To diagnose someones stage of meditation via internet can be really hard.
I'm not very good at remembering the kind of detail needed to be convincing, to describe a good picture of my meditation. Also when i first started reporting, I wasn't as familiar with the correct approach. Reporting is what you tell you teacher every few days or every day, about your meditation practice.
Also you understanding of this meditation practice, is lacking either the context of the metta language associated with this tradition or the experience, or both.
Mind you tripping out on a visual experience and investigating that is very A&P (arising & passing away) but can you do that in meditation without hallucinogenic substances? I've played with those substances, most mushrooms, but also acid, and a little m.d.m.a. I might consider trying some Ayahuasca in the future still.
Now back to point.
Here are some links and some titles of books, that would help get you up to speed on understanding you practice.
'A Path With a Heart,' by Jack Kornfield A really good approach to understanding insight practice.
'In this very Life', by Sayadaw U Pandita. The traditional seminal text, of which is seems to me that MTCB was actually based on.
'Living buddhist Masters' by Jack Kornfield, i love this one because it shows the variables of approaches to the path. There are 10 or 11 different teachers giving their version of the dharma, vipassana is more malleable, than a lot of people realise.
These books are fantastic for understanding vipassana better and getting a clearer insight into what Daniel Ingram means within his own book.
Also you talk about being interested in Samadhi/Samatha/Shamatha/concentration practice. Here are two links to a thread on the topic.
Access Concentration, Jhana, High Equanimity & Vipassana Jhana.Kamalashila's MapJhana an all purpose thread This thread by Ian And has been flagged and placed at the top by Ingram, I'm not into it, but those that prefer the dry insight definition of Jhana are represented here.
When your learning this stuff, which is a lot of stuff, read it carefully, maybe a few times over and not all at once without some periods of meditation. Much of this stuff, is only really clear up to the point of your experience. Which takes a while to determine, clearly for oneself beyond the dishonesty of oneself's conceit and pride; a serious obstacle to one's meditation. Its okay to diagnose yourself, but even if you think you have achieved something, continue to investigate this. That does mean attack your assumptions repetitively with criticism, but just be open to the possibility that you may be wrong, wait and see over time. In the development of my practice, through the threads I have written in here, there is a lot of wrong! with regard to myself diagnosis and also my understanding of the path of dhamma. This has been refined to some extent through study and practice.
Kind Regards Neem. Another scared blocked darknight yogi