here's a wild theory for you...

Maybe the sub is not a long range sub, so it is only used for trips to different points on the main island, and to the Hydra island. One of the places the sub can dock is the Looking Glass (this much we definitely know, because the diagram of the Looking Glass station has a picture of the sub docking in the moonpool opening)

So then how do people get to the island, when they think they are coming on the sub? How about this: there is a doorway, like a teleport doorway, somewhere on the Looking Glass station, that allows instantaneous travel between the station and somewhere near Portland, Oregon. The tell you that you need to be knocked out for the trip, like when Richard told Juliet, but that is just to cover up the fact that they have a teleportation doorway. (or maybe you have to be knocked out for the teleport trip - maybe you'd hurl your guts out if you were awake for it) Whatever the reason, you are unconscious, they take you "Through the Looking Glass" to the Looking Glass station (so that's where the name comes from) and then put you on the sub and take you to the dock where you wake up, thinking you traveled on the sub the whole time.

How about that?

So...that would mean that they developed teleportation technology back in the nineteen-seventies, before they built all the facilities on the island.

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charlie98210
"Whoa!" she said. "Cry 'Havoc!' And let loose the dogs of war!"
And, like Banquo's ghost, they just won't go away.

Logan, I agree with you 100%, for whatever that is worth. That sub is kind of small, and is probably only a prop. But, I don't think Dharma built a teleportation technology as much as they discovered it, and used technology to harness it's power.
Ben probably can't use the Looking Glass now because that would mean opening the doorway. juliette was the last to go through then I guess the heat was on, but Juliette is probably the last one Ben wanted because of her talents, no need for new people when you can have them yourself.
I imagine a portal like Stargate, not exactly, but something.

Anyway, perhaps the linus' went walking though one of these portals unbeknownst to them, perhaps quickly, and hence Ben was born premature. i don't know, something odd about all the Ben being born thing, it must tie into this somehow.. but thanks for making me seem not so crazy Logan...

someone posted this idea in last episode's thread and I thought it was pretty solid. I just wish desmond would have got to explore more down there and see some kind of strange teleportation machinery (not that i'd have any idea what this would look like) Now that I think about it
oregon to wherever the island is (south pacific) is not such a long trip for a sub. I think the reason they put you out is 1. so you would never know exactly where you were when you got to the island and 2. the final approach to the island which seems to have some force feild around it, ethan did say it "gets a little intense at the end of the trip" or something like that. so I guess what i'm saying is they really don't need a teleportation system.

A force field would explain why planes and choppers get all of their instruments malfunctioning, but it should not explaing the compass screw-up. The force field in my backyard only keeps my sister and her loose bowels out of my sand box, but my compass works fine. A force field also doesn't explain the utter suprise of Ben's "WHAT!?!?" when he hears of an outsider somehow getting though it.

I don't know if you watched "lost:answers" before the two hour finale but the producers said the definitive answer for the plane crashing was the electromagnetic anomally produced by desmond when he was late typing in the numbers in the hatch. You don't think a magnetic force on the island could change a compass? I do. As for naomi getting through, according to her the ship couldn't see the island when it arrived. only by flying over it was she able to see it. and the moment she did she crashed.

As Cable pointed out, I don't think its necessarily a developed teleportation technology - more like there's a rift in space, some kind of gateway between two points in space, and maybe Dharma discovered it and was able to use it.

And yes, Cable, its nice not to be the only crazy one on the block!

you mean like a worm hole on earth? that would be a great story line. It would also explain why everybodys reading the Hawking book.

I think the Hawking book was a definate clue, so was the guy's name who was reading the book.. Aldo.. short for.... who can guess.

Anyway, I think it has to be a wormhole type thing, because also included in the answers show was Damon's quote "they are not dead, they are somewhere along the space/time continuim" I could see a force field, but i can't go with that, because I think if that were true, a lot more castaways would be on the island. A wormhole would only allow the 'lucky' few to hit that exact point in space/time.

cable I really didn't mean the force feild thing so literally, I really should watch my choice of words. I have absolutely no thoughts about what is making the island physically invisible.