Well that supports the claim on Entertainment Weekly that

When Desmond, Eloise the rat, and that guy who died from a brain anneurism on the freighter time traveled, their consciousness traveled but their bodies didn't. If that's how time travel works on this show, how come the passengers of Ajira 316 didn't find the bodies of Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid aboard the plane after the time flash that brought the plane down? Shouldn't they have been slumped over in their seats and unconscious like what happened to Desmond every time he traveled?

I don't think it's been established that's how time travel works on this show. It may not even be limited to one method. Besides, where would their consciousness transfer? It's not as if they had their adult bodies to shift into.

When Eloise was exposed to radiation, Daniel said her mind was sent 20 minutes into the future (which is why she knew how to run the maze even though she hadn't been taught how to run it yet), but her body remained in plain view. And when the dude on the freighter traveled, his body just laid there on the bed and Desmond and Sayid could see him the whole time. His body didn't disappear like Marty McFly's. So I thought it was established that beings' minds are traveling--not their bodies--on this show.

A side effect of being exposed to high doses of electromagnetism is having your consciousness time travel like what happened to Desmond. When Ben knocked the wheel off its' axis; that caused the people on the island (except for those indigenous - The Others) to actually travel through time along with whatever possessions they had with them.

i must have missed something. in the pic at the bottom of the previous page, i didn't get who was holding the rocks and hence who was

Okay, so that caused the island to eventually end up in 1977. What caused the time flash that made Ajira 316 fall out of the sky? And how come only a few passengers aboard 316 traveled to 1977?

And more importantly, why did one of the Oceanic 6 not make the time journey?

1.) The island, itself, didn't move to the past, only certain perople did. The island was moved to another physical place in the ocean, as seen in the season four finale. Richard and the remaining Others and the surviving 316 people are on the island in the present. It is possible that the Others used "Room 23" to prevent their people from time travel, which would explain why they didn't jump with the losties. Juliet probably never went through that training.
2.) Flight 316 crashed the same way everything else that has passed over the island has crashed. It would have come down even without the time flashes.
3.) There are a lot of theories on why certain people got sent back to Dharma time, and I fall into the camp that believes the island was just course-correcting by sending certain people to the time they had to go to had they not left the island in the first place.

I have a theory on Sun being left in the present, which I'll post when I have some free time.

That pictures not a spoiler at all. It was debunked long ago that the stones seen in Penny's flat on the table in 'Flashes Before Your Eyes' are the same. They are not even the correct color.

I kind of wish the show hadn't gone with the time travel thing, even though I have enjoyed this season a lot. I thought they originally said there could be a scientific explanation for everything that happens (or was that a red herring)? Time travel is way too messy for that...even if I could believe people could shift thru time somehow, what about things like Hurley's guitar case...and their clothes for that matter. Also what happens if they take the sub and then go and meet themselves? Messy.

I think they had all this in mind from the beginning, though. Adam and Eve, for starters...what seems to be happening now suggests that it will be two major characters in the show who went back in time and died there. Also, recall when Hurley and Sayid were on the beach at night and they picked up a radio broadcast and Sayid said that with radio waves you could never tell where they were coming from, and that they could come from thousands of miles away. Then Hurley made a comment that you may not even know WHEN they are coming from, suggesting early on that time on the island was not as it seemed.

Yeah I'm not saying they didn't have it in mind from the beginning. I have no idea of course. I haven't put much stock into (been convinced by) the Adam&Eve theory yet. I still feel my comments apply to the time travel concept in general.

When Ben turned the wheel, the result was that the island seemed to disappear because it began jumping through time. When Locke turned the wheel, the time jumps stopped but they ended up in 1977. Much like a spinning record that stopped, the island is back in place but the passengers fell off in 1977.

The island is safe and sound, back in place and visible to the eye in 2008. Otherwise, Lapidus would never have seen it to land flight 316. Remember, both islands were gone.

Frank knew a little bit about what was happening from talking to Jack. So, when the turbulence hit he used his expertise as a pilot and landed the plane on a slightly short runway built just for him. His excellent skills here are why he was pulled from his duties as pilot on 815. Because he would've died then.

I previously thought that the plane entered the window and was instantly in 1977 during a storm because you could hear the numbers being broadcast on the radio. Now, I think that they were in the same storm that Danielle's crew were in when they crashed in 1988. The numbers were played then as well. This storm could be one of those temporal junction points in time like in BTTF.

The O6 was split over two time periods because Locke didn't bring back everyone that left the island like he was told. God help us all.

At first, the island AND the people moved through time then when Locke fixed the wheel, the remaining people traveled one last time to 1977 as John went to Tunisia.

The Others never time traveled (with the survivors). Even the little ones they stole from the tail section which have become Others. I guess you just have to be accepted and not rejected or exiled.

I don't know if this has been discussed but it seems like Desmond is at fault for everything that has happened the past few seasons.

It was Desmond's visions that led to Charlie staying alive long enough to turn off the looking glass, which led to the Oceanic six leaving the island. It seems like Desmond's visions were never supposed to happen, and so everything has to be course-corrected to make up for it.

Faraday even said that the rules of time travel don't seem to apply to Desmond. Like the visions, that might be due to the hatch explosion.

Yeah, but the only reason Desmond had to turn the key was because Locke stopped pushing the button.

Locke was just following his path though, no matter what it actually led to. Desmond altered multiple people's paths via paranormal means, creating an anomaly since nobody should be able to see the future.

What if Desmond's flashes into the future were merely his remembering things he was told from the past? Each time he saved Charlie, the way Charlie died changed and therefore whatever Desmond was told in the past changed moving them forward to the point that Charlie's death was not only inevitable, but required to reach the happy ending they all needed.

"The trash can. Remember the trash can!" /Ted

There is no evidence that the island was moved through time. When we saw it sink into the ocean it was moved to a different place on Earth. This was done so Widmore couldn't just send another boat to the same spot. If it had moved through time, the Others that were left over would have been left in the ocean. Also, if it moved through time, what is it going to do, land on itself?

The only thing that has moved through time was the losties and some of the stuff they had on them.

Did Ben leave the wheel off its axis on purpose?

Just a thought ... What if Sayid and Young Ben strike up a friendship (or Sayid manipulates Young Ben into thinking its a friendship) and Sayid changes Ben's course in life.

Still wondering who beat up Ben before the 'Island Return' flight.

Still not crazy how the Oceanic 6 ended up back on the island (even though the 'Sawyer' episode made it better). I thought the producers would come up with something more mindblowing ... I guess they would have if ABC didnt give them an end-date.

Evidence on the identities of Adam and Eve.

I've stated this many times in the past for the reasons you stated and still maintain that this is probably true.

I'm just not so sure what it is that the O6 are supposed to do now that they are back.