Difference between Lucid Dream and Astral Projection?

[surfingbudda]

What exactly is the difference between an astral projection and lucid dreaming? I heard that sleeping is actually unconscious astral projection so what would lucid dreaming be? What is the difference between the dream world and the astral world? Is it that dreaming is confined within your subconscious and astral projection is not confined at all?
How would one turn their lucid dream into an OBE, could they simply deploy an exit technique like the rope and enter an Astral Projection?

[Beekeeper]

See http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13785&p=104825
and http://forums.astraldynamics.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16025&p=118099

I always see the two as on a continuum both offering opportunities for adventures in consciousness. Human beings are multi-dimensional and there's a lot going on while you sleep. Yes, you do project while you sleep so becoming lucid in a dream means you find yourself in a dream body. Of course, there are a number of bodies and all sorts of wonderful possibilities occur. For example, it's possible to dream simultaneous dreams. Do we conclude then that there is more than one dream body co-existing? It's also possible to bi-locate between astral body and physical body or between dream body and etheric body. Also, one may remember other things going on simultaneous with a dream, presumably happening in the mental or causal bodies.

Many see lucid dreaming as inferior because you don't feel the "exit" from the the body or because you may have less control within the environment (at least if you have trouble mastering skills like flying, changing the scene, getting a person or object to appear, etc). Personally, I think a quality lucid dream offers as much excitement and opportunity for adventure, insight, precognition and enlightenment as a quality out-of-body experience. If you tend to be a person whose OBEs are local and limited (short and/or sometimes blind), you may actually prefer lucid dreaming. You may even find lucid dreams easier to achieve. Of course, there are people who like to use a lucid dream as a way to slip out-of-body too. In either case, one must maintain conscious control if one doesn't want to find oneself in a dream.