Lucid Dream or Astral Projection?

[Woodland]

This is a post I posted on my dream journal on Dreamviews, but I'm not sure in was a dream. It was very vivid. The question I have is does this sound like a projection or just a lucid dream. I mean I start off in my bedroom, but once I opened the door I should have been in my living room. Ir was just soo clear and real. I've had other experiences like this before. I just don't know if its all in my mind, or whether I'm traveling in the astral zone.


post:

This morning about 4:00 am I awoke. I looked at my clock and knew I had an hour before my alarm would go off. So I rolled over trying to stay calm and not wake up too much.

I kept still, trying to slip into a wake induced lucid dream. I've never attempted this before but I had read a little about it recently.
As I layed there, I began to feel the vibrations you get before you fall asleep. I've tinkered in astral projection awhile back so I knew what was happening, so I took advantage of it and tried to astral project.
I did the rope trick (imaging yourself of pulling yourself up a rope), and I also tried rolling over.

The next thing I knew I was standing at the foot of my bed. I was fully lucid. I said to myself "I did it!". To stay calm I looked at my astral hands (this always works for me if I want to stay in a lucid dream).
I looked at the bed and I saw my wife and myself sleeping. I tried an experiment. I waved at myself. LOL, and I saw myself from bed waving back, synchronized, like a mirror image.
I didn't want to hang around too long. I've read where people will come out of a projection if they see them self or get too close. So I went to our bedroom door and opened it to leave.
The room I entered was no longer my house. I walked through various connecting rooms passing and interacting with people I have never seen before. Trying to soak up and remember the environment.

I then thought of another dream experiment. I found a sign with writing on it. So I tried to read it, look away and look back. sure enough it changed.

I eventually made it outside and I picked up a piece of paper. I began to read it. I could see the letters so clear, however it wasn't in English.

The letters appeared to be hieroglyphics. I tried to focus on a few of them to remember what they looked like so I could bring them out of the dream with me, and then I could write it down, but I think they kept changing on me so that didn't work.

I then felt myself fading out of the dream, and I woke up. I think If I wrote down everything at that moment I would have remember more detail, but I really wanted to get some more sleep before the alarm went off.

[Xanth]

What defines a Lucid Dream is simply the fact that you "know" you're dreaming DURING it.
What defines an Astral Projection (at least in my opinion) is that you have full waking conscious awareness (or close to it).

Give this a read and see if it explains it better:  http://unlimitedboundaries.ca/2010/08/31/dreams-lucid-dreams-and-astral-projections%E2%80%A6-what%E2%80%99s-the-difference/

[Stookie]

This has been argued over and over many times, there is always disagreement, but anyways: it is possible to have full waking conscious awareness (or close to it) during an LD. There is nothing different between an LD and an AP other than the method used, though since you're achieving an LD from sleep it tends to start off much more hazy than from waking consciousness. I don't have to do anything to turn an LD to an AP because I know I'm already there. It's just a matter of intending what you want to do.

I know I've read things about turning LD into AP's by recognizing you're LD, then returning to your body, then going out again. To me, this would be like walking into your front yard, then going back into your house before venturing out any further. Just leave the yard already, no reason to back step. They most difficult thing here, as stated earlier in this post, is having the proper awareness coming from a sleeping state, but it's more than possible. Don't limit the possibilities.

[blis]

If you were awake trying to project and then were suddenly cousciously outside of you're body I'd call it a projection. Whether it was an obe or a Wake Induced Lucid Dream who can say, but both are types concsious projection.

Personally, I dont think all LD's are strictly the same as AP's although I can accept that they all take place within the same locale if thats the right word. In my experience I've had two different types of LD.

In some dreams where I become lucid I'm not able to examine any details closely; If I try and read writing
I realise nothing is actually there, things start to fall apart and I wake up. The same happens in these dreams if I look at the sky. Its like my imagination isnt strong enough to create realistic sky. I dont have a full field of vision with everything there like waking. It's like I've just got a vague impression of things.

There are other dreams in which I become lucid though where I can scrutinise details and can look at the sky and have full vision like when I'm awake.

People also feel different in the two types of dream.

I suspect that the first type are dreams created by my imagination and that the second type are where I've been AP'ing in pre-existing places while sleeping and have just become lucid part way through.

[Woodland]

I'm kind of leaning toward an AP. I didn't think I fell asleep. I was awake,and when I felt the vibrations, I tried projecting, and shortly I was fully lucid and standing at the foot of my bed. Everything was very clear. I could see all the letters on the paper.
The question I have is, if I start off in my bedroom and when I open my bedroom door, why would the location change. Is that how the astral  plane works?
also is there anyway to prove I was on the astral plane, and not just a LD?

[Xanth]

I'm kind of leaning toward an AP. I didn't think I fell asleep. I was awake,and when I felt the vibrations, I tried projecting, and shortly I was fully lucid and standing at the foot of my bed. Everything was very clear. I could see all the letters on the paper.
The question I have is, if I start off in my bedroom and when I open my bedroom door, why would the location change. Is that how the astral  plane works?
also is there anyway to prove I was on the astral plane, and not just a LD?

Well in my opinion they ALL happen on the "astral plane"... Dreams, Lucid Dreams, Astral Projections... they all happen in the same area of consciousness. 
What determines the difference, is how consciously aware you are DURING the experience.