Astral Projection or brief Lucid Dream?

[OneBeginningEntity]

Hey everyone,
I've been to this site before to look up tips about OBEs and Astral Projection but only created this accounted literally MOMENTS ago!
I'm still in a weird state of shock and excitement and my mind feels like its racing and trying to analyze what just happened...
I'll explain it the best I can:

Basically at about 4:30PM I'd say, I started to get myself into a relaxed meditative state, I lied flat on my back and after awhile I felt my body go numb... I can get to this stage fairly quickly whenever I start, my body feels heavy and numb but it is not paralyzed! If I try to separate from my body at this point all I end up doing is moving my arm VERY slowly! So I read on a number of sites that you should never force an OBE and just simply relax through this and not even try to focus on your body (which is also a bit weird since you can't help but feel your body starting to shut down and all the little things it does to make sure you are "asleep" like itches and twitches etc etc...)
ALSO I have a general problem of keeping my mind off of swallowing which no matter WHAT position I get into I always feel the need to swallow but I've also read that this urge should not be fought just try not to think too much on it (again, a bit difficult but I'm sure I can practice at it)

Anyway, so this time I didn't try to force a separation and I just went with the flow the best I could with the whole swallowing thing!
I decided it would be better to keep my mind away from my body and focus on some though that I had generated! Now I'm not all that good at visualizations in the respect that I can't seem to "see" clearly what I'm thinking of, I just "know" it's there and any sort of image I get is blurry at best! But I've heard that this isn't a problem at all so in my mind to keep it busy I just started making up a town and I imagined myself wondering around in it, I could not "feel" myself moving I just did it in my mind... at points here and there my mind would slip a bit and I'd refocus on the fact that I wanted to keep my mind awake and would go back to that village I created...

At some point I think I might have slipped into a dream like state, I was on my bed with my laptop and looking up more tips on Astral Projection and at first I thought nothing of it until I realized that it was just a dream since I know I left myself lying down! that's when I "snapped" out of the dream I had and my focus went back SORTA on my body! Only this time I could feel myself floating upward and in my ears I heard a wind like sound which then charged to a sort of "warping" sound (the kind you might expect to hear on a sci-fi series)! I could now feel myself floating and I could also feel my heart racing a mile a minute! Once I had gotten what I think was a good distance from my body I could then start to feel myself float backward toward my wall, I hadn't opened my eyes in fear I'd break concentration but for a brief second I did and I could see the ceiling fly by me and then I "returned" to my body only to yet again hear the wind-warp sound, float up a few inches and then "rolled" off my bed, at this point during the roll I opened my "eyes" and I could see myself roll through the objects on the table I have right next to my bed and then right through the table but before I could hit the ground (or I had partially passed through the ground, can't tell off hand) I snapped right back into my body, heart racing (both during exit and upon waking) and my whole body felt still, not quite paralyzed since I could move but the feeling like when your foot falls asleep only this was on most of my body!

The whole experience excited me but a bit too much to actually hold there!
Question being, was this a BRIEF OBE or did I just have a Lucid Dream? I'm not prone to lucid dreams and have never had one before, also something I've been practicing to achieve, but could this have been an OBE? would you feel your heart race even during exit?
There was also a few inconsistencies with what I DID see for a brief moment! While it DID look like my room at first glance I realize now that not everything that I have in my room was in my OBE experience (I have ALOT of stuff in my room!) but it did look like my room for the most part and for what I saw briefly, just not EXACTLY like it!

I tried to induce the OBE again right afterwards but my heart was racing too much and even when I calmed down my heart rate the tingling sensation in my body was too uncomfortable to get fully relaxed and that's when I came on here to see if anyone could help me verify what I just experienced! Was it real or was it a lucid dream based on my desire to OBE?
(also I started to relax myself at about 4:30PM and by the time I "woke up" it was about 7:45 PM)

I'm so curious to know if it was real and if all my hard work has been paying off! I've been at this for about a little over a week so I don't expect to have mastered it or anything, but I'll even take a quick stroke of beginners luck as a good sign of encouragement! But please be honest about your opinions on this and if you need more info I'll try to provide it, I tried doing that the best I could here!

Thank you

EDIT: I have read that if you have to ask then chances are you didn't have one but this felt so real and I have no else I can really talk to about this or anyone I know who's experienced it so in this respect I do feel the need to ask...

[AstralJames]

It was a brief OBE from the sounds of it. The "floating" upwards, and forward you described is very common in OBEs.
My first OBE was within a week of practicing as well  .
When I observed my surrounding area when I had my OBE, I could tell it was very familiar, and I believed it to be my room. My night table was offset quite a bit. When you have an OBE it is common for the place you are familiar with to be different.

You explained you got too excited, that happens a lot with beginners too!
I believe you did have a brief OBE. Congrats! Keep up the work! You can only get better. 

[OneBeginningEntity]

First, Thank you for the response! 
I mean the whole thing felt just too real even though I didn't real "feel" anything except my heartbeat and what I saw for that brief moment.
It is great to hear that this may in fact have been real! I'll keep practicing at it and this will definitely give me the encouragement I need to push through any doubts I was having before hand!
I won't lie though, it may have just been a brief moment of beginners luck so I'll try not to get discouraged if I can't replicate it again right away...
And its good to hear that you had your first during the first week of starting out too lets me know that it is possible!

I tried to calm my heart down when it happened but it felt so "new" (is the best way i can describe it) that I couldn't seem to control it, but did manage to break away from my body twice for at least a few seconds each before fully snapping back!
But this is great news to hear!
Thanks again for sharing and responding,
I really appreciate it! 

Also, anyone have any advice as to calm down the racing heart when this happens again? Or will this happen the first so many times before you get "use" to the feeling? I'd like to say that now that I felt the floating sensation I'd be ready for it next time but part of me says I'll probably get excited again... either way I'll keep you guys updated on any progress I make in the future!

[Xanth]

Who cares if it was an astral, a lucid a dream, an obe or whatever...

It was a projection. 
You were consciously aware that you were in a reality that you recognized as not being this physical reality.
THAT is all that matters.  Anything else is an over-complication of the facts.

People worry too much if an experience was THIS or THAT... just keep doing what you're doing, because you're doing it right. 

[Astralzombie]

Congrats.

I don't have much to say about how you can fine tune your technique because it sounds like it's already working perfectly for you.

Concerning your rapid heartbeat...I'd say that the vast majority of people perceive this as well. I know I do. There have been some medical studies that ran tests on experienced projectors to verify if the rapid heart rate is actual or just perceived. The results showed that the heart rate was only slightly elevated and even lower than normal in a few cases. This could be because the test subjects were very experienced and they were already use to it but they did say that their heart still feels like it is racing far faster than the results indicated.

All in all, you're doing great.

[OneBeginningEntity]

Thanks again for your responses

to Xanth: What you say does have a point! I guess I really shouldn't focus too much on the WHAT rather than just enjoying the fact that I did become aware of this new "reality." Since I'm still a bit new to all this I guess I focus on parts that don't matter as opposed to ones that really do ^^; But it's good to hear that what I'm doing is on the right path! I just wonder if there will be a way to shorten the time it takes to exit... I lost track of time when I did do this and it ended up being about 3 hours o.O all in all I think it just requires more practicing to get better, like most things

to its_all_bad: That is an interesting study but it may have been on more experienced OBE-ers, both during and after my experience my heart felt like it was racing at the same rate though I can't quite verify this... But thank you as well for your encouragement