Mental Projections and the Energy Body

[outofbodydude]

This is a multi-part question regarding the energy body and your dimensional theory that I couldn't find concrete answers to in the newest edition to AD:

You say that it is possible to have a mixture of simultaneous memories due to the mind-split, including memories from dream, lucid dream, real-time obe, and astral projection. Can you explain how one can be dreaming and also be lucid dreaming at the same time? Is the mental body experienced during lucid dreams different from the dream body of normal dreams?

If I understand your theory correctly, the real-time body disconnects from the physical body and hovers just above it in the RTZ, the astral body projects from the real-time body and rests in the astral dimension, and so on. At this time, does the mental body shift into the mental dimension and rest there like the astral body does, and is only active during lucid dreams?

Is there ever a time during sleep when the astral body double will go off and have an astral experience without a person's conscious awareness directing it? Do we have astral experiences every night and just forget them or simply remember them as dreams? Or do the subtle energy bodies simply rest and recharge during sleep? You mentioned that some "sleep projectors" roam around the astral in a confused state. Can you explain why this is?

Is there a difference between the normal dream dimension and the mental dimension experienced during lucid dreams? It would seem they are the same dimension, the difference being the presence of conscious awareness.

You said that some projections may be a mixture of both mental and astral components. Are these projections a result of two different levels of experience overlapping, or do they involve the projection of a singular subtle body somewhere in the frequency between the mental and astral levels?

I've found that OBE from the dream body results in what seems to be mid to high-level astral projections, but I believe you said that these are actually mental projections/lucid dreams. Is it possible to astral project from the dream body, or will this always result in a lucid dream/mental projection?

It would appear that development is needed for one to experience higher dimensional levels. I myself started off projecting to the RTZ, and it was only after a good deal of dedicated practice that I was able to enter higher heavenly/abstract/divine realms. But the idea that lucid dreams are projections to a dimensional level higher than the astral (the mental dimension) seems to not follow this reasoning, as lucid dreams are rather easy to achieve and don't require progressive development. In your first edition of AD, I believe you described the Mental Dimension as an abstract realm of indescribable beauty that is unlike anything of the physical world and outside of normal rationalization. I have experienced these higher realms before, and they are quite different from the common lucid dreaming experience. I feel like the mind-blowing divine realms that you described as the Mental Dimension in your first AD are not the same as the dimensions experienced in normal lucid dreaming, which you now also call the mental dimension. Can you provide any insight into this?

Thanks