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From Lostpedia

This page contains fan theories about the key factor of Lost, the Island.

From Lostpedia Theory Policy: "A theory is an attempt to explain a certain mystery using logic backed up with logically consistent observations and facts. Without supporting evidence, statements are merely speculation. Speculation is similar to theories except there are no facts or logic to back the theory up." - This is a theory page, not a speculation page. Speculation without supporting evidence can be deleted. To respond to a theory, use the discussion page. Feel free to add supporting evidence to an existing theory.

Invisibility

• The Island is hidden from radar/satellite/photography by a magnetic field, such as the one that appeared to emanate from the Swan.
• The Island loses its cloak during movement; when it first arrives at a new location, it is visible for a short period of time.
• The Island is located in its own parallel universe. Every time people come to the Island, they pass the border between the normal universe and the Island's universe. In Alice in Wonderland "The Looking Glass" is a metaphor for mirrors, the term in Lost is a metaphor for the border between the two universes.
• The Island is miniaturized. The submarine resembles the one used in the movie "The Fantastic Voyage." Traveling to and from the Island requires people and objects to be miniaturized and then re-sized to normal.
• Just as time moves at a different rate from the rest of the world, it is also on a different reference frame in relation to the perception of space. When viewed from the normal world (those not near the Island), it appears much smaller than it does to those on or close to the Island.
• The Island was in fact very slightly in the future. Remember the Doctor whos body was found on the Island before he had died back on the freighter? And remember the DHARMA video inside the orchid with the rabbit that would disappear momentarily in to the future? I say "was" in the future because now that it has been moved it may have shifted in time again.

See also: Electromagnetism/Theories

Inhabitants

• The Island was created to be a political and religious Utopia for The Others, while the DHARMA Initiative tried to create a scientific Utopia among other things, which led to hostility between them and the Others.
• Another civilization live on the Island before The Hostiles, possibly aliens.

Location

Using the geo-location on the satellite phone from Confirmed Dead

• When Kate hands the phone to Daniel we can see a pretty clear shot of the phone's screen (although upside down). If the orientation of the globe on the interface is any indication of the phone's current location (or a guess at it's location) it seems that the globe is centered in the Indian Ocean somewhere between the African and Indian Coasts. Geo-locating on the Island might not work like it would on the rest of the globe so this may indicate that the phone is confused at it's location.
  • Is there a screen cap we can study?

Using the DHARMA polar bear from Confirmed Dead

• Tunisia is at the exact opposite point on the planet from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Zealand. Charlotte finding the polar bear skeleton explains how the freighter / Widmore finds the Island.

Using the Numbers

The Numbers can be used to deduce the location of the Island:

See also: The Numbers/Theories

Because the Island is a tropical island, it will be found between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, located at approximately 23 degrees north and south of the equator, respectively.

