We’re not the “astral community” whatever that is. We use astral travel as a tool to get information. If the info was no good we wouldn’t do it.
The contents of your mind IS the astral. So yes, and yes. Both are true.
I would agree - my model of this is the astral is not the “spirit realm”. It’s a mental realm. Spirits have minds too and can also interact with it. Every book you ever read, movies, games, plans, memories, ideas, fears, hopes, all use the substance if the astral to exist, and the physical body to interface with the physical.
Note: like in physics, what we are doing here is formulating a model of reality that allows us to think about it and make predictions for its behavior that can be verified. The model is not reality. We don’t have the senses to see all of reality. To say something can’t exist because you can’t see it, is illogical.
from our getting started guide:
After that, the only one you can and should believe is yourself. But if you go in to something like this as a skeptic, your own mind, being the instrument you’re trying to use to do the work, won’t do it, because it doesn’t think it can. Everything boils down to energy, and whatever you think changes your energy, and you make it true that you cannot interact with the energies you’ve decided aren’t real.
So I’d suggest you don’t waste your time trying yet, keep musing on the subject some more and if you change your mind to be more open to the idea then it’s worth the effort.