An ocean of new mysteries on ‘Lost’

3) Whither Dharma? The DeGroots are curiously described as ""following in the footsteps" of B.F. Skinner, the father of psychological operant conditioning. That led many viewers to speculate, with good reason, that the entire Swan setup — the computer and countdown, the "quarantine," the whole shebang — is one big psychology experiment. Jack clearly thinks so, though it didn't stop him from pressing "execute" as the clock ticked down. 

But what does this have to do with Dharma's real purpose?  We've been told about Dharma's research topics — from meteorology to zoology (polar bears!) — but the film skips again from Candle saying something about "utopian social ... " to him describing Hanso. Arrgh!

One clue: Candle mentioning that the Swan station was established to examine "unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the island." He mentions the "incident" that prompted a need to keep pushing the button every 108 minutes. Last season, Sayid was puzzled by huge magnetic anomalies on the compass he got from Locke, a first hint about the magnetic weirdness that, some viewers think, caused flight 815 to go off-course and crash. What's with the electromagnetic thing?  And we're dying to know about the alleged "incident."

We're also still trying to lay out a timeline. Why are research teams kept in the station for 540 days? What happened to the station prior to three years ago, when Desmond was taken there by the mysterious Kelvin?

If Dharma was founded in 1970, the orientation film was made in 1980, and "Lost" is unfolding more or less present-day, then this whole story stretches back 35 years.  Maybe that's why Desmond kept playing Mama Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" on that vintage record player: It was recorded in 1969.

4) The Hanso Foundation. The film's reference to Danish industrialist Alvar Hanso passed quickly, but like many of you, we found our way over to the semi-secret Web site at thehansofoundation.org, where a hidden link to the Dharma Initiative can be found off the "Active Projects" page.

The Dharma link goes to a page that loads up a Flash video of the orientation film. (Update: We initially couldn't get it to load, but it worked just fine after a number of readers suggested we use the Firefox browser. Thanks!)

After the Ethan Rom thing there's been much speculation about which anagrams might be formed by Hanso's name, but we're more partial to the theories tracing the name back to Sanskrit, no huge surprise since Dharma is a central principle of Hindu (and Buddhist) teachings. Both Marvin Candle and the Hanso Web site use the Sanskrit greeting "namaste."

Also curious is Hanso's background, a mix of warmongering (as a high-tech weapons maker) and philanthropy. Safe bet that this dichotomy will resonate as we continue to figure out the island's history.

For that matter, consider the foundation's other projects. No big surprise on the Electromagnetic Research Initiative. But Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute (yes, J.E.D.I.) sounds creepy, and we're mystified by the Accelerated Remote Viewing Training Facility.

Another fun theory is that Hanso could be Locke's real father, which would explain all this talk of Locke's destiny being down the hatch. Gael also thinks Hanso looks a bit like Leslie Nielsen.

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