Very cool topic.
I just had a lucid dream last night. Sadly I don't remember much of it, but I remember being on a train, and it was moving inside some weird electronic complex, kind of what you might see in a Sci-Fi movie.
I knew it was a dream, and I though "cool, might as well enjoy it 'till it lasts".
"Astral Projection" is basically just lucid dreaming, but freaks people out that don't understand what's going on.
Particularly when I have been sick with the flu, I've had a couple of incidents where I feel like my entire body got pushed off my bed to the floor, like something tossed me there. It doesn't feel malevolent or anything, almost like a strong wind.
I fully wake up and I am still in bed though lol, but I could swear for a second that I think I am on the floor (For the record I've never actually fallen off for real as far as I remember).
I did try a while back to lucid dream, and I find for me, it used to work best in the morning, a few hours before you get up. You have to wake up after a few mins of lucidness, and it's hard to stay dreaming once you realize it's a dream.
But man, one of my best flying sequences I still remember, the wind felt so real as I was zipping around buildings almost at the speed of sound
It helps to have real life experiences for your brain to use as building blocks. In my case, I've been riding motorcycles for a while, and I'm sure the "wind in my face" aspects are from riding with a half helmet, and feeling the wind in my face lol
On sleep paralysis, I've never been afraid of it, at least not in a supernatural sense. I know it's nothing more than my brain playing tricks. I can tell you sometimes the "sleep paralysis" is nothing more than a lucid dream though.
The experience that made me realize that a few years ago: I woke up. I had my blanket covering my face, and I was completely paralyzed, except for blinking. I could see, but the only thing I saw was the blanket covering my eyes.
I had a small fear about getting stuck like that forever. I was thinking "crap, if I get stuck like this, for the rest of my life all I'll be able to see in front of me is a damn blanket!" But I didn't panic, and figured I'd just let it pass. So eventually it did, and to my surprise, when I was fully awake, I realized I had no blanket at all! It was one of those hot summer days, and I don't sleep with a blanket in those periods.
I must have dreamt/hallucinated the blanket, because there wasn't one.