Fictional Lives (theory)

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1 Description
2 Details
3 Conspiracy Theory
4 And more
5 Pros
6 Cons
7 Epilogue

Description

The lives on the island after the crash are totally real.

The lives before the crash are totally fictional. Everything they think they lived - their jobs, their families, Oceanic Flight 815, intersections between events (regardless of if they are realized or not) are all scenarios. All those scenarios are somehow uploaded to their minds by normal methods like hypnosis, psychological infusion, brainwashing or unnatural, super-technological methods.

Details

Since their lives are scenarios uploaded to their minds, all the experience we saw in their lives are easy to explain.

The Numbers, for instance... Numbers could mean anything to the group (Dharma?Others?) on the island, but they are important. So they wrote it on the hatch. they were also transmitting the numbers through the radio waves. They also used the numbers as patterns in losties' life scenarios.We saw them on the police cars, on the back of volleyball players, as winning numbers in lottery, etc...

And also intersections between our characters and their families could also be explained with this hypothesis. Since there are fictional lives and possibly these are products of the same person, there's no extraordinary situation for this occurrences. Ana Lucia cooperating with Christian, Claire as Christian's daughter, Sawyer and Christian's meeting in Sydney, Desmond and Jack's meeting at the stadium, Libby and Hurley in same mental clinic,Libby and Desmond meeting at coffee shop, Sayid and Kate's father's meeting in Iraq, cost of Jack's choice to Shannon's and Boone's father, etc...

And also recurring themes in our character's lives which draws great attention. Apollo Candy Bars, Oceanic Airlines, Widmore Corporation etc. These companies and their products or services are placed in our character's life scenarios by the same person/people.

Since our character's lives are some sort of prearranged fiction, the coincidences or events which direct them to Oceanic Flight 815 aren't surprises. Claire's odd psychic, the cure suggested to Rose's illness, tickets given to Sayid, Christian's sudden departure to Sydney and Jack's desperate chase after him, Sawyer's misinformation about real Sawyer, etc...

Now, with any reason (experiment?), these fictional lives are uploaded to our character's brains and they are awakened in a crash scene. Contrary, their life and all the events they experienced in the island are real, these events are not uploaded images.

Conspiracy Theory

Could the survivors of Oceanic 815 be former Dharma members? As Mikhail said there were once a conflict maybe a war between the Others and the Hostiles. So our characters may be the defeated side. The Hostiles/Others used the technology of the Dharma Initiative and prepared fictional lives for all. Or character's memories are maybe erased/overloaded and their new memories are uploaded. We know that The Others has a Room 23 for this kind of operations.

And more

So what about that two Portuguese speaking guys at the Pole, catching some sort of signal and calling Ms Widmore?

Yes, there's really a Ms Widmore, she really exists. Think about Kelvin Joe Inman. He really exists on the island, accompanied Desmond a while in the Swan and killed by Desmond. He also appeared in Sayid's flashback as an American commander. According to the fictional lives hypothesis, real Kelvin is also placed in Sayid's life scenario and uploaded to his memories. So is Ms Widmore! She really exists and her name and image is used in Desmond's life scenario. She may be a Dharma/The Others employee as Kelvin was. Those two guys might be searching for another island on another geographic region of the world similar to our island or something else, maybe an exiled Ms Widmore looking for her old friends, unaware of their new kondition.

And what about the island curing all those people?

"It's elementary my dear Watson" There was no illness at all! Their illnesses or defects were all fictional and they were believed so. Locke, Rose and Sun are completely healthy, they are ill/defected in their memories. This also explains why people gets ill on the island aren't cured. Becase there's nothing special with the island!

Well done! What about Desmond's photograph with Penny?

You're right! We said that maybe our Losties may be former Dharma Initiative members. (They may not of course!) Anyway. We actually can't say Desmond and Penny really were meeting, known to each other and didn't take a phptograph as two close work friends or maybe really lovers! So there exists a Desmond-Penny photograph, and when Desmond's new memories are written, Penny was placed in his scenario as a desperate lover. The scene with the photographer and their separation in the harbor was constructed and uploaded to him. The real photograph was also placed in his pocket so he will never suspect of Penny's existence.

Pros

It explains all intersections between character flashbacks, recurring events and the numbers in their lives.
It explains the healing power of the island. (Especially there's none!)
It explains Room 23 and it's functions. (brainwashing and uploading new memories)

Cons

Slightly the weakest part of this hypothesis is that, it cannot explain how the crash was seen and observed by the Others and Ben, if it was totally fictional.