Most of what is currently known about the DHARMA Initiative comes from an orientation film, [2] found inside an underground bunker on the island, that outlines the purpose and instructions for Station 3: The Swan. The film has a copyright date of 1980 and is designated as the third of six such films. Dr. Marvin Candle (played by François Chau) narrates the film, which is noticeably cut or damaged in places.
The film begins by providing background history of the DHARMA Initiative. It states that the Initiative was founded in 1970 by University of Michigan doctoral candidates Karen and Gerald de Groot and financed by the Hanso Foundation, apparently composed of a group of "scientists and free thinkers" from around the world who were brought together at a "large-scale communal research compound" on the island to conduct research in various disciplines, including meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and a sixth discipline that the film begins to identify as "utopian social . . . ." before being cut off. American psychologist and Walden Two author B.F. Skinner is cited as an influence on the de Groots' work.
A section of film is discovered by Mr. Eko inside a second, but apparently inactive, station where the survivors from the tail section of the plane were living in season one. In "What Kate Did", this portion of filmstock, hidden in a hollowed-out Bible, is given to John Locke who splices it into the orientation film. The additional section completes an admonishment against station orientees attempting to use the station's computer system to communicate with the outside world.
In the second season finale "Live Together, Die Alone" it is revealed that the section was edited out of the film by a former inhabitant of the bunker.
In "?", Mr. Eko and Locke discover Station 5 of 6, "The Pearl" which has an orientation of its own on a video tape. It also has a copyright date of 1980. On this tape, someone who looks like Marvin Candle identifies himself as Dr. Mark Wickman. According to the video, the Pearl station is intended to observe and document activity in the other stations on the island. It explains that a psychological experiment is taking place in another station, where team members have been conditioned to believe their work is of great importance.
DHARMA Initiative members assigned to The Pearl are instructed to record every action performed in the monitored station, The Swan. Notebooks with these records are sent through a pneumatic tube. Later on, a very large pile of these notebooks is discovered outside seemingly untouched.
In the Lost Experience ARG, the DHARMA Initiative is revealed to have the purpose of finding a way to change the "Valenzetti Equation", a mathematical formula designed to predict the end of the world. Thomas Mittlewerk, a member of the Hanso Foundation, later says, however, that "The DHARMA Initiative failed".
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