I found this quote on hitfix.com. It seems to be the ravings of a mad man. Anyone here who knows literature better than I do? Any truth to any of this?

Drew, are you familiar with Adulous Huxley? Did you know that he hung out with the real Richard Alpert? They did LSD together. Did you know Huxley wrote a story called Jacob's Hands, about a man named Jacob that had the power to heal people with his hands? Did you know he wrote a book called Point Counter Point, where the story is an intricate set of sub-plots revolving around several key characters each with a set of sub characters. Each character represents some aspect of life or is a stereotype of some sort and the various character paths cross in varying circumstances and Huxley analyzes every motive and internal emotion in detail, sometimes even jumping into a character's past to provide context. Did you know Huxley wrote a book called The Island, about a man shipwrecked on an island who encounter a group of people living on the island. It deals with group living, assisted reproduction,trance states for super living, and a long hard journey to a temple for spiritual enlghtenment. Or how about another Huxley work After Many Summers Dies The Swan, where the action revolves around a few main characters brought together by Jo Stoyte. Each character represents a different philosophy of living life.And every individual is called on to display not only unsleeping good will but also unsleeping intelligence. It features one character Dr Obispo, who places great faith in science and medicine as a saviour of humankind but he is trapped in ego-based "human" behaviour that prevents him from reaching enlightenment. And another character, Stoyte,who is in his sixties and fearing death, finds himself in deep contemplation of life. Enlightenment eludes him, however, as he is ruled by fear and craving. Stoyte travels with Dr Obispo to Europe, where they find an immortal human, who now resembles an ape. Stoyte cannot grasp that transcendence or goodness should be one's ultimate goal, rather than prevention of death, and expresses his wish to undergo treatment so that he too will live forever. Does any of Huxley's work I have presented sound familiar?

Okay, anyone think that when we come back 2010!!!!! Richard Alpert will have suddenly aged?

Huxley did in fact write all of those: [link] (Jacob's Hands is a novella, not a novel).

From Lostpedia:

Name reference

The real-life Dr. Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass) is a noted psychologist and Hindu spiritualist. In 1963, he was dismissed from Harvard University for his research (in collaboration with Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg and others) into psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals. He later traveled to India, where he was given his Hindu spiritual name "Ram Dass", which translates as "Servant of God". Alpert wrote of his experiences in an unusual tome entitled Be Here Now, and founded the Hanuman Foundation. See Bio and Wikipedia entry. Damon Lindelof confirmed that the character of Alpert was indeed named after a famous person. [1]

Richard Alpert's colleague Aldous Huxley wrote a book called Island, which has been referenced in Lost, most specifically with regard to the Pala Ferry; Pala is a Utopian island in Huxley's book.

The first episode of The Carpenters short-lived TV series Make your Own Kind of Music[2] featured a guest appearance by musician Herb Alpert[3]. Different versions of the show's theme song are featured in several Lost episodes, most notoriously during the opening sequence of the Season 2 premiere. ("Man of Science, Man of Faith"). Richard is also the first name of the male half of The Carpenters.

Richard is of Old German origin, and its meaning is "powerful leader".

Illana refers to Richard as "Ricardus" and it is Latin for Richard.

sumi, oooh. good thought about the aging. I actually fear for Richard's life because he might be aged to death.

Are we to believe, btw, that the only survivors of the original flight who were left on the island after Jack and friends split are Bernard & Rose, Sawyer and Jin?

And Vincent!

Maybe not!Locke is really Vincent in disguise!

AARGH. I really don't think I like the idea of the plan actually working, and I want that to just be The Incident. Because otherwise, a bunch of yahoos just CHANGED HISTORY because of THEIR FUCKING LOVE LIVES.

I assume that, given the whole destiny thing, that's what it was. That they caused the incident, that caused the hatch, that caused their plane to crash. It's all very Matrix-y.

I'm very sad that they continue to add more questions and answer very little.

With Lost I guess it's 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

I assume that, given the whole destiny thing, that's what it was. That they caused the incident, that caused the hatch, that caused their plane to crash.

That ate the cat that ate the rat that lived in the house that...JACK! built.

It all adds up!