OOBE, or an altered state of consciousness?

With the silver cord ensuring a constant connection between the physical and extraphysical bodies, it is possible to have a rich variety of lucid experiences outside the body. We can travel in the physical realm or visit other dimensions, meet old friends and make new acquaintances, exercise our will and take decisions. But how can we be so sure that what we experience is real, and not a dream or some other altered state of consciousness provoked by any number of things such as fainting, exhaustion, fever, medicines, hormones or drugs?

Some of the characteristics of the conscious OOBE that clearly distinguish it from a dream or hallucination include the following:
• Individuals are lucid, active participants of OOBEs, taking decisions and using their mental attributes, whilst in dreams they remain passive, having no control over the dream experience;
• Environments and situations encountered during a projection are real, whilst in dreams they may be distorted or nonsensical;
• Situations encountered in projections occur independently of the individual's capacity for creativity and imagination;
• Projections are more difficult to recollect than dreams, as the experience occurs beyond, and is not recorded by, the physical brain;
• Projectors can see their physical body and even touch it; dreams occur inside the physical body;
• Projectors experience a sense of liberty, well-being, expanded awareness and sometimes euphoria at being able to fly and pass through physical objects; dreams provide more mundane feelings and experiences;
• Projectors often perceive the departure and/or return of their extraphysical body from the physical body; this does not occur in dreams.