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Does time pass differently on The Island?

In "The Glass Ballerina" it was revealed by Benjamin Linus that The Others have the ability to contact the outside world.

This is illustrated by the following conversation at the end of the episode:

It is a possibility that Ben is hiding the truth in a lie. The Others do have access to the outside world. And today is November 29th - on The Island.

In the episode Confirmed Dead, the new character Charlotte Staples Lewis is introduced. Her name is a reference to author C. S. Lewis who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. In those books, time passes in Narnia at a different rate - what seems like months and years in Narnia is only minutes in the outside world, and months passing in the outside world is a thousand years in Narnia.

In the episode The Economist, it becomes more apparent that there is some sort of time differential between the island and the outside world. When Daniel Faraday performs a timing experiment. He coordinates with his fellow team-member Regina to send a test payload from the freighter to a beacon he has constructed on the island. When the payload is launched, it contains a clock that is in sync with a clock in Daniel's possession. According to her transmissions, her equipment indicates that the payload travels the 80km distance in approximately 20 seconds. However, Daniel, Jack and Frank do not see the payload arrive until 1,880 seconds later (30 minutes, 20 seconds). This indicates a factor of 1:94 in the time difference between outside world and the island. In other words, if this ratio holds constant, for every second that passes on the outside world, over a minute-and-a-half would pass on the island. Additionally, for every day that passed on the outside world, over three months would pass on the island.

In "The Shape of Things to Come" Doctor Ray's body washes up on shore (day 97 or December 27th, 2004). In "Cabin Fever," which would be day 99 on the island, or December 29th, Doctor Ray is killed on the freighter. Because we have no indication on how fast the doctor's body could travel from the freighter to the island, there is no way to know exactly what this means in regards to the time split.

Hanso's Life Extension Project

It is well known that the Life Extension Project is one of the current active projects of The Hanso Foundation.

There are currently a number of theories about the LEP including that the Vaccine is a drug that enables it.

It is a possibility, however, that the LEP is in fact The Island itself.

In the article titled LIVE AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON: ABC'S 'LOST' (by Brian Ford Sullivan) (which is a transcript of the San Diego Comic-Con from the 22nd July 2006) there is a very interesting comment made by Damon Lindelof:

Given that:

• Damon was making this statement with the intention of giving a clue and not deliberately misleading the fans of the show.
• As Ben and the Losties have noted 69 (subjective) days have passed since September 22nd 2004.

We can draw two conclusions:

1. The survivors of Oceanic flight 815 have been on the Island for less than 69 "outside world" days.

2. The survivors of Oceanic flight 815 have been on the Island for more than 69 "outside world" days.

If the date on The Island is 29th November 2004, what is it in the "outside world"?

The Facts

Ben was able to tell Jack that

• George W. Bush was re-elected (3rd November 2004)
• Christopher Reeve had passed away (10th October 2004), and
• the Boston Red Sox won the World Series (27th October 2004)

If we assume that the last date Ben told Jack was something he knew (ie. he didn't guess that GWB won the election) then we can verify that at least 42 days have passed off of The Island.

These three dates are the only occurrence of time being referenced explicitly off of The Island aside from October 24, 2005, which has no direct possible island parallel as of yet (this is the date that Ben woke up in the Sahara desert during The Shape of Things to Come.

Speculative "Evidence"

• It is interesting to note that unlike other log printouts seen in the show so far, none of the screens in the listening station had any dates or times. Assuming the people in the station were reacting to the direct results of the discharge caused by Desmond using the fail-safe key (ie. they happened at the "same" time) is it possible no date was revealed in the station because it is different to the date on The Island?

• In the same scene there is a character named Amelia. This could be a clue from the producers towards Amelia Earhart - who was just shy of 40 years old when she disappeared on the 2nd July 1937.
  • This connection is strongly suggested by the name of the airport that is shown to be used by Mittelos Bioscience in "One of Us": "Herarat" is an anagram of "Earhart".

Faster or Slower?

If time on the Island were to move slower than the outside world, the Island itself would serve as a means for the Life Extension Project. If time moves faster on the island, it could still be useful for quickly determining the long-term effects of medical treatments, especially those relating to the prevention of aging. In either situation, the time differential may not be static, and the Dharma Initiative could have been working to control the rate of time on the Island, or to learn how to build their own time machines.

• It might also explain a chemical/biochemical exposure on the islands surface, if testing.

Rate of Change

If we are willing to accept that time passes quicker or slower on The Island, the only question left then is "How much quicker or slower?".

• One way to measure the ROC would be to consider the real world vs. the LOST storyline. The air date of the episodes would become the date in the real world. Eg. "The Glass Ballerina" aired on the 11th October 2006, which would be the "real" date in the "outside world". Coincidentally, the difference between the two dates is nearly 108 weeks.

• Another way to measure the ROC would be to consider Amelia's age when she disappeared (40) and how old she would be if she had aged normally (nearly 110) and her approximate age as shown in "A Tale of Two Cities". This is a very speculative method.

