Could it be that it's some sort of mass hallucination?

I am all caught up on my TiVOed episodes of Lost, and I'm thinking that -- after last night's Hurley-centric adventure involving creepy hallucinations of Harry Goldenblatt -- the whole premise might be some kind of collective drug-induced psychosis among the patients at Santa Rosa. Hurley's there. Libby's there. The taking of their daily meds is highlighted in a way that a minor, meaningless detail would not be otherwise. Leonard's numbers are endlessly echoing around the lounge.

Perhaps other characters are institutionalized, too. It's not like life has been trauma-free for any of them: Jack has father issues and a messiah complex. Kate is responsible for the death of her childhood love, plus she killed her fake-real dad. Locke has extreme daddy and abandonment issues, not to mention a serious inferiority complex and fleeting paralysis. Ana Lucia lost her unborn child and murdered to avenge that loss. Sayid saw his relatives gassed, lost the love of his life and was forced to do all manner of unkind things. Sawyer's parents were killed in front of him, turning him into a predatory loner. Charlie has a serious drug habit, combined with the humiliation of being a member of Driveshaft. Jin is a reluctant gangster. Michael had his son taken from him and then got hit by a car. Really, any of these things might be enough to put these people over the edge. And I'm willing to bet that those characters' backstories that we don't yet know are disastrous as well. You know Bernard once accidentally killed someone with a dental drill.

I generally believe that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Rather than surviving a horrific plane crash and landing on a mysterious island with smoke monsters, hatches and Dharma Initiative-branded ranch dressing and sharks, I find it much more likely that these characters -- whose stories and lives are so interconnected that even Kevin Bacon is jealous -- are occupying the same institutional space, taking similar mind-altering medications and having related hallucinations within their own fragile psyches. They're working into each other's dreams/nightmares, with the island as their gigantic therapist's couch. Which explains why each of their personal demons just happens to be there: Kate's horse, Jack's dad, Hurley's food, Charlie's Virgin Mary heroine stash, the remains of Eko's brother, Sun's pregnancy test.

Of course this theory is just that, and will evolve as May sweeps approaches. But for now, there's no way this story is "real."