Except that the "astral world" is also only in your own mind. So justification for things that you want to entertain but don't actually exist: they must be very well cloaked, they must be interdimensional. Justification against the fact that actual intelligent life, if it exists elsewhere, is too far away to ever meet us (Fermi paradox): they must travel "imaginarily only"! Exactly, it's only imaginary human fantasies. As someone who has experience with OOBE, I did experiments that confirmed that it was a type of lucid dream, that there was no actual astral collective world, that each human has their own reality-memories inspired dreams in their own mind instead. Outside of "astral" lucid dreams, sleep paralysis induced "etheric projection" is similar to delirium in that for a short time we may be unable to distinguish reality from delusion, that appears "physical" and involves all the senses strongly. It's still delusion, the reason that we need actual physical communication means between us, in the real world.
About those outside of your mind only, there can certainly be some perceptions from the real world that are not competely identified. Jumping to the most outlandish conclusion that it must be E.T. is incredibly naive. Especially when most are discovered to then be of natural or human origin (i.e. balloons and planes). And all the evidence of human hoaxes, traditions, business activity exploiting the gullible...
The living in harmony with the universe beings thought is a positive one, but it also sounds like a psychedelic drug-induced experience. Sometimes a health crisis or deep meditation can also bring temporary delusions of the type, the "dissolution of the ego", "merging of duality", "being the falling water and the body receiving it", etc.
I've had hallucinogens twice in my life, the second experience even if a month apart was already weaker (tolerance buildup apparently drastic and lasting long). It was 1g of dry mushrooms (psilocybin) each time. Some things that I remember from my first one, where I temporarily felt immortal and enlightened:
- Laughing easily at mundane things.
- When looking at myself in a mirror, my face seemed rounder and my eyes more prominent (other than the dilated pupils).
- My hair felt much thinner/softer to the touch.
- When sitting on the foor, the sensation of levitating slightly above it (maybe 1in) and of slowly floating/translating on it in one direction.
- Becoming the beer in my mouth and swallowing it, I was the beer and the throat, a short "falling in" balance loss impression happened visualizing the inside esophagus.
- Room walls and ceiling lamp slowly "breathing in harmony" with me.
- When looking at the paint of the ceiling, like "rivers" running/flowing through the paint dots/bumps.
- When looking at black and white images, smearing colors, mostly purple, running along black borders.
- Playing music felt as floating toward me in the air.
- When on the phone (fixed line at the epoch), I could "be the electricity running through the large city wire network" for a moment.
- When thinking about heat, I could imagine it also flowing up from the appartment below and temporarily "see/imagine" inside below.
- When speaking with my friend, the impression of deep communion, almost telepathy, like the perception/acknowledgement of all that background common baggage we already shared, how few words were necessary to "sync".
- Also when speaking, after a short burst of rapid enthusiastic speech, a moment of silence with the impression that a huge celebration just happened.
- When remembering that it was incredible that I'd have to "become a working ant" again monday, I at the same time could see the city from above.
- Working and human norms viewed as an imposed machine, this is an aspect that warned me that I might end up a forest hermit if I pursued this path.
- 8 hours later, the lowly impression of "normality back in the mortal flesh", somewhat depressing. For hours, I had the impression of being above death, "in the spirit"...