And so it goes

By Chris Kirkman

Good gravy boats, what an episode. Other than last week's Kate-fest, I have been really, really satisfied with this season, thus far. The powers-that-be have cranked everything up a notch, given us some great answers to some age-old questions, and introduced a whole slew of new ones, naturally. We've got a lot of ground to cover this week, so I'd better get to it. Time, she is a predator.

YOU'RE JUST NOT THINKING FOURTH-DIMENSIONALLY
Unfortunately, I won't have as detailed an explanation for Desmond's time-jumping consciousness as I did for gravitational time dilation, although the two can be intertwined within the realms of special and general relativity and speculative quantum theory. The primer for understanding what Desmond is going through is found more in the metaphysical than the physical. We're obviously not dealing with time travel in the traditional sense - in that, I mean physically transporting a three-dimensional construct backwards and forwards through a warp in space-time. For the majority of those that think about such things, that particular method has been deemed impossible. The energy it would take to accomplish that task is beyond anything we can currently produce or even imagine. Unfortunately, the addition of plutonium and a flux capacitor just won't solve our problem.

That's not to say that time travel is completely impossible. The theoretical particles called tachyons are often thought to be existing in an extra-dimensional state. Some believe the particles actually age backwards, although that's a simplified way of looking at it. In order to truly comprehend what's happening to Desmond, we have to imagine what the realm of an extra dimension would be like for us third-dimensioners. Bare with me, the ride might get a little bumpy.

For now, let's put aside the debates as to whether this other dimension is actually temporal or spatial. For our purposes, this dimension will be temporal, although we're going to look at it from a more spatial perspective. Ready? Here we go.

This image represents how humans have traditionally represented time throughout much of our history. Time, to us, is linear. Things have a beginning and an end. This is where we get the term timeline. It's important to remember, however, that this representation is a wholly human construct. It is only because of our perceptions of the physical world that we hold this representation as true. In a mathematical sense, this type of representation would be equivalent to what would constitute our first dimension - a line, with length.

In terms of human consciousness, this representation would be more fitting. This shows the "timeline" of an individual's consciousness in a circular fashion. We can imagine what has happened and will happen outside of our personal experience, but for each individual, their timelines are restricted to what they've seen, heard, felt, etc. throughout life. It's important to note that, in the physical realm and in mathematics, this would constitute the second dimension. The shape has width and height. It can form a circle.

Now, just for a second, imagine what that two-dimensional object would appear like to us if we added a third dimension, depth. We'd have a sphere instead of a circle. We are able to perceive the circle as a sphere because our senses are trained to interpret things in three dimensions. Hold tight to that analogy, cause the next part is tricky.

If we were to apply our third-dimensional perceptions into a representation of our circular consciousness timeline, we would find that objects on parts of the sphere would be visible from multiple angles and positions. For instance, if Desmond's mind was attuned to the dimension of time and we can hold onto this imagined existence in third-dimensional terms, he could "see" anywhere along his personal timeline, like, say, back to 1996. This is represented by the black dotted line with two arrows. That's "time vision," so to speak. This is sort of how Desmond was able to see flashes of what would happen to Charlie last season. The accident in the hatch freed his mind to peer into this extra dimension and call forth events on another part of his timeline. The red line on the sphere indicates a method of movement along Desmond's personal timeline. The first jolt of electromagnetism from the Hatch was enough to enable his consciousness to perceive other areas of his timeline. The second jolt from the helicopter ride enabled his consciousness to actually "travel" along the timeline, essentially existing in two separate points along his personal timeline. The risk of his traveling back and forth between two separate points is, as Dan said, the lack of a Constant. Our three-dimensional brains are not used to interpreting the input from an extra-dimensional realm, and without a point of reference, our consciousness could become lost amongst this "sphere." Like a ship at sea without a star, or a lighthouse or some sort of beacon ahead to use for navigation, the mind could, essentially, become lost at sea.

This is a very simplified explanation as to how Desmond could accomplish his jumping, and it's not entirely succinct, but it will have to do for now. I'll go back to talking about something more simply now, like, say, physics.

WOW, DOC, THIS IS HEAVY
Let's take a look at some selections from Dan's personal journal, shall we?

