OBE, Lucid Dream, AP, Please give me clues on what it was

[mcdwg]

So I took a nap at noon (by the way this time seems like the best time for me). I started dreaming that I was in this house I guess getting ready to go to bed when I suddenly realized I was dreaming so I said to myself I want to have an OBE. I immediately saw myself or my awareness going up through the clouds and I saw body like images, like ghost type going up along side me. I then I remember to think that I wanted to see a dog I lost about 15 years ago, it was my first dog so I always remember him.  Anyways I immediately saw a dog coming up to me, It was like a shadow or ghost type image of a dog and it just stopped close to me.  This was happening as I was going up.  So I thought Oh wow Turin you are here and it just faded away, then I thought I wanted to see my grandfather who died about ten years ago and I saw or perceived an old guy approaching me but then the whoever was approaching me changed to someone in military uniform and suddenly the scene changed to something inside a big warehouse or hangar, all this time I had awareness and for some reason I could remember me giving out this grunts as I I wanted to talk but couldn't.

The guy walked beside me and said you have to change that skin and I found myself back in the physical.

What was this, an OBE within a dream?

Thanks

[personalreality]

I'm going to take OBE out of my answer and just respond to LD, AP and a dream, of which this experience was all of them.

you started in a dream (in the house), then you gained awareness of the dream and became lucid.  between this point and your actual intention to project (or OBE as you said) you experienced an increase in awareness because you regained enough volition to make the intention to project.  the funny thing is that at that point that you decided to intend projection, you were projecting.  the rest of the experience was astral projection.

this is a great example of the procession through dream awareness to lucid dream awareness to astral projection awareness.  you start with little control or recognition of your surroundings, you just kind of roll with it as you do in any dream.  then suddenly you realize you're dreaming, which is IMO technically a lucid dream.  then you gain control of your mental faculties.  you have moved beyond simple awareness of the dream state into awareness + control, and now you can feel like you're actually responsible for your movements though you may not necessarily be able to fully control the context of the dream (ie the dream environment, characters involved, etc.).  the next step in the progression is the return of your volition, your ability to consider and intention and manifest it.  i believe this is the ultimate distinction between LD and AP.  Once you reached this point you were projecting and you utilized your regain control to launch yourself into the clouds. 

i would like to address one specific point as well.  in my experience, when i first began a projection my control was limited, though i still felt as if i had enough control to dictate my actions.  what i wasn't able to fully control was my environment.  i would often project into an environment that i didn't choose and for a short period i would have difficulty controlling where i ended up period.  after a few moments of drunken stumbling, my awareness would gradually become more clear and my ability to control all aspects of the experience with it.  i bring this up because a part of my distinction between LD and AP is the ability to change the context of the experience.  but as with all things, few people are masters their first time out.  i did notice that for me a projection experience was like a bell curve, low awareness, gradually increasing through the experience to an apex, then going back down as my focus faded.  also, i noticed that the more times i projected, the higher my level of awareness was at the start, so practice makes perfect.

[Xanth]

Let's just go even further and remove ALL those experiences... and just call it a NON PHYSICAL experience!    LoL

[personalreality]

that's the next step, yes.