Miscellaneous locations

Eko's "north" message

• If Desmond is right, the Island is about 350 miles from Tahiti. Desmond believes the Island is a week east of Fiji at 9 knots.^[desmond] That's about 1500 nautical miles (2880km, 1740mi) east of Fiji (at 18.06°S / 178.30°E), which would place the Island at about 18.06°S / 154.633°W (or perhaps further west). This is about 350 miles from Tahiti. Danielle Rousseau said they were 3 days out of Tahiti when they wrecked on the Island,^[rousseau] which would mean they traveled at about 5 knots, which is plausible.
• The Island is north of Fiji. This is compatible with the flight path of Oceanic 815, based upon statements of the pilot^[pilot] and flight attendant^[cindy].
  • If the Island is a kind of snowglobe and there is only one exit/entrance then if the plane entered it at one heading it would constantly go around in a circle. So this would mean that the pilot was telling the truth but just going around in a circle.
• The Nigerian plane, and the local time of 04:16pm from the log printout suggests that the Island is in the GMT+3 time zone, off the east coast of Africa.
• An interpretation of Eko's stick suggests the Island is near the south pole. Though the full GEN 13:14 verse states all four cardinal directions, the abbreviated version on the stick reads "LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND LOOK NORTH". The Island is near the South Pole, so all directions are North.
• When Sayid repairs the satellite phone in "The Brig", a display on screen shows a world map with green signal rings expanding out from a location very near the North American western coastline. Notably, this location is not a great distance from Portland, and is also nearly 1,000 miles from Los Angeles. This is the location of the Island.
• The Island could very well be on one of the poles. Geographically, the South makes more sense, but if it were the North, it would explain both the Polar Bear and the electromagnetic anomalies (as in, the Island is literally above the exact location of the North Pole. Also, in one of the first season episodes, a shot of Walt's comic book shows an illustration of the top of a large spherical shape that could easily be interpreted as the Earth.
• The Island is located some where in the North Pole/Arctic area. The Island exists in some sort of "alternate time" or "alternate reality". Refer to the book The Smokey God and/or the manuscript "Admiral Byrd's Secret Diary" (his trips were to the South Pole, but some theorists say he was also secretly sent on a mission to the North Pole) and/or "the Hollow Earth Theory, and/or Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole (1885), written by the founder of Boston University, Dr. William Fairfield Warren. These pseudo-science books make reference to a tropical land (or in the least, a warmer climate) hidden in the Artic. The writers of Lost have used these ideas to create the location of the Island. The writers have also incorporated another pseudo-scientific concept called The Vile Vortices. The Vile Vortices have been described as "portals." The Bermuda Triangle is considered as one of these portals. From the Island, different bearings would take you off of the Island from "zero" north to different Vile Vortice openings. That's how the Black Rock, Danielle's team, Flight 815, Eko's brother's plane, Desmond and his boat, Henry Gale and his balloon and others have ended up on the Island, through these vortices. That is also how the polar bear was transported from the Island to the location where it was found in North Africa. Also the hypothetical concept of Ley Lines may figure into the mythology of the Island's location. The only direct way to access the Island is going under the Arctic ice cap in a submarine, guided by a beacon from the Looking Glass, if you know the correct route. When you emerge from under the ice cap, you have entered this "lost" area, which is tropical in nature and somehow protected from the frozen environment around it. How the Island is invisible to the "outside" world is not readily explained in these books nor have the writers of Lost given us their "take" on this point (as of this posting). But numerous clues have been given to us by the writers of the series. Polars bears, references to "ho ho ho," Hurley drawing a picture of an igloo, the comic book with Arctic scenes that Walt was reading. Sam seeing the aurora borealis (even though he was in the Pacific) in Find 815, Penny's listening station was located in a snowy waste land, Desmond's fictitious basic training camp named "Camp Millar" in Scotland matches an actual base on an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean which is owned by Norway, named Camp Millar, and has been used as the stepping-off point of many Arctic expeditions, The Swan password is the joke about what one snowman says to the other and Desmond's reference to a snow globe .

Fan-made maps

Map	Explanation
	Possible flight paths of Oceanic 815 turning back to Fiji. The red shows the possible location of the Island at 4.815' N and 162.342' W. The yellow line shows a possible original flightpath for the plane. The green lines show possible turnaround routes to Fiji after radio contact was lost.
	Possible location of island according to Desmond.[desmond]
	Probable location of the Island according to Seth Norris[pilot], Desmond[Desmond] and Rousseau[Rousseau].
	Estimated flight path relative to equator and International Date Line, according to the pilot[pilot] and flight attendant[cindy].

