I'm pretty sure that these episodes weren't inspired by episodes of Lost, but inspired by similar mythical-motifs. George, or any mythology specialist, may have recognized certain mythical elements that were used by the Lost writers and creators, and thought, "Oh, yeah, I know what's going on there." Lost may have triggered this story idea, but I'm confident that it didn't inspire it; George didn't steal the idea from Lost, it was already out there.