DHARMA Initiative
Encyclopedia
The Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA (Department of Heuristic
s and Research on Material Applications), was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost
. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation
". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science
. Dharma
is a Sanskrit
term used in Hinduism
, Buddhism
, Jainism
, and Sikhism
.
), explains that the project began in 1970, created by two doctoral candidates from the University of Michigan, Gerald and Karen DeGroot (Michael Gilday and Courtney Lavigne), and was funded by Alvar Hanso (Ian Patrick Williams) of the Hanso Foundation. They imagined a "large-scale communal research compound", where scientists and free thinkers
from around the globe could research meteorology
, psychology
, parapsychology
, zoology
, electromagnetism
, and a sixth discipline that the film begins to identify as "utopian social-" before being cut off.
The episodes "LaFleur
" and "He's Our You
" indicate that mathematician Horace Goodspeed was in charge of Dharma Initiative operations on the Island, at least from the very early 1970s through the time of "the Incident." Key decisions that needed to be made on the Island were taken by a committee, which included all department heads, including Head of Research Stuart Radzinsky and security head LaFleur (the name the time-traveling Sawyer was assuming). They, in turn, answer to the Dharma Initiative HQ based at the University of Michigan
, as evidenced when Radzinsky threatens to call the University to override a key decision by Goodspeed. In the episode "The Variable
", Daniel Faraday confirmed that Dharma Initiative Headquarters, at least through 1977, was located at Ann Arbor, Michigan
.
The "Lost Experience
", an alternate reality game
which took place in 2006, revealed that the objective of the Dharma Initiative was to alter any of the six factors of the Valenzetti Equation, an equation which "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself," to allow humans to exist for longer by changing their doomsday. These factors are represented as numbers in the Valenzetti Equation and are also the numbers frequently mentioned in the show: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
In 1977, the Dharma workers based on the Island drilled into an electromagnetic pocket, releasing a catastrophically dangerous amount of electromagnetic energy. This is referred to as "the Incident" and is frequently alluded to in other Dharma Initiative sources. Radzinsky insisted on drilling despite warnings from Dr. Chang about the danger. In the Swan Station orientation film, recorded in 1980, Dr. Marvin Candle insists that the computer at the Swan Station not be used for any other purpose, specifically to communicate with other stations. When the Oceanic 815 survivors travel back in time to 1977, they attempt to negate the release of this energy by detonating the plutonium core of a hydrogen bomb. The bomb went off after Juliet hit it with a rock, causing a massive explosion that sent all of the time travelers back to 2007. The future was unchanged, which gives further proof to what Miles said about the bomb being the very cause of the Incident. Everything the people who were traveling through time did in their past was already accounted for, thus they could not change anything.
After the Incident, according to notes on the blast door map painted by Stuart Radzinsky in the Swan Station, the Dharma Initiative's facilities on the Island seemed to fall into disrepair. The blast door map has been annotated about destroyed access tunnels, a breakdown in the Cerberus Security System and mentions facilities being abandoned or destroyed via other incidents or accidents, specifically one happening on October 28, 1984, another in 1985, and a final one on December 7, 1987. By the time Danielle Rousseau and her crew shipwrecked on the Island, in 1988, many of the facilities on the Island had been abandoned, including the radio tower. At no point between then and the eventual purge of its members did the Dharma Initiative attempt a search and rescue for Danielle or her crew, despite Danielle broadcasting her own distress signal on a continuous loop from the tower for four years.
When the Dharma Initiative arrived on the Island, they fought with the Island's natives, known to them as the Hostiles and to the survivors of Flight 815 as the "Others
". The "Hostiles" had been living on the Island long before the Initiative arrived. The Arrow Station was eventually given a mission to observe and formulate strategies to counter the Hostiles. When Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
) arrived on the Island in 1970, there was still an open conflict between the Hostiles and the Dharma Initiative. At some point prior to 1974, a truce of some kind was brokered with the Hostiles. A series of protocols were put into place between the Hostiles and the Initiative. Several episodes mention that there was a "line" and that certain parts of the Island were considered to be the "territory" of each group. This conflict ended in 1992, when Linus joined the Hostiles, who killed the Initiative, an event which became known as "The Purge". The bodies were buried in a mass grave.
In 2001, after Stuart Radzinsky's alleged suicide in The Swan, Kelvin Inman, a man who found Desmond adrift on the beach, was still working for the Dharma Initiative in the Swan station. Lost producer Carlton Cuse
confirms in a podcast that Kelvin was indeed a member of the Dharma Initiative. In the "Lost Experience", an actor portraying fictional Hanso Foundation executive Hugh McIntyre appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live
, where he stated that the Foundation had stopped funding the Dharma Initiative in 1987. However, in season 2, an air drop of supplies arrived for the Swan station. As an airdrop would require a cargo plane, pilots, parachutes, a loadmaster, and the supplies themselves, this would suggest someone is still providing funding for its activities.
At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, a new ARG
began with a booth recruiting new members to the Initiative. At the Lost panel, Hans van Eeghen, a Dharma executive, revealed that the results from the booth were "abysmal," and a few people had been selected to view a video that had been sent from thirty years in the past. In the video, Pierre Chang said that the work on the Island is valid, and it is essential that the Dharma Initiative is restarted. Following this a website was launched, which allowed users to join the Dharma Initiative.
The Dharma Initiative placed nine (known) research stations around the Island, which take the form of hidden, underground facilities or bunkers. After Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island in September 2004, the survivors encounter several of these stations. The first to be discovered is "The Swan" which they refer to informally as "the hatch". Nine additional stations have since been visited over the series, each with its own particular logo associated with it: an octagon, similar to the bagua design, with a differing symbol at the center.
On the blast door map, there are 6 structures depicted, and at least 4 of them are labeled by name and icon like DHARMA stations: The Swan, The Flame, The Staff and The Arrow. The other structures are labeled by question marks or numbers. Two of the alleged stations are drawn with dotted lines. The 6 structures all surround a big circled question mark in the center of the map. At the top left, there is another structure (a 7th structure) which is scribbled out. The Swan Station's blast door map makes reference to a light manufacturing facility, a meteorological research station, station "CVII", and others that were never shown on the series.
Among the hatches on the southeast side of the map, there are 4 rectangular structures/labels that have "CVI","CVII","CVIII", and "CVIV" written on them. CV stands for Cerberus Vent, which was revealed in secret writing on the back of one of the Lost jigsaw puzzles. The Swan station's blast door map claims that there was, at one time, an underground tunnel network that connected many of the stations. Notations on the map suggest that the tunnels started falling into disrepair in the early 1980s, soon after the incident occurred.
In the episode "He's Our You
", during a meeting of Dharma Initiative heads, there were 14 members present, suggesting 14 separate divisions of the Dharma Initiative on the island.
station located on a small island roughly two miles off-shore from the main island. It is described as being about twice the size of Alcatraz Island
. The Hydra facility has cage
s outside the station in the jungle where polar bears used to be kept. An underwater complex was once used as an aquarium, which housed shark
s and dolphins. The facility also features living and research quarters. The symbol for this station is the usual Dharma Initiative logo with a hydra in the middle, which can be seen on a large canopy behind Kate and Sawyer's cages in season 3.
At the start of season three, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are held captive on the Hydra island by the Others. Kate and Sawyer are forced to build a runway, until they manage to escape. In season two, a shark has the Dharma symbol branded on its tail. Also in season three episode "A Tale of Two Cities
", Tom
comments that the polar bears that used to be housed in the cage Sawyer was being held in figured out the "food" puzzle in two hours. A leather collar bearing the Dharma Hydra symbol is found near a polar bear
skeleton
in the Tunisian desert. In the fifth season, Ajira Airways Flight 316 makes a forced but overall safe landing on the Hydra island, landing on the runway built by the Others. In the fifth season episode "Some Like It Hoth
", Dr. Chang threatens to send an over-inquisitive Hurley to the Hydra Station to participate in their "ridiculous experiments" if he mentions a body delivered to Dr. Chang by Miles Straume
.
". In "Because You Left
", a flashback shows Chang doing the initial recording for the orientation film, where he explains that it is a station for monitoring the Hostiles and formulating strategies to combat them. He is interrupted before he can finish. In "The Man Behind the Curtain
", flashbacks of the Dharma Initiative in operation on the Island show one of the members, Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchison
), wearing a jumpsuit
bearing the Arrow station logo with "mathematician" written below it. When rediscovered in 2004, the word "quarantine" appears on the inside of the station's door. In "LaFleur
", Horace gives the order to notify the Arrow to "prepare the heavy ordnance" when he believes there is an imminent danger from the Hostiles.
When the tail section survivors come across the Arrow Station in "The Other 48 Days
", it has apparently been converted into a storage room. Within, they find a radio, a glass eye, and part of the Swan station's orientation film hidden inside a Bible. Producers Carlton Cuse
and Damon Lindelof stated on a podcast that each object is significant, and not randomly chosen.
