Projecting Into a Dream

[Envix]

So last night I had my first "experience" of consciously willing myself out of my body. This has happened to me a few times before, though it was spontaneous and when I wasn't trying. I suppose I wasn't expecting this to happen to me tonight either, but eh.

anyway, last night I drank an energy drink containing probably a lot of caffeine, so I took 3mg of melatonin to help me sleep. this felt like insomnia and sleep paralysis combined. My body was heavy yet my mind was clear. My mind was wide awake, and my body asleep. I was able to focus my awareness on any part of my body. after a while I could feel energy pulsating throughout my body and as I directed it to my left hand, my consciousness was sucked into it as the bed underneath me vanished and I found myself standing beside my bed, looking at myself laying in it, laughing.

I won't go into detail about my following experience, but i had a lucid-dream like experiences. I would wake up back in bed and did it all over again. this happened about 3 times. During the experiences I was just experimenting and such (i.e. picking up the phone and listening to the voices coming out of it, walking down the street having conversations with people, going into houses. just exploring, basically)

anyway, this was a very dream-like scenario.

I realize that a dream is an out of body experience with self-created hallucinations, keeping you from perceiving the "astral realm". Realizing this, I'm able to make my surroundings vanish, though that's about it. I can make scenery appear at will and such. I believe I read somewhere that to enter the astral from a dream you must first make everything vanish, so I did. I was now in a black abyss. at one point I tried to feel around whilst floating in the blackness and discovered some glass-like trinkets which felt very real. very smooth and sideways-teardrop-shaped. I was able to touch these objects, though I was unable to see anything. everything was black, but I could feel my astral body as I made "jogging-in-place" motions and did back flips and such. At an attempt to try to get my vision to work, I tried to take my astral hands and open my brow chakra by rubbing it or something, but my head was in the way. haha. (I hope this makes sense)

I suppose my questions are obvious:
how can I see the astral plane/ know the difference from a dream/ enhance clarity etc.

is there some sort of "third-eye energy work" I could do?

what does the astral plane look like? is it self-created?

[jub jub]

If you can achieve full lucidity during a dream then you are in the astral. I guess technically speaking, you're in the astral while dreaming although you don't have much control.

You can help achieve this by asking yourself throughout the day "Am I dreaming?" and confirm with "No, I'm not dreaming." Once this becomes part of you're everyday routine you have a better chance of being able to ask yourself this in a dream and when you realize, yes, you are dreaming then it's just a matter of slipping into a lucid dream where you have control.

As far as what does the Astral look like? To me it looks like everyday life but without direct light. What I mean is that everything is lite from within. It's really hard to describe but trust me, when you get there you'll know you're there. You can create realities while in the Astral but, I usually just go with what I'm presented with.

[Envix]

I understand what you're saying. I had another projection last night. I woke up in sleep paralysis, so I was able to leave my body easily. The thing is, once I projected, my surroundings were very much like that of a dream (hazy/not very clear).

I've had other experiences where I would exit my body unwillingly and I could tell by my surroundings that I was in the astral (spherical vision, silver cord, everything being crystal clear, seeming more real that reality).
But these last few nights it just hasn't seemed very interesting.