I think I got it. This thread juggled my brain about the aforementioned phenomenon thats been puzzling me for decades. I now believe the symbols are merely edges of visual images that are imprints on the rods and cones of the eye. The reason they look like symbols is because of the absence of color. And the further one is towards sleep, the symbols are reduced in size and then standardized in size. Initially they may appear as gridlines within minutes of closing eyes . The gridlines eventually reduce in size and become what seem to be symbols. When the eye sees the symbol in dream state, they are decoded back to the actual images which you see in dreams. Its difficult to recall the symbols because as one is waking up, the symbols start to coalesce in the center of the eye ànd become jumbled to a blob which will become a dot and then disappear as one becomes totally awake. Again, I dont think this is paranormal but a phenomenon that hasnt been thoroughly studied. Ive done some testing. I have a wierd problem, i think compounded by diabetes, which enables me, though rarely, to remain conscious while falling asleep into dream state. One of the things I noticed was focusing on one of the symbols while entering dream state, the symbol brightened until it became an actual image in the dream....and the dream starts... I would like to further discuss the thread with those who have experiences this as there are some tests that would be awesome to try out and figure out this phenomena. One of the tests is closing one eye, then open and close the other. Does the symbol/s remain the same or change? Trying to rule out if the images are directly on the surface of the eye or at a nerve ending closer to the brain.