What is the difference between astral travel and lucid dreaming? You interact in both but they are very, very different. Lucid dreaming is when you become more aware once your consciousness has already moved into the dreaming body. Astral traveling is when you consciously enter your dreaming body, which is also called your astral body or astral aura. So what’s the difference?
In lucid dreaming, you are not aware of the whole transition. You are already dreaming but then your conscious mind wakes up and realizes you are in the “dream world”. Since you are in the dream world, your surroundings may look different or odd, most likely nothing like the room you are actually in. This is because you already moved to another place in the “dream world”. You can attempt traveling back to view your body but most of the time your “dream world” is nothing like the physical world we are in currently.
People think lucid dreaming is just a dream you can control, but it has nothing to do with control at its core. Lucid dreaming is more a way of interacting and manipulating the dream world. It is also known as a dream in which you know you are dreaming. While astral projection is much different, it is a form of out-of-body experience.
Astral projection or travel occurs when you consciously enter your dreaming body or astral body. You are completely conscious during the whole process and you are basically falling asleep consciously. The astral body is located on the astral plane and is part of our human aura and soul. Every human has an astral body and sometimes we end up astral traveling without even trying too. People use astral travel as a meditation method as well.
What is astral traveling like? Well, everyone has a different experience but it is an out-of-body-experience. You exit your body with your astral self and travel throughout the astral plane. Your surroundings may look the same and you may even witness your own body laying down as you are projecting. We basically leave our physical body, in a sense.