What is AP like?

[vipassana]

I've been trying to AP for about 8 months now. I don't think I've had any real success. I'm starting to wonder if I have and just don't know it. What I imagine AP is like would be for me to seperate my conscious thinking away from my body so that at night, when I am sleeping in bed, everything who I am except for my physical body would be able to get up and go through walls, fly away, visit some other dimension, etc. I've had a few lucid dreams, but I think that a true AP would be much different. I would be out of my body, but no dream would be involved. Am I right or wrong here? The other night I dreamt I was in a hotel and I returned to my room to find a bunch of girls in it. I went to the front desk to tell them what was going on the people behind the desk were selling and smoking pot out of bongs and they sold my room to group of girls and that I still had to pay for the room. Needless to say, I was flipping out on them. Immediately upon wakening, I had the sense I had been in a place and among people who I would not normally have associated with and they were deliberately trying to tinkle me off because they knew I wasn't of their belief system. I woke up because of how frustrated I was. It seemed very real at the time. So real in fact that I never questioned the reality of it all, as would occur in a lucid dream. Most of my dreams aren't that vivid. I usually don't remember them. I'm wondering if this is what is known as astral projection? 

[Ignazio]

It's very hard to describe with words how the feeling of being out of your body is, you feel more "free" and "lighter" then your regular life. Yes, AP does stand for Astral Projection. 

[CFTraveler]

I've been trying to AP for about 8 months now. I don't think I've had any real success. I'm starting to wonder if I have and just don't know it. What I imagine AP is like would be for me to seperate my conscious thinking away from my body so that at night, when I am sleeping in bed, everything who I am except for my physical body would be able to get up and go through walls, fly away, visit some other dimension, etc.

You are describing a spontaneous or unconscious projection to the RTZ, or etheric.

I've had a few lucid dreams, but I think that a true AP would be much different. I would be out of my body, but no dream would be involved.

In a projection to the astral planes (AP or phasing) there is a great deal of subjective interpretation and dream symbology.  So even though it is not completely a subjective experience (dream) it is heavily influenced or shaped by your subconscious mind, and therefore dreamlike.  The environment may be collective (unlike a dream, which is entirely personal) but the way you experience it may be just like a dream, as in, unreal- floating islands, archetypal symbols, symbolic environments.

Immediately upon wakening, I had the sense I had been in a place and among people who I would not normally have associated with and they were deliberately trying to tinkle me off because they knew I wasn't of their belief system. I woke up because of how frustrated I was. It seemed very real at the time. So real in fact that I never questioned the reality of it all, as would occur in a lucid dream. Most of my dreams aren't that vivid. I usually don't remember them. I'm wondering if this is what is known as astral projection? 

That's a tough one.  Maybe and maybe not- keep your eyes open for stories of things that happen to your friends- in the past, I've had dreams of things that later on I found out happened to other people- and there was a 'locational' feeling to the dreams- even though the action wasn't 'from my normal reality' it turns out that they weren't mine at all- I just happened to somehow tune into what was happening to a friend of mine- only I experienced it in 'dream form', and I only realized what it was when my friend told me about her evening- the next day.  Imagine my surprise.
I find that it's best not to attach any labels to an experience, just see how it has to do with your life, and keep your eyes open for indications of it being something more than a dream.

[vipassana]

Thanks. I hope I soon have the experience I have been waiting for.