Being a Lost fan – and for ‘fan’, read, ‘obsessed with’ – I’ve been coming up with theory after theory for ages so I had a look around the ‘net to see what other folks are thinking could be the ultimate secret of the Island.

There are literally dozens of theories about how it’s all going to end next season, so I’ve put together the top five and added my own, but I’d love to hear what your theory is!

Here are the most popular ones I found on the ‘net…

Theory One: The Island is purgatory…

When Oceanic flight 815 crashed, everyone did in fact die. Some went to heaven, others to hell and the rest wound up in purgatory, that being the Island.

It’s true that everyone seems to have done something ‘wrong’ with the possible exception of Hurley but there again, why would purgatory be such a beautiful island? Surely it’d be somewhere bleak and horrible, such as Blackpool? Sorry Blackpool – I love you really…

Damon Lindelof has often denied the purgatory theory saying, ”We’ve said that this is not purgatory, but people don’t want to believe it…. These human beings have hearts, and when those hearts stop beating, they’re dead.”

Yes, well, try telling that to John Locke and Christian Shephard!

Theory Two: It’s all been – or is – an hallucination

I personally can’t believe that the writers would let us down with an ending this lame, but nonetheless, it’s still in the top five theory search and granted, reality on the island isn’t very real what with time jumps and people seeing visions from various parts of their lives while on the island; remember Kate seeing the horse from her childhood in the jungle, Hurley’s mate Dave turning up and Jack seeing his dead dad?

And as lame as it would be, it’s true that hallucinations would explain a lot; for example, Walt’s comic book polar bear coming to life on the island, as well as those I’ve just mentioned.

Theory Three: It’s all an experiment in creating utopia

One of the most enduring theories is that in the seventies, the Dharma Initiative, in conjunction with the Hanso Foundation, were trying to create a utopian community where nobody dies, illness is unheard of and/or easily cured and where everyone lives in peace and harmony at the same point in time forever.

But this one doesn’t work for me on several fronts; firstly, the Hostiles have been a problem from the get-go it seems and of course people have died – and stayed dead – and in fact, the Dharma Initiative people were pretty much all killed off in The Purge.

Damon Lindelof had commented on this theory and said it was, ”Incredibly imaginative, and obviously written by someone who watches very carefully.

”But like all great closing arguments, it doesn’t incorporate any moments from the show that wildly contradict it.”

Theory Four: Humankind is due to “become extinct”

Sawyer offers Charlie a Virgin Mary statue in The Long Con

This theory purports that the Dharma Initiative believed the world was about to end and humankind wastherefore going to be wiped out so they ‘created’ this island – or somehow found it – in order to continue the human race when this unspecified calamity occurred.

There have been little clues in Lost nuances and hints that this could be the case. For example, according to some scientists, the dinosaurs were killed off by the ”K-T event” and anyone who ever texts anyone called Katy often writes KT.

Also, part of the K-T theory puts forward the theory that a star called ”Nemesis” – which orbits the sun – created some outer space “bad weather” that wiped out the dinosaurs. In the episode ”The Long Con,” the words nemesis and sun are used in dialogue between Sawyer and Charlie, but that’s a pretty thin connection really.

However, Josh Holloway is quoted on EW.com as saying of this theory, ”If the rest of the world is extinct, then where did those Dharma supplies that dropped from the sky come from?

“Then again, this could be a big government experiment, and you know as well as I do [that] if we blow this world up, they’re going to be in their little bunkers down there sipping cocktails.

“So maybe Dharma is part of that, and they’re using the island to rebuild society — but better.”

Theory Five: Mad scientists took experiments too far and it all got out of hand

This theory asserts that the passengers were brought to the island to be used as ‘guinea pigs’ in a wide range of Dharma experiments such as studying the effects of electromagnetic energy on humans. The theory further adds that the Monster – who’s also known as Smokey – is some kind of a ‘watchdog’ whose main purpose is to keep anyone from escaping. The ‘Others’ may also be test subjects or in fact, they could be the scientists themselves or a break-away faction of Dharma’s ex-scientists.

There are elements of this theory that hold water in that electromagnetic energy has played a huge part in the show from the start and it has been suggested that it’s this that cured Locke of his paralysis, Rose of her cancer and Jin of his infertility.

Again, according to EW, this is the theory that is “most commonly held by the actors”. Apparently, Daniel Dae Kim thinks that the Losties are part of ”a human ant farm” run by the Dharma Initiative.

Harold Perrineau – who plays Michael – reckons that scientists are “using the island to test a new one-world religion” while Josh Holloway says, ”The island is like a working machine. It’s mobile, like the Death Star.

“That one thing — the button — keeps it from becoming the ultimate weapon.”

Finally, my own theory – or rather, one of many of my own theories – is that during the war, all the planes and ships that went missing over the Bermuda triangle ended up on the island due to its natural/unnatural electromagnetic pull. Remember how most reports of planes going missing over the triangle reported their instruments going nuts? Well EM energy will do that… plus it explains all the military personnel on the island, albeit that timelines don’t always tally but as we know, there are time jumps.

All Flight 19 planes disappeared without trace

Also, I reckon it could be linked to the Philadelphia Experiment which was an alleged naval military experiment that supposedly took place at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard sometime around October 1943.

The experiment involved the U.S. destroyer escort ship USS Eldridge which was to be “rendered invisible” to human observers. The experiment is also referred to as “Project Rainbow” which attempted to get planes to be invisible to radar.

So bearing in mind that the island has this whole electromagnetic thing going on and that it can be moved in time – and therefore rendered invisible and ‘unfindable’ – maybe the island is/was all part of Project Rainbow.

As to the involvement of the pressing the button every 108 minutes, which featured very heavily until the hatch blew up, I suspect it was this that somehow ‘tethered’ the island to the position and time it was in then and once the hatch blew, it became effectively free-floating and hence the whole time jumping dealio. I also think the ‘numbers’ are the Island’s original grid reference.

Christian holds baby Aaron

With regard to the Oceanic folk, I’m not sure how they’d fit into that theory unless they all have some biological connection with the island’s original inhabitants. For example, let’s assume Christian is Jacob’s twin or something… we know Jack and Claire are Christian’s kids and Aaron is his grandson. We also know that pretty much all the Oceanic survivors have some connection to each other, even if it’s only as acquaintances or the old ‘ships who passed in the night’, such as Des did with Jack at the stadium where we first met Des.

That being the case, I think these are the ‘chosen’ ones and people who, for some as yet unknown reason, the island wanted back and therefore ‘arranged’ it. Perhaps it’ll turn out they are all children of the island’s original inhabitants and therefore have powers that they aren’t necessarily aware of but which are needed for the continuation of the race should the world end. Or maybe many of them are immortal, as Richard Alpert appears to be, so one can see that it would be kinda tricksome to leave them out and about in the ‘real’ world….

Walt has psychic abilities, Miles can talk to the dead – and I think he’s Marvin Candle’s son – and then there are people with practical uses such as doctors like Jack and Juliet and people capable of procreating and therefore ensuring human continuation, such as Jin and Sun and Claire.

So there we go, that’s the top five ‘net theories and my own but we want to hear yours. Do you think any of those are the ultimate answer or do you think it’s all something completely different?