The Swan was planned to be a laboratory used by the Dharma Initiative for research on electromagnetism
. In the episode "The Incident
", Dharma Initiative member Radzinsky claimed when complete, the Swan Station would allow manipulation of electromagnetism that "would change the world". According to the feature "Access Granted" on the third season Blu-ray, Dharma drilled into the earth and hit an area containing a large electromagnetic buildup, which their drilling released. The Swan was built over this area to act as a cork. Dharma then came up with a scheme to "dam" the leak but with the drawback that the field built up behind the dam and would eventually break it. A failsafe key could be used to permanently "seal" the leak. The specific event happened in July 1977, as revealed in "The Incident
", and necessitated the evacuation of the island.
On the station's orientation film, Doctor Marvin Candle explains that an "incident" occurred early in the station's experiments. An edit to the film, which according to Inman was made by Radzinsky, removed specific details of this incident. This event required the entire Swan station area to be sealed with a large amount of concrete "like Chernobyl" (according to Sayid and Daniel Faraday) to contain the dangerous energy. This caused a consistent build-up of electromagnetic energy, which resulted in a change of the station's focus: a two-member crew, replaced every 540 days, were instructed to enter a numeric code into a microcomputer
terminal every 108 minutes. The station is equipped with a split-flap display
timer, which is interfaced to a microcomputer terminal and connected to an alarm system.
The station is stocked with food, a record player with a collection of old LPs, a small library, an armory, a shower, and bunk beds. There is also a brand new washer/dryer and one of the books in the library is "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy, published in 1998. It is almost entirely underground, except for an entrance shaft and a concealed door (possibly due to being hidden in the Hostiles territory). The station also has several internal blast doors, with a map in invisible ink on one of them. This map has been worked on by, at a minimum, Kelvin Inman and Radzinsky. Analysis of the map suggests no less than five unique handwriting styles, and thus five different contributors. The map has direct revision dates on it, and as well as the obvious map entry, also seems to serve as some sort of history to happenings on the island, as there are many annotations that seem to suggest the writers were attempting to locate and ascertain the status of many stations on the Island. There are sections that are written in Latin
. Kelvin Inman is seen writing in the lower right hand part of the map in "Live Together, Die Alone", near a revision dated for 6.26.2002. There are also acrylic based paints and several murals painted in different portions of the hatch by unknown people as well as tick marks on the wall derived from them.
In the episode "Some Like It Hoth
", set in 1977, the Swan Station is shown to be under construction in an area designated as the Hostiles' territory, a violation of the truce Dharma had brokered with them, under the primary authority of Radzinsky. In the episode "The Incident
", Dharma hits the pocket, releasing the energy and drawing all metallic objects into the hole. The plutonium core of a hydrogen bomb is detonated by the survivors in an attempt to negate the energy. In "Live Together, Die Alone
", Desmond Hume
(Henry Ian Cusick
) shipwrecks on the Island in 2001 and is taken to the Swan station. Here Kelvin Inman explains about entering the numeric code then pushing the button to save the world. In September 2004, Kelvin and Desmond get into a fight, resulting in Kelvin's death. Desmond enters the numbers too late, resulting in an electromagnetic build-up, which causes the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Two of the survivors, Locke
(Terry O'Quinn
) and Boone
(Ian Somerhalder
), discover the Swan accidentally. Locke manages to successfully open it in the first season finale "Exodus
". Inside they find Desmond, who flees after they break the computer. The survivors manage to fix the computer, and begin pushing the button every 108 minutes.
After discovering the Pearl orientation film, Locke believes pushing the button is a psychological test, and with Desmond's help decides to find out what will happen if the button is not pushed. Desmond tries to convince Locke that the station is real, with data from the Pearl, but Locke breaks the computer anyway so he can't stop the countdown. This causes all the metal objects in the Swan to fly about, and the ground begins to shake. Realizing the importance of the button Locke accepts he was wrong, and Desmond turns the failsafe key. The sky turns violet temporarily, and the Swan is destroyed. The electromagnetic burst released by the destruction of the Swan Station renders the island momentarily visible to the outside world. The energy signature is detected by a monitoring station under the control of Penelope Widmore, which reported to her that they had "found the island."
"), but was never seen in the show itself.
The Incident Room has been mentioned several times in Lost. When Sayid first visited the Swan he tried to find a way past the concrete wall, but it was just too thick to get through. Sayid told Jack that "The last time I heard of concrete being poured over everything in this way was Chernobyl
," ("Everybody Hates Hugo
").
The look and design for the "Incident Room" came from never before seen blueprints given to the developers by the Lost crew for the game. Although the game has been stated to be non-canon, the designs are the creators' intended layout for the blocked sections of the Swan station.
on the roof. Inside the station is a living area, a kitchen, and a computer room. Below the building is a large basement containing supplies, including a library of Dharma Initiative operations manuals. The facility also boasts several gardens, as well as chickens, cows, and goats roaming the area.
On the day Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island, Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff
) uses the station to access news feeds to gather information about the survivors. At Ben's request he alters one of the feeds to allow Juliet to see her sister and nephew alive and well off the Island. At some point after this, communication off the Island is no longer possible, as the Looking Glass is blocking all signals. In "Enter 77
", Kate Austen
(Evangeline Lilly
), Sayid Jarrah
(Naveen Andrews
), and Locke discover the station. Locke uses the computer to send a message saying the Hostiles have invaded the station, and by doing so he intentionally destroys it by causing the C4 lining the basement to go off. As shown in "LaFleur
", Radzinsky was stationed at the Flame in 1977, where he designed the model for the future Swan Station.
. It primarily serves as a monitoring station, to which surveillance feeds from the other stations are sent. Its orientation film asserts that the Swan is a psychological experiment, and that the purpose of those stationed in the Pearl is to monitor the participants in that station. The station consists of a three-by-three bank of television sets, two chairs with writing surfaces, and a computer hooked to a printer. A pneumatic tube
is installed in the room, which the orientation film states is used to transport notebooks to another Dharma location. According to the orientation film that features Dr Mark Whickman, two-person teams, working eight-hour shifts over a three-week period, were to watch the video displays and take notes on their observations. Every action, regardless of how subtle, were to be recorded into notebooks by the Pearl's team members.
After Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island, Nikki and Paulo
(Kiele Sanchez
and Rodrigo Santoro
) are the first survivors to encounter the Pearl, while searching for diamonds. Several weeks later, Locke and Mr. Eko
(Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
) enter the Pearl and watch the orientation video. Locke believes this means pushing the button in the Swan is a psychological test, and resolves to discover what will happen if it is not pushed. However, Desmond postulates in "Live Together, Die Alone" that the Pearl participants were the true test subjects without knowing it. This is supported when the survivors discover that the pneumatic tube dumps the notebooks into an open field; the contents of the notebooks indicate that they had been dumped there long before the station closed. During season three, some of the survivors visit the Pearl in hope of finding a way to communicate with the Others, but discover that the station is only capable of receiving data, not sending it.
", the Orchid station appears at first to be an abandoned greenhouse. Hidden below the greenhouse is a second level of the station, a furnished laboratory similar to the Swan station. The Orchid features a small chamber adjacent to an exotic matter anomaly, which can be used to warp time and space. An outtake from the orientation film was shown at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, where Doctor Edgar Halliwax explains that, contrary to Dharma's statements that the station was for botanical research, the station is used for researching a "Casimir effect
" exhibited by the Island. The producers have confirmed that the video is canon
, and holds relevance to the show itself.
Below the Orchid station is a room which consists of pillars and stones with unknown hieroglyphs that have been seen in a few other places on the Island, and ends with a room consisting of a giant frozen wheel built horizontally into the wall. As shown in "This Place is Death
", the chamber was in place well before the construction of the Orchid. A well was connected to it at one point before the Orchid was built, but the chamber itself predates it. Despite being under the Orchid, it has nothing to do with the DHARMA Initiative, nor did any member of DHARMA ever set foot in the room or touch the wheel. Ben and Locke enter the station and Ben travels to this room, where he turns the wheel. As he pushes it, the gap containing the wheel glows and the Island vanishes. Ben is transported to the Tunisian Desert as a consequence of using it. As a result of turning the wheel, the survivors of Flight 815 and the freighter crew members on the Island (who are all candidates to replace Jacob) begin to jump randomly through time. When Locke returns to the wheel in "This Place is Death", it is shown to be bouncing erratically and still glowing. Locke turns the wheel back to its original position, transporting himself off the Island to the same place Ben ended up. The time jumps also stop, stranding the survivors in 1974. Charles Widmore would later tell Locke that the Tunisian Desert is the "exit point" for anyone who uses the wheel.
In a flashback in "Because You Left
", Dr. Chang is called to investigate an incident at the Orchid. A construction worker is shown bleeding from his eyes and mouth, and six drill bits have been melted drilling into the future site of the chamber. Scans of the wall reveal the presence of another chamber with a wheel behind it. Chang refuses to use explosives to clear the wall, since it might release a limitless energy source. He believes that they will be able to control time if the energy can be harnessed properly.
After Claire Littleton
(Emilie de Ravin
) is kidnapped by the Others in season one, she is taken to the Staff station. Here she has a drug administered to her fetus. A renegade Other, Alex
(Tania Raymonde
), helps Claire to escape when she learns that they are planning to steal Claire's baby. When it is found by Claire and Kate later on, Kate discovers costumes, a fake beard, and some theatrical glue in the Staff locker room. In season three, Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) and Juliet Burke
(Elizabeth Mitchell
) visit the Staff station to perform an ultrasound to discover when Sun's baby was conceived. In season four, Faraday, Charlotte, Jin and Sun visit the station to get some medical supplies for Jack's operation.
