Ponder this: ancient civilizations created massive stone temples which today, modern man cannot replicate.
Throughout history, man has known it was different from other members of the animal kingdom. Man's brain function was far superior to the creatures that inhabited the same environment. With thoughts and observations came memories. And memories led to applied knowledge of how the world around them functions. In time, man learned to manipulate the environment around him which was the seeds of civilization.
But at the same time, man knowing it was different, tried to figure out if there was something more to living on Earth. If man was special, is it possible that there was something unique inside him and her that would live beyond our mortality. In order to live, man are dead animals. But at the same time, man learned live poisonous plants could kill man. It was one of the first paradox.
Many ancient cultures believed in a higher order of existence. Some thought that there was a spirit in everything: man, woman, child, plants, animals, earth, sky . . . every object contained a spirit. And if the spirits lived in harmony, all was well in the world.
Some narrowed the view to limit spirits to human beings, the special inhabitants of the planet. They called their spirits "souls" which gave them to prospect of immortality after death. Civilizations began to study then worship the concept of the soul. It changed the perspective of time. Time usually meant one thing: the harvest cycle which was symbolic of life itself - - - since the harvest was the real means of survival. But if one's soul could live beyond our mortal coil, then they looked to the stars and the long cycle of cosmic events. People began to view their place not in their physical location but a part of a larger universe.
Thoughts of the unknown led to philosophy. Deep thinkers who wondered, speculated, formulated then told stories about us and our place in the universe. As such, no one could actually challenge the formation of opinion of the unknown realms. And in certain respects, personal belief systems have cast mankind in reverse, to a more primitive and violent shell of their enlightened selves. The concept of one "true" religion has little place in a pure spiritual world.
Love, honor, community, family, trust are all elements of an enlightened human being. They are markers that most people believe help feed and comfort their mind to live a proper life in order to receive a proper reward after death. A person's spirit or soul is merely in a pupa stage of existence. In the end, it will release itself from the host body to a) reincarnate into another spirit animal or b) become energy and pass through a portal to a different dimension.
As stated in previous posts, there are wide gaps between facts, science fiction and fantasy plot lines in LOST. But one could argue now that the mortar that could fill those story spaces is the spiritual world. The producers remarked that Season 6's turn was toward a bigger question of spirituality, but without actually answering the question. It is not obvious, but probable that the pre-island represents reality, the island represents the transition between humanity and the spirit world, and the sideways world the spiritual after life. But the odd thing is that the main characters personality never changed in any of those plains of existence. Even ancient philosophers would be puzzled by that fact.
