E.W. ARTICLE - DOC JENSEN W/FRAGMENT 07/25/06

Jingle Jangled

E.W. Article # 4

EW's ''Lost'' expert has an epiphany (involving Coca-Cola and John Lennon) while grocery shopping by Jeff Jensen


(Image of glyph 3GTVI0M11)
Would Prince himself be able to figure this glyph out?

DOC JENSEN PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCEMENT!

Tune in Wednesday at EW.com for a major Doc Jensen scoop. Fans of both The Lost Experience and the show itself won't want to miss it.

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IS IT JUST ME...

... or does the stylized ''O'' in the Hanso Foundation logo look like the hood of a cobra? And considering my previous arguments that the Swan in Station 3 symbol resembles a serpent trapped inside a box, I wonder: What the devil has gotten into Hanso's graphic designers? (And emphasis on devil.)

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WHY GOD CAN'T ''SEE'' THE ISLAND, ACCORDING TO HENRY GALE

The Island exists on a separate frequency of reality, or a parallel dimension. When Oceanic 815 flew into the blast radius of the electromagnetic pulse, the passengers were ''recalibrated'' to The Island's frequency. The Others seem to believe that this frequency of reality exists outside the auspices of ''God.''

What this means for Michael and Walt, currently tugboating their way ''home,'' I have no idea.

Yet.

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THE INSIDIOUS JINGLE THEORY OF LOST

Last week at PopWatch, I fumbled and bumbled my way through my personal iteration of the popular Garden of Eden theory. In a nutshell, my contention was that Hanso has been trying to find scientific means to restore mankind and the world to its ideal Garden of Eden state. I attempted some analogies to illustrate my thoughts — comparing Hanso's initiatives to antidotes to poison or fixes to computer viruses. To be honest, I wasn't happy with the articulation. It bugged me. All week.

And then, finally, I had a ''Eureka!'' moment. It came while I was shopping for groceries and I passed a Coca-Cola display. For some reason, I started humming the jingle from my '70s youth: ''I'd like to teach the world to sing/in perfect harmony...''

Suddenly, my mind linked to:

The first episode of the second season, first scene: Desmond playing Mama Cass' ''Make Your Own Kind of Music'' in the Hatch. Another circa '70s tune, the thematic flipside to that Coke jingle. ''Make your own kind of music/ Make your own special song/ Make your own kind of music/ Even if they don't sing along....''

(BTW: Did you catch the song again in the last scene of the last episode of season 2? It was in Russian, playing on the radio inside that snowbound science lab.)

Music. Harmony. Living in harmony, as mankind was supposed to — as mankind was designed to be. Suddenly, the metaphor that I really wanted became clear:

The Island, pulsing with its ''unique'' electromagnetic energy, could be likened to a tuning fork. If the world is ''off key'' as a result of original sin, Hanso has been trying to fix the pitch by tweaking with this ''unique'' EM energy. (''Unique'' = ''Doesn't adhere to a realistic notion of electromagnetic energy, and therefore can mean anything Lost says it means.'')

Or, put another way:

Hanso is trying to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, whether we want to sing along or not, by using the Island to broadcast its own special song throughout the world. The string of Numbers is like that insidiously catchy song — ''Beautiful'' meets ''Bad Day'' — that gets in your head and won't ever leave.

What if Hanso's ''song'' (again, the Numbers) is encoded with info that can... do something to us (fix us? reprogram us? make us buy Hanso stuff?) if it is somehow accessed or unlocked? (Think ''Trojan horse.'' Or ''DVD easter egg.'') If so, how could that info be unlocked?

By another, separate signal.

What that signal may be, and when it will be broadcast, remains to be seen in the TV — or heard, as is the case.

Unless...

Unless you believe Rachel Blake, star of The Lost Experience.

Rachel Blake, who believes the Hanso Foundation is ''real.''

Rachel Blake, who believes that Lost is a TV show sponsored by Hanso.

Could it be that in this multimedia, noodle-cooking, alternate-reality entertainment, the TV show Lost is the activation signal that unlocks the secret music of the Numbers in the world's collective conscious?

If so, might these two words best summarize what Hanso is trying to accomplish:

''INSTANT KARMA.''

Which was recorded and released by John Lennon in 1970 — the same year that Hanso launched the Dharma Initiative, and one year before Lennon recorded and released another song with an ''I'd like to teach the world to sing'' utopian theme:

''IMAGINE.''

Is Hanso merely using its amazing technology to turn John Lennon's dream into a reality?

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Finally:

What do you think of the hieroglyphic that adorns this story?

Which reminds me of a theory I have — The Da Vinci Code Theory of Lost. But that's next week.

But Wednesday: something huge. Be here for it.