[kuurt]

That isnt the case for me, I can have very lucid lucid dreaming where I am fully aware and can have OBEs in which Im finding it harder to maintain consciousness and functioning. So I can not distinguish between my OBEs and LDs based on how much awareness I have.

Why do you call one a lucid dream and the other an OBE then? Probably because in the lucid dream you only had lucid awareness - you we're aware of the fact that you were dreaming, but not aware enough to know that you were in your astral body in the non-physical. With the one you called an OBE you knew you were in your astral body in the non-physical. Some people have experienced shifting through all three levels of awareness (dream awareness, lucid awareness, astral awareness) during a single OBE journey. I believe I've experienced this myself. I think we can gain and lose awareness through an experience.

People when they are dreaming can be astrally seen as still right by their bodies eg unawarely standing there or just floating above their physical bodies and they just apparently form images about themselves in the astral (astral thought forms), mental body as they dream.. I assume with lucid dreaming the same thing is happening.

Kurt Leland says that a lot of books don't mention the fact that there is an etheric body. He says when people astral project and find themselves in their bedrooms and are only able to move a few yards that's because they're in their etheric body and not the astral body. The etheric body, according to Kurt has the cord that connects it to the physical body and you can't go very far away from the physical body when in the etheric body. If you can move very far away from the physical body then you're probably not in the etheric body and you probably won't see a cord unless you image or dream one up. I think it's the etheric body that floats above the physical when we're sleeping and that doesn't mean we're in that body when it's happening. We could be in one of the other bodies in non-physical reality.

It is quite possible to to have a mixed experience where one is astral projecting and experiencing that but also doing some dreaming too.

Yeah I think we're sort of dreaming in all three. The non-physical responds to our thoughts. When we see other beings while astral projecting for example we often perceive them as we imagine them instead of as they really are. And when you astral project and find yourself in your home, most things could look normal, but then there could be something that isn't right about it like a piece of furniture is out of place.