). Its logo can be seen in the episode "Greatest Hits" when Charlie swims down to it. The Others were under the impression that the station was flooded. Only Ben knew that the station was still in operation and there were people working there.
In the season three finale, "Through The Looking Glass", Charlie Pace discovers that the rescue boat linked to Naomi, the parachute woman, was not sent out by Desmond Hume's ex-girlfriend Penny Widmore. Charlie locks the door to the control room when Mikhail shatters the porthole window, subsequently flooding the room. This prevents Desmond from getting to Charlie, thereby fulfilling Desmond's latest "premonition" (Charlie was meant to drown in the control room after disabling the jamming equipment). He quickly writes "Not Penny's Boat" on his hand and shows Desmond through the glass on the door.
". It is used to control the release of poisonous gases over the Island. In "The Other Woman", it was revealed that part of Daniel Faraday
's and Charlotte Staples Lewis' primary missions were to disable the gases at the station. They said they needed to press the button to save everyone, although they may have wanted to disable the station's gases to prevent Benjamin Linus from using the Tempest as a weapon of last resort against the Island's enemies.
The station's name is a reference to "The Tempest
", the title of one of William Shakespeare
's most famous plays. The play concerns a group of flawed and corrupt individuals being shipwrecked on a mysterious island. Incidentally, the Reduced Shakespeare Company
jokily referred to Lost as a combination of 'the TV show Survivor, the film Cast Away
, and the novel Lord of the Flies
, with a touch of both William Shakespeare's The Tempest
and Desert Island Discs
.'
under a church, built on top of a pocket of electromagnetic energy similar to that on the island. This station was used by the DHARMA Initiative to find the Island. As the island can move and is hard to locate, the researchers developed an equation to predict where the island would be in the future, thereby providing a window of opportunity to reach it. A large pendulum (resembling a Foucault Pendulum
) hangs from the ceiling making chalk marks on a map on the floor beneath, making a pattern with lines crossing a central point from almost every direction except up and down. Many computers surround the pendulum, along with a panel on the wall that marks latitude and longitude. The inside of the station first appears in the second episode of season five, "The Lie", though no explanation of its purpose (or that it is, in fact, a DHARMA station) is revealed until the following episode, "316". The computers also seem to be able to find data regarding the Island, for example how long the people who left the Island have to return before an unspecified catastrophe occurs (70 hours). It is unknown how this data is calculated or received. Eloise Hawking is currently in charge of the station, and uses it to help the Oceanic 6 return to the island with the assistance of Ben Linus.
The station's logo includes the traditional Dharma octagon-shape with a picture of what appears to be a lamp post emitting light to either side. This picture can also refer to the pendulum within the station as evidenced by the pointed tip in the picture.
was made in the 1980s, which may provide documentary with an appearance of being factual - although the presentation contains a healthy dose of humor. The videos contain new revelations about the DHARMA Initiative and the conspiracies that surround it.
During the Lost Experience, documents and other information were released to suggest that the management of the Foundation was scandalous and, in some cases, criminal. For example, some executives were revealed to have falsely reported the extent of their education in their biographies. One executive was caught in an extramarital affair. Others defended tobacco companies, nuclear power plants and an oil company that dumped chemical waste in Florida. Another executive was sentenced to eight years for insider trading which he subsidized through a retirement fund for a health care union.
In Half-Life 2: Episode Two
, players can find an Easter egg in the sixth chapter, "Our Mutual Fiend". It should be noted that in another twist which connects the two media, "Our Mutual Friend
" is a book that Desmond was saving to read just before his suicide in the Swan station on Lost. In Uriah's lab, there is an inaccessible room containing a computer terminal with the numbers shown on the screen and a Dharma-style octagon with a pine tree symbol for the White Forest base on the wall. The room was inserted at the request of Gabe Newell
, who promised to insert a reference to Lost in response to Half-Life references in Losts first season episode "The Greater Good".
In a scene of the U.S. version of The Office, in the episode "Initiation
", Dwight Schrute
asks Ryan Howard
, "What is the Dharma initiative?" This can be seen on the season 3 DVD.
In the 2010 Xbox 360
game Singularity
, an achievement can be gained by locating a hidden room behind the room where the last TMD upgrade is received. A glow is seen in a horizontal crack upon entering, and, when coming closer, a wheel is sticking out of the crack, at which point the achievement is gained entitled "The Wheel, will they ever explain this?"
In the 2008 movie Cloverfield
, which was produced by J.J. Abrams and the team that made Lost, a slight variation on the Dharma Initiative logo can briefly be seen in the opening of the movie. It is during the introduction of the film which states where the "video" about to be shown came from. It is only visible for a few frames on the lower right side of screen. It looks almost identical to the Pearl station logo.
In the Sholazar Basin area of Northrend in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft
, there is a hatch in the middle of an island (coordinates 38/37) in a lake. If the player highlights the window of the hatch, the numbers "5 9 16 17 24 43" appear, each number being one higher than the Lost numbers.
In Call of Duty: World at War
, in the Nazi Zombies level Verruckt, in the power room when the switch is pulled you can hear a voice saying the numbers and on the multiplayer map called Sub pen on the northern edge of the sub is the octagonal logo.
In Fallout 3
, the Numbers are the combination to a hatch-like safe hidden in the floor in Billy Creel's house. You cannot open it by just knowing the numbers, your character must learn them from the child living with him.
In 2009, The Fringemunks
released a song called "DHARMA Initiative" (a parody of Culture Club
's "Karma Chameleon
").
Popular Doctor Who fan site; Doctor Who Online
added a Dharma logo with the date 2004-2010 to commemorate the show's ending.
In the video game for X-Men Origins: Wolverine
, After you crash the jeep on the first level and continue, you reach an area with a barricaded gate. Climb over the rocks and go in. Defeat the enemies. Look for some boards over a small doorway off on one of the areas. Slice them up and enter to find "the hatch" on the ground near the back corner.
ThinkGeek
added a Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock to its product catalog, as one of its 2010 April Fools' Day
jokes.
Heuristic
Heuristic refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution, where an exhaustive search is impractical...
s and Research on Material Applications), was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation
Orientation (Lost)
"Orientation" is the third episode of the second season of Lost and the 28th episode overall. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Craig Wright...
". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science
Fringe science
Fringe science is scientific inquiry in an established field of study that departs significantly from mainstream or orthodox theories, and is classified in the "fringes" of a credible mainstream academic discipline....
. Dharma
Dharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
is a Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
term used in Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Jainism
Jainism
Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...
, and Sikhism
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
.
Background
The Dharma Initiative and its origins are first explored in the episode "Orientation" by an orientation film in the Swan Station. Dr. Pierre Chang (Francois ChauFrançois Chau
François Chau is a Cambodian-American actor. He is known for his role as Dr. Pierre Chang in ABC's Lost, and as The Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze....
), explains that the project began in 1970, created by two doctoral candidates from the University of Michigan, Gerald and Karen DeGroot (Michael Gilday and Courtney Lavigne), and was funded by Alvar Hanso (Ian Patrick Williams) of the Hanso Foundation. They imagined a "large-scale communal research compound", where scientists and free thinkers
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
from around the globe could research meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, parapsychology
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
, zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
, and a sixth discipline that the film begins to identify as "utopian social-" before being cut off.
The episodes "LaFleur
LaFleur (Lost)
"LaFleur" is the eighth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 94th episode of the show overall, "LaFleur" aired on March 4, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada...
" and "He's Our You
He's Our You
"He's Our You" is the tenth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 96th episode of the show overall, "He's Our You" aired on March 25, 2009 on ABC in the United States...
" indicate that mathematician Horace Goodspeed was in charge of Dharma Initiative operations on the Island, at least from the very early 1970s through the time of "the Incident." Key decisions that needed to be made on the Island were taken by a committee, which included all department heads, including Head of Research Stuart Radzinsky and security head LaFleur (the name the time-traveling Sawyer was assuming). They, in turn, answer to the Dharma Initiative HQ based at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, as evidenced when Radzinsky threatens to call the University to override a key decision by Goodspeed. In the episode "The Variable
The Variable
"The Variable" is the 14th television episode of the fifth season of Lost, and the 100th episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States on April 29, 2009. The hundredth episode milestone was celebrated by cast and crew on location in Hawaii...
", Daniel Faraday confirmed that Dharma Initiative Headquarters, at least through 1977, was located at Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
.
The "Lost Experience
Lost Experience
The Lost Experience was an alternate reality game that was part of the American television drama Lost. The game was developed by ABC in the United States, Channel 4 in the UK, and Channel 7 in Australia. It was written by Jordan Rosenberg and created by the agency Hi-ReS!...