See also: Flight path of Oceanic 815 and Flight path of Oceanic 815/Theories

Tides

• Tides could have been controlled from The Looking Glass station along with communication.
• Desmond's sailboat being pulled offcourse could be due to strong tides or unusual currents carrying the boat back to the Island
• Global tides are caused by the gravitational pull from the moon. Magnetism in general is well known to defy the laws of gravity. If there is an enchanced magnetic field surrounding the Island, it could be blocking the moon's gravitational pull from pulling the water. The abnormaly high tide that swept out the plane may have been caused by the reintroduction of normal gravitation to the region due to a temporary disruption that may have been associated with a system failure.
  • However, the Island would have to be immune to the restrictions put out by normal space-time for this theory to really come into place.
  • The somewhat unpredictable tides may signal that the magnetic field is unstable.
  • Water is diamagnetic. The field strength of magnetism required to move it will be huge.

Method of Movement (The Frozen Wheel)

The cavern beneath The Orchid features a pillar emblazoned with hieroglyphs or pictograms of some fashion, either coincidentally or intentionally similar to those on Ben's secret door. This clearly, as discussed in articles referring to Ben's secret door, indicates or at least presupposes an earlier culture on The Island, possibly an ancient culture.

The wheel, however, features iron or lead cladding (metallic in any fashion) far more akin to 18th or 19th century technology.

Either way, the Orchid orientation video cites "negatively-charged exotic matter." Given the similar relationship in terms of sight and sound between the failsafe event when Desmond turns the key in the Swan and the movement event when Ben turns the Frozen Wheel, one might assume this exotic matter is some kind of electromagnetically-active ore. (Placing metal in The Vault in the Orchid might have adverse reactions when energized, much like a microwave. The explosion in the Vault bore a resemblance to stereotypical events in a metal-microwave interaction.) If so, the turning of the wheel may be turning or otherwise manipulating a piece - possible a large lode - of this ore, which may be responsible for the time-space reaction that "moves" the island.

Given that Desmond's "time jump" experiences were due to a similar event (in terms of sight and sound), the idea that significant physical (metaphysical?) reactions due to the manipulation and/or charge (discharge?) of exotic matter is responsible for time-space shifts seems plausible. Furthermore, the ancient culture that left the hieroglyphs (or a contemporary culture that used them) may have understood this cause-effect relationship, at least on a rudimentary level.

Sequential moves and events of the Island

NOTE: "Where" should be thought of as "Where/when."

NOTE: This rework changes locations to "moves and events" and puts "Swan Implosion" into the event category.

The Black Rock Move

This is where the Island popped in after moving from its previous, unidentified location and stranded the ship. Details to be determined.

The Drug Plane Move

This is where the Island appeared and caused the Beechcraft to crash. This location must be within 1200 air miles (a Beechcraft's range) of the airstrip in Nigeria from which the aircraft departed. Details to be determined.

Flight 815 Move

This is where the Island appeared following the system failure and caused Oceanic 815 to break apart on Wednesday, September 22, 2004. We did not see a purple sky, because that effect occurs at the beginning of the move (in this case, the Drug Plane location). Details to be determined.

Swan Implosion Event

This is the Event when Desmond turned the fail-safe key on Saturday, November 27, 2004. The sky turned purple, the loud noise was heard and everything was washed out by a bright light. This was earlier proposed as a move but, when asked at Comic Con 2008 if the Island had moved, TPTB responded, "No. But something happened."

It is known that Desmond's action caused the "7418880 Electromagnetic Anomaly Detected" event, allowing Penny and her father to locate the Island, she to undertake her rescue mission, he to dispatch the Kahana.

On November 27, 2004, a listening station reported to Penelope Widmore that they had "found it." The data at the listening station included the integer 7418880, which is the product of the six numbers. On December 24, 2004, Desmond was able to telephone Penelope after determining that she was his constant. Penelope, in turn, was able to trace Desmond's call to the location of the Kahana, just off the Island. On December 30, 2004, the Island disappeared, the Kahana exploded, and the raft with the Six was left floating in the open ocean. Early on December 31, 2004, the raft was sighted by the crew of the Searcher; Penelope Widmore was aboard.

