THE ALTERNATIVE CRATER

POST 13 - STAY THE COURSE

2006-10-26T20:32:00.000-05:00

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN, THANKS TO BEN

In “Further Instructions,” Desmond apparently knows what’s going to happen next, as though he’d already been there, done that. Hurley calls it déjà vu, but we wonder if he’s really a time traveler or if something else is going on.

For instance, by the time you read this, you’ll have already viewed episode four, “Every Man for Himself,” so you know what’s happened next, even though as we write this we don’t. In fact, everyone who is privy to a Lost script knows what happens on the show before it happens on our TV screens, but we think it’s safe to say that we’re all living in the same space-time continuum.

Although, it could be that we at the AC have special time travel skills: In our last post we suggested that the Losties’ experiences were actually scripts borrowed from the plots of novels by The Others. As an example, we said Kate and Sawyer’s rock-breaking scene might have come from a book found on the bookshelf in Jack’s flashback office. We wrote:

This synopsis of the Pale Horse Coming plot gives us an idea of how they relate: “it is the story of a prison in the deep-south run by an aging madman with insane theories of racial purity and administered by a brutally efficient Stalin of a guard sergeant.”

We don’t know that Mr. Friendly could be described as a “Stalin of a guard sergeant,” but the upshot in the book is that “a multi-talented group of adventurers is assembled to assail an unassailable target or to perform an impossible feat” to free the prisoners. Could it be that Hurley has been sent back to rally the troops?

Okay, so it turned out that Locke was the one who rallied the troops in his stirring beach speech (the very thing Desmond told Hurley was going to happen), but maybe we got it slightly wrong because unlike Desmond we haven’t seen the actual script, we’re just reading between the lines.

xxx

And now that we’ve watched “Every Man for Himself” ourselves, and heard Ben quote from Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” as though he were starring in a Broadway version of the play, we’re not only confident in our theory, we’re downright giddy because we think that this provided the key clue to decipher what’s happening to the castaway crew.

It is all a script but the Losties don’t know they’re acting. That doesn’t mean the big reveal will be a stupid “it’s all a dream,” cheat. We believe that they are unconscious and most likely each is connected to some sort of mind control machine. Are these machines on the island? We don’t think so. We think that they really are “Lost” at sea in the sick bay of the Helgus Antonius, the mystery ship Middelwerk and his Hanso co-conspirators sailed to Sri Lanka during The Lost Experience.

Why? We’re convinced that The Powers That Be -- and we don’t know if they’re aliens or a group of risen Atlanteans or Mu-ans or simply Hanso/Widmore/Paik Heavys -- have tracked down and subdued this group because they are the only people who either 1) know where the floating island is and/or 2) know the whereabouts of Geronimo Jackson, who we believe is a very special child.

How can the Losties find an island invisible to everyone else on the planet (and beyond)? They were there as children, which is an idea that we’ve been kicking around for quite awhile, but that came into focus when the guys on the podcast The Lost Lowdown ridiculed the scene in “Further Instructions,” when Locke picks up the ancient Tonka truck. They sneered, “Why is it that every time they see a toy they’ve got to pick it up? It would have served Locke right to get caught in one of Rousseau’s traps.” (Not an exact quote, but words to that effect.) Then on the Jay and Jack podcast one commenter remembered a flashback scene where a young Locke had exactly the same kind of truck. Then it just made sense that everything they’ve been going through has been a form of mental coercion to remind them of their childhood experiences and cull this vital information from their subconscious.

Gazing into our crystal ball (or are we surfing a glitch on the space-time wave, we forget), we’re convinced that the Losties will awaken from their unnatural slumber in episode six of this first pod or in the J.J. Abrams-directed February opener for the 17-episode pod-a-duex. Even though we “know” it’s going to happen, we can’t wait. We think it will be mind-blowing.

Possibly, not everyone will like having his or her mind imploded. It is probably going to be quite a leap for viewers still debating the fine points of island geography and the future of Charlie and Claire (and her Great! Big! Baby! The kid couldn’t’ be more than a month old by island time, but, boy, oh, boy, how he’s grown.) Anyway, we don’t think this change of mind, so to speak, will constitute a jumping of the shark, we just hope it happens before too many viewers jump ship.

xxx

We recently had an opportunity to speak with a PWAL (Person With A Life), someone who watches Lost, and that’s it. No slo-mo, frame-by-frame repeat viewing. No deciphering the whispers. No fiddling with the images. No blogging, no message boarding, no The Lost Experience theorizing, no podcast networking. Consequently, this PWAL is finding season three pretty inscrutable, and unlike most PWOAL (you know who you are), she finds all this unknown to be, well, unwatchable. In fact, like Stephen Colbert’s bears, she’s put Lost on notice. Actually, she called it probation: If the show doesn’t make some kind of sense to her by the end of these first six episodes, she’s canceling her TiVo season pass.

Even some of us PWOAL-types are feeling a bit waylaid. We hear reports of what’s happening on the Lost fan frontlines, and it worries us—a lot. From The Dharmalars to the Lost Community, there is simmering dissent among the troops. At the Black Rock podcast they speak of the 600,000 viewers who’ve gone AWOL since last week, and they predict channel switching in the millions by the end of the first six episodes if the show doesn’t start making some kind of sense. “It’s a good thing the Big-O is giving up the name Lost Sucks. Maybe we can use it,” the Black Rock podcasters joked with the grim humor of the gallows.

We vote no; Lost does not suck. Indeed, the least-sucky part is about to start. So, in this instance (only), we discourage the change of tactics or strategy or the channel. “Stay the course” may have fallen out of favor at the White House, but for Lost fans it’s still a valid talking point. The alternative (cancellation!) is simply unthinkable. If this show ends before we find out what comes next (the island, it’s up in the air! Lift up your eyes!) would make us crazy insane. We simply must know: did we get it right? And we know you want to know, too? Yes, even those of you who claim to be PWALs.

Oh, and one last thing, in case the guys from The Lost Community podcast ever see this, we have a friendly warning: Bozo? Oh, he’s coming soon to an island near you. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

xxx

POST 12 - OUT OF THE BOOK CLUB

2006-10-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

In the season premier, the Others sentenced Kate and Sawyer to hard labor “breakin’ rock in the hot sun” and many viewers have commented that it looked just like a scene out of the movie “Cool Hand Luke.” Yeah, it looked like that to us, too, but couldn’t it also be a scene out of Pale Horse Coming by Stephen Hunter, which is one of the books on the bookshelf in Jack’s office in A Tale of Two Cities?

This synopsis of the Pale Horse Coming plot gives us an idea of how they relate: “it is the story of a prison in the deep-south run by an aging madman with insane theories of racial purity and administered by a brutally efficient Stalin of a guard sergeant.”

We don’t know that Mr. Friendly could be described as a “Stalin of a guard sergeant,” but the upshot in the book is that “a multi-talented group of adventurers is assembled to assail an unassailable target or to perform an impossible feat” to free the prisoners. Could it be that Hurley has been sent back to rally the troops?

We think it’s an intriguing idea that what’s happening to the Losties are scripted scenarios hatched from the plotlines of books. We checked out a few of the novels on Jack’s shelf to confirm our theory.

In Clive Cussler’s Valhalla Rising a brilliant scientist who’s invented frictionless oil as well as a magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system is murdered by the all-powerful Cerberus Corporation, whose company logo is the three-headed dog with the snakehead tail. Cerberus sounds a lot like The Hanso Foundation, doesn’t it? And Cerberus is a confirmed security entity on the island.

Anyway, as the scientist’s daughter searches for her father’s killer we learn that dad had two extracurricular passions: studying the Vikings and their exploration of North America and Jules Verne’s character Captain Nemo and the “Mysterious Island” where he died.

If you followed The Lost Experience this summer, there should be some other bells rung by what follows.

The Viking part of the story (Rachel Blake had quite a lot to say about her fondness for Vikings) describes a pair of brothers, the younger of whom is named Magnus (Hanso). The scientist travels all over the country researching Viking runes (glyphs). It turns out the scientists’ house is built above a river-accessible cave (hatch) where the Vikings left their ships and treasure (technology). It’s also where, incredibly, the real proto-type of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus is discovered.