", an alternate reality game
Alternate reality game
An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
which took place in 2006, revealed that the objective of the Dharma Initiative was to alter any of the six factors of the Valenzetti Equation, an equation which "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself," to allow humans to exist for longer by changing their doomsday. These factors are represented as numbers in the Valenzetti Equation and are also the numbers frequently mentioned in the show: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
In 1977, the Dharma workers based on the Island drilled into an electromagnetic pocket, releasing a catastrophically dangerous amount of electromagnetic energy. This is referred to as "the Incident" and is frequently alluded to in other Dharma Initiative sources. Radzinsky insisted on drilling despite warnings from Dr. Chang about the danger. In the Swan Station orientation film, recorded in 1980, Dr. Marvin Candle insists that the computer at the Swan Station not be used for any other purpose, specifically to communicate with other stations. When the Oceanic 815 survivors travel back in time to 1977, they attempt to negate the release of this energy by detonating the plutonium core of a hydrogen bomb. The bomb went off after Juliet hit it with a rock, causing a massive explosion that sent all of the time travelers back to 2007. The future was unchanged, which gives further proof to what Miles said about the bomb being the very cause of the Incident. Everything the people who were traveling through time did in their past was already accounted for, thus they could not change anything.
After the Incident, according to notes on the blast door map painted by Stuart Radzinsky in the Swan Station, the Dharma Initiative's facilities on the Island seemed to fall into disrepair. The blast door map has been annotated about destroyed access tunnels, a breakdown in the Cerberus Security System and mentions facilities being abandoned or destroyed via other incidents or accidents, specifically one happening on October 28, 1984, another in 1985, and a final one on December 7, 1987. By the time Danielle Rousseau and her crew shipwrecked on the Island, in 1988, many of the facilities on the Island had been abandoned, including the radio tower. At no point between then and the eventual purge of its members did the Dharma Initiative attempt a search and rescue for Danielle or her crew, despite Danielle broadcasting her own distress signal on a continuous loop from the tower for four years.
When the Dharma Initiative arrived on the Island, they fought with the Island's natives, known to them as the Hostiles and to the survivors of Flight 815 as the "Others
The Others (Lost)
The Others are a group of fictional characters who inhabit the mysterious island in the American television series Lost. Most serve as antagonists to the series' main characters, although more recently they seem less hostile to the survivors of Flight 815 and have become their allies to overcome...
". The "Hostiles" had been living on the Island long before the Initiative arrived. The Arrow Station was eventually given a mission to observe and formulate strategies to counter the Hostiles. When Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
) arrived on the Island in 1970, there was still an open conflict between the Hostiles and the Dharma Initiative. At some point prior to 1974, a truce of some kind was brokered with the Hostiles. A series of protocols were put into place between the Hostiles and the Initiative. Several episodes mention that there was a "line" and that certain parts of the Island were considered to be the "territory" of each group. This conflict ended in 1992, when Linus joined the Hostiles, who killed the Initiative, an event which became known as "The Purge". The bodies were buried in a mass grave.
In 2001, after Stuart Radzinsky's alleged suicide in The Swan, Kelvin Inman, a man who found Desmond adrift on the beach, was still working for the Dharma Initiative in the Swan station. Lost producer Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
confirms in a podcast that Kelvin was indeed a member of the Dharma Initiative. In the "Lost Experience", an actor portraying fictional Hanso Foundation executive Hugh McIntyre appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
, where he stated that the Foundation had stopped funding the Dharma Initiative in 1987. However, in season 2, an air drop of supplies arrived for the Swan station. As an airdrop would require a cargo plane, pilots, parachutes, a loadmaster, and the supplies themselves, this would suggest someone is still providing funding for its activities.
At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, a new ARG
Alternate reality game
An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
began with a booth recruiting new members to the Initiative. At the Lost panel, Hans van Eeghen, a Dharma executive, revealed that the results from the booth were "abysmal," and a few people had been selected to view a video that had been sent from thirty years in the past. In the video, Pierre Chang said that the work on the Island is valid, and it is essential that the Dharma Initiative is restarted. Following this a website was launched, which allowed users to join the Dharma Initiative.
Research stations
On the blast door map, there are 6 structures depicted, and at least 4 of them are labeled by name and icon like DHARMA stations: The Swan, The Flame, The Staff and The Arrow. The other structures are labeled by question marks or numbers. Two of the alleged stations are drawn with dotted lines. The 6 structures all surround a big circled question mark in the center of the map. At the top left, there is another structure (a 7th structure) which is scribbled out. The Swan Station's blast door map makes reference to a light manufacturing facility, a meteorological research station, station "CVII", and others that were never shown on the series.
Among the hatches on the southeast side of the map, there are 4 rectangular structures/labels that have "CVI","CVII","CVIII", and "CVIV" written on them. CV stands for Cerberus Vent, which was revealed in secret writing on the back of one of the Lost jigsaw puzzles. The Swan station's blast door map claims that there was, at one time, an underground tunnel network that connected many of the stations. Notations on the map suggest that the tunnels started falling into disrepair in the early 1980s, soon after the incident occurred.
In the episode "He's Our You
He's Our You
"He's Our You" is the tenth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 96th episode of the show overall, "He's Our You" aired on March 25, 2009 on ABC in the United States...
", during a meeting of Dharma Initiative heads, there were 14 members present, suggesting 14 separate divisions of the Dharma Initiative on the island.
Station 1: The Hydra
The Hydra is a zoological researchZoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
station located on a small island roughly two miles off-shore from the main island. It is described as being about twice the size of Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal...
. The Hydra facility has cage
Cage (enclosure)
A cage is an enclosure made of mesh, bars or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal in captivity, capturing, and being used for display of an animal at a zoo.-History:...
s outside the station in the jungle where polar bears used to be kept. An underwater complex was once used as an aquarium, which housed shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s and dolphins. The facility also features living and research quarters. The symbol for this station is the usual Dharma Initiative logo with a hydra in the middle, which can be seen on a large canopy behind Kate and Sawyer's cages in season 3.
At the start of season three, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are held captive on the Hydra island by the Others. Kate and Sawyer are forced to build a runway, until they manage to escape. In season two, a shark has the Dharma symbol branded on its tail. Also in season three episode "A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
", Tom
Tom (Lost)
Tom Friendly, often referred to as Tom or Mr. Friendly, is a recurring fictional character portrayed by M. C. Gainey on the American Broadcasting Company television series Lost. The series follows the lives of around forty survivors from the crash of Oceanic Flight 815...
comments that the polar bears that used to be housed in the cage Sawyer was being held in figured out the "food" puzzle in two hours. A leather collar bearing the Dharma Hydra symbol is found near a polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
in the Tunisian desert. In the fifth season, Ajira Airways Flight 316 makes a forced but overall safe landing on the Hydra island, landing on the runway built by the Others. In the fifth season episode "Some Like It Hoth
Some Like It Hoth
"Some Like It Hoth" is the 13th television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 99th episode of the show overall, "Some Like It Hoth" aired on April 15, 2009 on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by co-producer Melinda Hsu Taylor and "Eggtown" writer Greggory Nations and...
", Dr. Chang threatens to send an over-inquisitive Hurley to the Hydra Station to participate in their "ridiculous experiments" if he mentions a body delivered to Dr. Chang by Miles Straume
Miles Straume
Miles Straume is a fictional character played by Ken Leung on the ABC television series Lost. Miles is introduced early in the fourth season as a hotheaded and sarcastic medium as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana that is offshore the island where most of Lost takes place...
.
Station 2: The Arrow
The Arrow station is first seen in "...And Found...And Found
"...And Found" is the fifth episode of the second season of Lost, and the 30th episode overall. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof...
". In "Because You Left
Because You Left
"Because You Left" is the television season premiere of the American Broadcasting Company's fifth season of the serial drama television series Lost. The episode is the 87th episode of the show overall, and was written by executive producers/show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed...
", a flashback shows Chang doing the initial recording for the orientation film, where he explains that it is a station for monitoring the Hostiles and formulating strategies to combat them. He is interrupted before he can finish. In "The Man Behind the Curtain
The Man Behind the Curtain
"The Man Behind the Curtain" is the 20th episode of the 3rd season of Lost, and the 69th episode overall. It was first aired on May 9, 2007 on ABC. The episode was directed by Bobby Roth and written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Drew Goddard....
", flashbacks of the Dharma Initiative in operation on the Island show one of the members, Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchison
Doug Hutchison
Doug Anthony Hutchison is an American actor, known for his roles in The Green Mile, as corrections officer Percy Wetmore, Eugene Victor Tooms in The X-Files, as Horace Goodspeed in Lost and as Davros in 24. He owns the production company Dark Water Inc.-Personal life:Hutchison was born in Dover,...
), wearing a jumpsuit
Jumpsuit
Jumpsuit originally referred to the utilitarian one-piece garments used by parachuters/skydivers, but has come to be used as a common term for any one-piece garment with sleeves and legs.-Use:...
bearing the Arrow station logo with "mathematician" written below it. When rediscovered in 2004, the word "quarantine" appears on the inside of the station's door. In "LaFleur
LaFleur (Lost)
"LaFleur" is the eighth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 94th episode of the show overall, "LaFleur" aired on March 4, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada...
", Horace gives the order to notify the Arrow to "prepare the heavy ordnance" when he believes there is an imminent danger from the Hostiles.
When the tail section survivors come across the Arrow Station in "The Other 48 Days
The Other 48 Days
"The Other 48 Days" is the 32nd episode of Lost. It is the seventh episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Eric Laneuville, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse...