Hurley asked Desmond in "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3" why they were sailing 3000 miles to "another island." Sayid refers to Membata in his answer. It was necessary to launch the raft at a point between the two far enough away from Sumba to avoid being seen by persons on other vessels and close enough to Sumba to ensure the the Six arrive safely. The Searcher may have trailed the raft part of the way as a watchdog.

The air distance from the proposed Swan Implosion location of the Island (seconds omitted) at 4 degrees, 8 minutes North and 162 degrees, 3 minutes East and The Island of Sumba at 9 degrees, forty minutes South and 120 degrees East is 3031 miles.

The conclusion is that until December 30, 2004 the Island was located at at 4 degrees, 8 minutes North and 162 degrees, 3 minutes East.

After Ben's Move

This is where the Island will be between Thursday, December 30, 2004 and Monday, 24 October 2005 at the start of season five. However, there is no reason to think that viewers will know where "here" is. Details to be determined.

The bodies

Rousseau and Karl were killed at the end of "Meet Kevin Johnson". Their bodies were discovered by Miles, Sawyer and Claire during "Something Nice Back Home". They appeared to have been buried in graves so shallow that their faces and other portions of their bodies were exposed with virtually no effort. An outstanding question is the identity of persons who buried the two bodies. Three groups of people would seem to be candidates:

• The Mercenaries stood to gain temporarily by hiding the evidence of their actions, but, in the long term, they probably did not care who knew what they had done. Burying "enemy" bodies in the Mercenaries current tactical situation also would have been unduly time consuming. Burying them incompletely makes the efforts completely worthless. The fastest way to dispose of a body in terrain like a jungle would be to carry it several yards off the trail and drop it in dense brush. The Mercenaries probably did not bury Rousseau and Karl.

• The Survivors, in the past, from either Locke's or Jack's faction, have shown respect to the dead - and good field sanitation - by burying the remains of their party. However, there is no evidence that any of the Survivors were in the area between the time of the ambush and the time of the discovery. The Survivors, who probably would have done a better job, probably did not bury the two bodies.

• The Others, including the possible separate faction seen moving through the jungle, have demonstrated respect for the dead, but have not used burial on land. Nonetheless, they might have been willing to bury someone else's dead. There is no direct evidence that any of the Others were in that vicinity of the discovery. Although the party of the Others under Richard's control might have passed along the route in question and left a burial detail behind, the burial detail would have buried the remains somewhat deeper. The Others probably did not bury the remains.

There were no marks from shovels at the site on the trail. There was no excess dirt. There was nothing to indicate that holes had been dug because there had been no burials. The Island was absorbing the bodies. Had Miles, Sawyer and Claire come along much later, there would have been no visual evidence at all. Miles might have sensed something, but he would have been unable to demonstrate his find to Sawyer and Claire.

One can only wonder how all this equates to the disappearance of Christian Shephard's remains and his reappearance as an apparently living person.

