Thank you for sharing your techniques! I'm going to try them over the next few weeks and see what happens. I've never heard of opening the astral eyes in a dream as a way of astral projecting, but I'd like to try that too. The only time I flew up in a dream, I ended up in the place where lost balloons go.

I've been able to step way off the dream's path and still stay asleep, but the results were strangely unsatisfying. I loved the sense of "look what I can do" that came from changing the environment, but it felt very empty. I came to the same conclusion you did, that it's better to stay with the dream story and explore from there. I still have some experiments I'd like to try, but they are more about working together with the subconscious than trying to make it my personal playground.