As if there is not enough speculation,
http://www.answers.com/topic/lost-2004-television-series has some additional tidbits. Some fascinating stuff there. I had not noticed the 'we open on an eye' theme, or several others.
Examples:
Re: The Numbers: As he is running to his gate, [Hurley] runs past a team of soccer players, wearing jerseys with the numbers in numerical order.
AhA! I found part of what I had heard earlier:
Part of an IM intrview with DAMON LINDELOF (Emphasis mine)
LOST-TV:
you and JJ have denied the purgatory one. Are there others that stick in your mind that are NOT the answer to the mystery/
DAMON: What mystery?
LOST-TV: the mystery of the island. The infamous “they’re dead an in purgatory"
LOST-TV: All the fans have a theory: it's the Island of Dr. Moreau, it's an experiment. Any of these theories come to mind which NOT the answer are -- but which kind of make you think, "Wow, that was cool."
DAMON: I think it's really interesting that people think there is ONE definitive answer.
DAMON: Here's something that it is NOT...
DAMON: This is not a fictional reality that is playing out in someone's brain.
LOST-TV: well thank goodness for that.
DAMON: Like I've heard that they're all different personalities inside Locke, or something.
LOST-TV: "Emily, I just had the weirdest dream I was an innkeeper in Vermont"
DAMON: To this I say, "Yes. I saw 'Identity,' too. And I did not like it."