The Dharma Initiative , also written DHARMA ( Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications ), is a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost . It is introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. 'Dharma' is Sanskrit and is used in Hinduism. It has also been borrowed into Buddhism (sometimes called "Dhamma") to describe the collected teachings of the Buddha. It was likely used in the series because it refers to a body of supreme knowledge.
Background
The Dharma Initiative and its origins are first explored in the episode "Orientation" by an orientation film in the Swan Station. Dr. Marvin Candle (Francois Chau), explains that the project began in 1970, created by two doctoral candidates from the University of Michigan, Gerald and Karen DeGroot (Michael Gilday and Courtney Lavigne), and was funded by Alvar Hanso (Ian Patrick Williams) of the Hanso Foundation. They imagined a "large-scale communal research compound", where scientists and free thinkers from around the globe could research meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and a sixth discipline that the film begins to identify as "utopian social-" before being cut off.
The episodes "LaFleur" and "He's Our You" indicate that mathematician Horace Goodspeed was in charge of Dharma Initiative operations on the Island, at least from the very early 1970s through the time of the Incident. Key decisions that needed to be made on the Island were taken by a committee, which included all department heads, including Flame Station head Radzinski and security head LaFleur (the name Sawyer was assuming). They, in turn, answer to the Dharma Initiative HQ based in University of Michigan, as Radzinski threatens to call them to override a key decision by Goodspeed. In the episode "The Variable", Daniel Faraday confirmed that Dharma Initiative Headquarters, at least through 1977, was in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The "Lost Experience", an alternate reality game which took place in 2006, revealed that the objective of the Dharma Initiative was to alter any of the six factors of the Valenzetti Equation, an equation which "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself," to allow humans to exist for longer by changing their doomsday. These factors are represented as numbers in the Valenzetti Equation and are also the numbers frequently mentioned in the show: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
In 1977, Dharma drilled into an electromagnetic pocket, releasing a dangerous amount of electromagnetic energy. This is referred to as "the Incident" and is frequently alluded to in other Dharma Initiative sources. Radzinski insisted on drilling despite warnings from Dr. Chang about the danger. In the Swan Station orientation film, recorded in 1980, Dr. Marvin Candle insists that the computer at the Swan Station not be used for any other purpose, specifically to communicate with other stations, and indicates it had something to do with the incident. When the Oceanic 815 survivors travel back in time to 1977, they attempt to negate the release of this energy by detonating the plutonium core of a hydrogen bomb. The fifth season ends just as the bomb goes off, without revealing what it changed, if anything.
After the incident, according to notations on the blast door map in the Swan Station, the Dharma Initiative's facilities on the Island seemed to fall into disrepair. The blast door map has many annotations about destroyed access tunnels, a breakdown in the Cerberus Security System and mentions facilities being abandoned or destroyed via other incidents or accidents, specifically one happening on October 28, 1984, another in 1985, and a final one on December 7, 1987. By the time Rousseau and her freighter crew shipwrecked on the Island, in 1988, many of the facilities on the Island have been abandoned, including the radio tower. At no point between then and the eventual purge of its members did the Dharma Initiative attempt a search and rescue for Danielle or her crew, despite Danielle broadcasting her own distress signal on a continuous loop from the tower for four years.
When the Dharma Initiative arrived on the Island, they fought with the Island's natives, known to them as the Hostiles and to the survivors of Flight 815 as the "Others". The "Hostiles" had been living on the Island long before the Initiative arrived. The Arrow Station was eventually given a mission to observe and formulate strategies to counter the Hostiles. When Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) arrived on the Island in 1970, there was still an open conflict between the Hostiles and the Dharma Initiative. At some point prior to 1974, a truce of some kind was brokered between the Hostiles. A series of protocols were put into place between the Hostiles and the Initiative. Several episodes mention that there was a "line" and that certain parts of the Island were considered to be the "territory" of each group. This conflict ended in 1992, when Linus joined the Hostiles and helped kill the remaining members using poison gas, an event which became known as "The Purge". The bodies were buried in a mass grave.
In 2001, Kelvin Inman, a man who found Desmond adrift on the beach, was still working for the Dharma Initiative in the Swan station. Lost producer Carlton Cuse confirms in a podcast that Kelvin was indeed a member of the Dharma Initiative. In the "Lost Experience", an actor portraying fictional Hanso Foundation executive Hugh McIntyre appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he stated that the Foundation had stopped funding the Dharma Initiative in 1987. However, in season 2, an air drop of supplies arrived for the Swan station. As an airdrop would require a cargo plane, pilots, parachutes, a loadmaster, and the supplies themselves, this would suggest someone is still providing funding for its activities. Furthermore, the Dharma Initiative insignia can be seen on the Secondary Protocol's mission orders that mercenary commander Martin Keamy accesses in the freighter's safe, suggesting that the Dharma Initiative continues, in some way, to the present day.
