I had what seemed to be my first OBE a few days ago. Had all the typical body exit sensations. But then suddenly I found myself in what felt EXACTLY like a lucid dream, which I've had several times before. Additionally, this happened just as I slipped into REM sleep from what I could feel. From what I've read the steps for achieving wake induced lucid dreaming (WILD) and astral projection are the same, minus the body exit part for OBE. Are WILD's and OBE's essentially the same thing?
if you think that way, then yes.
I would define the only difference as being your state of awareness.