", it has apparently been converted into a storage room. Within, they find a radio, a glass eye, and part of the Swan station's orientation film hidden inside a Bible. Producers Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
and Damon Lindelof stated on a podcast that each object is significant, and not randomly chosen.
Station 3: The Swan
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
. In the episode "The Incident
The Incident (Lost)
"The Incident" is the season finale of the fifth season of ABC's Lost, consisting of its 16th and 17th episodes. Both parts of "The Incident", the show's 102nd and 103rd episodes overall, aired on May 13, 2009 on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by executive producers/showrunners...
", Dharma Initiative member Radzinsky claimed when complete, the Swan Station would allow manipulation of electromagnetism that "would change the world". According to the feature "Access Granted" on the third season Blu-ray, Dharma drilled into the earth and hit an area containing a large electromagnetic buildup, which their drilling released. The Swan was built over this area to act as a cork. Dharma then came up with a scheme to "dam" the leak but with the drawback that the field built up behind the dam and would eventually break it. A failsafe key could be used to permanently "seal" the leak. The specific event happened in July 1977, as revealed in "The Incident
The Incident (Lost)
"The Incident" is the season finale of the fifth season of ABC's Lost, consisting of its 16th and 17th episodes. Both parts of "The Incident", the show's 102nd and 103rd episodes overall, aired on May 13, 2009 on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by executive producers/showrunners...
", and necessitated the evacuation of the island.
On the station's orientation film, Doctor Marvin Candle explains that an "incident" occurred early in the station's experiments. An edit to the film, which according to Inman was made by Radzinsky, removed specific details of this incident. This event required the entire Swan station area to be sealed with a large amount of concrete "like Chernobyl" (according to Sayid and Daniel Faraday) to contain the dangerous energy. This caused a consistent build-up of electromagnetic energy, which resulted in a change of the station's focus: a two-member crew, replaced every 540 days, were instructed to enter a numeric code into a microcomputer
Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
terminal every 108 minutes. The station is equipped with a split-flap display
Split-flap display
A split-flap display, sometimes simply flap display, is a display device that presents alphanumeric text, and possibly fixed graphics, often used as a public transport timetable in some airports or railway stations, often called Solari boards, named after display manufacturer Solari di...
timer, which is interfaced to a microcomputer terminal and connected to an alarm system.
The station is stocked with food, a record player with a collection of old LPs, a small library, an armory, a shower, and bunk beds. There is also a brand new washer/dryer and one of the books in the library is "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy, published in 1998. It is almost entirely underground, except for an entrance shaft and a concealed door (possibly due to being hidden in the Hostiles territory). The station also has several internal blast doors, with a map in invisible ink on one of them. This map has been worked on by, at a minimum, Kelvin Inman and Radzinsky. Analysis of the map suggests no less than five unique handwriting styles, and thus five different contributors. The map has direct revision dates on it, and as well as the obvious map entry, also seems to serve as some sort of history to happenings on the island, as there are many annotations that seem to suggest the writers were attempting to locate and ascertain the status of many stations on the Island. There are sections that are written in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. Kelvin Inman is seen writing in the lower right hand part of the map in "Live Together, Die Alone", near a revision dated for 6.26.2002. There are also acrylic based paints and several murals painted in different portions of the hatch by unknown people as well as tick marks on the wall derived from them.
In the episode "Some Like It Hoth
Some Like It Hoth
"Some Like It Hoth" is the 13th television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 99th episode of the show overall, "Some Like It Hoth" aired on April 15, 2009 on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by co-producer Melinda Hsu Taylor and "Eggtown" writer Greggory Nations and...
", set in 1977, the Swan Station is shown to be under construction in an area designated as the Hostiles' territory, a violation of the truce Dharma had brokered with them, under the primary authority of Radzinsky. In the episode "The Incident
The Incident (Lost)
"The Incident" is the season finale of the fifth season of ABC's Lost, consisting of its 16th and 17th episodes. Both parts of "The Incident", the show's 102nd and 103rd episodes overall, aired on May 13, 2009 on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by executive producers/showrunners...
", Dharma hits the pocket, releasing the energy and drawing all metallic objects into the hole. The plutonium core of a hydrogen bomb is detonated by the survivors in an attempt to negate the energy. In "Live Together, Die Alone
Live Together, Die Alone
"Live Together, Die Alone" is the second season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 23rd and 24th episodes of the second season. It is also the 48th and 49th episodes overall. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and directed by Jack Bender. It first...
", Desmond Hume
Desmond Hume
Desmond David Hume is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick. Desmond's name is a tribute to David Hume, the famous empiricist author and philosopher. Desmond was not a passenger of Flight 815. He had been stranded on the island three years prior to...
(Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick is a Scottish-Peruvian actor of stage, television, and film. He is well-known for his role as Desmond Hume on the United States television series Lost, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination....
) shipwrecks on the Island in 2001 and is taken to the Swan station. Here Kelvin Inman explains about entering the numeric code then pushing the button to save the world. In September 2004, Kelvin and Desmond get into a fight, resulting in Kelvin's death. Desmond enters the numbers too late, resulting in an electromagnetic build-up, which causes the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Two of the survivors, Locke
John Locke (Lost)
John Locke is a fictional character played by Terry O'Quinn on the ABC television series Lost. He is named after English philosopher John Locke...
(Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
) and Boone
Boone Carlyle
Boone Carlyle is a fictional character played by Ian Somerhalder on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the south Pacific. Boone is introduced in the pilot episode as the stepbrother of fellow crash survivor Shannon Rutherford...
(Ian Somerhalder
Ian Somerhalder
Ian Joseph Somerhalder is an American model, actor and producer, best known for playing Boone Carlyle in the TV drama Lost and Damon Salvatore in the TV drama The Vampire Diaries.-Early life:...
), discover the Swan accidentally. Locke manages to successfully open it in the first season finale "Exodus
Exodus (Lost)
"Exodus" is the first season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 23rd through 25th episodes of the first season and the show overall. The episodes were directed by Jack Bender, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. "Part 1" first aired on May 18, 2005 and "Part 2"...
". Inside they find Desmond, who flees after they break the computer. The survivors manage to fix the computer, and begin pushing the button every 108 minutes.
After discovering the Pearl orientation film, Locke believes pushing the button is a psychological test, and with Desmond's help decides to find out what will happen if the button is not pushed. Desmond tries to convince Locke that the station is real, with data from the Pearl, but Locke breaks the computer anyway so he can't stop the countdown. This causes all the metal objects in the Swan to fly about, and the ground begins to shake. Realizing the importance of the button Locke accepts he was wrong, and Desmond turns the failsafe key. The sky turns violet temporarily, and the Swan is destroyed. The electromagnetic burst released by the destruction of the Swan Station renders the island momentarily visible to the outside world. The energy signature is detected by a monitoring station under the control of Penelope Widmore, which reported to her that they had "found the island."
The Incident Room
In the video game Lost: Via Domus, the Incident Room is the abandoned laboratory revealed to be on the other side of the concrete wall in the Swan. The room was accessed by a tunnel and a large locked door. The room contains a large reactor and other severely-damaged equipment. The reactor is tilted to one side and discharging electricity as well as coolant fluid. It has the appearance of two large electromagnetic coils suspended over a drilled shaft into the Island surrounded by severely damaged concrete. The Incident Room has its own computer much like the Swan's. This section of the Swan appeared on the blast door map as a blocked off section of the station ("LockdownLockdown (Lost)
"Lockdown" is the 42nd episode of Lost. It is the 17th episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It first aired on March 29, 2006 on ABC...
"), but was never seen in the show itself.
The Incident Room has been mentioned several times in Lost. When Sayid first visited the Swan he tried to find a way past the concrete wall, but it was just too thick to get through. Sayid told Jack that "The last time I heard of concrete being poured over everything in this way was Chernobyl
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
," ("Everybody Hates Hugo
Everybody Hates Hugo
"Everybody Hates Hugo" is the fourth episode of the second season of the American drama television series Lost, and the show's 29th episode overall. The episode was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and directed by Alan Taylor...
").
The look and design for the "Incident Room" came from never before seen blueprints given to the developers by the Lost crew for the game. Although the game has been stated to be non-canon, the designs are the creators' intended layout for the blocked sections of the Swan station.
Station 4: The Flame
The Flame is the Dharma Initiative's communication station. It uses sonar and satellite technologies to communicate with the outside world and other stations on the Island, and can also be used to order food deliveries. Unlike the other stations, the Flame is not an underground bunker, but rather a wood-frame bungalow with a large satellite dishSatellite dish
A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive microwaves from communications satellites, which transmit data transmissions or broadcasts, such as satellite television.-Principle of operation:...
on the roof. Inside the station is a living area, a kitchen, and a computer room. Below the building is a large basement containing supplies, including a library of Dharma Initiative operations manuals. The facility also boasts several gardens, as well as chickens, cows, and goats roaming the area.
On the day Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island, Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff
Andrew Divoff
Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuelan film and television actor, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the two first Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.- Early life :Divoff was...
) uses the station to access news feeds to gather information about the survivors. At Ben's request he alters one of the feeds to allow Juliet to see her sister and nephew alive and well off the Island. At some point after this, communication off the Island is no longer possible, as the Looking Glass is blocking all signals. In "Enter 77
Enter 77
"Enter 77" is the 11th episode of the third season of Lost, and the 60th episode overall. It was aired on March 7, 2007. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Stephen Williams. The character of Sayid Jarrah was featured in the episode's...
