"It is not an island. It 's a place where miracles happen. " These words, put into the mouth of Locke by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse [1] the final episode of season four Place Like Home pt. 2:03 (season 4, episode 13-14, 2008), we return to a very illuminating the figure of the close relationship between Lost and sacred subjects, because, as stated by Mircea Eliade, "the sacred manifests itself as something quite different from reality" natural "' [2] . And what's more supernatural, if not an island where miracles happen?
It is no coincidence, of course, that to utter these words is the character of John Locke, the man who spent a miserable life on land and hoping to have the illusion of a higher purpose to be pursued, he finds himself catapulted on an island where found, miraculously , before the use of his legs and then a destiny. A spiritual journey, a walkabout from chase between moments of glorious exaltation, and others of pure desperation and resignation (a metaphor for life?) All under the direction of the island itself, which becomes in the eyes of the viewer and the same Locke, acts through the mysterious and miraculous, an allegory of God
John Locke embodies the perfect religious man coming in his wanderings on the island, to transform "the common life of every day, wherever he finds a mystery, a key. Even the most insignificant gesture can mean a spiritual act " [3] , so, when, in the episode appropriately titled Deus ex machina (ST.1, Ep.19, 2005) Locke, desperate, asking for an answer to the island, slamming his fist against the door of the mysterious hatch unearthed in the forest, here which is a light. Glow that becomes a metaphor of hope, a sign to continue to have faith. Although four television seasons later, the same Locke will eventually settle the issue with a lapidary "was just a light" [4] .
Usually a company with a strong religious / sacred, such as that represented by Lost Other [5] presupposes an initiatory path for his followers, usually from an early age, through what Eliade calls "apprenticeship in the bush." And it is the jungle / woods where John Locke (and to a lesser extent all other survivors of Oceanic Flight 815) exceeds continuing evidence that led him to discover the "sacred secrets" [6] island. At the end of this journey and while, or episodes in The Man Behind the Curtain (st.3, ep.20, 2007) and Cabin Fever (st.4, Ep.11, 2008), he makes the decisive steps for entry into the fraternity / secret society that has controlled the island meeting (apparently, but we understand this only after the events) Jacob [7] or "the beginning [for Excellence, ed.], who has known the mysteries, one who knows. " E 'curious, and probably not coincidental that this "meeting" takes place in a hut in the forest, very similar to those, actually existing, theorized and described by Eliade: "In several regions, there is a hut in the bush in the initiatory. In there the young candidates are undergoing some tests and are instructed on secret traditions of the tribe. " [8] Locke meets Jacob and then to understand the secrets of the island, and the second visit she receives from her (alleged?) Christian party, first, the instructions on how to save the island, and later, the request to accept the final test of faith, the sacrifice of his own death in order to achieve the salvation of the island itself. Following guess that this is a swindle made by Christian (actually tied all'acerrimo enemy of Jacob), causing the viewer to reflect on the idea that Lost carries against the illusory power of religion. As the island is itself hierophany , "the manifestation of something completely different , a reality that does not belong to our world" [9] , this that the text would seem to direct us towards audiovisual explanations (fiction) science of these phenomena (which in a joint Lost provides the viewer) rather than those sacred and religious.
During the "fifth season" we see a substantial increase in the group of elements that lead back to the classic Other secret brotherhoods, especially with regard to the rites of entry, or "imprisonment, torture, initial trials, death and resurrection, [...] teaching of a secret language, etc.. " [10] . The first two elements, in fact, invite us to consider the consistency of the corporate group of survivors protagonists of the serial , which can be found on several occasions to imprison and torture people before accepting them as their own members or persons harmless, particularly as we see in One of the other (st.2, ep.14, 2006) when the Iraqi Sayid torture Ben (leader of the Other ), who passed himself off as the owner of a wrecked balloon on the island. The fact that Ben is the leader of Other , is the bridge that leads us, first, the initial sharp dualism between the two groups later transformed into a covenant [11] labile and unlike the sacred distinction between what is good and what is evil, and, secondly, the input mode in the same Others, such as the use of a secret language to use in case you fall captive. The bomb in (st.5, Ep.3, 2009), see, for example, a young Charles Widmore communicate in Latin with one of his companions to avoid being understood by their captors. Latin is also the response ('Ille nos omnes here servabit " [12] ) to the code in question," What lies in the shadow of the statue? " [13] , of \u200b\u200bprimary importance in the final phase of the fifth season.
But even more interesting about the rites of initiation, is the question of the death and resurrection, which brings into play the overwhelmingly figure, increasingly central to John Locke. Died on the mainland to save the Island, but apparently just risen and miraculously appears on the same [14] , Locke takes the form of the supreme religious man. The parallel with Jesus Christ is evident and already Deus ex machina (ST.1, Ep.19, 2005) is the same as Locke's mother to launch a small sign of what we will see later when he says that John has never had a father who was an "immaculate conception." Same is the path, the "pattern of initiation: suffering, death and resurrection (rebirth)" [15] leading one (Jesus) to spiritualize that the free space and time, and the other (Locke) to the unlimited knowledge of the island and its powers and finally to appropriate the role of leader of Other . The comparison becomes even more consistency and legitimacy, when the episode Previous (316
episode THE X (st. 6, ep. 1-2, 2010) we find that this sort of shapeshifting is actually the black smoke monster that wanders the island judging - through some kind of scanning - and if, killing the inhabitants of the island, taking the shape and the memories of people who died [18] . A monster that has many similarities with that (of African tribes) described by Eliade, having "the power to kill men, swallowing and vomiting immediately after taking them renewed" [19] . Locke will not be true, but what we now know is definitely a character "Renewed" in all its aspects.
