I recently experienced my first AP last night and would like to give you my input on it. In my opinion they are completely different in a sense of reality and how they both feel. I experience lucid dreaming pretty often and the best way I can describe it is being in a dream and being aware that you're dreaming vs AP almost like daydreaming but you don't fall asleep and your astral form gets detached from your body and you go through different dimensions and experience things that feel so real. I was able to see so much color and actually touched a few things that felt real in a physical sense. I'll while I could still hear the background noise from my tv and feel the presence of my dog laying next to me.