Distinct kinds of time travel.

I have a growing problem in my mind with Lost. We are presented with several very distinct kinds of time travel in the show and I can’t really see how they relate yet. I’m ignoring all of the fate/free will issues, this is more related to the modes of travel themselves. In order of appearance as I recall them:

Consciousness Travel: This is what we see happen to Desmond, the man on the ship and Daniel’s rats. The traveler passes out and his consciousness shifts backwards into his body where-ever it was at that time. There is disorientation due to shifting back and forth through different time periods. The physical body doesn’t go anywhere and the consciousness seems to have left it, resulting in the black out. Since your body isn’t actually coming with you, you can’t “bring” anything, only your memories. Interestingly enough, new information you learn while being “flashed back” merges with your history of memories and carries forward in time. I’m not satisfied with the case of Daniel’s rats as it is nonsensical and possibly a paradox. This phenomenon appears to only happen to certain people who are exposed to very high levels of a specific kind of radiation. In the case of Desmond, there also seems to have been some level of “miracle” involved in him surviving the implosion of The Swan at all. Obviously this is not a desirable kind of time travel and it ends up killing people unless they can control it by finding an “anchor” which would suggest that while facilitated by extreme radiation, this is actually created and controlled by the individual. The nature of this travel means that it is specifically limited to the life span of the individual. Desmond was also disposed to “seeing” different versions of Charlie’s death, but it has never been clear if these were “visions” brought on by the island as was the case with Charlie’s own visions of saving Arron, or if they truly represented time travel into an unknowable and unwritten future.

Time Bubble: Whatever causes it, the entry coordinates to the island creates a time shift. I suspect this is intended to mean that the island itself is not actually in sync with “our” time. Both the helicopter and Daniel’s rocket experienced long perceived delays in arrivals. There is a major hole in this which I don’t think the writers themselves will even bother to explain because it’s a whole season behind us now. There is no physical difference between human bodies, helicopters, small rockets, radio transmissions and light. They are all bound by the same physical rules and therefore, if people leaving or coming to the island experience a time delay, then so should the light and the radio waves. Which means that there would be hours and hours of lag in simple radio conversations, and boats, planes and helicopters would simply suddenly appear and disappear inside or outside of the “bubble”. For whatever season, the bubble and Desmond’s consciousness time travel is related… although why and how is not clear. We have also seen that in some cases, at least in the case of Flight 316, the bubble acts as a catalyst for other forms of time travel.

The Orchid Machine: Below the Orchid is a machine that allows it’s creators to move organic material through time… no metals allowed (although metal on clothing and animal tags is apparently ok?). This machine can move these organisms into the future or the past, however it also moves them through space and deposits them at “the exit point” which has been suggested as being based on Earth energy vortex grids. We have yet to see this machine in action, however it has been alluded to have been used on at least rabbits and polar bears. Unlike Consciousness travel, the physical body and the consciousness are moved together to a different time and space, which could be outside the subject’s life span.

The Wheel: Apparently the Orchid Machine is powered by the same energy that powers the Wheel, which is presumably ancient. The Wheel exhibits in itself a variety of time travel methods:

The Exit Point: Like the Orchid Machine, the Wheel deposits the individual who is IN the Wheel chamber to the exit point, in Tunisia. We can presume that there may be other exit points, but we don’t know where or when.

The Skipping Record: This is another nonsensical idea. If the island was standing still and the Losties were moving through time, then the Island would not have disappeared, the Island wouldn’t have been “moved” and alot of details don’t make sense. If the Island is moving and the Losties are standing still, then how do other groups from the outside arrive at the Island and encounter them? There is also a fairly amiss logic to why the Losties and the people from the boat are moving through time and not the Others, that’s odd. So something else is happening here, and the longer I think about the less I think it makes any kind of sense at all.

What I gather is that the Island itself is time traveling in the way Desmond does, with our Lost travelers being it’s consciousness. The physical body of the Island… including the people who inhabit it may be moving through space… from one physical location to another, but the only thing actually moving through time is the Losties and the people from the boat… with similar side effects on them as Desmond and the man from the boat. When Flight 316 crossed the bubble, it caused Jack et al to join the other Losties in 1977, although as of yet there doesn’t seem to be any logical reason for this except that they had “aged” the same amount as the Skipping Record Losties, thus putting them in sync with each other and out of sync with the island and it’s 1977 inhabitants.

If anyone has any better clarification of these kinds of time travel or sees how they relate better than I do, please post your ideas!