True religion, by its very nature, is and always has been a matter of the transcendence of conditional existence. Without this as a motive, conventional religiosity degenerates into a form of bigotry as the result of a kind of dismemberment of the psyche into a good and worthless portion. Bigotry is always dangerous. Transcendence can come from withdrawing from conditions, or from feeling beyond them. But before there can be a real beginning of transcendence, there must be some awareness of the unconditional.
Understanding is the gift of grace.
Dreams and myths serve to bridge the gap between what is and what might be. There is something more going on than just escapism. We long for stasis in a dynamic world. Life is a struggle to be and become, to adjust, to stay in the moment. Some believe it is out of the anguish of this struggle that we grow into spiritual maturity.