottom of this page: The monster is a life-form that evolved on the moon and obeys the mirror theme. Specifically, it observes and mimics, incorporating new shapes and behaviors into an ever-expanding repertoire.

Thermarces cerberus (aka zoarcid fish, aka eelpout) is a fish that lives around hydrothermal vents. [Thanks to poster janin for finding this.] The Cerberus Vents are presumably hydrothermal vents at the Hydrothermal Vents location. Amazingly, that location happens to sit exactly on top of actual hydrothermal vents (at 11°N in the picture) that are visited by subs (potentially every few weeks, based on the timeline). What better locations on the island to map and avoid?

 

The Swan Incident and Tremors

In the Philadelphia Experiment, in a nutshell, generators usually used to discharge the magnetic field that built-up on metal ships were cranked way up, and the ship and crew shifted through "hyperpace" to a different place and time for a period of time before shifting back.

Take the Swan and Desmond. The magnetism in the Swan needed to be periodically discharged. Only a brave soul would turn the key, however, because it could (and did) result in a discharge powerful enough to send anyone very close on a temporary Philadelphia Experiment-like trip through hyperspace. Now we know that it was just his consciousness and was a prelude to him being unstuck like Ms. Hawking.

When the Swan released the enormous burst of photons, the electromagnetic force interactions between the worlds jumped momentarily.

Psychics Fooling Around on the Other Side

The big picture is that we have two worlds, with each world acting as a "spirit realm" for the other. People can be "psychic" or "special" because they are attuned to electromagnetic fields and can access the moon because of its extraordinary field. This may sound out there, but realize that we have evidence of "psychic activities."

"Wet Walt" is Walt presumably projecting himself from underwater in our world to the island. Notice how Wet Walt and "older Walt" (who appeared before Locke) wear white shoes. The crashing birds are likely a result of Walt changing the EM field around himself. (Many migratory birds rely on EM fields for geomagnetic navigation.)

Jacob is probably doing the same thing. Notice how we only see the left eye of people in Jacob's cabin. That might suggest he's projecting from our left-handed world to the island. [Thanks to jcarlson34 for some related thoughts]

Jacob is dressed like a guy from at least 100+ years ago. So let's assume he is a guy from 100+ years ago projecting from somewhere in our world. In fact, I like to think Jacob is Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, the mathematics god who gave us Jacobian matrices. Being in the past but able to communicate with Ben in the future could permit Jacob to take actions that affect the present. For example, he could set in motion events that remove the source of Rachel's cancer, curing her by preventing her from developing it in the first place. What else other than magic could Juliet trust would work? Jacob could also set in motion events that steer certain people that Ben has vetted to the island. Jacob would be scared of light and/or EM fields because they facilitate interaction between his world and the island, and allow the situation to become frightening and slip out of his control.

Note that Jacob sat in a wooden chair at a table, and "is a man who summons you," according to Ben. Who else fits that description? Richard Malkin, the psychic in Australia. In fact, it's a stereotype of people who exercise psychic powers.

So we have Jacob projecting, summoning the dead, and manipulating island dwellers by speaking through their dead relatives for the sake of what? A utopia? An ark of sorts?

Richard Malkin, and his daughter, could be related to Jacob or else merely special. I have no doubt that when he told Claire she mustn't allow her baby to be "raised by another," he really said "raised by an Other," but we were biased to interpret it the first way. Malkin was presumably practicing "remote viewing" of the island when he did the "reading" for Claire and saw a "sort of a blurry thing." His daughter was presumably able to communicate with Yemi's spirit because she has a gift like her father and was visiting the island, which, again, would serve as the spirit realm for Yemi (assuming he died before his plane crossed-over).

Whispers of Migrating Souls and Ghosts Doing Stuff in Respective Spirit Realms — needs revising

Bodies buried on the wrong side seem to be at unrest...

The shoes seem to give the side of death away. Ben's mom, Jack's dad, etc., wear white shoes (they died on the light side); whereas Charlie (so far) wears black shoes (he died on the dark side).

Self-Reflection as a Principle Form of Character Development

Producer Carlton Cuse: We are interested in exploring how good and evil can be embodied in the same characters and the struggles we all have to overcome the dark parts of our souls.

It's as though the island forces you to look at your true self in the mirror. [Thanks to poster HearingVoices for communicating this with elegant clarity.] The characters are forced to confront their inner demons. Examples: Hurley and his food, hallucinations, and belief he is cursed; Jack and his failure to be a great man by the standards of his father; Sawyer dealing with "Sawyer;" Boone acknowledging his love for Shannon; Desmond and Charlie and their sense of worthlessness; etc.

Locke interestingly, gave up his left kidney, and then had it murdered by Sawyer. Later on, this "left side" sacrifice saved him.

As noted above, version 1.1 of the timeline also suggests that the flash-forwards started when Day 90 was reached off-island, and therefore also suggests the show will end when 180 days (or 180°, for a complete reversal) are reached.

Further Evidence for Mirror Matter

If you're a fan of the show, you've surely seen a billion references to mirrors, reversals, inversions, and Alice in Wonderland (mirror matter is also known as Alice matter, in reference to Lewis Carroll's works)...

