Ongoing experiments

[mjrisin]

I've always thought that the island seemed to be the result of a series of experiments that may or may not have gone wrong and are still be carried out to some extent by the others. For example, the electromagnetic generator may be man made. Originally intended to be useful in researching the effects of electromagnetism on animals (ie the shark with the Dharma logo on its tail), it may be affecting the currents in such a way that it is difficult to find and/or leave the island. More interesting, though, is the idea that we create our own realities through mental projection. If you think about it, everyone on the island is slowly seeing their past desires and pains reappear. I think that either a) researchers at Dharma have found a way to bridge the mind/reality connection or b) they found a way to utilize telepathy/esp to get inside a person's thoughts (and remain one step ahead of the survivors). Finally, the others ultimate goal may be life extension and/or creation of the "perfect person". This is why they want the children. Human subjects are probably a little tough to come by. Question..does the founder of Hanso kinda look like Hitler? Looking at the photo of him in the building is what got me thinking about the whole creation of a perfect race theme.

[Michelle]

good theory, i have considered the theory of ongoing experiments and i believe that the island was definatly at one point used for experiments but i think these experiments may have been stopped at one point or funding cut off or something like that, but "the others" dont know that the experiment has been abandoned and are still carrying it on to the best of their abilities and so are using the survivors as test subjects seen as they have not been sent any for a while

[kermit]

there was a mock-interview of a guy from the hanso foundation on a talk show once... he stated that the dharma initiative was once a part of the hanso foundation, but was abandoned a long time ago. however, he also talked about lost as a tv show, which imo really ruined the whole alternate reality game :\

the hanso foundation website mentions a lot of things like what you are saying, so it's all entirely possible i think no matter what, whatever was happening on the island was not just a psychological experiment... the people pressing the button, and the people monitoring everything and taking notes... both were actually important in some way... i think the dharma initiative's goals were definitely much grander than just studying the human psyche.

and the thing about the survivors is, you can't discredit the huge number of coincidences among them... even though they were all in sydney together, there seems to be a whole lot else involved, such as desmond and the other guy in the hatch that ended up on the island through other means. so there are a few possibilities... maybe those really are all just huge coincidences due to some weird bend in "chaos theory"... maybe the survivors were being raised and guided purposefully to the island to serve a purpose... or maybe their memories are being fuddled with and all the coincidences are things that didn't actually happen...

did you ever see the movie "dark city"?

[mjrisin]

Kermit

Never saw Dark City, what is the plot? I was just thinking, I've seen a lot of posts about the final episode asking why Jack, Sawyer and Kate were chosen. One similarity I see is that they all have had childhood trauma of some sort. Hurley did not. Thought that might be significant.