I almost posted this in a topic I created a few weeks ago (How I got out for the first time) because this is a question that is asked a lot there. But I thought about it and realized that this is a question asked everywhere and so I am posting it as a new topic.
This is a great article called "Astral Signposts: The Stages of OOBEs" and I think it will help a lot of people trying to get there to notice more readily what to watch out for. Especially @ Anemani who asked, in one of my posts recently, "How do you know when you're about to exit, what does it feel like?" (paraphrased) and I answered that there is an ideal state of mind to reach and #27 &
#28 are addressing that state specifically.
I'm editing this post because the content I posted originally is copyrighted and while I've searched far and wide for the original website that it came from I can't find it, I can only find copied versions. Now the essay isn't a published book or anything, it seems like it was just a blog post or something to that effect (maybe something like RB's Treatise on AP), but nevertheless, it's copyrighted and I don't have permission. I'm trying to email the guy who wrote it to get permission to post it here but I the email address on the article isn't working and I'm having trouble finding him on the web (though I think I might have).
So, instead of re-producing the article in it's entirety here, I'll tell you what it's called and the author's name and maybe you can find it online yourself. I think that I am able to post an excerpt of copyrighted material without permission, but I don't really feel like picking something from the article to post because it's all really good.
"Astral Signposts: The Stages of Out of Body Experiences" by Charles C. Goodin
For anyone having trouble deciding if they're actually close to projecting, take a look at this if you can find it somewhere online, because he does a good job and point out different stages of the process.