Cussler’s book also helpfully offers a synopsis of Mysterious Island: “…a group of castaways settle on a deserted island and are harassed by pirates. A mysterious unseen benefactor leaves food and supplies for the settlers. He also kills the crew of pirates who attack the settlement. Near the end, the settlers are led to a tunnel leading to a flooded cavern inside the heart of the island’s volcano. They find the Nautilus and Captain Nemo, who is dying. He warns them the volcano is about to erupt. They escape in time, as the island destroys itself, burying Captain Nemo and his fabulous creation.”

Nemo = Alvar?

In Catherine Coulter’s Eleventh Hour a priest who is part of a set of mirror twins is murdered by a man who is copying the scripts from a television show. The surviving twin is an FBI agent and in searching out his brother’s killer he meets Linus Wolfinger a TV wunderkind who runs the network. Linus is described this way: “…the Little Shit is really good when it comes to picking story concepts, and god knows there are zillions pitched each season. He’s good at picking actors, at picking the right time slots for the shows to air. Sometimes he’s wrong, but not that often. It’s all very depressing, particularly since he has the habit of telling everyone how great he is. Everyone hates his guts.”

We know that Ben Linus has been picking the books for the book club and most of the novels on that bookshelf are thrillers by bestselling authors. Now think of the flashback stories of the Losties. They’re all thrillers, too. Is there one that doesn’t include an intensely melodramatic plotline? We don’t know if they match the stories on the bookshelf, but we’ll wager that they at least mix and match. We also know that at least for Jack and Sun, the flashback characters they played last year scarcely resemble the ones in this year’s first two shows. They’re like different people; or maybe they’ve just been fed different scripts.

What kind of a world would it be where real life is cribbed from the bestseller list? We have no idea, except that it would be a very ‘hokum-pocum” kind of world where a person could survive a devastating plane crash only to rise from a wheelchair and walk, face off with a polar bear, or find a friend in an underground hatch. It’s the kind of world that when a plane falls from the sky, the guy in charge sends off his minions not to offer aid and assistance, but to make a list…kind of like a casting director. In other words, it’s the kind of thing that could only make sense in the otherworldly world of Lost.

Of course, this is just a theory. We won’t know for sure if the book club connection is correct until prom time…you know, when one of the characters starts exhibiting some rather alarming telekinetic powers…and Ben’s thriller gives way to Juliet’s horror.

POST 11 – THE ALTERNATIVE ISLAND

2006-10-10T08:24:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you’re walking around your house and suddenly you discover a bunch of new rooms, a second storey that was never there before, an entire new wing? We love those dreams; talk about extreme makeover! Our point is, doesn’t the Lost island seem to exist in just such an ever expanding universe, growing from living on the beach to huts and hatches last year to now include a leafy suburb complete with a zoo and aquarium? Wal-mart and a certain construction company must be eyeing this burgeoning island with some interest.

But we digress; which is also something Lost is very good at doing. Last week’s opening scene flashed back to the day of the crash, and later Jack flashed back to the last days of his marriage. Interesting how characters from life on the island seem to intermix so freely with characters in the flashbacks. In fact, it is the hallmark of Lost that everyone is “interconnected” in mysterious ways.

The examples of crossovers “encounters” are so numerous that they defy the confines of a list. Or do they? Hmmm? Who’s been making a little list? Wasn’t that what Ben asked Ethan to do? Find the wreckage of the plane and “make a list”?

Who knows what any of it means? Which is not to say that there hasn’t been a ton of speculation on Lost blogs and podcasts regarding the island map; the Others’ village; Ben’s list; what’s in Jack’s dossier and how the Other’s came by it, and what’s the deal with Juliet and how come she looks so much like Penelope and even Sarah and also sort of like Libby?

With that last theory, the prevailing opinion seems to be that the women are all related. Perhaps they’re all members of the Widmore clan and it’s Juliet that Penelope is searching for and not Desmond. Could be, but we sure hope not.

What we have not heard much about is speculation that the island reality is entirely manufactured: the island may be an illusion while in fact the Lost survivors are trapped far underground with images of a tropical paradise piped into their brains like Musak. The “people” may all “interconnect” because they are all playing parts in both the flashbacks and the island scenario. The women may all look similar because that’s the template the captors have to work with or because the captors are trying to hone in on some specific information locked in their captives’ brains and triggered by the image of Pen-Juliet. (Hmmm, that sounds familiar somehow? Aren’t there some magicians…with names a lot like that?)

No, we don’t know who “they” are or what purpose this uber-alternative universe might serve, but from a story-telling point of view it sure seems that it would be a lot easier to explain mind control than a mysterious ever-enlarging island plopped down into a universe populated by a mere handful of people who are all somehow related. But the blogs and podcasts don’t seem to take much stock in this view. In fact, they barely consider the possibility that nothing is as it seems. We get the feeling that if that turned out to be the case, it would be viewed as a huge and unhappy surprise.
What we all agree on is that something has got to give sooner rather than later and that the payoff for our patience will not be the end of the story but the beginning of a rip-roaring tale.

Our hope is that if, for instance, it turns out they’re all, say, robots (I thought Juliet’s question about “free-will” might be a nod in Asimov’s direction and the three laws of robotics), that the fans who’ve invested so heavily in whether Kate ends up with Jack or Sawyer, or whether Sun’s baby is her husband’s, won’t feel like you do in those dreams where you search and search and search for something wonderful, but know not what. You’re excited and in hot pursuit and thrilled to lay hands on the precious box only to open it and find … whatever…something stupid that you instantly discard in disgust.

We hate those dreams and it does seem at times that Lost is on that nightmare road, not because the audience has grown tired of the treasure hunt, but because TPTB have buried the treasure chest deeper than the Swan Hatch and that by the time it’s unearthed the prize will seem like a cheat. Maybe it needs to be more like The Lost Experience where TPTB planted hints about clues and solutions to help the fans along. In the end, TLE didn’t amount to much, didn’t even really end but just faded away. Even the tried-and-true followers seemed satisfied: Okay, TLE was what it was. Unfortunately, so far, we can’t say we know as much about Lost.

POST 10 - THE EYES HAVE IT - THE STORY WE’RE STICKING TO

2006-09-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

Many months ago, before the internet was polluted by us, The Lost Experience players, when you googled Geronimo Jackson practically the only thing that popped up was this baby picture of Jed and Vanessa Jackson’s infant son Geronimo, born 10/05/04. It’s still up and you can see it here: Geronimo Jackson. We all immediately declared it a strange, out-of-game coincidence. Today, on the final day of TLE, we at the AC return to this starting point and offer our final theory--or perhaps prediction is a better descriptive in this case.

We now contend that the infant Geronimo Jackson is very much in game and that he is the real prize in both TLE and Lost because he represents the first successful outcome of a long underway genetic experiment to hybridize humans with an alien race.

Our theory holds that the key Lost survivors—most likely Kate, Jack and Sawyer—are past participants (perhaps unwitting) in genetic experiments, but they have rebelled against the dark forces and have hidden Geronimo. Their Lost experience is in fact an attempt by the alien race to discover the whereabouts of the hybrid child.

Who are these aliens? We’re not sure, and we believe they’re hard to spot because they are able to manipulate the way we view them through mechanical means, a third-eye projector worn on their heads, and that they have implanted devices in the Lost survivors that dictates what they are seeing and experiencing on the Island—if they are on an island, that is. Chances are good that they’re hooked up to some kind of holodeck machine located in as yet undiscovered underground or under-bubble location.

What makes us believe that in the Lost world you can’t believe your own eyes? Consider the many strange things that the Losties have seen—polar bears, Rousseau, hatches, talking birds—just to name a few. And how did our castaways react? They did what any of us would do, they confronted each challenge and moved on, and it all seemed logical enough given the crazy nature of their experience. We believed what they saw, too.

