Working with hallucinogenic images during meditation I often experience hallucinogenic images during meditation. I don't believe they are caused by lack of sleep as they occur irrespective of my state of tiredness. Typically the sequence goes


Meditating with a lot of discursive thoughts
Discursive thoughts settling down
Commencement of strange dream like images
If i go through this then thought drops away and it the start of a calmer more focused meditation


I don't always get the images but if I do then they are very difficult to work with. They are more dominating than the discursive thoughts and more difficult to see them for what they are. However I know that if I can go through this stage then meditation really becomes a lot easier and more pleasurable afterwards (fourth stage above).

Has anyone got any advice about working with these kind of hallucinogenic images? Is there any advice either from traditional texts or contemporary teachers about them? Is it just me?
There is an interesting section on Visions and Signs in the teachings of Ajaan Fuang.


  § "Don't be amazed by people with visions. Visions are nothing else
  but dreams. There are true ones and false ones. You can't really trust
  them."
  
  § A Bangkok housewife who was practicing meditation with Ajaan Fuang
  heard some of his other students say that meditation without visions
  was the straight path. It so happened that she had frequent visions in
  her meditation, and so hearing this made her wonder why her path was
  so winding and convoluted. When she asked Ajaan Fuang about this, he
  told her: "Having visions in your meditation is like having lots of
  lush wild greens growing along the side of your path. You can gather
  them as you go along, so that you'll have something to eat along the
  way, and you'll reach the end of the path just like everyone else. As
  for other people, they might see the greens without gathering them, or
  may not even see them at all — because their path goes through arid
  land."
  
  § "Visions — or whatever things appear in the course of your
  meditation: It's not the case that you shouldn't pay any attention to
  them, for some kinds of visions have important messages. So when
  things like this appear, you have to look into how they're appearing,
  why they're appearing, and for what purpose."
  
  § "There are true visions and false visions. So whenever you see one,
  just sit still and watch it. Don't get pulled into following it."
  
  § "You should watch visions the same way you watch TV: Just watch it,
  without getting pulled inside the tube."
  
  § "If you can't let go of your visions, you'll never gain release."
  
  § One of Ajaan Fuang's students asked him, "When you see something in
  a vision, how can you know whether it's true or false?"
  
  His answer: "Even when it's true, it's true only in terms of
  convention. You have to get your mind beyond both true and false."
  
  § "The purpose of the practice is to make the heart pure. All these
  other things are just games and entertainment."