One LOST Mystery Solved: The Significance of "The Numbers"

[CJFusco]

"I don't know about you, brother, but every time I walk past that concrete wall out there, my fillings hurt." -Desmond Hume, Season 2.

Hurley used them to play the lottery. They had to be entered into the computer in the Hatch every 108 minutes to avert disaster. They pop up everywhere... but why "4 8 15 16 23 42" (and, to some extent, 108)? What do they mean?

Are they just a random collection of numbers? Or do they mean something? 108, of course, is the number equated with order in many Eastern philosophies (Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu); the other ones could have multiple meanings ("42" was, of course, Douglas Adams's answer to the Great Question).

A guy named J. Wood took on an extensive analysis of "the Numbers" in a book that was published back in 2007 ("Living Lost," Garret County Press). I think he hit the nail on the head, and certain details from recent (2009) episodes of LOST pretty much prove so.

"What makes this island geologically unique? There are more than a few questions to be answered here, including how a 19th century slave ship came to rest on a hill in the middle of the island, and why a Nigerian puddle jumper that could barely make it out of Africa landed in the island's jungle canopy. There's a theory of geologically unique places on the planet called 'vile vortices' - think Bermuda Triangle, but there are twelve of them. The vortices were first called so by Scottish naturalist Ivan Sanderson in his 1970 book 'Invisible Residents'... his research kept coming to places on the earth where strange things would happen - airplane instruments would go haywire and ger lost for hours, but when they came back no time had passed; ships disappeared; the basic sorts of things that are so common from Bermuda Triangle lore. He noted that these places appear in regular frequency around the earth: five in regular intervals along the Tropic of Cancer, five along the Tropic of Capricorn, and one at each pole. Polyhedral grids are often used in cartography to map coordinates and locations around the earth (a 20-faced shape made up of equilateral triangles), the points where the triangle corners met marked the vortices around the globe."

Well, as it turns out, all of these points, or "vortices" are numbered. And, as it also turns out, if you apply a shape that is very familiar to LOST fans onto this grid, an amazing pattern emerges:

"Consider the bagua shape [the 8-sided figure of the Dharma Initiative logo, which is a recreation of a shape used in most Eastern philosophies]... the bagua is octogonal, and the octahedron (an 8-faced shape) can be mapped onto this grid. As it happens, the points of convergence in an octahedral grid match up with the points of convergence in the... map that marks the 12 vile vortices... the octahedral lines converge at 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42. None of the other polyhedral shapes on the planetary grid hit all of these six points.

... the lore suggest that the things like ships and planes just disappear, we can start with the possibility that both the Caribbean slave ship and the Nigerian drug smugglers' plane hit their respective vortices and ended up at the island, which is in yet another vortex."

Keep in mind, this guy was writing this well before Season 4 premiered; he didn't know then that the Island would end up being an object that moves throughout time and space.

When I read this all a few weeks ago, it sounded like a cool, quaint theory, one of the many theories put out there to explain away the events of the show... that is until I watched last week's episode...

Included in this book are illustrated maps to visually help one understand what this grid, superimposed onto a globe, might look like; the vortices that correspond with the Numbers were labeled. Well, sure enough, when we see Eloise and her Foucault's Pendulum in the Lamp Post Station, the map below the pendulum has certain points picked out; points that, Eloise tells us, predict where the Island might appear.

Should it surprise you to know that these points are the same as on the grid in J. Wood's book, published in 2007?

It just goes to show you - the writers of LOST really did their homework. Nothing is an accident in this show.

[Dave L]

they need to add nudity to the show

[VaSteve]

LOL, a well reasoned intelligent post and the next guy shouts out "boobs". ROTFL

[carr914]

I thought the clock in the hatch was reset every 104 minutes?

[kstar]

I think the "Vile Vortices" concept is at best a weak hypothesis, and even that is a stretch, IMO.

But, it is a cool foundation to build fiction on.

[Dave L]

Originally Posted by VaSteve

LOL, a well reasoned intelligent post and the next guy shouts out "boobs". ROTFL

ahh, you understand my sense of humour.

I used to watch Lost but it progressively got more difficult to follow especially if you miss an episode (or season). I certainly do appreciate an "intelligent" show but I just dont plan my schedule around TV. I might buy the DVDs.

I also stand by my original suggestion.

[tabs]

You have to know such a show exists for one to care.