The Island

The Island appears to have been volcanically created, as seen from Bernard's usage of volcanic rocks. It is also a place of mystery, wonder and danger. Its existence must have been recorded at some point as the DHARMA Initiative, backed by the Hanso Foundation, decided to put it to use conducting a wide variety of science-related study. However it seems that its existence has been forgotten by society but not by the Hanso Foundation which still sends out supplies to The Swan.

Up till now there is no evidence of any Polynesian settlement (although the boar and chickens could have been introduced by Polynesians). The earliest inhabitants of which evidence is known to exist would be the survivors of the Black Rock or Adam and Eve, or perhaps the (unknown) builders of the Statue. In the 1970s, the DHARMA Initiative set up a multi-discipline laboratory, specialising in many different fields of science. They also constructed the stations like The Swan, The Arrow, and The Pearl. This is the source of much speculation today.

The Island has a number of species not native to the South Seas:

• Polar Bears
• Razorback boars
• Kate's Horse (if it's not a shared hallucination)
• Wild chickens

The polar bears, and possibly the horse, may be there as a result of the Dharma Initiative's experiments. The chickens and boar could have been introduced by the crew of the Black Rock. Chickens and boar where also farmed by Polynesians and introduced onto many islands in the pacific, so they may have arrived as a result of Polynesian settlement.

The Island also appears to have healing powers that cure inhabitants of long-term ailments and speed up recovery from wounds.

• Locke, who was paralyzed before landing on the island, regained the use of his legs, both after the crash and after being injured by the blast doors.
• Rose no longer has cancer.
• The fixing of Jin's infertility that led to Sun's pregnancy (Theory).
• Sawyer was shot in the shoulder by Mr. Friendly, but the wound healed in a matter of days.

See also: Event Chronology

Theories

Fictional Locations/Islands

• Atlantis
• Island of Dr. Moreau
• Land of Oz
• Lost Continent of Mu
• Myst
• Neverland
• Pala Island
• R'lyeh
• Rupes Nigra
• Treasure Island
• Utopia

• Locke believes the Island brought the Losties to it.
• The Island is Eden, or Eden-like (This being based of the idea that The Monster are Cerebim)
• The island looks to be habited for hundred or even thousands of years. First we see the "Black Rock" ship which is centuries old. Then in the season 2 finale, we see a foot of a giant statue (with four toes) who could be there since thousands of years (looks Greek). It could be a remnant of Lemuria, the Pacific version of Atlantis[1].
  • Alternatively, the island could be the lost continent of Mu (Lemuria). One fan in particular notes that if you "Hold the ALT key in notepad/wordpad (font type must be "System") and type the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 then release ALT, and you will get the Greek symbol µ (Mu)".
  • Could be Rupes Nigra (Black Rock) a phantom island that have magnetic fields.
  • It could also be related to R'lyeh, the non-euclidean lost city of H. P. Lovecraft, located at the South Pacific, away from anything.
    • Seems plausable, but the Island is euclidean.
• The only use of the island is for the DHARMA Initiative's purposes.

• The Island is owned by The Hanso Foundation.
• The Island possesses unique electromagnetic properties, causing so many vehicles to crash into the island.
  • This may also be what causes the Island to have its healing properties as it has cured Locke's parapalegia, Rose's cancer, and possibly Jin's infertility. Yet the healing seems to only be physical as Hurley was still suffering from mental delusions.
  • Hurley was cured from his mental delusions and something else is making him think he still suffers from them.
    • The Island does not heal incredible physical damage as seen by the death of Ethan Rom, Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby and many more.
• In Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart is flying a small private plane over the secret location of Galt's Gulch, when an electromagnetic field causes her to crash there.
  • This may suggest that the Island is hidden from radar/satellite photography by a magnetic field, possibly the one generated in the Swan, that causes nearby aircraft to crash.
    • Except that a magnetic field couldn't hide anything from photography.
• The Island acts like the Bermuda Triangle (but in the South Pacific), causing the multiple crashes.
  • The island is a central dumping ground for the global network of Bermuda Triangle-like areas known as the Twelve Vile Vortices.
• The Island is riddled with a system of underground tunnels.
  • This is where The Security System was dragging Locke
  • How the Others can travel without leaving tracks.
  • May also be how Cindy dissapeared.
• The sulphuric smell of the shower water was believed to be caused by either a still active volcano on the island or hot springs. However water that sits in a water heater for a long time will acquire a sulphurous smell (like rotten eggs).
• In the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, many similar events happen to Lost. The book deals with the Supernatural as many characters see apparitions, visions and even Giant Stone limbs. The characters are horrified when they see them, although the apparitions themselves appear to have some motive, perhaps even a positive, moral one. The supernatural is also in a way the main protagonist with the human characters either being guided or becoming a victim of it, perhaps the island is the main character and the losties (maybe even the others) are affected in the same way.
• Is in a pocket universe and can only be reached by wormhole type openings ( bearing 325) , see Snowglobe
  • Seems unlikely as they can still observe the sun crossing the sky, which would therefore also have to be encompassed in the pocket universe.

Location

Possible flightpaths 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.

• If the latitude and longitude coordinates 4.815' N, 162.342' W are used, the location is in the South Pacific, very close to the projected flight path of a plane flying from Sydney International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport.
• This location with the numbers as coordinates contradicts what the pilot said about being one thousand miles off course, because this one more like one hundred fifty. However, if the distance is viewed as the distance between the point 6 hours in where radio contact was lost (close to 3250 miles in on a 7280 mile flight) and the coordinates, it is closer to nine hundred, a much more realistic distance away.
• if this is really the island location then how did the Drug Smugglers Plane get here? The plane (a Beechcraft 18) took off from Nigeria and has a range of 850 miles (1400 km). The distance from Nigeria to Fiji is 11000 miles (18000 km). It’s unlikely that the plane made fuel stops or crashed on the island long after it departed from Nigeria because the shot brother and the gunned down partner of Eko are still on the plane.
• Google map using the Numbers as coordinates. [2]
• Google map showing satellite images, notice an island very close to the co-ordinates (could be that google maps has lat and long slightly off so this may in fact be the island) [3]
• The Others tell Michael that if he follows compass heading 325, he and Walt will find rescue.
• The theory of the location of the island being 4.815' N, 162.342' W ie. "the numbers" is now debunked. Desmond said he was heading due west at 9 knots and should have made Fiji in less than a week. That would put the island somewhere due east of Fiji at a maximum distance of 1500 nautical miles. Somewhere southwest of Bora Bora. Or roughly the location of Hawaii if you mirror it around the equator.
  • However, this information can't really be relied upon completely as conclusive evidence for a location.
• Desmond believes the island is a week east of Fiji at 9 knots. 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) [4]. This is about 350 miles from Tahiti. Danielle Rousseau said they were 3 days out of Tahiti when they wrecked on the island, which would mean they traveled at about 5 knots, which is plausible.
• The fact that it was daytime when the crash occurred rather than the middle of the night and that the log printout places the crash at 4:16 PM local time leads us to another possible conclusion: The island may be located in the GMT+3 time zone somewhere off the East coast of Africa. This would explain the Nigerian plane but would cast doubt on the veracity of Desmond and Rousseau's voyages.
• It could actually be a peninsula of a continent.