Then along comes Henry Gale (or the fake Henry Gale). Henry Gale in a hot air balloon like a character out of a novel. He’s creepy in the extreme, but he makes a very interesting observation. When Locke invites him out of his cell to have breakfast, Gale looks at all the Dharma goodies and wonders where it all came from? How old is it?…Locke and Jack don’t know. And Henry says, “You don’t know much do you? I’d be asking lots of questions: Where this stuff came from. Who it belongs to? What it’s for?”

That gives one pause. It gave us pause. It did not give Locke or Jack a minute’s concern. Almost nothing does. They do not question their take on reality at all. They accept that they are living in the middle of a mystery where all the heroin you’d ever want falls from the sky; food arrives in the middle of a jungle on pallets. If you need a pregnancy test kit—even though you’ve been told your husband doesn’t have the right stuff—there is one handy. If you need to resolve things with your dead brother, or the crazy guy from the loony bin, or if a giant bird calls your name…you accept it. If you were dying of cancer or couldn’t walk until you landed on the island, you put the past behind you, stand up, and move on. None of that can possibly be happening. Yet they take it at face value. Isn't it surprising that new people keep showing up on an island that is so far off the map, as Henry Gale said, even god doesn’t know where to look? Yes, but what's really surprising is that no Lostie has ever asked how it can be real. We predict that in Season Three they will challenge the status quo and question their reality.

If we had to venture a guess about the aliens’ origins, we’d currently subscribe to the research done by Ronnie O’Rourke at Lost Dogon Lost and her further finds at Violet Earth Academy - A History of this Galaxy and the Orion Wars. Crazy as the Violet Earth folks sound, the scenario they describe in fact matches up with a lot of the clues in the storyline of Lost and embedded in the images used on the show and in TLE. Here are some highlights from the Violet Earth's cosmology:

ET Alchemists choose Earth as a base from which, working in under the direction of fallen deities, they genetically engineer a race of reptilian humanoids using a reptilian and/or saurian DNA base. …Some remain physical and migrate into existing underground caverns, whereas others … possess powerful world leaders in order to assimilate their physicality- that is part poltergeist, reptilian, and human... all integrated or superimposed as one entity. Many of these remain on the surface of the planet, and develop methods for "blending in" with the human population [molecular shape shifting, technotic projection, laser holograms, superficial bio-phasing, etc.]. Several of these escape to Antarctica [at the time a semi-tropical continent] and develop a powerful empire.

Sorcerer-scientists on the island- continent of Atlantis open up a rift in hyperspace as an experiment with crystal-based electromagnetic manipulation goes out of control, releasing electromagnetic 'subspace fallout' for thousands of years to come. These 'Atlanteans' try to escape the global cataclysm by taking refuge in the underground caverns below the east coast of North America and western Europe.

The 'Greys' are a frankensteinian combination of reptiloid, insectoid, humanoid and even plant- like DNA combined with sophisticated cybernetics and implant technology which links them into a group-mind, ultimately controlled and incarnated by fallen verities themselves -- Satanaku's attempt to imitate God and 'create' a race of his own. It is not a creation however, but merely a perversion of that which has already been created.

So how does this theory fit in with TLE? Remember way back when Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Hugh McIntyre about the show Lost and he responded, “The writers of Lost have decided to attach themselves and create us as part of their mythology….Ok, we don’t know why they’ve done that…the show is a creation of fiction.” We all scratched our head about the weird wording of that answer, which raised questions about what “real” and what was not in TLE.

Today, as we wait for DJDan’s last broadcast, I think perhaps we should have taken Hugh’s words at face value, although perhaps they are the only things beyond the The Lost Experience title we should take literally. I think that this summer’s activities have not actually created a new reality in a different time frame than the Lost characters are experiencing on the island, but allowed us to share the experience the same kind of dubious reality that the characters on the show have been going through.

We started TLE individually, like Jack, engaged in an uncertain adventure. We’d have to go where it led us and there was apparently no way to figure out much on our own. So at the beginning, everybody was wildly searching for answers, researching, theorizing, decompiling and decoding. Groups got together to try to strategize and help each other, and a lot of clues and answers were forthcoming. However, because it all happened in cyberspace, we really didn’t know if it was a player solving the clues or one of TPTB handing us the answers. It kept us very busy, and was fun, so who cared where the stuff was coming from?

Just like the Lost island’s Others, we contend that Rachel, Mittelwerk , ROT and DJDan have been manipulating the way we see things, creating an adventure that is no more real than the one that the Lost survivors are experiencing. We’ve got Apollo bars, they’ve got Dharma mac and cheese, in either case, the source of the bounty is equally mysterious.

If you’ve ever watched Mythbusters, you’ve probably heard the slogan: “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” This notion, that reality is subjective, is key to understanding our argument. What is the nature of reality? What makes the world around us make sense to us? We say it’s agreement. We don’t challenge our own take on reality as long as we’re backed up by the group. If, for instance, we ask, “Does anyone else see this picture of a clown’s head in what’s supposed to be a map?” And everybody else says, “No,” then we might as well be lost on an island. Because how do we know the clown is really real if we're the only one who sees it? It’s very difficult to buck the group’s agreement on the nature of shared reality.

We suggest that the folks who’ve been playing TLE and the castaways on the Lost island are caught in the same trap: They can’t figure out what’s going on, but they’re in a crisis situation—Anna Lucia and Libby dead! We can’t see straight because Sri Lanka is dying! And just like the Losties, we don’t stop to think, we move on….heedless, feckless, clueless.

Having said all of that, never in a million years would have guessed that Lost was a Matrix kind of situation, which is what we now believe. We think that our Lost guys are on the grid, in the box, hooked up. When you look at the fuzzy image Jack is looking at above (The image looks like the black smoke in the season three promotional photo. The above image has had the contrast manipulated in Photoshop.), you can see that the holographic image is projecting from his eye. The eye. THE EYE. It’s been right in front of us all the time. They’ve been yelling at us to consider the eye. And they’ve told us repeatedly that nothing is what it seems to be. However, when in fact it turns out that nothing is what it seems to be, it’s easier for people to imagine (and we heard this on a fan podcast), that Henry Gale was sent in his balloon by daddy Widmore to follow Desmond in the yacht race, then it is to consider that perhaps Henry and his balloon aren’t quite real. That’s what we think, but we’ll have to wait for Season Three to find out if our version of the Lost reality is 20/20 or cross-eyed crazy. Oh, and before we forget, happy birthday little Geronimo. You’re about to turn three! Hope you get a puppy!

POST 09 - LOST SEASON 3 – BUGS IN A BOX

2006-09-06T12:27:00.000-05:00

Didn’t Manny wonder lately about a head in a box? And weren’t those ROT boys screaming “WHAT’S IN THE BOX?” The Season Three promo poster contains lots of boxes and plenty of stuff coming out of them that we believe will metamorphose (or metastasize) into a major theme in Season 3 of Lost. A bit of tweaking to the contrast of the image above reveals that the island is getting ready for a battle.

Here is what we see: the leaves in Said's box morphed into a pretty nasty looking bug, but the real fun is in Hurley's box where he is apparently stung. In one of the images, a stinger is evident on his neck. Then his face gets a boil on it, which expands and bursts with green stuff coming out. There is an image of what looks like a green cocoon-ish thing to his upper right. And half of what looks like a white spider leaving the frame or, applying a bit more contrast, it could be a fuzzy caterpillar between the green blob and the white legs. Use the largest image size on Flickr (see link below) to see the details, but they're unmistakable. We didn't play with scale or anything fancy, just contrast and brightness.

We wonder now if the lavender light and electromagnetic pulse didn't bring the bugs out of their cocoons or hibernation. This buggy theme is one of many that we’ve found buried in the images used in TLE and in LOST promotions. There are even images that suggest that people have been cocooned and others that show ravenous green caterpillar-type bugs, one of which appears to have surfaced on poor Hurley. Rev up your Gimp or Photoshop and play along!

It looks to us like the castaways are going to have a new war on their hands this season. The battle of the bugs? As we’ve said in previous posts, there are heaps of clues to be found within the images, but it’s hard to know what all the clowns are leading to. This is, at least, one of those bits of evidence that looks like the real thing: Hurley gets bit, his face swells and the boil bursts. Coming out in Season Three!

The six images that show the progression have been posted here for closer review or research purposes.

