From Lost PodCast
"There is a good chance we saw the monster this year and didn't realize we were looking at it"
Any idea what it would be?
how about all of those hallucinations?
I'm thinking the same. Or maybe that bird thing?
Hulk, I thought you didn't buy all the hallucinations?
It would actually be cool to be right for once in a while. I wish I was still maintaining my list of telepathic/mind reading events from way back in the thread.
I definitely think that the black smoke monster is involved because it is the only thing that we have actually seen that was directly involved in the mind reading when we saw pictures from Eko's past inside the monster as they were in a stare down. We have no clue from where the whispers and dream sequences are conjured.
I still hold out a possibility that the smoke monster can take shapes and forms and may have taken Jack's father's shape when it lead him to the cave/water, the boar's shape when it was screwing with Sawyer and the horse's shape for Kate.
That could definitely not be the case, but I still go back to the first time anyone saw the monster. Take a look at the exchange below knowing what we know now, especially the smoke monster reading Eko's mind and all of the other hallucinations.
Jack How are they, the others?
Locke Thirsty. Hungry. Waiting to be rescued. And they need someone to tell them what to do.
Jack Me? I can't.
Locke Why can't you?
Jack Because I'm not a leader.
Locke And yet they all treat you like one.
Jack I don't know how to help them. I'll fail. I don't have what it takes.
Locke Why are you out here Jack?
Jack I think I'm going crazy.
Locke No. You're not going crazy.
Jack No?
Locke Crazy people don't know they're going crazy. They think they're getting saner. So, why are you out here?
Jack I'm chasing something. Someone.
Locke Ah. The white rabbit. Alice in Wonderland.
Jack Yeah, wonderland, because who I'm chasing... he's not there.
Locke But you see him?
Jack Yes. But he's not there.
Locke And if I came to you and said the same thing, then what would your explanation be, as a doctor.
Jack I'd call it a hallucination. A result of dehydration, post traumatic stress, not getting more than 2 hours of sleep a night for the past week. All the above.
Locke All right, then. You're hallucinating. But what if you're not?
Jack Then we're all in a lot of trouble.
Locke I'm an ordinary man Jack, meat and potatoes, I live in the real world. I'm not a big believer in magic. But this place is different. It's special. The others don't want to talk about it because it scares them. But we all know it. We all feel it. Is your white rabbit a hallucination? Probably. But what if everything that happened here, happened for a reason? What if this person that you're chasing is really here?
Jack That's impossible.
Locke Even if it is, let's say it's not.
Jack Then what happens when I catch him?
Locke I don't know. But I've looked into the eye of this island. And what I saw was beautiful.
Jack Wait, wait, where are you going?
Locke To find some more water.
Jack I'll come with you.
Locke No. You need to finish what you've started.
Jack Why?
Locke Because a leader can't lead until he knows where he's going.
It sure seems like Locke knew more about what Jack was seeing than he let on to and it was the week before this that Locke fell down when the monster was chasing them during the boar hunt and all we saw was him looking up at the monster and smiling/looking amazed.