Hi Richard not sure of what help this could be. I have been aware of my dreams for a long long time, 40 plus years. I would say in the last 10 or so years I have been aware that I could somewhat control of{not a word I like to use} not the dream, but the people who are in it, to a point. I have a lot of moments of Deja vu and sometimes within a couple of days of the dream in question. I have always look at my dreams as being in a conscious rather than unconscious state of mind. For the most part it seems to me that I am the observer. There are time when I awake and can go back into the same dream. The one thing I have never tried was to be a participant rather than observer. I do know that some of the choices I make are directly influenced from the dreams I have. I can even dream of past loved one. These dreams are always happy ones and would like to think that it is where they are now and the dream brings me to that realm or dimension that they are in (Quite comforting).

You said; What if we didn't need to go unconscious but just give our bodies a period of deep relaxation? I believe that this is exactly what we are doing. Of course this is only my opinion and 2 cents worth. You see I believe that dreams are where spirits go to get out of this physical body and break free of the matrix here.

I can talk about these kind of things so easy when I am not trying to put them In written form like here.

Namaste
Charlie