At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, a new ARG began with a booth recruiting new members to the Initiative. At the Lost panel, Hans van Eeghen, a Dharma executive, revealed that the results from the booth were "abysmal," and a few people had been selected to view a video that had been sent from thirty years in the past. In the video, Pierre Chang said that the work on the Island is valid, and it is essential that the Dharma Initiative is restarted. Following this a website was launched, which allowed users to join the Dharma Initiative.
Research stations
The Dharma Initiative placed nine (known) research stations around the Island, which take the form of hidden, underground facilities or bunkers. One (the first built) is in California. After Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island in September 2004, the survivors encounter several of these stations. The first to be discovered is "The Swan" which they refer to informally as "the hatch". Ten additional stations have since been visited over the series, each with its own particular logo associated with it: an octagon, similar to the bagua design, with a differing symbol at the center. The Swan Station's blast door map makes reference to a light manufacturing facility, a meteorological research station, station "CVII", and others that have yet to be shown on the series.
In the episode "He's Our You", during a meeting of Dharma Initiative heads, there were 14 members present, suggesting 14 separate divisions of the Dharma Initiative on the island.
The Swan station's blast door map claims that there was, at one time, an underground tunnel network that connected many of the stations. Notations on the map suggest that the tunnels started falling into disrepair in the early 1980s, around the time the incident occurred.
Station 2: The Arrow
The Arrow station is first seen in "The Other 48 Days". In "Because You Left", a flashback shows Chang doing the initial recording for the orientation film, where he explains that it is a station for monitoring the Hostiles and formulating strategies to combat them. He is interrupted before he can finish. In "The Man Behind the Curtain", flashbacks of the Dharma Initiative in operation on the Island show one of the members, Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchison), wearing a jumpsuit bearing the Arrow station logo with "mathematician" written below it. When rediscovered in 2004, the word "quarantine" appears on the inside of the station's door. In "LaFleur", Horace gives the order to notify the Arrow to "prepare the ordnance" when he believes there is an imminent danger from the Hostiles.
When the tail section survivors come across the Arrow Station in "The Other 48 Days", it has apparently been converted into a storage room. Within, they find a radio, a glass eye, and part of the Swan station's orientation film hidden inside a Bible. Producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof stated on a podcast that each object is significant, and not randomly chosen.
Station 3: The Swan
The Swan is a laboratory used by the Dharma Initiative for research on electromagnetism.. In the episode "The Incident", Dharma Initiative member Radzinski claimed when comple
Nursery Furniture Room Sets from Boori Kidsmill Cosatto Lollipop Lane
Browse our range of beautiful Nursery Furniture from Boori, Kidsmill, Cosatto, Lollipop Lane ... Many of our Cot Beds are available in solid woods like pine and oak or in ...
Salisbury Pine Nursery Furniture Set (Excellent Condition bought from ...
Find hundreds of bargains on baby cots for sale - buy cots and beds online now. Buy baby cots, or sell yours online and post ads for free!
Nursery Furniture | Baby Nursery Furniture Sets for Nursery Rooms
Solid pine with a white wash finish, this baby nursery furniture is suitable for a boy's nursery room or a girl's nursery. Great value for money, the pricetag makes it cheap nursery ...
Nursery Furniture - matching furniture for your first baby bedroom ...
Jamestown - Pine. Nursery furniture available in antique pine or whitewash affect. Cotbed, dresser, tallboy, double wardrobe available - Mothercare.
Your Price Furniture online furniture sale with free UK delivery on ...
White Furniture: Leather Furniture: Pine Furniture: Oak Furniture: Darkwood Furniture ... beds, living room furniture, dining sets, tv units, garden furniture, nursery furniture, ...
Something Special house and children's pine and painted furniture
Specialists in pine and children's nursery furniture.
Nursery Furniture Including White Nursery Furniture with White Cot ...
Nursery Furniture Your Price Furniture sell Nursery Furniture – White Nursery Furniture ... Porto (Pine) Kendal (Pine) Sheraton (Pine) Rough Sawn (Pine) Provencal (Pine)
Nursery Room Furniture, Nursery Furniture, Nursery Room Sets, Baby ...
At just4baby online shop we stock a huge range of nursery and baby room furniture and stunning nursery room sets. The range includes classic pine and country nursery furniture ...
Touchwood Classic Pine Cot - Nursery Furniture - Nature Baby
Comfort and safety are essential features when choosing a cot for your baby. This design conforms to the highest safety and quality standards.
Nursery Furniture,Kids Bedroom Furniture,Cupboards,Wardrobs and ...
At just4baby online we stock a huge range of nursery and baby room furniture.The range includes classic pine and country nursery furniture ,baby rockers and baby bouncers including ...