**DUSTS OFF THIS THREAD*

If Jacob has influenced the flashbacks - he has changed the reality of the past to seemingly fit his agenda.

If you buy into this -- then the flashbacks are entirely real, albeit altered by Jacob.  Going back to my original inspiration - the cat Sayid sees in his flashback looking like the cat of Mikhail's --- > Jacob would have altered the flashback to trigger Sayid to remember this point upon discovery of said cat.

Like many other events on the island, they trigger our Losties to revisit past points in their life timeline.

Am I making sense??