Question: Does the soul ever observe the body from outside?
Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes the soul leaves the body and looks at the physical body. I first had this experience at the age of twelve. My soul came out of my body while I was sitting on my cot. My own soul and my own body were standing face to face and I was looking with the eye of my soul at my physical body.
Sri Chinmoy, Eternity's Soul-Bird, part 2, Agni Press, 1974