POST 08 - THE GREAT D. J. DAN INTERNET BROADCAST ANALYSIS

2006-08-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

We hadn’t stayed up that late listening to the radio since Wolfman Jack signed off the air. D. J. Dan’s rant went on for two long hours. The only real response we’ve seen to the broadcast involved a glyph chase or two…we think there was more to it than two-hours of mindless babble.

DJ Dan Live! One More Time

We have no idea who D.J. Dan really is. Is he Peter Thompson? He says he isn’t.

Top Five D. J. Dan Misconceptions

1. D. J. Dan is not Javier Grillo-Marxuach
2. D. J. Dan is not Speaker
3. D. J. Dan is not the other D. J. Dan (Daniel Wherrett)
4. D. J. Dan is not an employee of the Hanso Foundation
5. D. J. Dan is not Peter Thompson

First, in our opinion, D. J. Dan IS Javier Grillo-Marxuach. There was too much protesting going on every time Javier was mentioned. (Recalling our Shakespeare, D. J. Dan “…protests too much, methinks!”) There were at least three mentions of Javier in the podcast and each time D. J. Dan made fun of him. We think he was laughing at himself. This is commendable, to say the least, but still attempting to keep people off the scent. The most telling point though was when D. J. Dan said that he picked up a copy of The Middle Man at Comic-Con. He called it a great book. This is the love-child comic book of Javier Grillo-Marxuach and one of the main reasons he’s leaving Lost.

But as we say, we don’t know for sure, and then D. J. Dan complicated matters himself by telling us…jokingly…during the broadcast that “I’m lying to you through my teeth.”

Truer words were never spoken…at least not by D. J. Dan.

For one thing, we know the live broadcast was rehearsed because the rehearsal was broadcast. And during the show, Dan himself refers to his scripted spontaneity:

Transcript:
“D. J. Dan: Well, like I said, what happened was that guy threatened me on the line, I shut him down, O.K., however, um, soon thereafter I found myself being stalked by members of the Hanso Foundation and you can tell ‘cause they wear those lime-green overcoats are all over the damn place, O.K.? Anyway, we went underground and, as I explained in a big monologue that was actually written down for me earlier this week, uh, we went out, we were out there, getting into adventures, we were out there in the underground.

Then there was Malik’s code—240, 249, 68, 61, 37, 118, 75, 233, 231, 150, 36, 184, 157, 51, 144, 180, 253, 50, 173, 30, 222, 192, 13, 82 and 1—solved by Fenris and friends practically the moment the numbers were broadcast. Fenris, you’ll recall, was one of the few “callers” to get “on the air.”

Why does it matter? If the broadcast was pointedly scripted and rehearsed, we shouldn’t assume it was all a mistake. TPTB are continually finding ways to explain to us that Lost is a fiction sponsored by The Hanso Foundation. We think this is evidence that The Lost Experience is a fiction, too, one we can only assume is sponsored by The Hanso Foundation.

It also means that everything in the program was there for a reason because the “cast” was following a script. We think the subjects, songs and slip ups are all offering clues…like this one…

ConspiraSpy of the Year: Rachel Blake

Rachel Blake named ConspiraSpy of the year by D. J. Dan. Look for this soon on the D. J. Dan website. However, right at the beginning of the broadcast, D. J. Dan makes a “slip of the tongue” and says that Persephone is his nemesis... then laughs and corrects himself to say The Hanso Foundation. He also says, much later on, “Now all of a sudden this woman Persephone, a.k.a., Rachel Blake, in my opinion....” Doesn't seem like such a sure thing after all that Rachel Blake is Persephone or that D. J. Dan is on her side.

If not Persephone, then who?

Does this sound as if it were following a script?
Transcript:
Peter: I was wondering if you had an opinion on where Rachel's mum is. Is she still alive?
D. J. Dan: Rachel's mother. Hmm... That’s interesting because I've been getting a lot of questions about Rachel Blake's mother. Is she still alive? You know what? The fact is, there is no information out there about Rachel. What do you think about Rachel's mother? Do you think she's still alive?
Peter: Can anybody hear me?
D. J. Dan: Yes, we can hear you; we're hearing you right now. Peter, are you there? Folks, we seem to be losing the...
Tonya sings "Peter, can you hear me?" (To the tune "Tommy" by the Who.)
Peter: (unintelligible)
D. J. Dan: Well, folks, we're gonna talk about whether Rachel's mom is alive. But, Peter, I wanna know what your opinion is on Rachel's mom. Do you think she's alive? Folks? Folks, we're losing the signal, folks. I’m sorry Peter I'm gonna have to shut you down. Shutdown! Let's talk about Rachel's mom. I don't know where Rachel's mom is. I don't know that Rachel knows where Rachel's mom is, she's a mystery character, she's shrouded in secrecy. But then again, so is Rachel's father. Huh? That's all I'm saying. As in, "Rachel, I am your father." (In Darth Vader voice) That's right folks. You know what, you know what folks, I'm feeling frisky. Let's take another call. Tonya, who you got for me?”

Was D.J. Dan telling us outright that Alvar Hanso was Rachel Blake’s father? He seems to be implying it here with the Darth Vader style, “I am your father!” (Vader is the Dutch word for father, by the way…more on the Dutch TK)

Later on, this banter:

Transcript:
“Alex: Well, you saw the thing at Comic-Con, right?
D. J. Dan: Absolutely, I was there in the audience, I had a copy of The Middle Man, it's a great book. So tell me.
Alex: Yes, did you notice that she said she's living proof of Alvar Hanso?
D. J. Dan: That she is living proof? I think she's living proof, that all of the things that are in that fictional narrative of "Lost" are actually real and that it's all going on in our world as we speak, and that those people are taking blood money, I don't know if that meant anything other than that. But look, if I knew that one of the top rated shows in television was advocating the cost of my sworn nemesis…
Announcer (Johnny): (Ominous music) The Hanso Foundation. (Whispering)
D. J. Dan: I'd be up at Comic-Con talking back to those guys as well, I don't know that that means she has any kind of connection to it, I just think she was there because she's galvanized against evil to, see the way… Do you agree?
Alex: Well, yeah but… There's got to be something, she mentioned her mother, and she mentioned a Widmore severance package [and the only kind of benefits we at the AC believe this refers to are death benefits after her mom was permanently retired] Everyone knows that Widmore and Hanso, there's something on between them. Mittelwerk and Hanso…
D. J. Dan: Well, everybody knows that Widmore and Hanso are connected, we also know that Widmore, that Widmore, Hanso and Paik are connected, I mean, we've all read that incredible, uh, non-fiction book Bad Twin haven't we?
Alex: Uh, yeah.”

Maybe she’s related to Keith Strutter: Progenitor #1 & #2

The broadcast was the very first time that a member of the band Geronimo Jackson was mentioned—naming Keith Strutter as the founder and a member of the group first mentioned on the Hanso Foundation phone message. He also stated that Stutter’s first band was called “The Karma Imperative.” This could also be backpedaling for the mistake made during the 7/10/06 podcast in which D.J. Dan confused the DHARMA Initiative with the Karma Imperative.

FYI: pro·gen·i·tor (prō-jĕn'ĭ-tor) n.
A direct ancestor. See synonyms at ancestor.
An originator of a line of descent; a precursor.
An originator; a founder: progenitors of the new music.
In Dutch, Voovader

Transcript:
“Speaker: I was just wondering about this Spider Protocol, what do you know about it, could it be some sort of boy band? What could it be?
D. J. Dan: Spider Protocol, the boy band, that’s very exciting.
Tonya: (Singing) Bye, bye, bye…
D. J. Dan: That’s right, that’s right. You know, Speaker, um, you know, Spider Protocol…The word… What do you think? Do you think it’s an acronym? Do you think it’s talking about real spiders…
Speaker: I think it sounds like the Alan Parson’s Project to me…
D. J. Dan: The Alan Par--Oh wow, the finest progrog-band of the 70s and 80s… WOW…. The Alan Parson’s Project…
Speaker: Was this like the progenitor to Geronimo Jackson? I mean is this…
D. J. Dan: Now actually, wait a minute, wait a minute… First of all, Geronimo Jackson’s a progenitor to Alan Parsons… Geronimo Jackson was the 60s, O.K.… Keith Strutter started the band in the 60’s alright. So let’s not get him and Alan P… Like Alan Parsons was running tape for the Beatles when Keith Strutter started Geronimo Jackson. That’s what I’m saying. So O.K., um, Spider Protocol… O.K., you know what… you ever see that movie Wild, Wild West, with the spider-shaped robot, I sometimes just think Alvar Hanso just has one of those big spider robots that he’s going to take over the world with, am I right?”