", Kate Austen
Kate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
(Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.-Early life:...
), Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
(Naveen Andrews
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British American actor. He is best known for portraying Kip in the movie The English Patient and Sayid Jarrah on the American television series Lost.-Early life:...
), and Locke discover the station. Locke uses the computer to send a message saying the Hostiles have invaded the station, and by doing so he intentionally destroys it by causing the C4 lining the basement to go off. As shown in "LaFleur
LaFleur (Lost)
"LaFleur" is the eighth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 94th episode of the show overall, "LaFleur" aired on March 4, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada...
", Radzinsky was stationed at the Flame in 1977, where he designed the model for the future Swan Station.
Station 5: The Pearl
The Pearl is where the Dharma Initiative studied psychologyPsychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. It primarily serves as a monitoring station, to which surveillance feeds from the other stations are sent. Its orientation film asserts that the Swan is a psychological experiment, and that the purpose of those stationed in the Pearl is to monitor the participants in that station. The station consists of a three-by-three bank of television sets, two chairs with writing surfaces, and a computer hooked to a printer. A pneumatic tube
Pneumatic tube
Pneumatic tubes are systems in which cylindrical containers are propelled through a network of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum...
is installed in the room, which the orientation film states is used to transport notebooks to another Dharma location. According to the orientation film that features Dr Mark Whickman, two-person teams, working eight-hour shifts over a three-week period, were to watch the video displays and take notes on their observations. Every action, regardless of how subtle, were to be recorded into notebooks by the Pearl's team members.
After Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island, Nikki and Paulo
Nikki and Paulo
Nikki Fernandez and Paulo are fictional characters on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the south Pacific...
(Kiele Sanchez
Kiele Sanchez
Kiele Michelle Sanchez is an American actress who stars in the A&E Network drama The Glades. Previously she starred as the second-eldest Sorelli sister, Anne, a therapist in her mid-twenties, in The WB's comedic ensemble drama, Related. She was cast as a co-star in the third season of the ABC...
and Rodrigo Santoro
Rodrigo Santoro
Rodrigo Junqueira dos Reis Santoro is a Brazilian actor.-Life and career:Santoro was born in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. He is of half Brazilian and half Italian descent. In 1993, as Santoro was studying Journalism at PUC-Rio, he entered the Actor's Workshop of Rede Globo...
) are the first survivors to encounter the Pearl, while searching for diamonds. Several weeks later, Locke and Mr. Eko
Mr. Eko
Mr. Eko Tunde is a fictional character, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on the ABC television series Lost. He is introduced in the second season episode "Adrift" as one of the plane-crash survivors from the plane's tail section. Flashbacks reveal that he became the leader of a gang of guerrillas...
(Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is a British actor, and former fashion model best known for his roles as Mr. Eko on Lost, Simon Adebisi on Oz and Nykwana Wombosi in The Bourne Identity.-Early life and career:...
) enter the Pearl and watch the orientation video. Locke believes this means pushing the button in the Swan is a psychological test, and resolves to discover what will happen if it is not pushed. However, Desmond postulates in "Live Together, Die Alone" that the Pearl participants were the true test subjects without knowing it. This is supported when the survivors discover that the pneumatic tube dumps the notebooks into an open field; the contents of the notebooks indicate that they had been dumped there long before the station closed. During season three, some of the survivors visit the Pearl in hope of finding a way to communicate with the Others, but discover that the station is only capable of receiving data, not sending it.
Station 6: The Orchid
Introduced in the three-part finale of the fourth season, "There's No Place Like HomeThere's No Place Like Home
"There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1, 2 & 3" is the season finale of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost, consisting of the 12th through 14th episodes. They are also the 84th through 86th episodes of the show overall...
", the Orchid station appears at first to be an abandoned greenhouse. Hidden below the greenhouse is a second level of the station, a furnished laboratory similar to the Swan station. The Orchid features a small chamber adjacent to an exotic matter anomaly, which can be used to warp time and space. An outtake from the orientation film was shown at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, where Doctor Edgar Halliwax explains that, contrary to Dharma's statements that the station was for botanical research, the station is used for researching a "Casimir effect
Casimir effect
In quantum field theory, the Casimir effect and the Casimir–Polder force are physical forces arising from a quantized field. The typical example is of two uncharged metallic plates in a vacuum, like capacitors placed a few micrometers apart, without any external electromagnetic field...
" exhibited by the Island. The producers have confirmed that the video is canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
, and holds relevance to the show itself.
Below the Orchid station is a room which consists of pillars and stones with unknown hieroglyphs that have been seen in a few other places on the Island, and ends with a room consisting of a giant frozen wheel built horizontally into the wall. As shown in "This Place is Death
This Place is Death
"This Place Is Death" is the fifth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 91st episode of the show overall, "This Place Is Death" aired on February 11, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada...
", the chamber was in place well before the construction of the Orchid. A well was connected to it at one point before the Orchid was built, but the chamber itself predates it. Despite being under the Orchid, it has nothing to do with the DHARMA Initiative, nor did any member of DHARMA ever set foot in the room or touch the wheel. Ben and Locke enter the station and Ben travels to this room, where he turns the wheel. As he pushes it, the gap containing the wheel glows and the Island vanishes. Ben is transported to the Tunisian Desert as a consequence of using it. As a result of turning the wheel, the survivors of Flight 815 and the freighter crew members on the Island (who are all candidates to replace Jacob) begin to jump randomly through time. When Locke returns to the wheel in "This Place is Death", it is shown to be bouncing erratically and still glowing. Locke turns the wheel back to its original position, transporting himself off the Island to the same place Ben ended up. The time jumps also stop, stranding the survivors in 1974. Charles Widmore would later tell Locke that the Tunisian Desert is the "exit point" for anyone who uses the wheel.
In a flashback in "Because You Left
Because You Left
"Because You Left" is the television season premiere of the American Broadcasting Company's fifth season of the serial drama television series Lost. The episode is the 87th episode of the show overall, and was written by executive producers/show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed...
", Dr. Chang is called to investigate an incident at the Orchid. A construction worker is shown bleeding from his eyes and mouth, and six drill bits have been melted drilling into the future site of the chamber. Scans of the wall reveal the presence of another chamber with a wheel behind it. Chang refuses to use explosives to clear the wall, since it might release a limitless energy source. He believes that they will be able to control time if the energy can be harnessed properly.
Station ?: The Staff
The Staff is a medical research station, later designed to house pregnant women who were taken there to give birth and/or die. It consists of a long corridor, at the end of which is an operating room, as well as a nursery and a locker room. Hidden inside one of the lockers is a switch that unlocks a hidden vault that contains medical equipment and nursery furniture. There is also another hidden room, where the Others take women who have become pregnant on the Island to die.After Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her...
(Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin born 27 December 1981)is an Australian actress. She is commonly associated with her roles as Tess Harding on Roswell and Claire Littleton on the ABC drama Lost....
) is kidnapped by the Others in season one, she is taken to the Staff station. Here she has a drug administered to her fetus. A renegade Other, Alex
Alex (Lost)
Alexandra "Alex" Linus is a recurring fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Tania Raymonde. She was born 16 years prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, but was taken from her mother, Danielle Rousseau by the Others. She was raised among them, believing her mother to...
(Tania Raymonde
Tania Raymonde
Tania Raymonde is an American actress. Raymonde's first prominent casting role was the recurring character of Cynthia Sanders in TV series Malcolm in the Middle between 2000–2003, followed by a popular role as Alex Rousseau in ABC's Lost from 2006 to 2010.She can currently be seen as UTF officer...
), helps Claire to escape when she learns that they are planning to steal Claire's baby. When it is found by Claire and Kate later on, Kate discovers costumes, a fake beard, and some theatrical glue in the Staff locker room. In season three, Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) and Juliet Burke
Juliet Burke
Dr. Juliet Burke is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Elizabeth Mitchell. Her character was introduced in the third season premiere.- Prior to arrival on the island :...
(Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell , is an American actress/modelwho is known for her roles as Dr. Juliet Burke on ABC's TV series Lost and as FBI agent Erica Evans on V. She has starred in such films as The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Gia.-Early life:Mitchell was born Elizabeth...
) visit the Staff station to perform an ultrasound to discover when Sun's baby was conceived. In season four, Faraday, Charlotte, Jin and Sun visit the station to get some medical supplies for Jack's operation.
Station ?: The Looking Glass
The Looking Glass is located on the sea-bed at approximately 60 feet (18m) depth, some 600 feet (182m) from the beach. The station is used to jam communications going to and from the Island, as well as generating a beacon to guide the submarine to the Island. When the Dharma Initiative was still active, the Looking Glass was used to resupply the submarine. The station receives power from the cable that Sayid discovered in the episode "Solitary". The station's logo is a rabbit, a reference to the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland (the sequel to which is Through the Looking-GlassThrough the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
). Its logo can be seen in the episode "Greatest Hits" when Charlie swims down to it. The Others were under the impression that the station was flooded. Only Ben knew that the station was still in operation and there were people working there.
