LT166: Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now

TIME AND OMNIPRESENT

LOST is clearly presenting time-based concepts. That has caused many hours of research into the topic and one product of that research is the concept of being omnipresent. This is concept of being everywhere at the same time.

Followers of the Bible believe that God is omnipresent. This relates to LOST because if time is flexible enough to travel to the past and the future, then it really does indicate that we can be everywhere at the same time. Or maybe the proper way to word this is that we can be at every time at the same place.

The island prior to moving was located based on three measurements: longitude, latitude and altitude. These three dimensions give us the physical location. So if the island moved in time to the past, then the island would still be right where it is. See, if the island was there at 9 a.m. this morning and it moved back in time at say 4 p.m., it would still be there 9 a.m., yesterday, and the day before that. Since the island disappeared, there is only one conclusion to draw: it moved forward in time. Let’s say it moved to 9 p.m. even though our clocks read 4 p.m. In five hours, the island will reappear. Why? Because the X, Y, and Z axis didn’t change…only the fourth dimension of time changed.

So, is the island really everywhere at the same time? At 9 a.m. we could say the island was HERE. At 9 p.m., again we could say the island is HERE. During those 5 hours, where was it? I propose HERE still because time is merely one of four adjustments and it happens to be the one that doesn’t deal with spatial measurement, but with time. Of course, Einstein tried to work out this apparent contradiction but combining the dimensions into something called space-time manifold.

This then led me to God and attribute of being omnipresent. The Bible says God has no concept of time and he knows the past, present and future. This gives a real paradox to contemplate since it throws a wrench into the concept of free will, but beyond that, it brings up another question: if God can be everywhere at the same time, then is God in Hell?

Hell is often defined as “absence from God”. The Bible suggests that God and Hell can’t co-exist for the same reason a light causes darkness to flee from a room when you flip a light switch on. But if God is everywhere, then shouldn’t we find God in Hell?

This contradiction is often justified by pointing out that being omnipresent is a power where corporeal beings deal with spatial dimensions. This of course moves time into the realm of power…or even more accurate, supernatural power.

We might propose then that time on LOST is faith-based. The other three dimensions of width, height and depth are science-based. This is perhaps a reminder to merge the faith versus science theme with the time themes which are center stage.


PERCEPTION OF TIME

Even Einstein’s theory is about perception of time. Two people looking at their own clocks will perceive a different relationship to time passage. We know that velocity changes the behavior of time and will even stop at the speed of light (ok, we don’t KNOW that, but have come pretty close to proving it).

This could mean that each individual on the island has their own “flow of time”. Desmond, for example, is definitely on a different flow that other survivors. Ben seems to have his own awareness of future events as he always has a plan and seemed shock when the future doesn’t play out how he expects or first experienced it.


COURSE CORRECTIONS

After dwelling on this stuff and making my head hurt again (at least I haven’t suffered from nose bleeds…yet), I came upon a theory for course corrections: Smokey.

To put it in concrete terms, we can claim with confidence that had the plane not crashed on the island, that Libby, Charlie, Boone, Eko and the rest of the dead would have died off the island. In the case of Charlie, we can really stand up with confidence and claim this for Desmond told us, showed us, and lo and behold, let it happen.

NOTE: I say “let it happen” because with his future vision it was interesting he didn’t see getting whacked on the head by the paddle by Charlie.

So I suggest Smokey is performing some course corrections to the universe. And this might be why it didn’t kill Keamey…it wasn’t time to. It avoided killing Locke and Juliet and Kate – although each were scanned.

Hey, just some thoughts I had to get off my brain!


HINDSIGHT

Ever ponder how cool it would be to go back to a prior age of yourself and re-do your life knowing what we know now? Well, I’d like to do that with LOST. Review the past four seasons knowing what we know now and see if anything appears different to us. During the summer, several LOST blogs have re-played the episodes with its readers, but I’m looking to do it from a different approach. The goal is not to rehash the seasons, but to look for clues that appear to have new meaning to us now. I’m not even sure if we have enough time before Season 5 begins, so my hope is to make it a feature in each blog. The section will be called HINDSIGHT, so look for it each blog!

The key to gathering additional information will be YOU. If something clicks in your mind during the review, please post a comment or send an email to me. The more pairs of eyes we have on this, the greater the odds will be that we discover something previously overlooked.


SEASON 5 PROMO

We mentioned in the last blog that TIDBITS will not expose spoilers. It just ruins the fun of discovering things for each person. But, that doesn’t exclude promos. Often I turn away and don’t watch those “next week on LOST” clips, but sometimes you just can’t help it. Anyway, thought it might be fun to reveal one promo feature each post, so look for it in each blog!



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Enjoy,
KC