Alvar Hanso, Progenitor #3

Later in the Live! broadcast, it is Alvar Hanso who is the progenitor…but not of Rachel Blake.

Transcript:
“Rara Simeena.: Um, actually I was wondering what you thought about the video fragment we got yesterday with the guy who was supposedly Alvar Hanso?
D. J. Dan: Now wait a minute… here's what I want to know. How do you know that guy’s Alvar Hanso? What makes you think that guy’s Alvar Hanso?
Rara Simeena: Personally, I do not think he is, but a lot of people on the internet are saying he is saying he is.
D. J. Dan: All right now, what makes you think that it's not Alvar Hanso? My feeling is that I think that he's probably some progenitor of the DeGroots. That's my personal theory. Why do you not think that he's Alvar Hanso?
Rara Simeena: I don't think he is just because of the picture we previously got of him from the U.N. council, from 1967...
D. J. Dan: Yeah, bit of a Dirk square-jawed in that picture, wasn't he?
Rara Simeena: Right.
D. J. Dan: Uh ha, The guy in the video, he looks kinda soft, kinda, kinda soft around the chin, doesn't he?
Rara Simeena: Yes, he does.
D. J. Dan: O.K., is that the sole basis of your theory?
Rara Simeena: Partly, and I just don't think that Alvar would be on the orientation videos himself.
D. J. Dan: Why do you think that Alvar wouldn't do that for himself? That's very interesting.
Rara Simeena: I just think he's too secretive to come out in the open like that.
D. J. Dan: Well that raises a very interesting question… Do you think Alvar is secretive or do you think that maybe someone is hiding him?
Rara Simeena: Actually, it could be either way.”

Simeena might be on to the Great Man

D. J. Dan also introduced a new theory called “The Great Man Theory,” which tries to explain history by the effect of "Great men," or heroes who are highly influential individuals, from personal charisma, genius intellects, or great political impact. This theory is often attributed to Thomas Carlyle.

He might also have been referring to this: According to LostPedia: Magnus Hanso's name gives us reason to suspect a link between Hanso and the DeGroots: through Albertus Magnus, the German philosopher. Interestingly, Magnus's surname is a Latin form of the surname de Groot (both mean "the great" in their respective languages: Latin & Dutch). Magnus was one of the greatest alchemists of all time, being the discoverer of the Philosopher's Stone (which would explain the Life Extension Project and the creator of a supernatural device).

Or Enzo Valenzetti, The Great?
Transcript:
“Christian: Yeah, tell me about it. What do you think of the rumors that Enzo Valenzetti himself may still be alive and well?
D. J. Dan: Well, you know, it’s interesting that you bring that up. I mean… do you think Valenzetti’s alive?
Christian: It’s possible. I mean, no one saw him die, no one saw him take a bullet.
D. J. Dan: It’s very interesting, you know, because Valenzetti has more death stories surrounding him than… well, I mean, I don’t know who. He’s like the Enrico Caruso (This comment makes no particular sense because Caruso does not have secrets or mystery or multiple death stories in his biography. He was, however, known as The Great Caruso, his name synonymous with greatness. Could be another reference to The Great Man. AC) of a, of a, of a, enigmatic Italian mathematicians. Let me tell you about Valenzetti, O.K., Valenzetti in the 60s was rumored to have died in a plane crash, alright. In a serious plane… He filed no flight plans, right? And somewhere over the Alpinees, boom, he’s dead, am I right?
Christian: You’re right.
D. J. Dan: However, fewer people know that there’s a theory that he died in the 1970s of leukemia. That’s right, and there’s another theory that in the 1980s, he was caught in the wheels of a combine in his farm on the Swiss Alps. So, I mean, so it’s quite possible that he’s still alive. In fact, the other conspiracy theory on Valenzetti is that he is still alive and he is working for the Italian government. What do you think about that?
Christian: Um, I haven’t heard that one before, that’s interesting…
D. J. Dan: You never heard that… The thing is, the Italian government put a gag order on every one of Enzo Valenzetti’s personal papers, they have actually have not allowed them out—so, I generally believe that Enzo Valenzetti at the ripe old age of 80-god-knows-how-many-years-old-he-is is sitting in some classroom in Italy, writing on a whiteboard, figuring out stuff like the end of the world, which I don’t know what they do with it… hell, if I dunno what I’d do if I knew when the end of the world is, I’d probably just get a lot of doughnuts…that’s what I would do, just me, and a bunch of Berliners. That’s right, me in a wall bunker with doughnuts. That’s me, Alright dude… You know what… thank you for your call… You know what? Now that we’ve talked a little about Valenzetti, everyone knows that Valenzetti is somehow linked with my sworn nemesis…
Announcer (Johnny): (Ominous music)The Hanso Foundation. (Electronic voice)

D.J. Dan certainly wants us to believe that Enzo Valenzetti is dead. So much so, that he invents a number of ways in which he could have been killed. Is this to make us think that Enzo is dead so that when he is revealed as alive later on we’ll all be totally taken by surprise? I don’t know if Enzo Valenzetti is dead or not and it may not be important at all to the flow of the story but I think D.J. Dan spent an awful long time explaining that Enzo was dead!

The Spider Protocol

D.J. Dan, while talking to Speaker (live) stated that the Spider Protocol could be a number of things: a) A boy band, b) an acronym, c) real spiders or d) Wild Wild West evil robot spider (that want to take over the world).

LostPedia says that The Spider Protocol is a classified project of the Hanso Foundation, seemingly being headed by Thomas Mittelwerk.

Perhaps this has something to do with it?

From: http://shemesh.larc.nasa.gov/fm/spider/

“The Scalable Processor-Independent Design for Extended Reliability (SPIDER)
This project supports NASA's research in Autonomous Robust Avionics (AuRA) as part of the Vehicle Systems Program.

NASA Langley has been developing advanced fault-tolerant computing systems for over three decades, including the Software-Implemented Fault Tolerance (SIFT,1981), The Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor (FTMP, 1981), Integrated Airframe/Propulsion Control System Architecture (IAPSA) (1990), Advanced Information Processing System (AIPS, 1991), and an architecture for the Fly-By-Light/Power-By-Wire (FBL/PBW) program. Our most recent fault-tolerant architecture is SPIDER.”

From the Hanso Foundation Call Center we also know that Geronimo Jackson’s first album was called Magna Carta, which is an anagram for Anagram Act. One possible anagram of Spider Protocol is Psi Red Protocol, which relates back to Ergot (see earlier post regarding St. Anthony’s Fire). Hey, we’re not making this up! Ergot appears as a red powder in milled flour…that’s why contaminated white flour can be thrown out, but the stuff goes undetected in darker rye grinds. Later in the broadcast, D. J. Dan talks to Marvin the guy in dreamland with the glyph…”the only red dust Marvin’s ever touched was the quarter panel of his mom’s 1984 silver Chevy Impala.” Also, according to D. J. Dan the dangerous substance of the day was Parsley? Ergot, like parsley, is a common weed and one more likely to end up in a donut.

The Playlist

There were five songs played during the intermissions of the Live Broadcast (hmm, five phases?). They were: “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “For What It's Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, “Imagine” by John Lennon, “Redemption Song" by Bob Marley and The Wailers and “Rainy Day Woman # 12 & 35” by Bob Dylan.