In the season three finale, "Through The Looking Glass", Charlie Pace discovers that the rescue boat linked to Naomi, the parachute woman, was not sent out by Desmond Hume's ex-girlfriend Penny Widmore. Charlie locks the door to the control room when Mikhail shatters the porthole window, subsequently flooding the room. This prevents Desmond from getting to Charlie, thereby fulfilling Desmond's latest "premonition" (Charlie was meant to drown in the control room after disabling the jamming equipment). He quickly writes "Not Penny's Boat" on his hand and shows Desmond through the glass on the door.
Station ?: The Tempest
The Tempest is a chemical weapons development station on the Island, first seen in the episode "The Other WomanThe Other Woman
The Other Woman , is a 1995 made-for-TV movie that follows dying mother Tessa Bryan's attempts to gain the acceptance of her two young daughters Lara and Kate of her husband Michael's second wife Carolyn. To do so, she takes them on a trip across the country to their father's ranch...
". It is used to control the release of poisonous gases over the Island. In "The Other Woman", it was revealed that part of Daniel Faraday
Daniel Faraday
Dr. Daniel Faraday, often referred to as Dan or simply by his surname, Faraday, is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jeremy Davies. Faraday is introduced in the season four premiere as a physicist, suffering from memory loss, and is part of the team aboard the ...
's and Charlotte Staples Lewis' primary missions were to disable the gases at the station. They said they needed to press the button to save everyone, although they may have wanted to disable the station's gases to prevent Benjamin Linus from using the Tempest as a weapon of last resort against the Island's enemies.
The station's name is a reference to "The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
", the title of one of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's most famous plays. The play concerns a group of flawed and corrupt individuals being shipwrecked on a mysterious island. Incidentally, the Reduced Shakespeare Company
Reduced Shakespeare Company
The Reduced Shakespeare Company is an American acting troupe that writes and performs unsubtle, fast-paced, seemingly improvisational condensations of huge topics.- Overview :...
jokily referred to Lost as a combination of 'the TV show Survivor, the film Cast Away
Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
, and the novel Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
, with a touch of both William Shakespeare's The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
and Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
.'
Station 7: The Lamp Post
The Lamp Post is the only known off-island Dharma station. It is located in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
under a church, built on top of a pocket of electromagnetic energy similar to that on the island. This station was used by the DHARMA Initiative to find the Island. As the island can move and is hard to locate, the researchers developed an equation to predict where the island would be in the future, thereby providing a window of opportunity to reach it. A large pendulum (resembling a Foucault Pendulum
Foucault pendulum
The Foucault pendulum , or Foucault's pendulum, named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, is a simple device conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. While it had long been known that the Earth rotated, the introduction of the Foucault pendulum in 1851 was the...
) hangs from the ceiling making chalk marks on a map on the floor beneath, making a pattern with lines crossing a central point from almost every direction except up and down. Many computers surround the pendulum, along with a panel on the wall that marks latitude and longitude. The inside of the station first appears in the second episode of season five, "The Lie", though no explanation of its purpose (or that it is, in fact, a DHARMA station) is revealed until the following episode, "316". The computers also seem to be able to find data regarding the Island, for example how long the people who left the Island have to return before an unspecified catastrophe occurs (70 hours). It is unknown how this data is calculated or received. Eloise Hawking is currently in charge of the station, and uses it to help the Oceanic 6 return to the island with the assistance of Ben Linus.
The station's logo includes the traditional Dharma octagon-shape with a picture of what appears to be a lamp post emitting light to either side. This picture can also refer to the pendulum within the station as evidenced by the pointed tip in the picture.
Mysteries of the Universe
Starting on July 23, 2009, ABC's official Lost website started posting a 5 part documentary from lost footage from a short-lived 1980s television series "Mysteries of the Universe". The brand and its episodes were created by ABC and the Lost team in 2009 as a promotion for the final season of the show. A documentary series with a similar nameUnsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
was made in the 1980s, which may provide documentary with an appearance of being factual - although the presentation contains a healthy dose of humor. The videos contain new revelations about the DHARMA Initiative and the conspiracies that surround it.
Appearances in Lost
| Station | First seen in | First visit (onscreen) | Last seen in | Name given in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Station 1: The Hydra | "A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (Lost) "A Tale of Two Cities" is the third season premiere, and 50th episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company's serial drama television series Lost. The episode was written by co-creators/executive producers J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, based on a story by Lindelof and directed by... " (3.01) |
"A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (Lost) "A Tale of Two Cities" is the third season premiere, and 50th episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company's serial drama television series Lost. The episode was written by co-creators/executive producers J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, based on a story by Lindelof and directed by... " (3.01) |
"The New Man in Charge The New Man in Charge "The New Man in Charge" is the epilogue of ABC's serial drama television series Lost. It was written by Melinda Hsu Taylor, Graham Roland and Jim Galasso, and directed by Paul Edwards. The epilogue was released on August 24, 2010 on both the Complete Sixth Season DVD and the Complete Collection... " (Epilogue) |
"A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (Lost) "A Tale of Two Cities" is the third season premiere, and 50th episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company's serial drama television series Lost. The episode was written by co-creators/executive producers J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, based on a story by Lindelof and directed by... " (3.01) |
| Station 2: The Arrow | "Everybody Hates Hugo Everybody Hates Hugo "Everybody Hates Hugo" is the fourth episode of the second season of the American drama television series Lost, and the show's 29th episode overall. The episode was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and directed by Alan Taylor... " (2.04) |
"The Other 48 Days The Other 48 Days "The Other 48 Days" is the 32nd episode of Lost. It is the seventh episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Eric Laneuville, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse... " (2.07) |
"The Other 48 Days The Other 48 Days "The Other 48 Days" is the 32nd episode of Lost. It is the seventh episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Eric Laneuville, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse... " (2.07) |
"Lockdown Lockdown (Lost) "Lockdown" is the 42nd episode of Lost. It is the 17th episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It first aired on March 29, 2006 on ABC... " (2.17) |
| Station 3: The Swan | "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" is the eleventh episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams and written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach. It first aired on December 8, 2004, on the American Broadcasting Company... " (1.11) |
"Man of Science, Man of Faith Man of Science, Man of Faith "Man of Science, Man of Faith" is the first episode of the second season of Lost and the 26th episode overall. The episode was directed by Jack Bender and written by Damon Lindelof. It first aired on September 21, 2005 on ABC. The flashbacks focus on Jack Shephard's struggle to heal Sarah, who... " (2.01) |
"LA X LA X "LA X" comprises the 104th and 105th episodes of the American Broadcasting Company's Lost, marking the premiere of the sixth and final season. It was written by show runners/executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by executive producer Jack Bender... " (6.01 & 6.02) |
"Orientation Orientation (Lost) "Orientation" is the third episode of the second season of Lost and the 28th episode overall. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Craig Wright... " (2.03) |
| Station 4: The Flame | "The Cost of Living The Cost of Living (Lost) "The Cost of Living" is the 5th episode of the third season of Lost, and the 54th episode overall. It aired on November 1, 2006 in the US and on December 17, 2006 in the UK. The episode was written by Monica Breen and Alison Schapker and directed by Jack Bender. The character of Mr... " (3.05) |
"Enter 77 Enter 77 "Enter 77" is the 11th episode of the third season of Lost, and the 60th episode overall. It was aired on March 7, 2007. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Stephen Williams. The character of Sayid Jarrah was featured in the episode's... " (3.11) |
"Namaste Namaste (Lost) "Namaste" is the ninth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 95th episode of the show overall, "Namaste" aired on March 18, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada. The episode was written by supervising producer Paul Zbyszewski and producer Brian K... " (5.09) |
"Lockdown Lockdown (Lost) "Lockdown" is the 42nd episode of Lost. It is the 17th episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It first aired on March 29, 2006 on ABC... " (2.17) |
| Station 5: The Pearl | "? ? (Lost) "?", typically pronounced "Question Mark" is the 46th episode of Lost and the 21st episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Deran Sarafian, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. It first aired on May 10, 2006 on ABC. The character of Mr. Eko is featured in the episode's... " (2.21) |
"? ? (Lost) "?", typically pronounced "Question Mark" is the 46th episode of Lost and the 21st episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Deran Sarafian, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. It first aired on May 10, 2006 on ABC. The character of Mr. Eko is featured in the episode's... " (2.21) |
"Exposé Exposé (Lost) "Exposé" is the 14th episode of the 3rd season and 63rd episode overall of the American Broadcasting Company 's serial drama television series Lost. It was aired as on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada on March 28, 2007... " (3.14) |
"? ? (Lost) "?", typically pronounced "Question Mark" is the 46th episode of Lost and the 21st episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Deran Sarafian, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. It first aired on May 10, 2006 on ABC. The character of Mr. Eko is featured in the episode's... " (2.21) |
| Station 6: The Orchid | Comic Con orientation film and "There's No Place Like Home There's No Place Like Home "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1, 2 & 3" is the season finale of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost, consisting of the 12th through 14th episodes. They are also the 84th through 86th episodes of the show overall... " (4.14) |