Miscellaneous theories

Rousseau's maps

• In many cultures, volcanoes were/are thought to be gateways to Hell. Volcanoes Mount Solfatara in Italy and Mount Hekla in Iceland were considered two of the main gateways to the underworld.
  • Part of the DHARMA Initiative was to figure out how to stop the active volcano from destroying the Island, hence the emphasis on volcanoes in the classroom scene of "The Man Behind the Curtain".
• The sulphuric smell of the shower water in The Swan is caused by either a still active volcano on the Island or hot springs.
• On the map found among Rousseau's Maps and Notes there's a scale of length. If it's in kilometers (which is likely, since Rousseau is French), then the Island is nearly 240 km (160 miles) along the side portrayed.
• Alvar Hanso chose this island for his foundation knowing that his grandfather's ship, The Black Rock, had crashed there. The blast door map shows the Black Rock as the resting place of Magnus Hanso.
• The Island prevents its inhabitants' dying from natural causes. They can only die from trauma like Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, Roger, Yemi, Bea, Ethan, Edward Mars etc. This explains why Rose is not dying. Whatever Jack thought about Ben's life being in danger, Ben was only fearful of disability.
• All the fruit on the Island, due in part to the strong electromagnetism at the location, or with the Incident, is hallucinogenic, causing those living on the Island to have mysterious dreams, visions and even flashbacks.
• The Island is a giant box as in the paradox of Schrödinger's cat, where multiple inconsistent realities can coexist in a closed system until observation from the outside. DHARMA used this property to allow them to try multiple options simultaneously to address the Valenzetti Equation. Contact was only to be made with the outside world from a result that was successful, thus making a successful reality the only reality.
• During the Writer's Strike, Carlton Cuse held a sign that said "Do you want to know what the Island is?" This sign suggests the Island is not necessarily an Island.
• The Island is a game put on by Charles Widmore; he chooses 48 people and puts them on the Island to play through the story. Other very rich people gather together to watch and bet on the outcomes for each character. The whispers are the spectators' comments to each other, discussing the game as they watch it play out. Mr. Paik lost so much on the last game so he had to put up his daughter and her husband for his debt. Same thing with Christian Shepherd, but he made too much trouble and ended up dead in the game.
  • This could explain many coincidental meetings of characters off the Island.
• The Island could be understood as being a parallel reality. The Numbers represent the access points that communicate both realities and only Ben knows this. Whereas in the reality of the Island 48 passengers survived the crash, in the real world there were no survivors and are buried in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
• In Daniel Faraday's notebook there is a diagram of spacetime, with one of the axis with a label "imaginary space". The other axis is labelled "real time". The space-time vector shown on the map suggests that time dilates with progression into imaginary space, meaning people experience time-distorting effects travelling to or from the Island, because it exists in imaginary space. Perhaps in this case imaginay space is like imaginary numbers, i.e. it is stuff that exists in spacial dimensions at right angles to normal space, which is why it can't been seen from outisde, because in the normal spacial dimensions it doesn't exist. Or perhaps the writers have gone for a more literal meaning of "imaginary", and the Island really only exists in the minds of those that live there.
• The Island is an organic machine created in the future before humankind became extinct according to the dictates of the Valenzetti Equation. It was sent back in time with a group of "Hostiles" to recruit present day people to help undo the coming extinction. The reason time is distorted around it is because it has a different gravitational constant than the earth itself and thus 'bends' time around it.
• The Island is located in the future. That is why people can order things from the rest of the world and have it delivered immediately, or the doctor from the boat is found on the Island before he's killed on the boat.

Vile Vortices

The Island is a central dumping ground for the global network of Bermuda Triangle-like areas known as the Twelve Vile Vortices:

• Flight 815 fell victim to the Fiji Vortice.
• The Black Rock fell victim to the Mozambique Channel Vortice.
• The Nigerian Beechcraft fell victim to the Sahara Vortice.

Main article: Vile Vortices (theory)

Underground tunnels

The Island is riddled with a system of underground tunnels.

• This is where the Monster was dragging Locke in "Exodus, Part 2".
• In "Hearts and Minds" when Boone and Shannon are being chased by the Monster, the Monster can be seen shooting vertically out of the ground, perhaps from an Underground Tunnel.
• The Others use underground tunnels to travel without leaving tracks.
• Cindy quickly disappeared into an underground tunnel in "Abandoned".
• These tunnels are filled with machinery, which produce some of the noises heard when the Monster is moving about.
• A big complex, like a city, is hidden underground. This can explain the notes about Cerberus in blast door map, and the translation of countdown hieroglyphs. The frozen wheel is a small part of this.
• This is supported by the DHARMA Cabling Map, which shows many tunnels going underneath the barracks.

