I think the arousal/consciousness continuum on which both lucid dreams and astral projections are situated looks like this:
level four - lucid dreams taking place mostly in phasic REM sleep charcterised by high arousal even with gamma and beta activity
level three - hypnagogics and awareness of sleep paralysis mostly with alpha/theta activity
level two - typical “pseudo” OBEs in clinical light sleep, similar to sleep stage #2 NREM with EEG peaks in alpha/theta/delta bands
level one - etheric or bioplasmic OBEs in deep sleep which is similar to sleep stage #3 NREM accompained by theta/delta activity
level zero - "astral projections in 4th and more deeper, “anomalous” NREM sleep / very low arousal with coherent interhemispheric delta patterns
These are narrow focuses compared to the waking state and hence their instability. The waking state cannot be placed on this continuum. At waking we hold these focuses together, but they are usually processed unconsciously.
I have experienced all level of this continuum and travelled it up and down. For me, a typical projection starts at level two and seems to be layered with level one and three. It quickly shifts up and turn into lucid dreaming by default which I then can transform into a real OBE (for me transition is hard and never perfect) or astral projection.
A real OBE, in which you have the ability to observe the consensus reality from a point outside of your body usually takes place at level two or three. Having one is not a matter of arousal, but the direction of attention. The objectivity of the experience, according to my model, depends on the condensation degree of a hypothetical energy field, emerging directly from the physical vacuum outside of the body.
As opposed to the bioplasm or etheric matter which blind like hell, it doesn’t need to come out of the body. It appears magically where you think you are. If you manage to keep it dense enough your observations will be accurate. Otherwise the state stabilizing sensory feedback will decrease exponentially and the field will collapse back into the vacuum.
I voted no.