Wikipedia cites cosmologist Max Tegmark taxonomy of multiple universes. The levels according to Tegmark's classification are arranged such that subsequent levels can be understood to encompass and expand upon previous levels.
Level I: Beyond our cosmological horizon
Level II: Universes with different physical constants
Level III: Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
Level IV: Ultimate Ensemble
What are you talking about!!! The short answer is that the Dark Tower seems to be an example of the Ultimate Ensemble and includes every possibility including the kitchen sink (you know the alternate reality sink where husbands do the dishes).
What is a door, but a threshold that leads to the unknown. And the Island itself has show that it is capable of generating a threshold event horizon that seemed to transport everything inside the radius of that threshold to places unseen and unknown. And people on or close to the Island have suffered 'jumping' consciousness syndrome when they get close to this event horizon (Kahana freighter). Let's start by first reviewing the types of reality traveling displayed in Stephen King's Dark Tower Story.
Different Types of Dark Tower Time and Reality Travel:
2.) Mystical Doorways opened by magical artifact (Transport Body): In Wolves of the Calla, a mystical doorway/gateway in a cave is capable of transporting people when powered by a magical artifact. The artifact was capable of opening other gateways and the user could control the destination.
3.) Mystical Doorways opened by psychic/mystical meditation or manipulation at areas linked to other realities (Transport Body): In Wolves of the Calla, the same cave doorway is opened by psychic mystics called Manni. Eddie is also instrumental in opening a doorway in a spot with a mystical (demonic) connection to another mystical (demonic) region in a different reality, using a wooden 'key' that he crafted.
4.) Scientific Doorways (Transport Body): Futuristic science created technology that mirrors the magical/mystical portals. Some of these doors are one way doors that take you to a specific time and a specific world. Others were two way doors and a rare few could take people to destinations they could choose. The evil forces of the Crimson King command a large number of these doors (although they are continually breaking down).
5.) Weak Points in reality where worlds overlap (Transport Body): The nature of the multiverse in the Dark Tower story was one where reality was suffering entropy and erosion both from the passage of time and from targeted destruction by the forces of the Crimson King. One of the results of this entropy and assault is that some individuals with psychic abilities could walk between the weak or overlapping parts of reality. Father Callahan (a cross-over character from Salem's Lot) is one example.
6.) Mystical 'astral' projection. Roland meets a mystical sect called the Manni who have some experience traveling among the many realities (and also the space between the realities-called Todash Space). Sometimes they can project themselves and experience other realities similar to a dream, sometimes by projecting an insubstantial version of themselves, an astral projection, to other worlds. It is intimated that some of the most advanced of these Manni spiritualists can physically transport themselves.
Laws(?) Governing Time and Reality Travel in Dark Tower:
1.) Prime Reality is immutable. The only absolute 'law' that was fashioned is that there is a "Prime" reality where events happened only once with finality. The Prime Reality is the one where all the energy of the multiverse converges into a focal point identified as "The Rose. It appeared that other realities could have their timelines changed by people moving through these doors to specific points in that world's timeline and altering events.
2.) There are consequences. When Roland interacts with a person from another reality transported to his world (his name is Jake and Roland lets him die in order to pursue his quest) and later, himself travels (his consciousness) to another time in another reality and changes events so the person he interacted with never comes to his world, he suffers a mental breakdown from his remembering events that never occurred. The person he interacted with and whose destiny he changed, also suffers and they are not 'healed' until they are reunited in Roland's reality. (perhaps this mirrors the off-Island suffering of Faraday, his finance/lab assistant, several of the Kahana crew, Desmond till he finds his constant, and perhaps bearded crazy Jack)
3.) Its very hard and very dangerous. Roland meets a mystical sect called the Manni who have some experience traveling the multiverse and Todash Space. They recount those of their sect who have never returned, damaged their minds, or died. The scientific portals were created by futuristic race who have disappeared and the remaining portals are rapidly becoming non-functional. You can never tell with any certainty when one will stop functioning altogether, fail to transport all of you (ouch), or just leave you stranded, literally in the middle of nowhere.
