Moonwatcher

After lucid dreams (and sometimes after nonlucids): What are those blobs of colour I see in my vision? They resemble crumpled wads of paper or origami. They appear just before the dream ends and persist several seconds into wakefulness, clearly visible as I lie in bed. If I close my eyes tightly they're still there. Once it was purple and white on a violet background (viewed through a rectangular window surrounded by blackness). It vaguely resembled a neuron or a cancer cell. That one was clearly dimensional and floated in 3D space. I could study its contours and still remember its general shape. This morning it looked like an orange-and-black walnut. I fancied I was seeing my optic nerve. That's my best guess.

Does anyone else see these things? What is it about the dream state (or hypnagogic state) that makes them appear? Is this related to the "sparkling void" I hear lucid dreamers talking about or is that something different?

INT. POLICE INTERROGATION ROOM - NIGHT

Around 4:00 AM. Straight into dream from wakefulness--WILD--I see a man seated across from me at a metal desk. He's saying something boring. The hand of my "subtle body" goes behind my back. I find this strange, as I always sleep with my hand under my pillow near my face. Once I get used to the idea of having two right hands (one real, one astral) I get down to business: I do the Waggoner thing and ignore the suit at the desk, shouting up at the sky to the awareness within the dream. I ask it to show me the solution to my difficulties with productivity at work. No answer. I ask again. Then I see a purple, rectangular window with a small, convoluted object inside--light purple with dark shadows. I assume it's my optic nerve or something in my head. (Upon waking and searching Google Images, I'm inclined to think it resembled a solitary neuron.) I gaze at it with interest, as it is quite vivid and three-dimensional. I ask what it is but receive no answer. The rectangle moves up in my vision and it's hard to keep my eyes on it--like a floater.

I awake but the vision persists for a few seconds in the darkness of the bedroom. I suspect I was just seeing hypnagogic imagery and the purple thing, however vivid, was not necessarily the dream emissary's answer. (Unless I was being shown a brain tumour that needs removing!)