Originally Posted by Flaneuse

The real Richard Alpert is one of the three researches involved in controversial LSD experiments that US military had great interest during the 1970s. I am neither suggesting that the two are the same Alpert, nor that there's governments' involved, nor that Locke's been given acid Seriously.. It just grabbed my attention that the character sharing the name with a researcher of a psychedelic drug that's known to cause highly personal experiences and awakenings about one's depth, happens to be the same guy who gives the same kind of 'mind-altering' talk to Locke. Considering Locke's searching and finding a direction included digesting magical herbs in the sweat lounge earlier, I see his conversation with Alpert as another sign of the psychedelic kind of wisdom and inner-knowledge that Locke sometimes needs to find his purpose