My Lost Dream

I have two kinds of dreams. The first kind is completely abstract and random, like, say, the last 15 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the musical numbers in Across the Universe. The second kind has a very clear narrative structure, and I can usually remember them very well. Two nights ago, I had the second kind of dream where I was on the Island.

Ever since Ben and I had the same surgery around the same time in Season 3, I've wondered if I have a creepy connection with the show. Strangely enough, this was not my first Lost-based dream; in the last few years, I've actually had several. This one was definitely the coolest though, because it felt like an actual episode. I wrote down everything I could remember the following morning, as I occasionally do after a cool dream. Here's what happened (I don't remember exact dialogue, so I've done my best to make it more readable):

Alex?The first thing I remember from the dream is running through the jungle and coming upon Alex Rousseau's body. At least, I thought it was just her body. As I sat down next to her to get a closer look, when she suddenly woke up. Obviously, I was surprised, having seen her shot in the head by Keamy a few episodes back. But now she was alive again, and quite panicked.

"Is it still here?" she asked, looking around frantically.

"Is what still here?" I said, confused.

She stopped looking around and met my eyes. She could tell I had no idea what she was talking about. The jungle was really quiet, and she seemed to calm down.

Until we heard a gunshot.

I grabbed Alex by the arm (I guess we're all heroes in our dreams) and we ran for cover as more gunshots rang out and nearby trees were hit. We hid behind a rock. I peeked over the top and saw three men in camo, some of those creepy guys from the Freighter, coming towards us with semi-automatic weapons.

Now, I'm sure you're familiar with the discontinuity of dreams, so it won't surprise you to find out that suddenly, I had a rifle strapped over my shoulder. One of those old lever-action Winchesters. So I checked the chamber (though I should have known that in dreams, no one ever runs out of ammo), and then cocked the lever and blew all three of the Freighter baddies away. I am not a violent man, and have only used rifles to shoot clay pigeons and targets, so do not take my trigger-happy nature in this dream too seriously.

Alex thanked me, and then guess who popped out of the trees behind us? Ben.

"Thank you for saving my daughter," he said.

"I thought she was dead," I said. "I saw it happen."

Ben gave me one of those creepy smiles like he does on the show.

"That wasn't Alex."

Ben's Plan"We don't have a lot of time," he said. He took Alex by the arm and started walking deeper into the jungle.

"Will you cover us from behind?" he asked me. But I know Ben all too well from watching the show.

"Why should I let you use me?" I asked.

Ben stopped and looked back at me. He was annoyed that I wouldn't just be a gullible pawn. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Sixty seconds where you have to tell me the truth," I said, or something similar.

"Deal," Ben said, and carried on.

"Dad, wait," Alex said. "Where are we going?"

"To the Muse."

The Muse
At that point I got pretty excited, assuming he meant some kind of mythological figure hidden somewhere in the mountains of the Island that would give Ben supernatural aid. It turned out he was talking about another Dharma Initiative Station.

Another discontinuity - my dream skipped ahead to our arrival at the Muse, and it was night. The place was obviously abandoned and covered with vines (the picture above is the closest-looking thing I could find online).

Ben led us up the stairs and opened the door. Once inside, I saw that the station was very different from any of the other Dharma installations on the show.

It was kind of like a dark, abandoned museum. I remember strange sculptures, stained-glass windows, and murals covering the walls. There were mannequins dressed in colorful suits of ancient armor. I happened to have a camera (of course), and so I started rampantly taking pictures of everything, especially the murals, because they seemed to tell some kind of story.

What I didn't notice was that Ben had stopped stone cold.

I turned around and saw John Locke pointing a gun at Ben's face.

"Is it true?" Locke asked.

"What are you talking about, John?" Ben asked back.

"All of this," Locke said, waving his arms around the room. "Is it all true?"

Ben made one of his faces, and then shots rang out. Not from Locke, but I assume from some Freighter people who'd followed us.

Locke ran one way, and we ran the other. Ben led Alex and I out of a side door and back out into the jungle. I fired some blind shots behind me, and we kept going deeper and deeper into the trees.

Sixty Seconds of Truth
Once we slowed down to a walk, without looking at me, Ben said, "Your sixty seconds start now."

"What was that place?"

"They wanted to understand the 'hostiles'," he said. "You can learn a lot about a civilization from its art."

"Who are the hostiles? Natives?"

"There are no natives to the Island. There never have been."

"Then who made that art? Who built the ruins I've seen?"

"People have been drawn here for millennia," he said cryptically.

"The Others?"

"We don't call ourselves Others." No kidding.

"What do you call yourselves?"

Ben paused for a moment. "The Elect."

"And what are you doing here?"

"We do whatever She needs us to do," Ben said, and he had a look of pride and dedication in his eyes. I'm capitalizing "She" because he said it as though it should have been capitalized.

"You have ten seconds left," he said, so I pulled out the big guns.

"What is the Island?"

Ben stopped. He turned and looked at me.

"The Island is the Earth."

And that's the last thing I remember.

Analysis
Maybe, in my dream, the Alex that Keamy shot was just a manifestation of the Smoke Monster that Ben used as a decoy to protect the real Alex. That's the only thing I can come up with.

I guess the Muse was a Dharma station dedicated to studying the Hostiles, and that Locke found something about them that he didn't want to hear.

As for Ben's answers to my questions...I have no idea what he meant. The "Elect"? I'm assuming that refers to the fact that all of the Others/Hostiles are chosen by the Island. "Whatever She needs us to do"? I got the feeling he was talking about the Island. Is the Island female? "The Island is the Earth"? The only thing I can come up with is the Gaia Hypothesis, where the entire Earth is considered a living being. Maybe the Island is the Earth's mind or soul. I don't know. Crazy dream. I only wish I could have rescued Claire instead of Alex. I mean, Alex is pretty, but she's no Claire. At least I didn't run into Kate or Sun.