First off, Welcome to DreamViews! I am digging the avatar, btw .

I believe you definitely lost consciousness in the first example you gave. You are so damn close its crazy . Once you get into SP, just continue to relax and basically act as if nothing unusual is happening. Like you said, you basically just have to learn to "go with it" while keeping consciousness at the same time. What I do is casually watch any visual hallucinations that get. If you don't have a lot of visuals, just observe the darkness and allow your entire body just to let loose and lay as relaxed as humanly possible. Let the SP wash over you and do whatever it wants. When SP starts, your body is first starting to fall asleep. In order to transition, you have to finish falling asleep. If you are keeping your mind overly active, you won't be able to fall asleep. Basically, you tip toe the line between consciousness and unconsciousness during the transition. It may sound/be a little difficult at first, but once you get used to it....its not hard at all. My advice is to just keep practicing and try to just ride the tide of SP. Allow it to do the work for you and "carry" you into the dream. Just casually observe the hallucinations and never forget what you are trying to accomplish. Hope this helped out a bit. Good luck to you and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask!