THE SPIRIT THEORY

In reading an article about ancient neurosurgery, I came across an interesting sidebar on how some South American cultures used the process of cutting holes in skulls to treat "spirits" inside a person's head.

It seems strange that ancient priests would crack skulls to release spirits that had taken over a person's mind and body. It could have been a way to explain a person's seizures, epilepsy or swelling of the brain casing to a primitive people.

Many medical researches do not believe ancient cultures performed neurosurgery. However, several archeologists and medical doctors have concluded that ancient people  had trepanned skulls, under the cultural significance to release spirits trapped inside the brain. Forensic archeologists claim that by using sharp glass, one can open the skull of a recently deceased 2-year-old in four minutes. Cutting a similar hole in an adult skull required 50 minutes.  The studies fall back on various finds in Central and South America where skulls had various holes in them. These holes did not have the signs of being from blunt trauma like a pick-axe or spear, but a deliberate round opening in the skull.

However, other researchers have come to the conclusion that that ancient neurosurgeons were removing bone fragments from injuries sustained during combat. Modern research has provided strong evidence for this, especially among the Inca. For one thing, far more males than females had trepanation holes, likely because most warriors were males. For another, the holes were usually located on the left side of the skull—where a right-handed assailant would aim a slingshot or smash his club.

If the spirit theory is that trepanation released evil spirits, it plays into stereotypes of ancient people as described by the first European explorers who called them savages, even though their cultures had vast knowledge of astrology, mathematics and engineering. Many tribes—despite wildly different supernatural beliefs—probably did trepan people to treat epilepsy and hallucinations, maladies often associated with spirits.

From a modern medical perspective, the idea of making holes in the skull makes sense: Doctors today still trepan people to reduce pressure on the brain after injury. The practice is meant to reduce swelling and the buildup of blood and other fluids, which can kill brain cells.

But if you take a primitive belief system of ancient people, who believed that various spirits lived in every living thing—a logical treatment to release evil spirits trapped inside a person makes sense if the process was to cure a 'cursed" person.

This has an application to LOST. One that is new spin on the main characters. We have discussed the possibility that the characters were under mental stress, hallucinations, mental illness or coma in order to explain the events that they encountered on the island. Some have even suggested that the characters, having perished in the plane crash, were reincarnated as smoke monsters and the island was just one big smokey playground of illusion and make believe.

Likewise, if spirits invaded the characters brains - - - either in an attempt to infect, control or manipulate a human being - - - does that help explain the disconnected story lines of the series? Perhaps. Many ancient cultures, including several modern religions, believe that there both good and evil spirits in our world. Some are messengers, some are guardians and some are tricksters that like to make misery on human beings by allowing them to make bad choices. Those spirit elements could be applied throughout the LOST story sphere, but we don't have a strong clue about it except for the re-creation of MIB by the smoke monster, who could have been an evil spirit.