• Juliet claims to have been on the Island for just 3 years. This would place her arrival at 2001, however shortly before this a bus with an Apollo chocolate bar advert hits her husband. Apollo allegedly went bankrupt in the 70s.
  • The Apollo logo is probably a red herring, a tease, or indicative of a connection to Mittelos, as the setting is clearly 21st century, as indicated by the clothes, medical jargon, and Juliet's cell phone.
  • The Apollo Candy Company ran into hard times in the 1970s, but was rescued by Alvar Hanso. It did not go out of business.

If time moves differently on the Island, it might explain....

• The pallet (food drop) seeming to appear out of nowhere. The plane dropping it flies over the Island's event horizon and drops it; when it lands it is now on island-time. From the Island perspective the plane is never seen because it happened some other time.
• The food drops continue even though DHARMA supposedly was cancelled sometime in the late '80s. The food was sent in the 80s, but arrives at a different time on the Island.
• Why the Dharma Intitative food from the supply drops has such ridiculously long expiry dates.
• Possibly the crash itself. The electromagnetic pulses cause the time disruption (as the result of at least three releases, i.e., Locke's system failure, Desmond's system failure, and "The Incident"). Some critics of the theory that the EMP caused the crash point out there is not enough ferrous material in an airplane literally to rip it apart. However, a plane flying through a time-vortex event-horizon might rip apart.
• The decay of Adam and Eve.
• Why the Hatch equipment is so dated. In island-time perhaps it hasn't been there as long.
• Why Kelvin seems not to have particularly aged between the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and his appearance in "Live Together, Die Alone", which should be at least ten years later.
• Why Walt will have aged so much next time he appears. (Which may be the reason the creators seem to be heading in this direction.)
• Why occupants of The Swan waited much longer (from their perspective) than 540 days for their replacements.
• The CAT scans Juliet looks at during the Mittelos recruitment. Juliet states that they appear to be from a woman in her 70's, while Alpert says the woman is only 26. It is possible that internal aging continues to occur at standard time, though time (and appearance) moves more slowly. It could also be the result of a woman leaving the Island; upon leaving the Island and reentering standard time aging may occur rapidly, thus a woman who only lived for 26 years (on the Island) could suddenly become old and die upon leaving. This could further explain Ben's inability to leave the Island to have his surgery, as he would have aged considerably upon doing so.
  • This would also explain the problems with childbirth.
  • This might be an explanation for the quick healing on the island – if all bodily processes, including aging, go faster on the island, that would mean healing would happen faster too.
• In "One of Us", Ethan seems to have some notion of what the journey to the Island is like. Richard Alpert tells Juliet, "You're gonna be amazed at how time flies once you're there". In order to have this information one could assume they have been to the Island before, yet their ages do not seem to have been affected by such a journey.
• Why Naomi's phone seems to have a much more advanced screen and UI than any satellite phone handset commercially available in 2004.
• How Richard Alpert appears not to age.
• Why the Pearl computer equipment in the Pearl Orientation video dates from the mid-1980s--see, for example, the Apple ImageWriter II--while the ending credits for the video give 1980 as its production date.

The Discharge

• During the discharge, a Wormhole/Einstein-Rosen bridge was opened.
  • For the length of the Discharge, Desmond was able to move freely about in space/time (While this phenomenon did encompass the entire Island, Desmond was at the epicenter and the only person able to do this) - and awoke in 1996. This date was confirmed in the Official Lost Podcast/February 20, 2007.
  • The day and time of his travel was not arbitrary as from what we understand of Desmond, his decision to not ask Penny to marry him may well have been the pivotal moment/nexus point in his life. (This is backed up by what Ms. Hawking tells him).
  • When the wormhole is closed, it is no longer 2004 in "the outside world". Desmond's flashes are not the future. He is seeing the past - from the perspective of the outside world. In addition to having relived a day in 1996, Desmond "remembers" the events that took place on The Island up to the current date "outside".
• The Island's unique electromagnetic properties cause it to be naturally "unstuck in time" aka time on the island passes at a different rate than time in the rest of the world. The button, which needed to be pressed every 108 minutes, somehow synchronized island time and world time, effectively anchoring the island to the rest of the world. If the button was not pressed in time, the space-time continuum would be permanently damaged (pushing the button supposedly saves the world), but the fail-safe key remedied the situation by simply letting the to different time rates drift apart. Thus the island used to be in sync with the rest of the world, but now time is moving at a different rate.

Debunked? (as per "One of Us")

• In "One of Us", Juliet and Ben get to the Flame station immediately after witnessing Oceanic Flight 815 crash. Ben shows Juliet a video feed depicting a newspaper dated September 22, 2004. Regardless of whether said video feed was "Live" or not, we know that:
  • September 22, 2004 WAS the date Oceanic Flight 815 crashed (confirmed by Locke in "Live Together, Die Alone").
  • Juliet has a very good recollection of how much time exactly she spent on the Island. She gave Jack the exact number of years, months and days in "Not in Portland".
    • Juliet's recollection aside, Rachel's son is the correct age to correspond with the time Juliet spent (or thinks she spent) on the Island.

