Ava Harper

Jan 20, 2025

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What Is Lumon Industries and What Do They Do? Everything You Need to Know | Severance

The Shadowy World of Lumon Industries

The Apple TV+ series Severance introduces us to Lumon Industries, a company shrouded in secrecy. Operating within the city of Kier, Lumon is omnipresent, employing nearly half the population. Its employees undergo a revolutionary procedure that divides their consciousness, ensuring they live entirely separate lives inside and outside of work. But the biggest question remains: What does Lumon actually do?

A Legacy Built on Mystery

Founded in 1865 by Kier Eagan, Lumon began as a producer of topical salves but evolved into a massive corporation spanning biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, cosmetics, and beyond. The company has remained in the hands of the Eagan family for generations, with Jame Eagan currently serving as its CEO. Despite its vast scope, little is known about its true purpose—both by the characters within the series and the audience watching at home.

The Severance Procedure: A Revolutionary or Sinister Experiment?

One of Lumon’s most controversial advancements is the severance procedure, which completely divides an employee’s memories between their work life (innie) and personal life (outie). While it’s marketed as a way to achieve perfect work-life balance, many speculate that the procedure serves a darker purpose. Could the severed employees be unwitting test subjects? Are they refining their own memories rather than actual data?

Some theories suggest that the procedure itself is still experimental, with the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) department serving as little more than a control group. The employees spend their days categorizing numbers on a screen without understanding their significance. Could this monotonous task be nothing more than an elaborate test to study the effects of severance on the human brain?

What Is Lumon Industries?

Lumon Industries is a fictional biotechnology corporation in the series Severance. Founded in 1865 by Kier Eagan, it has grown into a massive conglomerate producing pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, cosmetics, and personal care products. The company is best known for pioneering the severance procedure, which splits employees' consciousness between work and personal life.

What Does Lumon Do?

The exact nature of Lumon’s operations remains a mystery, even to its own employees. Workers on the severed floor, particularly in Macrodata Refinement (MDR), perform obscure tasks without understanding their purpose. Theories suggest Lumon is involved in mind control, memory manipulation, or even a secret plan to resurrect its founder, Kier Eagan.

Theories Behind Lumon’s True Purpose

Resurrecting Kier Eagan

A popular theory suggests that Lumon’s ultimate goal is to bring its founder, Kier Eagan, back to life. The company’s obsession with purity and the balance of emotions, known as The Four Tempers (Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice), hints at a deeper philosophy. Some believe that the MDR team’s coding work may be related to creating a digital consciousness of Kier or an attempt at eternal life.

Control Over Water

Another compelling theory suggests that Lumon’s real interest lies in controlling the world’s water supply. The company’s logo resembles a water droplet, and nearly every file name referenced in the show relates to water sources, reservoirs, or dams. If Lumon is indeed monopolizing this essential resource, it could use it as a means of global control or even as part of a brainwashing experiment.

A Sinister Pharmaceutical Giant

Originally founded as a pharmaceutical company, Lumon may have expanded its operations into something far more dangerous. If the severance procedure is still experimental, what if the company is using its employees to test unknown drugs or treatments? The need for extreme secrecy would explain why severed workers are forbidden from recalling any work-related memories outside of the office.

A Psychological Experiment in Mind Control

Some theorists argue that Lumon’s entire workforce is part of an elaborate mind-control experiment. The MDR team might not actually be processing valuable data at all. Instead, they could be guinea pigs in a long-term study on how the human brain adapts to artificial memory divisions. The eerie corporate culture, strange rewards like Waffle Parties, and unsettling workplace rituals all reinforce the idea that something much larger is at play.

Employees Are Refining Their Own Memories

A particularly mind-bending theory suggests that the MDR team is actively erasing or categorizing their own memories without realizing it. They discuss sorting out ‘scary’ numbers and placing data into specific ‘bins.’ Could they be removing painful memories from their past lives? If true, this would mean the employees themselves are complicit in reshaping their identities.

The Four Tempers: A Cryptic Philosophy

Central to Lumon’s ideology is The Four Tempers: Woe (sadness), Frolic (joy), Dread (fear), and Malice (violence). Employees are expected to balance these emotions in order to achieve an ideal state of mind. These principles are reinforced through artwork and bizarre corporate traditions, such as a ritualistic dance during the Waffle Party. But what if this philosophy is more than just company culture? Could it be a method of psychological conditioning, aimed at controlling employees on a subconscious level?

What Lies Ahead for Lumon?

Severance masterfully keeps its audience in suspense, offering just enough clues to keep the speculation alive. Whether Lumon is working towards a groundbreaking technological breakthrough or hiding a deeply sinister agenda, one thing is certain: the truth is far more unsettling than what we’ve seen so far.

As Season 2 of Severance unravels more of its secrets, viewers will continue piecing together the puzzle that is Lumon Industries. Theories will flourish, and the mystery will deepen—but one question will remain at the heart of it all: What does Lumon truly want?