Dharma Initiative

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

The Dharma Initiative is a fictional research project featured in the American television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". During the Lost Experience it was revealed that "DHARMA" is an acronym for Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications.

Background

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

In 1970, University of Michigan doctoral candidates Karen and Gerald de Groot founded the Dharma Initiative with financial backing from the Hanso Foundation. Dharma brought together "scientists and free thinkers" from around the globe 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.

Dharma's food supply, used by the survivors

Eventually all Dharma Initiative employees stationed on the island had been "purged" by the "Hostiles" (the name given to the "Others" by the Dharma Initiative), who were present on the island long before the Initiative arrived. The Others killed those living in the Dharma Initiative camp with deadly gas and took over many of Dharma's stations and The Barracks.

The Lost Experience ARG revealed that the Dharma Initiative set out to find 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".

Research 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. Six additional stations have since been visited: "The Pearl", "The Arrow", "The Staff", "The Flame", "The Hydra", and "The Looking Glass". 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 (pearl, swan, hydra, flame, caduceus (staff), arrow, and (white rabbit), also known as the looking glass. In "Enter 77" Kate, Sayid and John enter "The Flame" and find that it has long been abandoned and is now occupied by The Others. "The Flame" was destroyed through a self-destruction system, which was activated by John entering "77" into a computer terminal.

The following stations are listed by station number. Stations with an unknown station number will be listed in order of appearance.

Station 1: The Arrow

As of the third season finale, the purpose of the Arrow is unknown. It appears to the tail section survivors to have been used for storage and restocking. It was suggested in "The Man Behind the Curtain," that at some point, mathematics was one of the station's purposes.

The interior of The Arrow consists of only a few rooms. At the time of the habitation of the tail section survivors, the station is long abandoned with a filthy interior and only a few objects inside. Electricity still runs in The Arrow but only powers a couple of lamps and bare light bulbs. Electrical conduits and exposed wires run along the interior walls. The rooms are barren, with concrete floors and walls. At least one of the rooms however, appears to have been painted off-white with a teal border running along the bottom of the walls, but the paint has peeled and chipped.

Station 3: The Swan

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The orientation film The Swan, featuring the station's Dharma logo

The Swan was a laboratory for the Dharma Initiative's research on electromagnetism. According to the station's orientation film, an "incident" occurred early in the station's experiments. This event caused a consistent build-up of electromagnetic energy, which resulted in a change of the station's focus: a two-member crew, replaced every 540 days, were since instructed to enter a numeric code into a microcomputer terminal every 108 minutes. The station is equipped with a split-flap display timer, which is interfaced to a microcomputer terminal and connected to an alarm system.

The station is almost entirely underground, except for a "hatch" entrance shaft and a concealed door. The word "quarantine" is spray-painted on the inside of the hatch, and the numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) are inscribed into its metallic exterior edge. The station is illuminated by powerful lamps shining through windows as a substitute for sunlight, with a main work area resembling a geodesic dome. A strong but localized magnetic field emanates from behind a wall, composed of rough concrete that appears to have previously been a corridor to another section of "the hatch". The station also has several internal blast doors.

It is stocked with food, a record player with a collection of old LPs, a small library, an armory complete with automatic rifles and other firearms, a washer and dryer, a shower, and bunk beds.

According to the Blu-ray Disc exclusive feature "Access Granted" of Lost: The Complete Third Season, DHARMA drilled the earth and hit an area with large contained electromagnetic buildup. They broke into the anomaly which allowed the field to leak out. The Swan was built over this area to act as a sort of cork. DHARMA then came up with a scheme to "dam" the leak but with the drawback that the field built up behind the dam and would eventually break it. The failsafe permanently "sealed" the leak.

Station 4: The Flame

The Flame is a communication station. It uses sonar and satellite technologies to communicate with the outside world and other stations on the island. It can also order a pallet drop.