So, we do know that the plane crashed on September 22, 2004, and Juliet saw the date on a newspaper. If there was a major discrepancy in the date she'd have expected it to be (other than, say, a day or two off), she'd have noticed it and reacted accordingly.

• As a matter of fact, when Locke told Desmond the date of the plane crash in "Live Together, Die Alone", Desmond would have also noticed if it was a considerably different date than what he would have expected it to be. Even more importantly, someone in the Pearl Station has logged anything going on in the Swan, and tagged it with the corresponding dates. If time was flowing differently on the Island, it would be extremely convenient if the logs for the plane crash just happened to be the date of the plane crash in the outside world.

• Lastly, Jack and Desmond had an off-island encounter a number of years ago. Desmond spent three years on the Island which Jack spent in the outside world. Had there been a major time discrepancy, one of them would have been considerably older with respect to the other one.
  • However, while Desmond was alone in the Swan, he was injecting himself with the mysterious "vaccine." This could have been the Life-Extension-Project medicine, which slowed down Desmond's aging tremendously.

• Ben could have deceived Juliet and shown her any time in her sisters life that he wished. The Others have a startling knowledge of the Losties' lives and could have attained this information via The Flame which might have enabled them to see through time.

• The difference in time between the island and the outside world could've started on September 22, 2004. This is the day Desmond nearly had a system failure, there was a magnetic anomoly and the plane went down. This is also the day Juliet saw the paper and her 3 year old nephew. If time on the island was the same as time outside the island untill that day, it really would've been September 22, 2004 and her nephew would've been 3 years old. The Swan Orientation Video refers to an incident that happend in the past. Perhaps this caused the change in time affecting Amelia Earhart and had been since resolved by the Dharma Initiative by containing the magnetic surge. Perhaps the striking difference in time between the crash and the present occurred when Desmond turned the failsafe key.
  • This would further explain why Alex (born on the island in 1988) aged the appropriate 16 years. Were time moving at a different rate on the island, she would have to have been born much earlier than 1988 to appear 16 at the current moment in island time.
• The phone and video conversations as shown, such as Charlie's conversation with Penelope in the underwater stations, Desmond's phone call to Penelope, or other communications with the freighter, could not take place with a huge time differential. Even if the phones are designed to receive and compress slow conversations so they didn't sound "drawn out," there would still be several minute delays in between responses.

Seemingly Contrary Information in "Meet Kevin Johnson"

In the episode "Meet Kevin Johnson" Michael's mother mentions in a line that Walt and Michael had been missing a for only couple of months when they returned from the island, rather than for a period of time significantly longer than they had spent on the island, subjectively. This seems odd in light of much evidence, particularly the discrepancy between Faraday's clocks, and the comments made at Comic-con 2006 about on/off island relative time progression. May be explainable as simply a mistake, or by the above theory that the time discrepancy began when Desmond turned the failsafe key, at approximately the same time Michael and Walt left, making their subjective time line unaltered at the time this flashback must have occurred. Also, if this is the case, it would not prevent Walt from experiencing more time pass while off the island than people on the island do, thus still bringing his character more in line with Malcolm David Kelley's current appearance for a possible return to the regular cast.

• Michael and Walt left the Island on day 67. That's close enough to a "couple of months"

General Relativity

• In general relativity, it is assumed that spacetime is curved by the presence of matter (energy).
• Electromagnetic fields are considerably stronger than gravity. (Think of how easily a magnet can pick up a paperclip, overpowering gravity)
• There is a huge electromagnetic field on the island, a large amount of energy, that is causing a change in spacetime. This causes time to pass differently than "normal", possibly slower, as well as leaving the island impossible to find using normal locating methods.
  • Gravity and electromagnetism are two different forces. As stated above, gravity is the one that bends spacetime. E.M. doesn't.
    • Unless if there is a unified force, like just after the big bang, which is a subject of Stephen Hawking's A brief history of time.
    • The unified force no longer exists. It broke into the magnetism, gravity, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear forces short after the big bang.
• General Relativity was developed by Albert Einstein, building off of the work of Hermann Minkowski.

Fail-safe time alteration

It is possible that the fail safe being triggered in the Swan in the episode "Live Together, Die Alone" had an effect on the island in the form of time alteration or time skewing.

In the episode "Further Instructions" Desmond commented to Hurley on John Locke's "speech" about finding and saving Jack, Kate, and Sawyer before Locke actually gave the speech. After the speech, Hurley noticed Desmond standing on the beach alone, throwing rocks into the water.Hurley saw this action take place twice, one right after another.

In the past, Hurley and Sayid found a radio signal that played music from an earlier time period.

In the book "Bad Twin" (page 8) there is the line, "..and became warped, the way space and time are warped by the pressence of very massive objects."