The songs represent, in order:
1. “Ohio” - Protest, Governmental Control, Politics and Military Madness (Kent State massacre) Release date: May 4, 1970
”Ohio” Lyrics
2. “For What It’s Worth” Buffalo Springfield (also referenced during the broadcast: The Other Springfield—referencing The Simpson’s). Protest and Paranoia. Released in 1966
”For What It’s Worth” Lyrics
3. “Imagine” - Reflection and Spiritualism (Lennon was quoted as saying it was an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted.") Nutopia, Mind Games, Green Card. Release date: September 9th, 1971
”Imagine” Lyrics
4. “Redemption Song” - Emancipation, Spiritualism and Redemption. Released in 1980
”Redemption Song” Lyrics
5. “Rainy Day Woman # 12 & 35” – Protest, Alienation and, um according to Dylan, mathematics. Released in 1966
”Rainy Day Woman” Lyrics

It’s possible to interpret those songs as the soundtrack for the Dharma Initiative. During the 60s, they are university researchers involved in experimental work that perhaps came to the interest of the government. One of the Dharma members—perhaps their leader, maybe Valenzetti, disappears and foul play is suspected. Paranoid and fearful, the Dharma decide to leave the world behind and carry out their mission by building an utopian society. Unfortunately, they find a corporate sponsor--The Hanso Foundation or Widmore? Paik?—who are nothing but a bunch of old pirates who turn their own research against them. It’s a fact they find out too late, when they become the victims of their benefactors… and everybody ends up stoned…meaning, dead.

A Time Warp?

Transcript:
“Unseen Presence: How can a television show about Flight 815 start the same night that Flight 815 actually crashed?
D. J. Dan: Shutdown! Folks, folks, I'm talkin’ M. C. Esher. I'm talkin’ Albert Einstein. I'm talking about Schrodinger's Cat, O.K. If you got to ask that question, what do you not know about? I'll tell you what you don't know about, M. C. Esher, Albert Einstein, and Schrodinger's Cat, and if you don't know what I'm talkin’ about, you don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know what you're talking about, and we don't understand each other. Do we understand each other? Let’s, let’s get another call. I’ve had enough of this.”

…. And later this:

“D. J. Dan: That's right, folks, random acts of Shutdown, possibly my favorite segment in the world. Heck, I would even shut myself down if it wouldn't cause rips in the space-time continuum. Schro-...Schrodinger's cat, folks. Schrodinger's cat. Time Cop, folks. Rent it, watch it, learn the splits, alright? Guys, if you’re fans of mine, which I know you are, then you know the drill. Random acts of Shutdown, caller who last the longest wins, and you all know the rules. As crater faces the distant thunder road, the only rule is that there are no rules. Caller one!”

Albert Einstein – Theory of Relativity
Schrodinger’s Cat – Cat in a box paradox
M. C. Escher – Fantastical, impossible optical illusional artist

Who is Andy?

I think a slip-up occurred in the podcast that literally no one caught. In a spontaneous discussion with Speaker, D. J. Dan inadvertently called Speaker, Andy! I know some would say he was saying “and he” but I know what I heard. He said, without a doubt the name “Andy.” And there was familiarity and a certain amount of care evident in the inflection of his voice. But who is Andy? I am not familiar enough with the insiders of LOST or TPTB. But make no mistake… this is an absolute identification of Speaker!

Transcript:
“Speaker: Yeah, well, I uh… I…
D. J. Dan: Andy. Speaker, come on, come on, give it to me, give it to me… “

POST 07 - WHERE ARE ALVAR'S CHILDREN? HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

2006-08-24T20:16:00.000-05:00

A picture of Alvar’s (?) children showed up on the internet yesterday on the WhereIsAlvar.com website before it went live. The image has since been posted to Lostpedia. It’s an obviously doctored photo. Fuzzy black-and-white images show through even to a casual viewer. We don’t know exactly what images hide behind the smiling kids, but we do know that the subject of hidden images and lost children go together in The Lost Experience.

It was the clown map picture (from an earlier post) that decided us to look for clues in places no one else seemed to be looking. The Lost Experience has been filled with images—maps, memos, glyphs, and other unexplained pictures, like those fuzzy jungle scenes that led us to the dharma shark.

Then there are all the unexplained, cryptic images on the Dharma Orientation Video. So, with nonexistent skills and access to Gimp, a Photoshop-like program, we started tinkering with the images.

Each one contained other images, sometimes several layers of images. Perhaps someone with excellent Photoshopping skills could make clear sense of all they contain, but so far the hidden images are as ambiguous as the original Dharma Orientation shots.
However, a story does begin to emerge.

The Lost Children

The images seem to relate a story of catastrophe from a child’s point of view. Twins, a blonde and a brunette are often depicted. Toys, which seem to be featured players, include a robot, a rabbit, a Barbie doll, a teddy bear (sometimes dressed as a clown), a chicken and a black hobby or rocking horse. A white puppy and a white dog are also integral to the tale. And, of course, clowns. Enough to fill, say, 108 clown cars.

(The top image is from the “Orientation Testing Issue 1980” video from the hacked and closed Hanso Foundation website. The bottom image is the same image tweaked. See any clowns?)

A place suspended above ground by pillars is featured, and when the catastrophe strikes the pillars crumble from the bottom upward while the children and their toys appear to be scrambling either up away from the crumbling part or down toward solid ground. One interpretation might be that the children are left behind to fend for themselves. There is also a button or a switch that looks a little like a Pez dispenser that shows up frequently. It looks like the button the dog is about to push in the chocolate video. Don’t know what we mean? Try running the video frame by frame and images will pop up out of the chocolate. "The Chocolate Video" can be found here.

We’re going to keep Gimping along to try to unravel the secrets that have been hiding in plain sight from the beginning. We’d welcome anyone with Photoshopping expertise to join in this hunt. And remember that the back story here concerns two displaced children in trauma. While the Experience world searches glyphs we’ll keep searching for hidden images. The mysterious answer surrounding their lives lies buried somewhere deep within them…

POST 06- THE DEGROOTS – A FAMILY AFFAIR

2006-08-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

(Not so much a theory as an observation…)

We do not believe we have seen the following relationship mentioned or discussed before. We think it is interesting and insightful. (See image “Ball Experiment” below) The top image shown is that of the DeGroot’s from the original Orientation Film. The bottom image is from the Cape Town Inquisitor (the version dated “Friday, 28th May, 2006”) and is entitled, "Early example of psychological tests at Hanso.” We believe that the two images shown here are from both sides of the same experiment. The blindfolded woman is taking the test and Karen and Gerald DeGroot sit across the table from her monitoring her progress. The blindfolded woman here even resembles Rachel Blake a little. We are not sure what it means or what test is being administered but thought it might be important to include here.

It seems to add credence to our speculation that the ARG may be a fiction like Lost. And that the video confrontations are just scenes Rachel’s playing with other actors. And although Rachel and Company have come up with an astonishing portfolio of “secret” documents and crumpled letters and other sundry and assorted “research,” most of the maps are unreadable, and the images inscrutable. That’s because they’re props and the so-called “mistakes” in timelines…not to mention the Lake Superior Island map snafu and the bait-and-switch Cape Town Inquisitor posts—are clues to us that what we’re seeing is not real and we’re supposed to figure it out. How can Rachel take a video on a ship in Sri Lanka one week and the next have clues to the whereabouts of the fragments appear in magazines that went to the printer three months ago? She can’t, but the script she’s playing out was written long ago, which is what makes such sleight-of-hand possible. Anyone care to comment?

POST 05 – GO FETCH

2006-08-13T14:50:00.000-05:00

We all know that to retrieve means to recover or find and bring back, but our dictionary offers a second definition: “Performance: A hunting term. The act of Obedience.” Obey? Where have we heard that before? Look at all the people retrievers fetching pictoglyphs on the Internet and in the real world. Have we been enrolled in obedience training for big-brained bipeds? And just who slipped the virtual choke-collar around our necks?

Or are we on a mission to retrieve the truth like ROT? Hey, whatever happened to those guys, Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole and his loquacious pal Mandrake Wig? Broadband Beatnik and his blogger buddies?

Bole announced a while back he was on his way to Australia and Korea. (Interestingly, mathematician Vigi Benoffski was on his way to Perth and should have been there for the mathematical symposium in early August…unless he was extinguished in the Vik Foundation fire. The common initials seem more than coincidence.)