This image shows the machine settings Dan gave to Desmond so that Des could convince Dan's 1996 self of his validity. On the same page, we can see some of Dan's notations on the variances in space-time. Dan is a physicist, and as such, was trying to piece together the perception of relative space-time and the metaphysical experience I described above. He has noted, in a two-dimensional perspective, the space-time invariance that can describe the consciousness timeline, along with some representational calculations on objects at the speed of light (relativity), and physical perception.

This page shows some of Dan's computations in relation to the Lorentz Invariant. This is an actual property in physics to describe quantities within the special theory of relativity. It is a subset of the Lorentz Covariant, which basically is a set of computations that allows mathematical understanding of the fourth dimension - space-time. It deals with all kinds of things like scalars, four-vectors, tensors, spinors and crazy shit like that - some of which I understand and some of which are reserved for bearers of bigger brain than I. Essentially, all you need to know is that all this stuff is related to relativity theory, understanding of space-time and the mathematical computations that make all of Einstein and others' theories feasible.

Ohhh, this is a good one. Basically this is a plot-point sketch where Dan was trying to understand the overlap of the physical theories of relativity, space-time and the metaphysical consciousness timeline that I mentioned above. Note his use of the terms "real time," "space-time," "imaginary space" and "imaginary time." I also really, really like this drawing because it looks an awful lot like traditional convergence maps used to locate and describe ley lines along the sphere of the Earth, something I mentioned a few posts back.

You know, I'm just sayin'.

GREAT SCOTT
Just a quick note here to say that this episode only firms up what I've believed for a couple of years now - the root of most of this evilishness is Charles Widmore. In this episode, we see more of Widmore's ties with the island and, perhaps, Dharma and the others. Widmore is the winning bidder on lot #2342, the first mate's journal from The Black Rock, lost at sea and now currently residing on our mysterious island. The family selling the journal is that of Tovard Hanso, obvious relative of Magnus Hanso (the presumed owner of the Black Rock who is now buried on the island as referenced on my ever-favorite Blast Door Map), and Alvar Hanso, founder of the Hanso Foundation, one of the backers of the Dharma Initiative. Penny tells Desmond that she knows all about the island, something she could have only gleaned from her father's dealings. All the pieces are starting to come together rather nicely.

1.21 GIGAWATTS!
So, I mentioned that purple light coming from Dan's device in his Oxford cubbyhole, right? Well, I figure most of you were reminded of the same color light in the finale of Season Two when Desmond turned the failsafe key. After Des does so, he is instantly transported back to when he and Penny had just moved in together and he relives those following weeks, gradually remembering his activities on the island before the detonation of the Swan device. Now that we've seen Desmond's transference of consciousness in The Constant, we can now surmise that the radiation/electromagnetic force released after the turn of the failsafe key was basically a large-scale version of the device Dan used on Eloise.

The only unanswered question from the episode that showed us what happened to Desmond after the hatch explosion (Flashes Before Your Eyes) is the interaction Desmond has with The Jeweler. For those of you who might not remember so clearly, Desmond meets The Jeweler when he goes to buy Penny's engagement ring and is told categorically by the woman helping him that he cannot buy it. In fact, he's not even supposed to buy it, and doing so is purely futile. This mini-Oracle then proceeds to take Desmond for a walk wherein she explains how the universe likes to do a little housekeeping, or "course correcting," when someone starts trying to futz around with predestined events.

Who, exactly, is The Jeweler? Is she someone who is able to access the extra-dimensional consciousness at will? A true "time traveller" perhaps? Or perhaps she's something akin to a Time Lord. You know, Doctor Who? Seriously, you don't know about Doctor Who? Good god, watch PBS every now and then. You know, when you're not watching Lost.

Oh, and here's a little nugget I dug up on the internet, just for all you fine people.

Here's our little Time Lord in a picture found on Brother Campbell's desk in the episode that showed Desmond's past at a monastery in Scotland. Intriguingly, the arches in the background are the same ones that Des walks through to find Dan in The Constant. Coincidence? Serendipity? A lack of gothic locations on which to shoot the episodes? You decide.

MY DENSITY HAS BOUGHT ME TO YOU
I will close out this week's feature with a simple plea: if you haven't read Slaughterhouse Five, please do so - if not for experiencing one of the greatest books of the 20th Century and seeing the duality between Desmond and Billy Pilgrim, then at least so you can admire the genius of how I started out this article.

Until next time, practice accessing your personal time line and let me know if you succeed. Just don't do it 20 times a day. You'll go blind.

Namaste.