Time dilation/Theories

From Lostpedia

Main Article

Theories about Time dilation

Main Discussion

Theories may be removed if ...

Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

• Time passes slower on the island relative to off island... OR traveling to and from the island causes the traveler's time to slow down relative to the island (this would be the OPPOSITE of what happens in special relativity).
  • When Locke sees Walt in Through The Looking Glass, Walt is visibly much older, and Locke even mentions to Sawyer that Walt looked older when he saw him. Combine the time dilation theory with the fact that Walt can teleport ("Did Walt ever appear in a place where he was not supposed to be?"), and this explains perfectly what happened. Since Walt left the island, he aged much faster than the Losties on island.
  • When the Sayid and Kate leave the island, they will discover it's 2007 (where as on the island, it would be 2004). The Oceanic 6 flash-forward scenes all contain 2007/8 technologies, but we have no reason to believe a long time has passed since they got off of the island. Hurley and Jack talk about "going back to get them" as if it just happened.
  • In The Economist, Sayid discovers Ben's passports, and it becomes evident that Ben frequently leaves the island (this is backed up at end when Sayid sees Ben off-island to get his wound patched up.) This would explain Richard Alpert "not aging". It's not that Richard Alpert DOESN'T age, it's that time on island is slower relative to off island. If Ben kept leaving the island and coming back, he would age faster relative to Alpert, who remains on island much more frequently than Ben.
    • Its unknown how often Richard leaves the island. It could be that he is in fact quite often off the island to recruit people like Juliet.
  • This would also explain why Naomi's picture of Ben seems to be from the 70's. Ben may have aged very little since then by remaining on island.
  • This is almost the opposite of what happens in Narnia! C.S. Lewis's (who shares his name with our Charlotte) story is about children who travel into a wardrobe and get wisked away to another land. While in Narnia, they grow up and experience many years of living there. At the end of the story however, they travel back through the wardrobe to find almost NO time has passed in the real world.