• The gigantic foot (after R. Foot)
• The Looking Glass — the idea obviously being that you typically enter this world of Alice matter through the Looking Glass station
• The black and white stones
• Charlie crosses with the opposite (and wrong) hand before dying
• Backward speech
• Rabbits, chess games, episodes entitled "White Rabbit" and "Through the Looking Glass"
• The city reflection in the Season 4 posters
• Ana Lucia's shirt is white before the crash (when presumably on the "light side") and mysteriously changes to black after the crash (when presumably on the "dark side") [Thanks to jane_eris and others for catching this]
• There's that single white shoe in the opening scene. Sounds silly, but could it be a "light" shoe for the left (light) foot? (Andyo_uk also makes a decent argument for an unusual obsession with shoes in the show. He has a couple of lists in the comments.)
• Hurley crashes into a collection of mirrors in the opening of the 3rd season.
• Part of the summary of "Valis" from Philip K. Dick's site: "an ancient, mechanical intelligence orbiting Earth..." It's a central reveal in the book. More here.
• [more coming]

Beyond the Show Proper:

• In a broadcast by DJ Dan, there was a taped interview with a student working on a project, apparently for the Widmore Corporation (likely responsible for the people on the freighter):
• Interviewer: "So, uh, then what are the possible applications of this research?
  
• Student: "Pretty much, we were asked to simulate an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to knock a space-borne body out of its recurring orbit."
  
• Interviewer: "Uh, space-borne body. Like what, exactly?"
  
• Student: "Like the moon."
  
• [Transcript courtesy of Lostpedia]
• So it might be fair to assume the primary objective might be to destroy the island... or, to correct its orbit after the EMP from the failsafe in the Swan knocked it out of its orbit

• In an ABC interview, Damon Lindelof said:
• "Somewhere just outside the Crab Nebula is where it will all end, geographically."
• Take a look at the cover of Foot's book on mirror matter. The title and Foot's name are just outside the Crab Nebula. ;-)
  

• "Bad Twin," the book by Gary Troupe in the Lost Experience includes two twin brothers who are identical except for their handedness (regular handedness, but also the direction in which their hair curls, etc.). Matter and mirror matter are identical except for their handedness (left-handed corresponding to "our" matter, right-handed to mirror matter). [Thanks to poster Konstantin for bringing this nearly perfect Easter Egg to my attention.]

• The Whitman poem in the online game leading up to Season 4 is poem # 180 in "Leaves of Grass."
• The Compass logo for the Maxwell Group has left and right (East and West) reversed. Reversals of left and right along a mid-line are arguably the allusions most specific to mirror reflection symmetry in the show.
• Svalbard? The only connection to Svalbard in recent memory is "His Dark Materials" [Thanks to tdciago for pointing this out]

Further Evidence:

• The constellations have been edited. For example, the Big Dipper has had two stars removed. What better way to suggest that constellations are mirror matter constellations and not our own. [Credit to poster jane_eris and others] And, while Carl and Alex could make up names for the constellations, it's more compelling to make up names when the constellations really need to be named.
• The species are different, as noted by Arzt. Sure, the EM field might contribute to this; but whenever someone speculates about mirror matter worlds they mention how the species would be different.
• Mikhail has only one eye. Here's part of R. Foot's description of Miros, a fictitious mirror matter world:
• "Miros is a planet made of mirror matter — atoms composed of mirror electrons and mirror protons and mirror neutrons. Miros is somewhat different from Earth though. It's a bit smaller with deeper oceans, but there is life on Miros. The people of Miros are a bit strange, they have very large feet and only have one eye ... Thus, Miros isn't much like Earth which just illustrates that microscopic symmetry of particle interactions does not translate into a macroscopic symmetry."
  
• The "Hatch Painting" in the Swan depicted: (1) 2 figures of opposite polarity (a normal Penny and inverted Desmond?), (2) A collection of right-side-up stick figures above the waves and upside-down figures below the waves, (3) a trajectory that corkscrews to the right (like a diagram for a right-handed, mirror matter particle) apparently representing Des' path as he fell from the boat, (4) houses beneath the waves, (5) prominent celestial bodies.
• Boone — not a philosopher, but the BooNE experiment(s) at Fermilab regarding dark matter
• Chapter 1, page 1 of Foot's book features a quote from Hawking's "A Brief History of Time."
• [more coming]

Wrap-Up

LOST begins with an opening right eye. [Thanks to blacklodge for pointing this out]

Will it end with an opening left eye back on Earth or a closing right eye when the island is destroyed?

Or absolutely neither? After all, this is just a proposal. It could be 100% wrong. Even though it is inspired by theoretical science and pseudo-science (mirror matter and a mind–electromagnetism connection), some elements (like gravity) are clearly not depicted in a way that would fit with this. The initial estimate of the size, for another example, seems ridiculously small. I could fill another tome with violations of physics necessary to pull this off. Then again, there's a cabin that jumps around the island... It's a sci-fi TV show. And that implies the inclusion of magic and also a unique form of constraints (which this theory might or might not violate). Lost exists in another reality. It's a judgment call as to how different that reality can be.