Bole closed up shop at about the same time as BBB who also recently departed without leaving a forwarding address. And the excuse that he was at Comic-Con wears thin.

Maybe most of you weren’t surprised to see the end of their pop-culturated code words and oblique philosophizing since many commenters thought they were simply a distraction to the main play of the game.

We’re not so sure they’re just a pack of strays. In fact, we think ROT’s been in the hunt for a long time, dogging Persephone’s heels from her first hack, and barking orders for us to OBEY. Check out these images; ROT calling cards?

From the Cape Town Inquisitor microfilm reader.
It reads. “Persephone if you can read this we know who you are.”
Does this look like the ROT logo to you?

This image was part of the first Sublymonal clue, on May 9, when the Hanso site’s clock said OBEY, you clicked to new site, found Heir Apparent password and used it to enter a hidden screen behind Middelwerk’s executive Bios screen on the Hanso Foundation website. The screen changes to a dark screen with a hallway (which resembles a hospital). There is a wheelchair in the left hand corner of the screen and a woman (some say Persephone) facing away in a hospital gown. When you click on the woman she turns around and the camera zooms in on the woman (but it happened so fast that we could not get a good look).

This document is a tuition document from Caltech. There is a red XXX splash and a blue XXX splash on the page. The red splash covers the words, "Gary Troup knows too much" and the blue splash covers the words, "He must be silenced." There is also a red pencil mark under "Tuition and Fee Schedule" which is reminiscent of Persephone's markings on the GWC documents.

Clicking on this and the following message appears: "Caltech has no record of this guy in their alumni database. He's never made a tuition payment. Does he even have a college degree? Why does he call himself a doctor? Of what? Who is this clown?" Persephone's voice can be heard stating: "Why does he call himself a doctor? Of what? Who is this clown?" (See our theory - POST 01 above)

We wonder if the written message and the spoken message were talking about the same clown or two different faux physicians.

From the RECLUSE clue, the envelope has the ROT keypad symbol. BTW, if those objects spell a word, do the other objects have a double meaning as well?
Do you think it’s possible that ROT has its roots in Professor Manny Weissman (Mandrake Wig) and his black lab Argos from Bad Twin?

And, perhaps most importantly, could the world be a Skinner box?

POST 04 – THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE – PENELOPE’S STORY

2006-08-11T10:47:00.000-05:00

The Valenzetti clock has been ticking down for 40 years, they tell us. It supposedly pinpoints the end of everything for everyone. But what if it’s a lie? What if there is no Valenzetti, no equation, and the end of the world is simply a business strategy concocted over the years by a small group of exceedingly rich and powerful individuals who believe they’ll be able to build a “better tomorrow” by starting with a clean slate.

So, while this well-orchestrated apocalypse progresses, an influential business group builds an escape hatch. Let’s say it’s an island ark that may reside out of time, in another dimension, on another planet, or protected by a natural or artificial force field. At any rate, it’s invisible to the naked eye.

Love, however, honors no such barriers, and so as lonely Penelope seeks to find her lost mate, she decides her only hope is to force the cabal into a panic and reveal the location of where their ark has been concealed.

She accomplishes this by using her vast wealth to create a complex fiction that suggests she knows all and is about to reveal everything to the worldwide television viewing audience. It’s a simple show called Lost.

She employs skilled researchers to seek out the best information on what the cabal might have planned, but there is so much to learn and time is running out. She decides to go a step further. She formulates a plan and through The Lost Experience she leaks an astonishing portfolio of “secret” documents and crumpled letters, anagrams, glyphs, and other sundry and assorted “research,” but most of the maps are unreadable, the images inscrutable, and provide only dribs and drabs of information. The story suggests that these are clues to help the game players figure things out, while in fact she is enlisting their collective brainpower to act as a hydra-headed intellectual search-engine in her quest.

She provides hundreds of clues: What do the hieroglyphs mean? Where is Enzo Valenzetti? And what is his equation? What do the numbers mean? What’s a Helgus Antonius? SUMO? Apollo candy bars? DHARMA Initiative? Nanites? Where is Alvar Hanso?

She offers no answers; only more questions.

She (or more likely a dedicated group of freedom fighter types) throws the questions out and we come up with multiple theories that eventually, due to the sheer avalanche of data, begin to form a coherent story. Ten-Thousand-Monkeys-R-Us.

For instance, it turns out that Apollo is much more than a candy bar. We quickly learn that in Greek myth, he was a twin, born as much as a day after his sibling, a girl, Artemis, who helped their mother find a newly created floating island on which to give birth. Turns out the island, Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, was surrounded by swans. Afterwards, Apollo’s dad Zeus secured the island to the bottom of the ocean and it later became a sacred place, a cult center and the meeting place of the Delian League, an organization of member states who each had a vote and who each provided to the common wealth one asset—ships, troops weapons, cash.

Since all that symbolism—swans, mysterious islands and twins—plays a continuing role in the unfolding story, perhaps the evil cabal is modeled after the Delian League who have created a new world Delos for themselves. Perhaps they are experimenting with psychotropic drugs like the ones that cause St. Anthony’s Fire to carry out their world-destroying coup. Beginning to sound familiar to anyone?So far so good, Penelope. We all fall for a good love story. Over the past few weeks, a grainy picture of the master plan is beginning to form, and you’ve attracted a following of true believers. Let’s just hope you’re who we think you are—the good guys, not the bad--and that all our efforts are going to stop and not speed the countdown to our own end. In the end, we all want to trust that our own Experience for your cause has been for an admirable reason.

POST 03 THE MYSTERIES OF APOLLO, PERSEPHONE AND THE HELGUS ANTONIUS

2006-08-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

The Apollo Candy website has just come into TLE gameplay as well as a memorandum discussing a beverage containing a psychotropic compound developed by Apollo's Dr. Hackett.

Here's a theory we at the AC have been incubating ever since the Helgus Antonius sailed invisibly into San Remo's harbor. Back then; we spent a lot of time Googling Helgus and Antonius for clues to the ship's origin, destination or contents. Rachel pretty much confirmed our findings when in her Italy Post 04, she seemed to favor either 'The Holy Flower' or 'St. Anthony,' the Patron Saint of Lost Things, as the interpretation of the name.

So where was the Helgus Antonius "going"? Probably crazy, if our research is right. St. Anthony and Holy Flower had led us to Ergot (pronounced Air-got), a fungus that grows on rye grass. The fungus contains a chemical that makes the sufferers go berserk and causes gangrene of the hands and feet due to constriction of blood supply to the extremities. If it is not treated, victims are said to have the sensation of being burned at the stake, before their fingers, toes, hands and feet dropped off, according to MedicineNet.com

The disease is called ergotism or, more commonly, ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE.

We think the symptoms, side effects and outcomes of St. Anthony's Fire jibe pretty closely with what's been happening to folks on the Lost island, possibly explaining missing limbs and the sickness that killed the French group, not to mention the hallucinations and flashbacks. As described below, it's also a "drug" thought responsible for creating many mystical experiences because it contains the same chemicals as LSD. How 60's. How DHARMA!

The delivery system: Apollo candy bars? The water? Maybe one's the dose; the other the cure.

But why Apollo? Ergot is thought to have played a role in The Eleusinian Mystery, which were the annual initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and PERSEPHONE based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. As you may remember from the Persephone myth, it was APOLLO who finally told the grief stricken Demeter that her daughter had been taken to the Underworld. She then retired to Eleusis and withheld the blessing of growth from all seeds of the Earth.

Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, The Eleusinian were held to be the ones of greatest importance. During the time of Plato, people made pilgrimages to Eleusinian Temples where sacramental potions (kykeon) were taken, which among other things contained cereal grains and water. The hallucinogenic compound in ergot is an alkaloid, and all alkaloids are more or less soluble in water; but the toxic ones in ergots are less soluble than the hallucinogenic ones (lysergic acid amide). LSD doesn’t occur in ergots but is a semi-synthetic derivative made in the lab from lysergic acid amide.