Unlike the other stations, The Flame is not an underground bunker, but rather a wood-frame bungalow. A large satellite dish is on the roof. Inside the station is a living area, kitchen, and computer room. Below the building is a large basement containing supplies, including a library of Dharma Initiative operations manuals. The Flame was destroyed by survivors in "Enter 77".

Station 5: The Pearl

The Pearl itself is a psychological experiment. While its orientation film asserts the purpose of those stationed in the Pearl is to monitor and record the activities of participants in Dharma Initiative projects, scientists in the Pearl station are under surveillance.

The station consists of a three-by-three bank of television sets, two chairs and a computer, hooked to a printer. On the wall there is a pneumatic tube which the orientation film stated was used to transport notebooks supposedly to another Dharma location, but as discovered in "Live Together, Die Alone," the tube goes nowhere, dumping all of the notebooks in an open field on the island. Built into the wall over the desk is a lamp to allow ample lighting over the desk.

According to the orientation film, two-person teams, working eight-hour shifts over a three-week period, are to watch the video displays and take notes on their observations. Every action, regardless of how subtle, is to be recorded into notebooks by the Pearl's team members.

Station 6: The Orchid

A video aired at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con shows footage of an orientation video for Station 6 ("The Orchid"), in which "Edgar Halowax" explains that, contrary to Dharma's statements that the station was for botanical research, the station is used for researching a "Casimir effect" exhibited by the Island. Halowax shows a rabbit numbered '15'. Later in the video at the top of the screen, in a glass cage another rabbit appears with the number '15' on it. Halowax demands that they be separated and asks a fellow scientist "How long did you set it for?", to which she replies, "T-minus 20 minutes". This could be a time travel reference, in that she possibly sent the rabbit 20 minutes into the future, which would mean that it would 'appear' at the time of the videos filming. When Halowax demands that they be separated, "Get them away from each other!", he could be worried that the rabbit will come into contact with its future self and cause a ripple in the space-time continuum.

There are three hidden frames in this video at 0:39 , 0:49 , 1:09. The first one is a frame of 4 people who seem to be scientists. The second is a picture of the Hanso Foundation building. It appears to have an eerie shadow on it. The third is text that says "God loves you as he loved Jacob", this slide also appears during Karl's brain-washing sequence in "Not in Portland".

Station ?: The Staff

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The Staff's right hallway.

The Staff is a medical research station. Much of its purpose has yet to be revealed as of the close of the third season.

The main entrance stairwell terminates at a circular doorway within the Staff. Connected to this doorway are two hallways on either side, giving the station the shape of a “V”. At the end of the right hallway is an operating room, consisting of built-in and overhead cabinets and surgical lights mounted to the ceiling. A nursery is located in the Staff and doorways leading into both hallways of the station. The walls of the nursery are painted baby blue. A locker room is located in the left hallway of the Staff. The room contains at least two rows of double-tier and one row of single-tier lockers with the Staff logo emblazoned on the locker doors. Hidden inside one of the lockers is a switch that unlocks a hidden vault behind a group of lockers that contains all of the medical equipment and nursery furniture that was seen by Claire in her flashback, including an ultrasound machine.

Station ?: The Hydra

The Hydra is a zoological research station located on another island which is about twice the size of Alcatraz Island, two miles off the island the survivors are on.

It has a section above ground on the coast and another section underwater. The Hydra facility has cages outside the station in the jungle. An underwater complex was once used as an aquarium, which housed sharks and dolphins. This underwater complex may be linked with the shark with the Dharma logo on its rear fin seen in the season 2 episode, Adrift. There is also a quarry somewhere on the Hydra island where Kate and Sawyer were forced to work. It is later revealed that they were helping to construct a runway.

The polar bears which the survivors encounter could possibly have been caged in the Hydra as Tom had said to Sawyer that the bears were able to solve the feeding mechanism of the cage with ease. Charlie had stated that the polar bears were the Einsteins of the bear community.

