Reicarnation?

Anagram on the side of a van...is it a clue? Or is it just something to throw us off? How does a 6 year old boy imagine a smoke monster, and draw it in crayon for Richard to see when he comes for a visit? The boy got two of the three items correct when Richard tested him, not too shabby if you ask me. The fact that Richard had items that belonged to Locke as leader of the Others is a clue that Locke had lead. But in the story so far, he has not really had a chance to, has he? He started jumping through time the moment Ben turned the wheel. And upon meeting Richard again in present time, they instantly go on a voyage, no leading going on there, or a chance to sit down and read a good book, like the one called "The Book of Laws". So how did Richard get items belonging to John Locke, unless those items belonged to another man reincarnated as John Locke.

All other stories of reincarnation tell that the person who is leading a new life has no recollection of his past life, and if he does it only comes in dreams and fleeting images that don't really tell them much. Maybe the reason John knew the island so well is because once he crashed on to the island memories of his past life began to come to him. Maybe John has been MM since the day he was born.

Just another idea. I can trash this theory myself, and take it apart piece by piece, but it is something fun to discuss or think about.

we still have no clue as to how Jacob knew who to go visit.
the test Richard did with young Locke was the test that Jacob told Richard to do.
Probably Jacob knew that Darkness can take the form of people anywhere and that ordinary people will not know who is who unless they test them. Richard is kept alive and un-aging by Jacob, but on his own Richard is ordinary ... a bit on the weak side if you ask me.

to day to the young Locke to select items that are already his is a metaphysical test. the items that belong to Locke might not be in his possession ... all us human beings have gifts and talents that belong to us, but many (if not most) never even know what they own.

I think this theory works with John...it's hard to say with everyone else. Richard got pissed because John picked the knife which he said was not John's...my point, John had recollection of the smoke monster & the knife. I'm thinking it must be from memory...but the memories seem to be of the early part of his island life, before he became leader of the Others. I guess that's why Richard got pissed...

John Locke visited the Island 2 years before he was born during the time skips ... he was on the Island far earlier than that too ... back when the statue was still standing.

his vision of Smokey comes to him as a child because he had already been to the Island ... not in a past life but in his future consciousness ... but from a 4 Dimensional perspective, past present and future are different places , not different times ... to the Quantum Self, the whole time line that our body might visit can be known all at once, even if the future body goes back in time to experience something.

It's not a memory of the past it is a memory of the future.

This season we are seeing memories of experiences that are parallel ... off sideways thru 5-D space/time [where time is more dimensional that what we think it is from the ordinary 4-D space/time perspective]

Like Claire remembering to name her baby Aaron? That kind of thing?

what else would she name him? his name is Aaron. she can't give him any name that is not his. we will have to wait to the end to understand what is happening.
a person's subconscious contains a map of all thing which have happened and all things that are to come ... at the core, we are all the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Now and Yet To Be ... and like Ebenezer Scrooge, we all have the power to fix our future.

cuz it isn't the past we have to fix ... it's the future that needs repair.