I want to advance this theory abit further now that season 4 is over.
My view that time on on the island (if not time itself) is not linear is one that I still believe to be in play. The season 4 finale through more support my way when Benjamin Linus gave us the shows first tangible space-time travel. It wasn't simply his consciousness that travelled forward in time and space, but everything - his body, memories, thoughts, feelings. Interestingly the thing which took the longest time to catch-up with his journey was the liquid from his stomach.
Anyway, so we have Ben literally ben-ding time..jumping from one time and space to another. The S. Pacific to Tunisia, 10 months on from him turning the wheel.
What interests me is what exactly happens to a person when they jump 10 months into the future withouth actually experiecing those 10 months. Indeed, this alone proves that time is not linear, if it was Ben would have to have experienced those 10 months..instead the last thing he remembers, the last thing he did, was to turn the wheel and wish Jacob 'happiness'. The only other thing I can compare this with is to be asleep for 10 months..or rather, to be comatose for 10 months and then wake up in a different location. Which, is on a basic level what happened to Desmond when his consciousness time-travelled back to his past.
So we've further established that time isn't linear..it's not a straight line, seeing as in this lastest evidence Ben literally 'LOST time' (10 months) which he neither experienced or lived through. In effect, this is evidence of wormholes - a short-cut through time and space. In order to take such a short-cut, time cannot be only linear..time can effectively fold..at least from the point of view of the 'traveller'.
With that said, I also want to throw another idea into the mix. One borne from my investigation into the Fibonnaci sequence:
SPIRALS
spirals, are seen in everything..seashells, galaxies, plants, staircases..
..what about
TIME?
My pet theory is that time is on a loop. Events and lives repeat, hence why the caution of individuals doing what they are "supposed to do", because they either didn it last time around, or perhaps they didn't make the right choice last time around and so they need to make alternative choices in 'this' iteration - this may particularly be the case with the Alpert/Locke Cabin Fever scene, where Locke appeared to chose the wrong iem, despite the knife representing the "hunter" in him - the very thing that the island (via Eko) told him he was.
That said, I am also considering the possibility of time being part of a
SPIRAL..and not (necessarily) a
LOOP. Look at this picture:
Imagine this picture represents time itself..we can see that time 'comes back around' but it is not necessarily fated to repeat itself..witin the outwardly developing spiral (time) we can see that there is scope for growth..for change..for evolutition. Although the spiral (time) nearly loops into one set circle, instead it grows outwards, driven by the past spirals in much the same way that the
Fibonnaci sequence derives the sum of the past two numbers - 1+1=2...1+2=3..2+3=5..3+5=8..5+8=13..and so on.
Also within the spiral we can see how it would be possible for Ben to jump from one point on the spiral, to another - i.e. travelling through time and space.
But why stop there..if one spiral represents one time..what can we deduce from the possibility of multiple spirals:
..is it possible to jump from one spiral (time..or universe, if you will)..to one which resides parallel? And what if the spirals interconnect, like the ones in the picture above..does this merge the spiral and loop theories together....?