hazetwostep:
my current stance is that the defining lines for levels of consciousness (ie: waking, dreaming, astral, enlightenment, or what have you) are more blurred than we picture. instead of consciousness being whole steps between completely distinct levels, it is more like frequencies on a radio with "main stations" but an infinite variety in between with some even mixing two stations at once (?vibrating state of OBEs?)."

very astute and apropos analogy. Really, that was genius,
and put it in great perspective, since i think in the same fashion
and needed what you said to "put it in the right perspective"
that made absolute sense.
I've read a young guy's blog where he writes out all his experiences with this, and it seems that through involving his
carnate juvenile desires (sex, etc) in his obes, they started sounding like he was creating these experiences as an
on going lucid dream. before they had more of a real world
experience.
I hold to your theory, because it jibes with info I already know to be true.