I think the idea of different timelines is right on... however, I don't think they have converged on the island exactly. I think the island is a place that is accessible from all timelines but doesn't actually exist in the same space/time. When Desmond failed to enter the numbers the anomaly created was electromagnetic but space/time is bent by gravity which is a different force all together(although I could be way off base there... I'm not a physicist) so it wouldn't actually pull the timelines.

I don't think it would be very good (maybe not even possible) for someone to travel to a timeline where they already exist. Remember when Desmond ran from the hatch and tried to leave the island on his boat? He just floated around the island and couldn't leave! He hadn't found his proper bearing and he couldn't get off the island into the other timelines where he was already walking around. He had to find the one he came from and something was preventing him from wondering into other timelines because he already exists there. In the case of the Oceanic Six they escape via the freighter. This is possible because in the timeline the freighter came from the plane crashed and everyone was killed. They can't die because they're already dead in that timeline!

Same thing with Micheal. Ben intentionally sent him to a timeline where he was already dead (maybe killed himself?) so that he would be protected and he would know where to find him when he needed him.

Check out this article... Lost Science Debunked – Behind the Scenes – Smoke Monster, Large Hadron Collider, Time Travel, Sat Phone - Popular Mechanics

Nice thinking Highbrow... Or the Losties can go back to the timeline they are from since they are the originals from that timeline.

I can't remember exactly, but in the beginning of season 2 when Jack Kate and Locke go down on the hatch, Jack recognizes Des, but does Des recognize Jack? I have this feeling he didn't.. and that would be right because in the Constant, Des returns to the timeline of our Losties and freaks out.

The "originals"? I thought that characters on the island are a mixture of versions of themselves from many different timelines (your example of Charley being 1/3rd heroin addict, 2/3rds non-heroin addict, eg.). Do you mean that although each character is only one fraction of the "original," that's still enough to return to the "original" timeline? I'm still not sure which is the original timeline and how we can know that for sure? Are the flashbacks for each character ALL from the SAME timeline? Are the flashforwards for each character ALL from the SAME timeline?

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

Well, it's obviously all speculation here, but I have to take Desmond as the example, the template for all of this. Desmond has been the only one from the island to freak out when going back through the wormhole, or what have you. Faraday relates the problem to radiation, but I think that's misleading. I believe the Desmond we see now is not from the Losties timeline, so he needs a constant to readjust the differences from himself and the Desmond that did come from that timeline.

Now, he is two Desmonds in one, basically the same but with minor choice differences in the past. Make any sense?

And to go a bit further... what if the flashbacks aren't FB's at all, but a version of one's self in a different timeline adjusting his or her thinking to the lesson being learned on the island. There always seems to be closure with the FB's.

Now with the FF's, all of those seem to have a 'to be continued' theme to them, unfinished business or what have you (We have to go back... Jack) AND (Who's next on the list?... Sayid)

Sound good?

[quote=highbrow;47514]

HIGHBROW:
I don't think it would be very good (maybe not even possible) for someone to travel to a timeline where they already exist. Remember when Desmond ran from the hatch and tried to leave the island on his boat? He just floated around the island and couldn't leave!

POTPIES:
Agreed, totally, it's not a good thing; and it's also a very difficult thing to acheive as well. Look at how Penny has been trying for years to find the island. (And probably Widmore has been trying for years, as well.) I think the Losties completed the trip totally by accident. Had Desmond entered the numbers on-time, before the beginning of another "incident," they would never have landed on the island at all. They'd probably all be fish food at the bottom of the Sunda Trench.

HIGHBROW:
This is possible because in the timeline the freighter came from the plane crashed and everyone was killed. They can't die because they're already dead in that timeline!

POTPIES:
So to the Universe, one Kate is as good as another? If one dies and another Kate from a different timeline shows up to replace her, that second Kate can't die? OR does it mean that the second Kate won't die until (and in the same way) the original Kate was destined to die?

Or does it mean that to the Universe, the second Kate is a wild card who is neither replacing the original Kate, nor a new human in her own right, but something else entirely?--Something that doesn't die...ever?

HIGHBROW:
Same thing with Micheal. Ben intentionally sent him to a timeline where he was already dead (maybe killed himself?) so that he would be protected and he would know where to find him when he needed him.

POTPIES:
Wow, cool idea!

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

Funny, your last couple posts on this topic made me wonder this to myself, and just as I was about to type this same idea, I see you've already written it. It is an interesting notion.

I've been wondering, if all of these ideas--the multiple timeline--really _are_ what's going on in Lost, how are the writers/producers going to go about explaining it to the viewers? Have Ben explain it all to Jack, et al, with a series of flashbacks, island scenes, and flashforwards cut in? I can't imagine how the "big reveal" will work.

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

That's probably why it's not right. Or maybe they can have Mr. Rogers make a guest appearance to clear it all up with a story by the king from the land of make-believe. Mr. Rogers alwasy did clear up matters of interenst for me.

Hey, had to write this quickly, but does anyone know if Jack is his real name, or nickname. I know someone can be named Jack, but a lot of times it's a nick for John, Jonathan...... maybe Jacob?

So does Ben have the know how not only to which barring brings each lostie to the correct timeline and to have the power to time travel in each of those timelines??

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what are you guy's talking about,who's your favorite other
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Sawyer

Haven't the bearings changed recently? 325 to 305?