Main article: Tunnels

Healing Properties

• The Island has the ability to turn on and off its healing powers. In "Deus Ex Machina" it took Locke's ability to walk for a short while so that only Boone would climb to the plane. After the plane fell and Boone was killed, Locke's ability to walk returned.
  • The fail-safe incident may have put an end to these powers. Which means that Locke may eventually revert to a state of paraplegia, and Rose may die of cancer.
• On the Island, people are not only healed physically, but also psychologically, which is relevant for a few of the Losties. Charlie manages to get the self-control to overcome his heroin addition ("The Moth"). On the Island, Hugo was generally fine without heavy medication until his relationship with Libby was about to begin and the temporary stress of his personal insecurities caused a momentary relapse. A short while after he leaves ("I was happy too for a while" he tells Jack in "Something Nice Back Home"), Hugo starts hallucinating a best friend again, this time, Charlie as opposed to Dave and ends up back in Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. Likewise, on the Island Jack is kept busy with one crisis after another, as Sarah and he himself mentions several times, Jack is most comfortable when there is a problem to fix ("Man of Science, Man of Faith"). This is why Ben knows that Jack will one day wish to return to the Island (King of the Castle). After he gets back to the outside world, Jack's issues reemerge. He and Kate become a couple after leaving the Island (Something Nice Back Home), she now a single mother, and Jack steps in to be the dad. But Jack's grief about his father's death returns; he thinks he sees Christian in St. Sebastian Hospital ("Something Nice Back Home"), where they used to work together ("All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"). In response, Jack starts taking medication (which he later abuses "Through the Looking Glass"), and restarts the binge drinking he began before flight 815 in the bar where he met Ana Lucia ("Pilot, Part 1"). In the end, he recreates the issues from his last relationship. Jack accuses Kate of being unfaithful to him (Something Nice Back Home), just like he accused Sarah of cheating on him with Christian ("Pilot, Part 1"). Later it is implied that he has been repeatedly calling Kate against her wishes ("Through the Looking Glass") like he stalked Sarah in a previous episode. He continues his downhill slide, becoming suicidal ("Through the Looking Glass"). But ultimately, the Island may take him back after all - preventing him from killing himself by presenting a fiery car crash and another chance to fix something, just like it did for Michael ("Meet Kevin Johnson").

See also: Healing properties/Theories

Theories about the function of The Island

• In the May 23, 2007 special "Lost: The Answers," producers Cuse and Lindelof commented on the nature of the magic box metaphor, stating that "the entire island is a magic box." We can thereby conclude that the Island makes some people confront their most painful and repressed memories through the materialization of complex human constructs that to them appear real. Those affected by the unique properties of the Island see characters from their past that they have hurt and need to see again. So when Jack sees his late father appear on the Island he believes that it really is him and not a hallucination. He believes it because he wants to, since his highest wish is to see his father again so that he can have closure. Jack knows that Christian Shepherd can't be on the Island, yet talks to him as if he really is there. The same can be said about Eko in his conversation with his dead brother and about Ben meeting his mother who died giving birth to him. By this rationale, Jacob is a metaphorical demon from Ben's past that haunts him and won't give him any peace until he redeems himself. That is why only he can see him, just like only Hurley could see Dave. Paralleling how Yemi was a materialization of Eko's subconscious guilt and a chance for the older brother to atone for his sins, Jacob is someone from Ben's past that he has to confront - possibly because Jacob is dead and Ben has his life on his conscience.
  • The previous statement could work. It might be possible that Jacob is in fact the previous leader of the others. This is why the others keep him in such reverence and hold him in such high reguard. They even tend to fear him; perhaps this is because Jacob was a more cruel/ruthless leader than Ben turned out to be. Since Jacob is ben's manifestation of the island, there may have been foul play involved in jacob's death. It was never explained why Ben became the leader of the others. It's my guess that Ben murdered/engineered jacob's death. The island manifested itself as jacob to ben as a form of punishment/representation of guilt.
• The Island is shielded by an electro-magnetic field (or something with very similar properties): Naomi ("Catch-22") said ("The Brig") that she knew a crash was imminent because the helicopter controls "started going crazy." This was brought up in season 2: Desmond realizes that he neglected to push the button at the same time that the plane crashed on the Island. An electro-magnetic type of shield - albeit, above the water's surface - explains why a submarine is required to reach the Island.
  • The building that housed the communication devices, where Ben showed Juliet supposedly-live footage of her sister, controls the shield, allowing communication with satellites at specific times. The shield also allows inter-island radio communication, but block transmissions off the Island.
  • Electronic devices can experience severe transients in their electrical systems if turned on and exposed to a strong enough electro-magnetic field. Devices that were turned off can still work, at least to some degree.

