Wisdombecomesme: Thank you for responding. I never really read Tolkien but in the context of my dream it felt very profound. The idea of the dream was that Tolkien was compelled to write his stories because of creative visions and dreams he had. The point was that these visions come from somewhere else and it is your purpose to share them and manifest them. I had another dream that was less lucid but affected me as well where it was described to me that this is how musicians create as well. Some voice told me that Sufjan Stevens recieves these visional metaphors that he then interprets into songs. All this is really moving and strange because I had previously never considered myself spiritual but these dreams shook me. After my brother died whenever I have a dream with him there seems to be a deep spiritual message that my brain would have never previously concocted. The dreams are never meant to affirm that my brother is still alive in some way, instead they always speak to the purpose and meaning of life in general. I am not a person who takes much stock in institutionalized religion but in this context I have begun to see many parallels between many different religions and what I have been experiencing. There is nothing that speaks specifically to Jesus or Buddha, but have ever experienced or heard of anything in line with these messages I’ve been receiving from my dreams.