The Monster Island is not only murderous and dangerous entity, but is also the guardian of the Temple. Holy place par excellence on the island, which is protected from any external corruption [20] , "a place just for us" that is only for Others, whose walls represent a threshold for "prevent people like you [anyone who is not one of Other, ed. ] to even view it [the Temple] "as stated by Ben. [21] The monster is the guardian of this threshold hampering the 'entrance to the bad faith of men "and is also (as in some Eastern cultures paleo)' the place of discretion" [22] . In fact it is a hole in the wall surrounding the Temple (the hole is a metaphor of the threshold) that Locke and Ben enter What is dead is dead (st.5, ep.12, 2009) to ensure that the the latter's actions are "judged" by the monster [23] . The Temple is also the place where Ben, dying young, being treated. Following the miraculous cure, Ben loses "his innocence and does not remember anything," [24] , which brings us back to the theme of death processed by Mircea Eliade, who says that 'it must be done to heal the sick born again " [25] .
"John Locke [...] is to protect the radical separation of the island from the world. In other words, its being sacred " [26] , and tries to do it in every way to hinder anyone who wants to abandon it or occupying it. Paladino to the bottom of this divine world, a paradigm of a very ancient religious concept, "one of the perfect place, that is full [...] and isolated . Perfect place in paradise and the miniature world together, a source of bliss and place of Immortality " [27] . Mere appearance, perhaps we could say with the experience gained from the sidelines. Apparent immortality, apparent bliss and, for those who sought the island itself, even apparent redemption. Locke loses his life will lose all the illusion of having been the victim of a bigger game, the victim of an island that depending on your point of view may appear as paradise as hell [28] . But perhaps more like a middle way, a purgatory. As suspected and theorized by many viewers in its first year of airing the serial [29] .
it not be a Heaven, but is certainly a place with its sacredness, its miraculous uniqueness. And like any place with such important characteristics, has an entry that refers to the difficult religious symbolism of the "narrow gate" and as "Vision of St. Paul shows a bridge as narrow as a hair" that connects our world to Paradise [and which] are sinners, unable to cross it, rushed in Hell " [30] also those who want to reach the island, must follow a precise route obtained through complex scientific calculations to avoid encountering dangerous "side effects", which in this case consist of space-time fluctuations of the mind, which lead, in short, to a painful death.
John Locke, the 'man of faith , and Jack Shepard, the' man of science , mixes different times during the series, their destinies and their ideals and end up exchanging them, when at the end of the third season in Through the Looking Glass (st.3, ep.22, 2007) is the death of the first to seal the metamorphosis of Jack. These, haunted by remorse, he begins to believe that it was his destiny to leave the island. Now, excluding a few attempts we've seen previously, we can not figure out which one is right and if there is one. The same Lost lives and develops his own philosophy on this dichotomy, in a quarrel that probably has no solution, and as noted by Eliade:
areligious Man descends from 'homo religiosus and , like it or not, is also his work [...] and was formed in opposition to his predecessor, trying to "empty" of any religion and any meaning transhuman. [...] Is formed through a series of denials and waste, but is constantly haunted by the fact that he recanted. [31]
[1] Main writers and executive producers of the serial. Damon Lindelof is also co-creator of Lost with JJ Abrams.
[2] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , tr.it., Hogarth, Torino 1973, p. 14.
[3] Ibid., P. 116.
[4] The Little Prince (st.5, ep.04, 2009).
[6] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 119.
[7] whose name is an obvious reference to the biblical Jacob and his "ladder" that leads to paradise.
[8] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 120.
[9] Ibid, p. 14.
[10] Ibid, p. 122.
[11] When Charles Widmore (ex-leader of the exiled Other ) to retake possession at the expense of Ben Linus, sends a team of mercenaries on the island armed to the neck ready to kill any citizen.
[12] Richard Alpert, the director of Other is the first character we see how to respond to the question in the accident (st.5, Ep.16-17, 2009).
[13] ruled for the first time by Ilana, a mysterious ally of Jacob, in What is dead is dead (st.5, ep.12, 2009 ).
[14] We see life again in the episode Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (st.5, Ep.7, 2009).
[15] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the profane, cit., p. 124.
[16] The man of science par excellence of the serial .
[17] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 124.
[18] their bodies, except (oddly) to Locke, as swallowed seem to disappear into thin air.
[19] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 122.
[20] See Ibid pp. 42 ff.
[21] respectively Meet Kevin Johnson (st.4, Ep.8, 2008) and in What is dead is dead (st .5, ep.12, 2009).
[22] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 23.
[23] In fact, as we learned in the course of several episodes, we can extend the concept of threshold, as a place of trial in which the monster acts, including at 'Island itself. The monster is the "security system of the island" as stated by Danielle Rousseau in Exodus pt.1 (ST.1, Ep.23, 2005).
[24] Richard Alpert in What has happened, has happened (st.5, Ep.11, 2009).
[25] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 124.
[26] S. Regazzoni, The philosophy of Lost Ponte alle Grazie, Milano 2009, cit., P. 41.
[27] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 98.
[28] Anthony Cooper, Locke's father, he finds himself catapulted the island after a car accident and encountering a pirate ship in the middle of the jungle, his son who thought he was dead, he thinks, probably rightly, to be right in Hell (The Brig , st.3, Ep.15, 2007).
[29] In many internet forums dedicated Lost in the discussions on .
[30] M. Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane , cit., P. 115.
[31] Ibid. ., Pp. 128-129.
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