The disease's name eludes to the hallucinations--seductive and horrible--the hermit-like monk St. Anthony endured in his struggle with Satan. According to MedicineNet, at times, the devil appeared to Anthony in the guise of a monk bringing bread during his fasts, or in the form of wild beasts, women, or soldiers, sometimes beating the saint and leaving him in a deathly state. Anthony endured many such attacks, and those who witnessed them were convinced they were real. Every vision conjured up by Satan was repelled by Anthony's fervid prayer and penitential acts. So exotic were the visions and so steadfast was Anthony's endurance that the subject of his temptations has often been used in literature and art, notably in the paintings not only by Matthias Grünewald, as mentioned, but also of many other artists ranging from Hiëronymus Bosch and Max Ernst.

Reference sites:
Ergotism
St. Anthony’s Fire

POST 02 - IF RACHEL BLAKE SPEAKS, WHY WON'T SHE TALK TO US?

2006-08-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

THE DOC JENSEN E.W. RACHEL BLAKE INTERVIEW

Please see the original article as it appeared in the on-line version of Entertainment Weekly on July 22nd, 2006 here:

"Rachel Blake Interview"

Why was ET granted an exclusive interview, when other TLE news organizations, Blog sites and individual players have been trying to get to the bottom of the Hanso Foundations since before Rachel Blake was even a twinkle in "Doc" Jensen’s eye?

For three months associates of TLE have begged Rachel to correspond. A word, just one word from her to anyone else may have assuaged all our "in-game" fears that she was not who she claimed to be or worse that she was working with the enemy. Unfortunately, the few times Rachel deigned to respond, she answered in riddles. Even during the long anticipated face-to-face at Comic-Con all that happened was she spoke, we listened, then she disappeared just in the nick of time—before anyone could ask her a single question.

Why then, did she elect to talk to Jensen? Personally, we have some reservations that this "interview" ever really took place. First, Jensen talks about Hall H at the convention center, which we think does not exist. Also, he mentions burly he-man security guards escorting Rachel from the convention center but the video we’ve seen depicts women security guards and the panel even jokes about that fact. What gives? We’ve decided that "Doc" Jeff Jensen has been recruited by TPTB to be "in-game." He certainly plays along.

Jensen tries to get Rachel to break the fourth wall a number of times in his interview. He asks her if she is merely a character in an alternate-reality game called The Lost Experience, asks her if she has trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality, implies that she is a member of the Hanso Foundation and worse, tells Rachel that Alias, a real world program, had been cancelled. The very thought of it made her cry. Or was that scary whimpering sob just the sound of the fourth wall cracking under the breaking strain?

We fear maybe that's what the interview was all about, reality spin, a concern that seemed confirmed when Rachel, answering Doc's question about Lost, served up this mind blower:
"RACHEL BLAKE: Lost is a TV show... the Hanso Foundation is real. And if you're looking for a connection, ask yourself why the HF is running commercials during Lost... I mean, doesn't that mean they're essentially paying for the show?"

Look, we're willing to accept that the ARG is playing out in our current time frame and that the characters on Lost are in their time frame, never the twain to meet. Those two do not have to connect, say, at next season's start for us to keep our suspension of disbelief aloft. Stretching our disbelief is what attracted us to Lost in the first place. We've always found Lost to be audacious television. Every week they recreate the reality of the show without any explanation whatsoever--the Others, the Tailies, Desmond, polar bears, food drops, magic, hatches, unnumbered coincidences. Did someone say metafiction? How fun to find it in primetime.

However, if we are now required to assume that the (dare we call it fictional) Hanso Foundation has had a hand in the creation of Lost for its own propagandist purposes, what happens when Lost comes back on the air? Must we then presume that story and those characters are fictional creations of (gasp!) a fictional creation? We don’t want to watch Lost as though the Hanso Foundation were running the show. It’s too much to ask us to deconstruct, plus who cares? It’s a clever thought problem, but only for about five minutes, and certainly doesn’t make up for a total absence of plot. Well, that’s not exactly fair, there’s lots of plot--all plot, all the time--no story. Many beginnings, no middles or ends. Eventually the mystery wrapped in an enigma and an orangutan costume becomes transparently threadbare. Russian roulette is an exciting game, true, until you find out it's being played with six empty chambers.

We don’t want to ask Rachel, as Doc Jensen does, “Do you know who you are?” We want her to tell us if she and D.J. Dan and ROT are working together. And we want her revelations to provide some insight into what’s happening on that Lost Island, which isn’t possible if we must believe it’s a TV program financed by Hanso. Would it kill them to provide just one Alternate Reality, the Hanso world, which included Lost and The Lost Experience, however far apart in time and space? We'll give TPTB a lot of reality rope to play around with… as long as they keep in mind that with much rope comes much responsibility… we'd hate to see it all end in a hanging.

Reality or Alternate Reality?

POST 01 – WHO IS THAT CLOWN? AND OTHER CLUE CONUNDRUMS

2006-08-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

Does the name Hoo Gon Choi mean anything to you? It should since it was recently used as a password to gain access to the video of Hugh and Darla’s flat. Does anyone remember seeing it before? No? Hoo Gon Choi is the Korean Foreign Minister from week six clues whose worry-filled letter about mutated species was "light in animus, but weighty in urgency." The map above was included as part of that clue, which Persephone posted. Take a second look at it. Is it just us, or is that in fact not an island but a clown's head? Huh? Was somebody screwing with Persephone? Or is the joke on us?

And by us, we mean you, too, since if you're reading this we know you're spending your summer vacation chasing Rachel's vagrant meanderings through The Lost Experience. So now we've just gotta ask: are we the only ones who find that the “clues” seem to raise many more questions than ever get answered?

Aside from the technical puzzles like decompiling Photoshop images, breaking ASCII codes, viewing page source and using anagram decoders for passwords, does it ever seem to you that none of the data leads anywhere? Or does it circle around on itself before getting... Lost?

The “clues” have sent us off to research ships, spiders, Jimmy Durante, Portsmouth, The Netherlands, South American Tango composers, Russian legal services, Eventology, The Philadelphia Experiment, Feng Shui... ad infinitum. One hundred MacGuffins might be a more apt title for this Experience since the research has failed to produce a solution to even one clue.

The players on the blogs we follow seem to be of the opinion that it's best to leave well enough alone, and maybe they've got a point. With so many avid players, if no one "solves" the puzzle in the first few hours, there must not be a puzzle there to solve, right? And, at least until the Glyphalysis epidemic, a new clue would soon come along to take our minds off the most recent stumper.

Yet, they nag at us. Rachel offers up something like “Good night, Mrs. Calabash,” so we Google the phrase and... the number one hit is a spider-covered page describing Jimmy Durante's “secret sign off.” Spider covered? Can that really be a coincidence? We couldn't find the connection and we haven't heard of anyone else doing so either... but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Oh, Mrs. Calabash, please explain yourself. Certainly, Rachel never will. For all her talk about revealing the truth, Rachel turns out to be the best little secret-keeper around.

That's not to say the Experience hasn't proved entertaining, but we think it could be so much more satisfying if, for instance, we were able to find some answers to all those May, June and July clues. We think maybe someone out there could help us figure out what that floating clown is all about, and that's just for starters. Maybe this would be a good time to revisit week six and all the other weeks when clues left us clueless. At least it's a distraction...until the next glyph chase begins.

POST 00 - INTRODUCTION

2006-08-01T06:35:00.000-05:00

Where is Alvar Hanso? What's Rachel Blake's real motive? Is ROT a red herring or the answer to everything? As members of the Lost Experience community since its inception we have plenty of opinions on those and other mysteries. Therefore we thought it important to find a reliable place in which to present our theories--and yours--concerning both the Lost Series and The Lost Experience (ARG) and how they connect. We intend to provide a forum for hunches, second guesses, as well as grand unifying theories, which we hope, will tie both the series and the Experience together. With any luck, controversy and opposing opinion will flourish. We welcome logical argument, thought provoking insight and “spirited debate” within these pages. This forum is intended as a free community open to all comments and views concerning any Lost related theory.

For extensive expositions regarding your theories please contact the administrators at either dharmapoet@wi.rr.com (for The Alternative One) or debcold@google.com (for Amelia Crater). Thank you and…