I'd love your feedback, positive or negative, specific or general.

I owe a great debt to posters on The Fuselage and DarkUFO, who have, at the minimum, given these ideas some resonance and offered amazing and intelligent feedback.

Thanks for reading. I spend a little free time here and there tweaking this. You might want to check back to see how the theory thrives or dies as the show continues.

Mike

P.S. — I can't help but recommend an excellent and different theory based on mirror matter by Big Mouth.

P.P.S. — "Because he's in space.

As in outer space. As in orbit. As in one of a handful of human beings who have the unique distinction of not being on the fucking planet."

~ no doubt irrelevant. But how could I not quote this from Damon's recent essay?

---

Negative Season 4 Information waiting to be integrated, reconciled, etc.

With time, assuming the theory isn't killed beforehand, I'll integrate this with what's above.

• I don't get a distinct impression that when you leave the island matters. The arrival on the freighter at mid-day worked, but again, that isn't a closed case. If we knew exactly where the freighter is, or we get another example of entry or exit, that would be huge.
• The 23-hour island day assumption might lop off too much time. There are some discrepancies that need to be worked out, however, before I'll bother to try a smaller deviation from 24-hours.
• The island control (or is it course-correction?) that seems apparent in Michael's inability to kill himself. It seems that the escapees will need to return to the island to either die or else be zapped to the plane in the trench (yes, that would assume the captain and Others are lying about the wreckage to manipulate the escapees). This is a negative because a causal paradox might need to be introduced to explain why Michael can't (yet) die. Complication = bad. The alternative is that the presumed light vs. dark war is occurring not just in the realm of the normal physical world but also in a psychic realm of operation.

Smoke Monster Alternative — a Life-form that Mirrors

This is the other explanation that fits hand-in-glove with the theory. I raise it only because the producers recently said in a podcast that Yemi and the spider that killed Nikki (WTF?, come on...) can be attributed to the monster. If we take them at their word, ignore their laughter, and assume that the monster is a narrowly defined entity (as opposed to something more like a concept), then the comment seems to necessitate a more flexible definition of the monster.

It's a life-form that evolved on the moon and is intimately connected with the electromagnetic energy found in the moon's core. It answers the question "If we have this other world as old as Earth, and all of the humans are from Earth, wouldn't we have some other evolved life-form(s) beyond just the different insects?"

• The monster is not particularly intelligent according to our conception of intelligence. It does not seem to have a particular agenda or understanding of human motivation or behavior. It's more like a simple animal intelligence.
• It (or they) are especially tuned to sensing magnetic fields (because it evolved on the moon).
• It can only manifest as a doppleganger of what it has experienced (a play on the mirror theme).

This still requires that the moon is underwater at least part of the time, and that kinetic mixing still occurs in the way described above. But the strength of the interaction is so low that it merely allows for an electromagnetic signature (in the shape of the smoke, invisible to human eyes) to cross between the worlds. Outside objects can't interact with the moon, but the monster (unlike us) can see their signatures as they kinetically mix with the moon's matter.

• The monster takes the form of—and attempts to mimic the movements of—objects and people on the island.
• Because it can detect EM fields (signatures), the monster can take the form of the signatures that it senses from objects interacting with the moon.
• For example:
  
• It sees the signature and behavior of an ROV. Later on it takes the shape of the signature (cloud-like) and mimics its scanning and photographing behaviors.
• It sees the signature of a squid (the fields around the illuminated tentacles) and later takes on the form and movement of those fields.
  
• Whether it can "get inside and animate" matter is an open question.

Is everyone on the island from planet Earth?

. . . Yes. That may be one of the best Lost questions we've ever been asked.

[from an interview with Jimmy Kimmel]

Damon Lindelof: If an island is defined by land mass surrounded by water, they are on an island. Carlton Cuse: Right. That's good. DL: Right. CC: Yeah, I don't think we should say anything more that that. DL: Yes, that's how that's... CC: That's right. DL: This is about definitive answers. We have defined the term 'island'. We have confirmed that they are in fact on one. CC: And it's surrounded by water. DL: It is. CC: But everything beyond that is kind of up for grabs.

[from the producers; thanks to Mark and Lostpedia]

What's great about those worlds [Narnia, Oz, and Wonderland] is they're all worlds on the other side of Earth. That is to say they're not fantasy realms like in Star Wars. Narnia is actually connected to the world that we know and so is Oz, as is Wonderland... as is our island.

[from the producers]

Malkin, the psychic: Every day I meet people lookin' for a miracle, desperate to find one. But there are none to be had.

Not in this world, anyway.

Possible depictions of parity transformation (matter to mirror matter and vice-versa) on Dan's blackboard.

The idea is that, mythologically, the island is the underworld, it is the looking-glass world, it is the spirit realm, it is Hell, it is the Dark Side, it is the Other Side, it is humanity's chance at rebirth, it is the destination of mariners and aircraft that disappear... but it's really just a chunk of mirror matter. [Jim — how's that? lol]

PLEASE NOTE: This is a new blog post. The previous one, with all of your wonderful comments, is here.