Vivid dreaming vs lucid dreaming and Lucid Dreaming vs OBE's/Astral Projection
While reality is plastic on a certain level, and our line between the subjective and the objective can certainly blur when we are not aware and clear, the truth regarding the certain nature of things remains constant when approached from the view point of the state of awareness you are in right now as you read this.
We want to know what something is, fundamentally, and desire to understand it's essentiality. We want the truth about the nature of something to be presented to us clearly and able to be digest by the intellect that is running during our brain's Beta cycle right now.
So, be clear. Establish a state of no-thought right now and separate the idea realm from your perception.
VIVID DREAMS -
Vivid dreams are when we have activated our senses in a different brain frequency cycle and can later recall the details from what the sensory impressions have put into the memory cortex..
These occur when we are slightly aware, at least enough that whatever is going on in our dreaming brain and hallucinating imagery is strong enough to make an impression with enough amplitude in it's nature that it becomes seeded in our memory cortex. This dream event will be a subconscious memory, meaning that is strong enough to be recalled later by the conscious state of mind while we are awake and it can be put into conscious memory.
Vivid dreams include our sensory perception. We know we were dreaming in color or not. We know the sounds we heard during our dream. We might even recall what we felt at the time (and this is often key in understanding meaning). We might even recall from our subconscious memory that a conversation took place with a certain dream person or entity and we remember what that dream was about.
When the dream is vivid enough that we can recall with the conscious mind the memory of what subconscious events occurred and how they happened, we have become aware that our sensory mechanisms are activated and clear to some extent. We have breached the barrier of the subconscious mind and the conscious mind to a small extent. We have cheated of sorts, by making use of the memory cortex, but basically at this point we have turned on more awareness into our sensory perception. We have at least allowed enough consciousness to flow through the brain states of Beta, down through Alpha, into Theta frequency state that made our dream feel as if we were actually there perceiving things the way we are used to with our physical senses.
This is a marked improvement obviously, over not being abe to recall anything. We let consciousness flow unimpeded passed the physical barrier we are acustomed to only using it in.
LUCID DREAMS -
These occur when we have actually become aware that we are dreaming at the time. We are as aware in Theta brain frequency cycles as we are in Beta brain frequency cycles.
These occur when we have moved passed a dream being simply vivid in nature and have realized our state of being, that we are dreaming. We have a sense of self and place and have made the realization that not only our senses are turned on and active but that we are not in a usual Beta frequency cycle and see that some thigns are "off" or not quite right about the environment. Something might not make sense at the time and we know that it is not the way we are accustomed to experiencing when awake in our normal day.
So the separation really here between lucid dreams and vivid dreams is that we have not only activated some sensory mechanism and imprinted subconscious memory but that we have let in a little more conscious awareness enough to know that at the time of the dream event we are actually in the dream and not in waking reality.
The difference between lucid and vivid is that although vivid dreams can become lucid dreams, or put us into a lucid state of awareness, the lucid dream itself is defined as the actual event of realizing you are dreaming at the time whereas the vivid dream are not by definition lucid in nature if they have only imprinted on the memory for later recall and have not alerted you to the fact you're dreaming at the given moment.
OBE's/ASTRAL PROJECTION -
You have become awake and aware. With active intention one has accomplished removing yourself from the dream sequences of the brain entirely and circumvented the physical body.
The conscious awareness, what we fundamentally are, is projected/focused in on the location of being awake and aware of everything OUTSIDE of the the body and outside of what the dreaming brain is doing. Essentially transcended the mental "thoughtsphere" entirely although if the mind has not been absolutely stilled then it's influence may have a subtle effect on your experience outside of the brain.
We circumvent the hardware sort-to-speak when we project ourselves outside of the dreaming brain; However, because we can not remove it's influence entirely (you'd be dead if your connection to the body was cut completely) while the body is still alive and functioning thoughts and subtle influences from them can overlap onto our astral experience. This is why people can not stay "out" for a very long time or why we always usually phase back into a dream sequence from the astral as the realm of the mind begin to take back over.
It becomes particularly difficult when we start to become aware and intently phase away from the dreaming brain but then phase back into a dream, etc... this can continue so upon recalling our experiences from the memory cortex it might get difficult to determine what was actually phenomena outside of "us" and what was phenomena inside of us and our brains.
We can often have astral phenomena bleed into our dreams as easy as our dreams can bleed into the astral realm.
Recapping, VIVID DREAMS are simply very potent dreams we can also later remember having. LUCID DREAMS are when we realize we are dreaming itself, and vivid dreams often lead up to this. ASTRAL projection happens by the same dynamic of consciousness except we have allot more power of awareness and intently decide to leave the dreaming brain entirely and act outside of our body and brain.
Why it is so important to understand is because if an individual decides upon the true, real spiritual type path (which is really an illumination and awakening of realization process) you need to know where you are on the map. If you are only shown part of the map by your own mind and become convinced by it that this is the whole of the map in it's entirety then you will never accomplish transcending into the real realm that is greater than the part of you holding yourself back in the first place.
You must have No Mind.
You must establish No Thought.
You must set your intention to be a path of transcending and not one of staying within confines of a system - a tenant of transpersonal psychology.
The mind feeds the human sense of self which is the exact thing keeping you from realizing it's not real in the first place. Once you realize it's not real, that the human idea of itself isn't the true you, then you start to transcend out of the thing keeping you from making steps forward.
Your mind knows death. The essential you however does not.
The human animal sense of itself fades away in time with the death of the mind and body or when it stops clinging to to preconceived idea it exists as an absolute state in the first place.
The human animal ego-mind is a survival tool for the organism but is not useful past that in transcendental reality which we are aiming our focus on at least subjectively here in this post.