LT233: Mind Tripping

SEPARATE REALITY

Literature makes another splash on LOST. This time it is a young Ben handing Sayid a book to read during his detention. The book is entitled, “A Separate Reality”, by Carlos Castaneda.

Castaneda is a controversial author of first person stories about times when he was being trained by an Indian shaman named don Juan Matus back in the 1960’s. The debate concerns itself with whether the stories are fiction or not.

In “A Separate Reality” the book was written in 1971 and continues his tales of his mentor from a previous book, “The Teachings of Don Juan” (not to be confused with the romance character). Carlos credits his learning curve to peyote and mushrooms. The ability he learns is called “Seeing”, a method of expanding one’s mental capabilities.

Related to LOST might be this description from Wikipedia: “In his book “The Art of Dreaming”, Castaneda describes an encounter during a lucid dreaming session with a supposed conscious entity that was trapped by other inorganic beings. The trapped entity was named the Blue Scout because its "energy" appeared [as a blue color] and it was an energetic scout (meaning it was outside of its original realm). The Blue Scout was apparently bait used by the inorganic beings to trap Castaneda as well. But instead they (Castaneda and the Blue Scout) escaped by supposedly merging their energies.” A man claims to have spent two days with a “reconstituted” Carlos Castaneda after his death. I’m thinking Christian and Jacob.

One small, but possible hint is that young Ben tells Sayid that he has read the book TWICE. Could this be a suggestion that young Ben knows he has looped twice already?


RUSSIAN CONNECTION

We see Sayid’s last target assigned by Ben is a Russian who attempts to bribe Sayid.

When Sayid leaves he exits out the door that in reverse shows us the number 23.

The Russian wording reads, “Oldham Pharmaceuticals”. Oldham is the Dharma torturer who gave Sayid his truth serum drug on a sugar cube. While things like this are cute on LOST, let’s be realistic as well. Are we saying that Fate led Sayid through a door that later would apply to his return to the island? Now that is more bizarre than paying $120 for a glass of scotch.


WHY SUN DIDN’T FLASH

Came up with a common trait between Sun, and Ben, and Locke and why they didn’t flash to 1997. They each met Charles Widmore. Locke with the broken leg in the desert hospital, Sun at the airport, and Ben in his bedroom. These three met Widmore and did not flash.

Those that did flash did not meet Charles Widmore personally, did they?


DRINK UP

MacCutcheon scotch makes a return to LOST as Sayid is sipping the beverage at the bar where he meets his “date”. I think the fact she knows the drink is a clue that she is working for Widmore. We also learn from this encounter that Elena (spelling?) is not a U.S. Marshall.


AUNT-J WRITES

A TIDBITS reader, Aunt-J writes with a series of questions that really goes to show her state of mind: tripping! So is mine. Specially, we are asked about the Purge and whether it is happening in the 1970’s instead of 1992 since young Ben is running to the Hostiles now thanks to Sayid’s “guidance”.

Good point because this makes everyone question Daniel’s theory that we can’t change the past. His “what happened, happens” is in serious doubt. In fact, Momma Hawking seems to be more on point when she suggests that “course corrections” can be made.

In the above section (Drink Up) we suggest the lady who has Sayid in custody might be associated with Widmore. Let’s not then forget that Widmore is paying for Daniel’s research and paying the bills for the medical care of his family members. Could even Mrs. Hawking be on Widmore’s payroll?


WOLVERINE

Not the X-Men character, but the college mascot! Radzinsky sort of pulls rank by reminding Horace that if he can’t make a decision about Sayid, they could always take it up the chain of command to Ann Arbor. This city is the home of the University of Michigan where the Dharma founders are from: Karen and Gerald DeGroot. I wondered if they would ever make a return.

Past information tells us that Alvar Hanso procured the services of the DeGroots to begin the Dharma Initiative. I find it odd that the scientist couple remain in Michigan while hippies run the stations in the South Pacific. In fact, I can’t tell of any experiments on the island that have any scientific value (although the Swan Hatch seems to be headed in that direction). Dr. Marvin Candle is around, but what evidence is there of any testing?


BURN BABY BURN

As I mentioned in the Initial Thoughts post last night, the van was set ablaze as a decoy. But did you hear the fact that it was Building 15, one of the Numbers? Sawyer’s line was a classic.



DEAD OR ALIVE

The buzz from this episode is the ending. Is young Ben dead or alive? The smart money is alive…or at least “reconstituted” by the island. There are some obvious time paradoxes going on here but only if Ben is really dead. I found it strange that Sayid didn’t put a couple of more rounds into the body. Or at least he could have checked the pulse like a good Hitman would do.

TIDBITS reader, Michael, points out an interesting side note. If older Ben knows that he will develop a tumor one day, then he could have been involved in pushing Jack on board Oceanic 815 at the right time down the road of his life. Ben tells Jack that what are the odds of the world’s best spinal surgeon falling from the sky? With Ben’s ability to recognize time loops, I’d say the odds are pretty good. And I’ll bet Ben wins a lot of games of chess too.

Another related point is that it does seem the island will heal Ben. So why does the island later allow Ben to have a tumor and then not heal him in 2004? This either indicates the island is not “aware” to the level necessary to avoid a future “error” or it needs young Ben to do something even at the cost of what old Ben will also do.

LOST REVIEW: THE TENNIS SHOE

In the first scenes of LOST we see Jack run to the beach and run past a white tennis shoe dangling in a tree.

Shoes have been a frequent topic on LOST. But I want to focus on just this one white tennis shoe. We have learned that Christian was buried while wearing white tennis shoes. We have seen Christian on and off the island wearing white tennis shoes.

The question this brings up is why are there THREE white tennis shoes? The two Christian is wearing and the one dangling in the tree? No matter how you spin and explain Christian being “present” the fact remains that one of his physical shoes is hanging from a tree. This implies there are a second shoe and a body somewhere.

This is a reasonable assumption. We are then forced to focus on the ghost of Christian Shephard.


NEXT ON TIDBITS

There is a lot more to cover about the last episode “He’s Our You”, so check back this week. Also, the LOST REVIEW will actually form its first hypothesis that might explain, well, the universe, life and…everything!

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Enjoy,
KC