• The Earth itself is a living organism, comprising all geological, chemical, and biological features, including the humans that infest its surface. The Island is the active center of the Earth's "brain," with a built-in security system and signature electromagnetic "brain wave" activity.

• The Island is a prison for some sort of non-corporeal entity. In order to escape its bonds, the entity requires a human host, but not everyone is compatible. Exactly what makes a host compatible is a mystery even to the entity, but it favors a theory that it needs a tabula rasa. Since ancient times, the entity has used a slight psychic influence that it can project over long distances to lure people to the Island, occasionally in large groups. The four-toed statue is an artifact of one group, the Black Rock of another. Adam and Eve and Henry Gale are examples of smaller-scale applications. The DHARMA Initiative were drawn to the Island in like manner but frustrated the entity by not being compatible themselves and not breeding, so either it (A) destroyed most of them itself or (B) set the Others, another group whose origins we simply haven't seen yet, against the DHARMA members. When the Others frustrated it similarly by birthing their (motherless) children behind DHARMA's sonic shield, where its Smoke Monster right hand can't snatch them at the crucial moment, the entity brought in Desmond to complete its loooooong-term plan to bring together all the best candidates for parenting its ideal host from around the world. Ergo, the Losties.

• The Island gives you what you want in one way or another. Locke had his paralysis cured because he wanted to walk, Jin wanted a child so he was able to father one, Hurley wanted food so the Island dropped more, and Charlie wanted drugs so he found a plane full of them.
  • These are produced by the Magic box.
  • The Island itself was produced by the Magic box.
    • The people who came to the Island were looking for a place where they could be away from their problems, (whether they knew that or not) because of that, the Island was created.

• The Island forces those upon it to confront themselves, their sins, and perhaps their pasts in general. Once they have come to terms with these things, they are removed from it. Boone comes to terms with his feelings about Shannon and dies (a sacrifice to the Island, according to Locke); Shannon comes to terms with her feelings of uselessness, and dies; Ana Lucia comes to terms with her guilt over Jason and is killed; Michael realizes how much he cares about his son while Walt realizes how much he cares about his father, and both escape the Island; Eko states defiantly that he does not repent for his past evils, and is killed (by the Monster, incidentally). Kate, in 'settling down' with Sawyer, has marked herself for death; this can be extended to several other characters.

• It is significant that the Island is located somewhere near the International Date Line as this would mean its time zone would be twelve hours from Greenwich Mean Time, half a day from Universal Time (the time used by scientists as the planet Earth's official time). This could also be significant because the plane crashed on the day of the autumnal equinox, when the Sun is directly over the equator and day and night are of equal length. The autumnal equinox is extremely important in many of the world's ancient and modern spiritual traditions and reflects the black and white, good and evil, and light and dark themes of Lost. In astrology, the autumnal equinox marks the beginning of the sign Libra, a sign whose themes include harmony, relationships, beauty, art, money, and balance.

• Everything on the Island is marked as a Black or White piece in the style of Backgammon or Chess. Every "Black" or "Yin" action has an opposite "White" or "Yang" reaction on the Island, meaning everything that happens on the Island happens for a reason, so that something else may happen as a consequence of that action at a later point.

