The Science Experiment which claimed SOULS EXISTS and weighs 21 grams!

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"The Science Experiment which claimed SOULS EXISTS and weighs 21 grams!"

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Did you know that there was a man who tried to prove (through scientific experimentations) that spirit exists? Yes, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts named Duncan Macdougall experimented on six dying patients with tuberculosis, diabetes and with other unspecified causes.

He also experimented on fifteen (15) dogs believing that animals do not have spirits but only humans and in his experiments showed no changes right after/at the moment of their death. Thus he concluded his theory that only humans have souls and other animals don’t have.

This experiment was later known for the tag as the “21 grams experiment” which I think is an unusual experiment. I mean, hey who would have ever thought of experimenting on dead people just to prove that spirits exists. But anyway…

In this experiment, Macdougall was trying to prove his belief by measuring the weight loss of all (six) patients at the moment of their death (due to assumption that soul leaves the body after death). He did this by simply attaching a weighing scale in the bed of a dying patient. Seems brilliant!

_{Illustration of a soul leaving a body. image soure}.

And in order to be a lot accurate he placed an industrial sized scale which was sensitive within two tenths of an ounce or 5.6 grams. By the way, four out of those six patients died from tuberculosis, the other one from diabetes and then the other from unspecified cause. (Just to give you a greater perspective on the experiment).

He recorded the patient’s exact time of death, the total time that the patient is lying in bed, the changes in weight that occurred around the moment of death and even calculated losses of bodily fluids such as sweat and urine and even gases such as oxygen and nitrogen.

However out of his hypothesis that souls have physical weight, Macdougall only recognized one out of the six supposed results in which he then concluded through his experiment that souls weigh 21 grams. What a crap!

_{Here's a proof that it was even published in New York Times. image source}

Like no wonder why a lot of people in the science community have regarded the experiment as “flawed and unspecific due to the small sample size” and variation in results. The experiment was also referred to as a case or an example of a selective recording.

One of its critics who question its validity was the physician named Augustus P. Clarke who said that a sudden rise in blood temperature at the time of death might have caused a subsequent rise in sweating which could have been accounted for the missing 21 grams which Macdougall believed to be the weight of the human soul.

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Clarke also explained that while dogs do not have sweat glands, they would not lose weight in this manner of death. Some other critics accused his methods are flawed as he ignored the majority of his results and even question the exact time of death as well as the validity of death considering the technology that time.

But even with much criticisms and rejections within the scientific community, the experiment become popular that it created a concept that souls really weigh 21 grams and it even became an inspiration of the 2003 American drama film 21 Grams. It was even mention in anime and songs!

_{21 Gram film, watch trailer image source}

The concept was so popular that I even invested some of my time just reading about it in the damn internet. And yeah thank you for investing your time to read my post too; I really appreciated it very much!

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_grams_experiment
2. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/weight-of-the-soul/
3. https://www.historicmysteries.com/the-21-gram-soul-theory/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_Grams