Station ?: The Looking Glass

The Looking Glass is located on the sea-bed at approximately 20 meters depth, some 200 meters from the Beach. The Station was used to jam communications going to and from the island. The station received power from the cable that Sayid discovered in the episode "Solitary".

The Station's Logo is a Rabbit, a reference to The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Its logo can be seen in the episode "Greatest Hits" when Charlie swims down to it.

The Others were under the impression that the station was flooded. Only Ben knew that the station was still in operation and there were people working there.

As mythology on Lost

Station	First seen in	First visited by survivors	Last seen in	Name given in
Station 1: The Arrow	"Everybody Hates Hugo"	"The Other 48 Days"	"The Other 48 Days"	"Lockdown"
Station 3: The Swan	"All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"	"Man of Science, Man of Faith"	"Flashes Before Your Eyes"	"Orientation"
Station 4: The Flame	"The Cost of Living"	"Enter 77"	"One of Us"	"Lockdown"
Station 5: The Pearl	"?"	"Exposé"	"Exposé"	"?"
Station 6: The Orchid	Comic Con orientation film	N/A	Comic Con orientation film	Comic Con orientation film
Station ?: The Staff	"Maternity Leave"	"Maternity Leave"	"D.O.C."	"Lockdown"
Station ?: The Hydra	"A Tale of Two Cities"	"A Tale of Two Cities"	"Stranger in a Strange Land"	"A Tale of Two Cities"
Station ?: The Looking Glass	"Greatest Hits"	"Greatest Hits"	"Through the Looking Glass"	"Greatest Hits"

The interesting part of the stations, is that they all refer to a specific constellation: Station 1 : the Arrow = Sagit (in latin) which refers to Sagitta Station 3 : the Swan = Cygnus constellation Station 4 : the Flame = which refers to the sun Station 5 : the Pearl = refers to the moon Station ? : the Staff = Caduceus which in greek/roman mythology refers to mercury (morning/evening star) OR, could be refering to the Serpens constellation. Station ? : the Hydra = Hydra constellation Station ? : the Looking Glass = which refers to the Lepus Constellation (rabbit)

Another interesting fact is that almost all of the animals seen in the island, are also referring to constellations: _The Horse  : refers to the Pegasus Constellation _Polar Bear : present in chinese constellations _Bore = Pig : present in chinese constellations _Fish : Pisces constellation _The Dog : refers to Canis Major or Canis Minor Constellations

The theory that is developping here is that Magnus Hanso, the captain of the Black Rock, used these constellations as a reference to find the island, same reference that the Dharma ignitiative could have used to find the island and name their stations. In Find815.com in the chapter 5, Talbot, who represents the Maxwell Group, tells Sam about Magnus Hanso's journal, in which were noted daily positions of the Black Rock in the Sunda Trench. These positions were assembled in an ocean map of the Sunda Trench. Assuming that the positions may be some stars, we were able to recognize some constellations like the Hydra, The Cygnus, The Sagita and the Scorpio. The map of the Sunda Trench could be an Astral Map used to localize the island. That would explain maybe why they are looking in the Sunda Trench and not in the original presumed island position which may be in the Pacific. In conclusion we can presume that Magnus Hanso made this journal deliberetaly so the island may never be found by other ships/persons......until now?

In popular culture

A Dharma-related Easter Egg in Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

In Half-Life 2: Episode 2, an easter egg during gameplay shows a similar-looking Dharma Hatch logo inside a missile silo. The symbol is nearly identical, with the exception of the central part, which bears the three-pines White Forest logo instead of the swan-like Dharma logo. A computer near the said logo is also shown with The Numbers on-screen.

In the U.S. version of The Office episode "Initiation," Dwight asks Ryan "What is the DHARMA initiative?" In a deleted scene from the episode "The Job," on the season 3 DVD, Dwight asks Andy "What is the DHARMA initiative?"

Non-Fiction

The logo may be derived from the "I CHING." That contains many hexagrams that are incorporated in the logo. A mathematician predicted the end of the world using the "I CHING," and may hold some relation to fictional group.