"There's No Place Like Home There's No Place Like Home "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1, 2 & 3" is the season finale of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost, consisting of the 12th through 14th episodes. They are also the 84th through 86th episodes of the show overall... " (4.14) |
"The Variable The Variable "The Variable" is the 14th television episode of the fifth season of Lost, and the 100th episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States on April 29, 2009. The hundredth episode milestone was celebrated by cast and crew on location in Hawaii... " (5.14) |
Comic Con orientation film |
| Station ?: The Lamp Post | "The Lie The Lie (Lost) "The Lie" is the second episode of the fifth season of ABC's science fiction drama television series Lost. The 88th episode of the show overall, "The Lie" aired on January 21, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada. It aired immediately after the previous episode, "Because... " (5.02) |
"316 316 (Lost) "316" is the sixth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 92nd episode of the show overall, "316" aired on February 18, 2009 on ABC in the United States, and was simulcast on A in Canada... " (5.06) |
"316 316 (Lost) "316" is the sixth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 92nd episode of the show overall, "316" aired on February 18, 2009 on ABC in the United States, and was simulcast on A in Canada... " (5.06) |
"316 316 (Lost) "316" is the sixth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 92nd episode of the show overall, "316" aired on February 18, 2009 on ABC in the United States, and was simulcast on A in Canada... " (5.06) |
| Station ?: The Staff | "Maternity Leave Maternity Leave (Lost) "Maternity Leave" is the 15th episode of the second season of Lost,and the 40th episode overall. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Dawn Lambertsen Kelly and Matt Ragghianti. It first aired on March 1, 2006 on ABC... " (2.15) |
"Maternity Leave Maternity Leave (Lost) "Maternity Leave" is the 15th episode of the second season of Lost,and the 40th episode overall. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Dawn Lambertsen Kelly and Matt Ragghianti. It first aired on March 1, 2006 on ABC... " (2.15) |
"Something Nice Back Home" (4.10) | "Lockdown Lockdown (Lost) "Lockdown" is the 42nd episode of Lost. It is the 17th episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It first aired on March 29, 2006 on ABC... " (2.17) |
| Station ?: The Looking Glass | "Greatest Hits Greatest Hits (Lost) "Greatest Hits" is the 21st episode of the third season of Lost and 70th episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by supervising producer Stephen Williams. The episode first aired on May 16, 2007 on ABC in the United States and... " (3.21) |
"Greatest Hits Greatest Hits (Lost) "Greatest Hits" is the 21st episode of the third season of Lost and 70th episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by supervising producer Stephen Williams. The episode first aired on May 16, 2007 on ABC in the United States and... " (3.21) |
"Through the Looking Glass Through the Looking Glass (Lost) "Through the Looking Glass" is the third season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 22nd and 23rd episodes of the third season. It is also the 71st and 72nd episodes overall. It was written by co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse,... " (3.22) |
"Greatest Hits Greatest Hits (Lost) "Greatest Hits" is the 21st episode of the third season of Lost and 70th episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by supervising producer Stephen Williams. The episode first aired on May 16, 2007 on ABC in the United States and... " (3.21) |
| Station ?: The Tempest | "The Other Woman The Other Woman (Lost) "The Other Woman" is the 78th episode of the serial drama television series Lost and the sixth episode of the show's fourth season. It aired on March 6, 2008 on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew... " (4.06) |
"The Other Woman The Other Woman (Lost) "The Other Woman" is the 78th episode of the serial drama television series Lost and the sixth episode of the show's fourth season. It aired on March 6, 2008 on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew... " (4.06) |
"The Other Woman The Other Woman (Lost) "The Other Woman" is the 78th episode of the serial drama television series Lost and the sixth episode of the show's fourth season. It aired on March 6, 2008 on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew... " (4.06) |
"The Other Woman The Other Woman (Lost) "The Other Woman" is the 78th episode of the serial drama television series Lost and the sixth episode of the show's fourth season. It aired on March 6, 2008 on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew... " (4.06) |
Hanso Foundation
The Hanso Foundation, founded by Danish arms dealer Alvar Hanso, is the major benefactor of the Dharma Initiative. Nearly all information about the Foundation is drawn from its Web site, thehansofoundation.org, with further background revealed as part of the alternate reality game, the Lost Experience.During the Lost Experience, documents and other information were released to suggest that the management of the Foundation was scandalous and, in some cases, criminal. For example, some executives were revealed to have falsely reported the extent of their education in their biographies. One executive was caught in an extramarital affair. Others defended tobacco companies, nuclear power plants and an oil company that dumped chemical waste in Florida. Another executive was sentenced to eight years for insider trading which he subsidized through a retirement fund for a health care union.
In popular culture
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Half-Life 2: Episode Two is the second episode in a series of sequels to the 2004 first-person shooter video game Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation in tandem with Episode One, the first game in the series, and released in Q4 2007 via Valve's Steam content distribution platform...
, players can find an Easter egg in the sixth chapter, "Our Mutual Fiend". It should be noted that in another twist which connects the two media, "Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" but is also about human...
" is a book that Desmond was saving to read just before his suicide in the Swan station on Lost. In Uriah's lab, there is an inaccessible room containing a computer terminal with the numbers shown on the screen and a Dharma-style octagon with a pine tree symbol for the White Forest base on the wall. The room was inserted at the request of Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell
Gabe Logan Newell is the co-founder and managing director of video game development and online distribution company Valve Corporation.-Work:...
, who promised to insert a reference to Lost in response to Half-Life references in Losts first season episode "The Greater Good".
In a scene of the U.S. version of The Office, in the episode "Initiation
Initiation (The Office episode)
"Initiation" is the fifth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series The Office—the show's 33rd overall. Written by B. J...
", Dwight Schrute
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III is a character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. He originally exactly resembled Gareth Keenan from the original UK version of The Office. Dwight is the top salesman and former acting manager for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for...
asks Ryan Howard
Ryan Howard
Ryan James Howard is a Major League Baseball first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. Nicknamed "The Big Piece", Howard stands and weighs . He bats and throws left-handed....
, "What is the Dharma initiative?" This can be seen on the season 3 DVD.
In the 2010 Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
game Singularity
Singularity (video game)
Singularity received generally favorable reviews. On review aggregator website Metacritic, Singularity received a rating of 76 for the PC and Xbox 360 versions, and 77 for the PlayStation 3 version...
, an achievement can be gained by locating a hidden room behind the room where the last TMD upgrade is received. A glow is seen in a horizontal crack upon entering, and, when coming closer, a wheel is sticking out of the crack, at which point the achievement is gained entitled "The Wheel, will they ever explain this?"
In the 2008 movie Cloverfield
Cloverfield
Cloverfield is a 2008 American disaster-monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams and written by Drew Goddard.The film follows six young New Yorkers attending a going-away party on the night that a gigantic monster attacks the city...
, which was produced by J.J. Abrams and the team that made Lost, a slight variation on the Dharma Initiative logo can briefly be seen in the opening of the movie. It is during the introduction of the film which states where the "video" about to be shown came from. It is only visible for a few frames on the lower right side of screen. It looks almost identical to the Pearl station logo.
In the Sholazar Basin area of Northrend in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
, there is a hatch in the middle of an island (coordinates 38/37) in a lake. If the player highlights the window of the hatch, the numbers "5 9 16 17 24 43" appear, each number being one higher than the Lost numbers.
In Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is generally considered to be the fifth mainstream game of the Call of Duty series and returns the setting to World War II. The game was...
, in the Nazi Zombies level Verruckt, in the power room when the switch is pulled you can hear a voice saying the numbers and on the multiplayer map called Sub pen on the northern edge of the sub is the octagonal logo.
In Fallout 3
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
, the Numbers are the combination to a hatch-like safe hidden in the floor in Billy Creel's house. You cannot open it by just knowing the numbers, your character must learn them from the child living with him.
In 2009, The Fringemunks
The Fringemunks
The Fringemunks are a music group created by Seattle musician David Wu in 2008 consisting of three "cloned" anthropomorphic chipmunks: Feebo, Notchy and Pie. They are known mostly for recapping all episodes of Fox television series Fringe with song parodies...
released a song called "DHARMA Initiative" (a parody of Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
's "Karma Chameleon
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by British New Wave band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The song spent three weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US #1 among their many top ten hits...
").
Popular Doctor Who fan site; Doctor Who Online
Doctor Who Online
Doctor Who Online is a UK-based news, information, and forum site dedicated to the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The website was created by actor and Science Fiction fan Sebastian J...
added a Dharma logo with the date 2004-2010 to commemorate the show's ending.
In the video game for X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 American action film based on the Marvel Comics' fictional character Wolverine. The fourth installment in the X-Men film series, it was released worldwide on May 1, 2009...
, After you crash the jeep on the first level and continue, you reach an area with a barricaded gate. Climb over the rocks and go in. Defeat the enemies. Look for some boards over a small doorway off on one of the areas. Slice them up and enter to find "the hatch" on the ground near the back corner.
ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek is an American online retailer that caters to computer enthusiasts and other "geeky" social groups. Their merchandise includes clothing, electronic and scientific gadgets, unusual computer peripherals, office toys, pet toys, child toys, and caffeinated drinks and candy...
added a Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock to its product catalog, as one of its 2010 April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different countries around the world on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness...
jokes.