Mundane Operational Laws of Reality Traveling
1.) The mystical doors which exit you into another reality were not visible by others in the destination reality.
2.) The scientifically created doors were visible in each outlet reality (even the one way doors).
3.) You could only carry what was on your person or in contact with you. But you could carry people or objects between worlds as long as you kept hold of them/it or it was in contact with your body.
Examples of Possible Multiverse Traveling/Events in Lost
--Orchid time traveling bunny experiments.
--Desmond's consciousness traveling in time 'after' he turns the Swan fail safe key.
--Desmond's 'jumping' consciousness syndrome when he is in the helicopter traveling to the Kahana and they veer slightly off the bearing that Faraday gave to Lapedus.
--Kahana crew suffering 'jumping' consciousness syndrome.
--Charlotte & Juliet's 'jumping' consciousness syndrome right before their deaths.
--Eko's visions of Yemi.
--Locke's dream of being Eko seeing Yemi.
--Locke's visions after the Swan implosion (fail safe key) where Boone gives him instructions on how to save Eko.
--Charlie's religiously themed visions (Fire and Water)
--Ben turning the wheel
--15 time flashes which occur to the 815 survivors after Ben turns the wheel. (What if these flashes represent all the reality/time traveling of the Island. What if one of these flashes brings everyone who ever got to the island?)
--John Locke turning the wheel.
--815 'crash' onto Island (possible Swan Incident when Desmond didn't enter the numbers)
--Ajira 316 'crash landing' onto Island
--Ajira 316 'teleportation' of Jack, Kate & Hurley from the plane to 1977 Dharma Town.
--Swan Incident/Jughead Explosion
--Submarine 'coming' and 'going' from Island.
--Black Rock sitting in the middle of the jungle.
--Giant statue of Tawawet and big ass pyramid ending up on a tropical Island
--How Dharma Initiative built all those hatches using a submarine that appears every 6 months or so.
--How did the parachuting food find its way to the Island
--All the characters leaving then returning to the Island (Richard Alpert to see John Locke, arrange for Juliet to 'come' to the Island, film Juliet's sister, Mr. Friendly's visit to convince Michael to return to the Island on the freighter, how did all those 1950's young people arrive on the Island when there was no submarine, how did the Black Rock sail to and then 'arrive' on the Island, how did the people who built the ancient temple & hieroglyph laden ruins and monuments get there)
Island as Nexus of All Realities. Perhaps the Island is a place that exists in every reality and which can 'travel' to any time and place in any reality. It's like a merry go round when someone turns the donkey wheel it spins and then 'lands' in a different time and space in a specific reality.
Ok it all gets a little crazy and absolutely hypothetical after this, but future blog posts will try to organize some of the possible reality travel examples in Lost, and even pinpoint cross-reality interference events, and yes even try and build a 'timeline' to explain Bearded, off-Island Jack's mental breakdown as a result of cross-reality changing interference.
Just remember you nay-sayers, the multi-verse concept has been an acceptable plot device in many respected modern stories.
And can explain some of the strangest types of occurences. (like when a finctional pundit and non-althelete gets his picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated).
Well its T minus 2 minutes to the next Lost episode. Sorry, I had hoped to flush this out a little more but did a little travelling within my own dimension to Chicago. Had some great Chicago style hot dogs and a wonderful time celebrating a friend's 50th birthday. Looking forward to another fantastic Lost episode. Please leave a comment trashing any or all of these ponderings or let me know what you think.
take it easy
it ain't all half bad
mr badd
ps sorry about the spelling errors, will immediately implement the global economy's highest rated quality control procedures, the tried and true Toyota quality control implementation plan. We at Badd Lost Theories are committed to making quality our number one concern. Well our number one concern is watching Lost, a close 2nd is talking about Lost, comming in for a tie for 3rd is theorizing about Lost and rewatching Lost. But we'll work quality control in there somewhere. We may play it pretty loose and fancy free with the facts but we will try extra hard to get the letters all lined up in order to allow these demented ramblings to make sense. Now if we could only figure out how to make the numbers make sense we might get some friggen answers.
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