Hi I am new to this and I watched a cool movie called Doctor Strange, then I looked into astral projection on a site called astral-institute.com where they have a free comic about a girl who can leave her body, is lucid dreaming the same thing are astral projection?
First of all, let me be the first to say 
to LD4all!!!
I hope you enjoy your time here!
(I was wondering how long it would be before the DR. Strange movie would bring people here, when I saw it with some friends I had to explain the whole AP / LD thing to them. (Great movie by the way))
OK, so time for some answers to the Question: “Is lucid dreaming the same thing are astral projection?”
Short answer: no
Long answer:
I have already written a lengthy (by my standards) explanation of the difference.
It was part of a different thread, so to save you the trouble of combing through it I have copied the segment and put it in the magic spoiler box thing floating under this.
[spoiler]
"Ok, to help me try to explain this, I will simply share my understanding of what a LD is and what an OBE is. (Just because I’m bored and feel like writing something)
I must also point out that what follows is simply what I understand and what I have experienced and is in no way concrete or definite.
LD : Lucid Dream.
A LD is a dream a person has in which they are aware that they are dreaming. This awareness allows the dreamer to consciously interact with the dream world. Because a LD is still a dream, the dreamer is confined to their own mind. And unless the dreamer has a special connection with another person or being (or they have some other special ability), they cannot communicate or interact beyond the extend of their own mind. Therefore, anything a dreamer does in a LD has no effect on real life*.
(* This not entirely definite. There is plenty of evidence supporting otherwise but I have never experienced this in detail and this is a very complicated subject. For the sake of keeping things simple I will leave it this way.)
OBE: Out of Body Experience.
An OBE is when your physical self separates from your spiritual self ( aka. your astral self). This produces a type of bi-location that allows you to explore and interact with the astral realm with you astral body while you physical body is safe* in the physical world. Because you are interacting with an environment beyond your own mind you can communicate and interact with other beings. This means that if you were to meet someone in (or on?)the astral plane, for example your significant other, and said to them that you think they are incompetent and insuperior, they could take offence to this and recall it in real life.(this is far fetched but possible)
On the other hand, if you had the same conversation in a LD, they couldn’t know your opinions as your dream was all in your head.
It is characteristic of a person experiencing an OBE to be able to see their physical body as well as the actual physical world around them. You are like a ghost, except you’re not one.
So if you can see your body when you become aware you are in a LD/ OBE, then you are probably haveing an OBE.
BUT, you can have a kind of “false OBE” when you have a LD but can see your body. This is probably because you can see pretty much anything in a LD.
Usually I determine the LD/OBE question by simply observing what’s around me. If I look at text is it gibberish or is it what I would expect to be written there. Is my house in the bush or on my street?
So…yeah. If you can see yourself sleeping you are probably having an OBE. Unless you are having a LD…?
I’m sorry if this is a bit confusing. I am at work ( photographer at the horse races) and have written this during my many, but short and unpredictable, rest breaks. "
(From the Dream time, real time??? thread)[/spoiler]
Because you have watched the movie, I can use the same correlation as I used for my friends: Think of everything you do in an LD as if it were done in the mirror dimension, it has no affect on the real world. And everything done in AP as in the real dimension; real stuff ,real consequences.
Anyway, I hope this helps in some way.
Although it may not have been exactly what you were looking for, I encourage you to stay and learn about LDs as well as AP (and all the other stuff, yes there is more)
I think you will find the LD4all community to be quite an amazing bunch. ( I know I definitely have.)
Heyyo.
The best way I can describe a lucid dream is that it is realizing, while dreaming, that you are inside a dream, no more no less. Astral Projection is the your consciousness leaving your body and going to an “astral realm”.
As for me, I don’t believe in AP, I think that it is just a very vivid dream (not a lucid one, because you think it is the astral world instead of a dream, it isn’t lucid). Lucid dreaming, isn’t really debatable, most people have had lucid dreams and there have been quite a few lab experiments proving that it is true. Anything done to prove that AP is real has either failed or been dismissed (as far as I have seen, please link me to one if there have been successful tests).
Lucid dreaming is amazing and there are many fun things that you can do with it if you want to explore the worlds inside your head and create your own. 