Lost

The Heart of the Island manifests itself as electromagnetism concentrated in specific pockets. The Man in Black's people dug wells at these sites, and the Dharma Initiative built stations, including the Orchid and the Swan. Since at least 1977, when scientists penetrated a pocket, this energy has healed sickness, including cancer, paralysis, brain damage and male infertility, but it causes pregnant women to reject embryos, killing both mother and fetus. The electromagnetism also affects navigation, hiding the Island from the outside world, drawing back those who leave the Island, moving the Island and even transporting travelers through time.

The Island is the geographic location of the Lost castaways, covering a period of at least 2000 years. From a literary perspective, the writers of Lost project the Island as both a location and an entity, with its own characteristics and influence.

The Island has healing powers and cured John Locke of his paralysis and Rose Nadler of her cancer. It also functions as a "cork" that suppresses a dangerous force from escaping. At the Heart of the Island is a bright light, the source of "life, death, (and) rebirth" that needs to be protected. The current protector is Hugo Reyes. The protector also brings others to the island for various purposes, such as becoming the new protector of the Island.

The Island was inhabited by Egyptians and possibly Sumerians and Southeast Asians in the distant past, and also was home to a village of Latin-speaking people who were shipwrecked there in the early first millennium. The Island frequently moves its physical location. The Island was in the South Pacific Ocean in 2004, and appears to have been both in the Mediterranean Sea and off the coast of Africa at some point in its history.

According to Jacob, the Island acts as a cork, holding back a malevolent force that would destroy the world if released. When the Man in Black made contact with the site of this suppression, the Heart of the Island, he transformed into a smoke monster that plagued the Island for thousands of years. A protector guards the Heart of the Island, the source of life, death, and rebirth. Despite the Heart, or possibly because of it, not all who die on the Island move on - some remain, whispering. Other apparitions of various origin also appear, often confronting people with images from their past.

Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 was a scheduled flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California, United States, on a Boeing 777-200ER. On September 22, 2004 at 4:16 P.M., the airliner, carrying 324 passengers, deviated from its original course and disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. This is the central moment in the series that kicked off its plotline, and marked the chronological beginning of the main characters' adventures on the Island.

The plane crashed on an uncharted Island, with more than sixty-nine passengers (including the dog Vincent) and two crew members surviving. The plane split and crashed into three sections; the front section, which housed the plane's pilot Seth Norris who was killed the night of the crash; the middle section, which had the largest amount of survivors; and the tail section (whose inhabitants are referred to as the Tailies), who landed on another side of the island, causing them to be isolated from the larger group of mid-section survivors for a few weeks.