DHARMA Initiative

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Title card from a DHARMA Initiative orientation film featured in the Lost episode Orientation

Screen shot from the "Sri Lanka Video", released as part of the Lost Experience, showing the DHARMA acronym

The DHARMA Initiative ( Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Initiative )^[1] is a fictional research project featured in the American television series Lost. It was introduced in the second-season episode "Orientation".

[edit] Background

Much of what has been revealed about the DHARMA Initiative comes from an orientation film, ^[2] found inside an underground bunker on the island, that outlines the purpose and instructions for Station 3: The Swan. The film has a copyright date of 1980 and is designated as "3 of 6". Dr. Marvin Candle (played by François Chau) narrates the film, which is noticeably cut or damaged in places.

Gerald DeGroot as seen in the DHARMA Initiative Orientation film for Station 3 The Swan.

The film provides a background history of the DHARMA Initiative. It states that the Initiative was founded in 1970 by University of Michigan doctoral candidates Karen and Gerald de Groot and financed by the Hanso Foundation. DHARMA brought together "scientists and free thinkers" from around the world at a "large-scale communal research compound" to conduct research in various disciplines, including meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and a sixth discipline that the film begins to identify as "utopian social . . . ." before being cut off. American psychologist and Walden Two author B.F. Skinner is cited as an influence on the de Groots' work.

A section of film is discovered by Mr. Eko inside another, apparently inactive station in which the survivors from the tail section have been living. In "What Kate Did", this portion of filmstock, hidden in a hollowed-out Bible, is given to John Locke who splices it into the orientation film. The additional section completes an admonishment against station orientees attempting to use the computer system to communicate with the outside world.

In the second season finale "Live Together, Die Alone" it is revealed that the section was edited out of the film by a former inhabitant of the Swan.

In "?", Mr. Eko and Locke discover Station 5, "The Pearl" which has an orientation of its own on a video tape. It also has a copyright date of 1980. The narrator appears to be the same "Marvin Candle", but identifies himself as Dr. Mark Wickmund^[3] According to the video, the Pearl station is intended to observe and document activity in the other stations on the island. It explains that a psychological experiment is taking place in another station, where team members have been conditioned to believe their work is of great importance.

DHARMA Initiative members assigned to The Pearl are instructed to record every action performed in the monitored station, The Swan. Notebooks with these records are sent through a pneumatic tube. The other end of the tube is discovered to lead to a secluded spot, where a large pile of these notebooks lie seemingly untouched.

In the Lost Experience ARG, the DHARMA Initiative is revealed to have the purpose of finding a way to change the "Valenzetti Equation", a mathematical formula designed to predict the end of the world. Thomas Mittelwerk, a member of the Hanso Foundation, later says, however, that "The DHARMA Initiative failed".

[edit] Research stations

Main article: DHARMA Initiative stations

The DHARMA Initiative has placed several research stations around the island, which take the form of hidden, underground facilities or bunkers. The first to be discovered by the survivors is "Station 3" or "The Swan" which they refer to informally as "the hatch". They occupy it until the end of season 2, which culminated with the apparent destruction of the station. Four additional stations have since been visited: "The Pearl", "The Arrow", "The Staff", and "The Hydra". Each of these facilities has a particular logo associated with it: an octagon with an interior based on the bagua design, with a differing symbol at the center.

[edit] Notes

• A DHARMA Initiative symbol appears on the tail of a shark that attacks Michael and Sawyer in the episode "Adrift". In the Season Two DVD extras this is explained as an "Easter Egg" that has no meaning in the story line and was not meant to be as visible as it was.
• As part of the associated alternate reality game, the Lost Experience, an actor portraying Hugh McIntyre of the Hanso Foundation, appeared in a staged interview on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, and claimed that the DHARMA Initiative was canceled in 1987.^[4]
• Marvin Candle's left arm does not move throughout the orientation film, and creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse confirmed that Candle's hand is a prosthetic.^[5] However, in the episode "?" he appears in a second orientation film, identifying himself as "Mark Wickmund", and with both arms intact.
• Dharma is also a Sanskrit term with several meanings in different religious contexts particularly in the faiths of Buddhism and Hinduism, including "natural law", "reality", "truth" and "duty".
• The Sanskrit link becomes even more evident at the end of the second orientation film (Pearl station) when Mark Wickmund bows with his two palms joined and utters "Namaste" which is a traditional Hindu/Sanskrit salutation.
• The funeral that the "Others" conduct is one that is traditional Hindu, having the body float on a body of water.

[edit] References

1. ^ Revealed by playing a memory game accessible through the Hanso Foundation website, which can be found here [1]. To reveal the acronym one must reach level 42, which is the largest of The numbers.
2. ^ Orientation film for Station 3: The Swan QuickTime movie at fansite http://thedharmainitiative.org
3. ^ The character's name sounds like "Wickman" when spoken in the episode, but an official ABC display shown at the 2006 Comicon clarifies that the name is "Dr. Mark Wickmund" See the photograph of the display.
4. ^ on Jimmy Kimmel Live
5. ^ "Official Lost Podcast" 17 January 2006.