I am fairly new to watching the show lost. i had started watching season three and got addicted to lost right away. so i went and bought season one and two and watched both of them plus season three over again in two and a half days, so instead of watching them week by week and forgetting things it was like watching a movie, and that let me see a better picture of lost. so here are my theories:

Bin Linus and all the other hostiles were part of the DHARMA initiative, they worked to keep the scientist scared of going out of there hatches so they would concentrate in what they were doing on the island.

Part of the DHARMA initiative ended and they abandoned most of the other stations. The only station left manned was the swan station, because they needed to keep a man in there to push the button to keep the island invisible. If he didn't push it the island would be found. When the station imploded it sent out something that they picked up in one of the poles (North or South) and now scientists will be looking for were the location of the thing that they picked up is. And that is how they will get off the island, when the scientists locate the source of the signal they will go to it.

The hostiles still do experimental tests on the island, I think we will learn more about that in the next few episodes.

My thought on the black smoke is, it was a successful experiment. It is in fact a machine, but they made the mechanical part is invisible, and the black smoke is the only thing it will show us, at least for now, or it could be that the writers of lost don't know what it is either and they want us to use are imaginations.

One reason i know the DHARMA initiative isn't over is because DHARMA still drops food from the sky, and plus the hostiles wouldn't still have DHARMA food at their camp, it would be depleted.

I also don't think locke blew up their only way of getting off the island, because when the brought Ben Linus back to their home from the other island they used a boat not a submarine.

Another thing is i believe the island has special powers, whether they a magical or it has to do with the location of the island on the world. Maybe the island has a lot of natural magnets on it that some how it affects the human body, by making it heal its self faster.

I believe that when the hostiles left the barracks in the episode "Left Behind" they were leaving to go to the other island to work on experiments or to leave because they have been found and the others from flight 815 will come back to those barracks and try to live there.

I think i know how the island gets its power, they either have solar power or the island has natural magnets and they some how found a way to make power from the magnets.

I also believe that rousseau and Bin Linus are the father of Alex, because they have not seen the wreckage of the research vessel Rousseau and her team of scientist came on, is because there was no wreckage, the team was coming to do experiments on the island. Rousseau may have disagreed with some of the experiments and left or Rousseau was one of there Experiments and they didn't need Rousseau anymore after the baby was born and kicked her out, i believe that the baby was the test, they were experimenting with different ways to fertilize a women and Ben Linus was the sperm donor. if you think about it, they like kidnapping the little kids, Julliet was brought there because she was a specialist in the field of impregnating women and animals. so i believe right now DHARMA is particularly specializing in the growth of living humans, and animals and how to make people more sophisticated before they are even born, that is why Ethan Rom injected Claire's baby with that drug. I believe that the research vessel Rousseau came on is the vessel that they are using right now. I also believe that Ben Linus was born sophisticated, he was part of a test.

I also believe that every thing that has happened in the show so far is really the truth, i don't believe in it being purgatory because that would be such a let down a i would be pissed. I also don't think its Atlantis because they would be in the water, where is their scuba masks. I believe that my theories are one of many possible answers to the island its mysteries, and its inhabitants.

I think that DHARMA has been experimenting in the past with brain washing and Manchurian candidate stuff, because when Sawyer, Kate, and Alex went to break out Karl they were brain washing him. i believe on the outside world DHARMA is called another name and is funded by the us government but ran privately. DarkUFO