• The Island is some kind of "Garden of Eden." This would explain...
  • The healing properties of the Island, and why there is no cancer
  • Why the Island is "invisible" to the outside world
  • The Hostiles not getting older
    • In the Book of Genesis, it is written that after God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden, he sent an angel to guard it. This angel could be the smoke monster or Jacob.
    • Locke makes a reference to Adam and Eve when he discovers the skeletal remains of a man and a woman in the caves in season 1.
    • (Perhaps) the inability to bear children. According to the Genesis accounts, Adam and Eve did not begin to have children until after their expulsion from Eden.

• Francis Bacon will later reuse the concept in his book "The New Atlantis". In this book, The New Atlantis is supposed to be an island situated in the North Pacific, where ended a bunch of Europeans in order to build a new, ideal society. This ideal society would be based on technology and science in order to lead mankind to Good and Salvation. The idea is therefore to create some kind of new humanist religion based on technology and science. This is very similar to the DHARMA Initiative's project and to Ben's vision (cf. his allegiance to Jacob and his desperate will to find a way to create life on the Island).
  • In a more occult way of thinking, Atlantis is a legendary island which possess the true knowledge of man's beginnings, and is the home of all knowledge and all civilization. The only way to find this Island, according to Francis Bacon, is by The Lost Speech, a kind of language that gives form to the invisible, the unexplainable. The Lost Speech holds the secret of the world and results from an existential quest. But this language has been lost because our own inner darkness obscures it. To know The Lost Speech is to penetrate the inner Heart of Creation, which may be the Atlantis, or the secrets that the Island has to offer. By an existential quest, that their situation on the Island force them to follow, the Lost characters may discover the mysteries of the Island, which contains the knowledge of the man's begginings.
  • Taking this argument from the other side, it could be that the writers are suggesting that legends of Atlantis in fact grew out of anecdotes and myths surrounding this island. It's possible that the Island and it's original inhabitants did indeed predate much of modern civilization and were highly advanced. And over time, they opted to withdraw from the world around them, and let their achievements fade into legend.

• The Island is in fact an entity in itself, with a consciousness and control over itself.

• The Island is a gateway into a parallel universe. Desmond Hume was stationed at Camp Millar, fictionally placed outside Edinburgh, this camp actually exists in the Arctic Circle, in a town called Svarlbad. In Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy the town of Svarlbad is a gateway between parallel universes. The gateway was formed as a result of the high levels of geo magnetism in the Island. Charles Widmore wishes to exploit this, Ben and the Others, wish to keep the gateway closed. Due to Desmond Hume's exposure to the high levels of radiation/magnetism when the Hatch exploded he "switches" between universes, which appears to us as Time Travel.
  • Or maybe instead of time travel, this can explain how some of the Others can travel to and from the Island (as Tom stated in "Meet Kevin Johnson"). Perhaps some of the Others have the ability to "cut" between parallel universes like the subtle knife. Using this ability they're able to cut through to a parallel world in which they are no longer on an island, then travel to known locations in that world which correlate to known locations in our world to "cut" back in.
• If you are dead when you arrive on the Island it is like you are giving your body to the Island. This has happened with Yemi, Christian Shepherd, and will do to Lock if his body is brought back to the Island by the O6.

Possible cultural references

The Island borrows properties from some of these fictional, hypothetical, and real locations:

(Please note that proposed locations without a stated reason may be deleted).

Footnotes

• ^[Desmond] In "Live Together, Die Alone", Desmond says "I was sailing for two and half weeks, bearing due West and making 9 knots. I should have been in Fiji in less than a week."
• ^[Rousseau] In "Solitary", Rousseau says "Our vessel was 3 days out of Tahiti when our instruments malfunctioned."
• ^[Pilot] In "Pilot, Part 1", the pilot says "6 hours in. Our radio went out, no one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji, by the time we hit turbulence we were 1000 miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place."
• ^[Cindy] In "The Other 48 Days", Cindy says "Before the crash, the pilot said we'd lost communication; we were turning back. We were flying for two hours in the wrong direction. They don't know where to look."