How Much Does the Human Soul Weigh: An Amazing Experiment by an American Doctor 0 9

To find the answer to this question, he decided to conduct an experiment that sparked fierce criticism in the scientific community: he weighed dying people and recorded the difference in their weight before and after death.

An article in The New York Times from March 11, 1907, describes the experiment conducted by Dr. MacDougall between 1901 and 1906.

The essence of the experiment was as follows: a dying person was placed on a bed set on one of the scales that the doctor had designed in his office specifically for this experiment, while a weight corresponding to their current weight was placed on the other platform to balance the scales. Then, at the moment of death, the scientist recorded the change in weight, trying to determine whether the body loses something immaterial — something that could be called the "soul." The author of the experiment claimed that his scales could detect weight fluctuations with an accuracy of two-tenths of an ounce (approximately 5.67 grams).

The 21-Gram Experiment

MacDougall, like many people of that period, believed in an afterlife and spiritualism. It was thought that a person's spirit continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living. This belief inspired him to conduct such an unusual experiment.

MacDougall and his colleagues observed the moment of death in six terminally ill patients. A few hours before their hearts stopped, they were placed on one of the scales and simply waited, sometimes for several hours, closely monitoring the readings of the device and the condition of the dying. The moment of death was recorded only with a stethoscope that the scientist applied to the chest.

At the moment of death, according to the authors of the experiment, each of the six deceased lost a small amount of weight. MacDougall described the observations as follows: "The instant life left the body, the opposite side of the scales dropped with astonishing suddenness — as if a weight had been suddenly removed from the body. We immediately performed all the usual calculations related to physical weight loss: evaporation of sweat, bowel or bladder emptying, changes in breathing, muscle relaxation." Even after accounting for all these factors, the difference in weight before and after death was 21 grams.

MacDougall interpreted this result as the "weight of the soul," claiming that this is how much "substance" leaves the body at the moment of death.

MacDougall's "discovery" sparked a vigorous reaction across different segments of society: medical professionals sharply criticized the scientist, religious individuals blindly accepted the results, and the general public eagerly discussed the possibility of scientific confirmation of the existence of the soul.

Subsequently, neither the doctor nor other scientists attempted to repeat the experiment again, but this did not prevent specialists from declaring the data inaccurate. They pointed to a number of methodological flaws: a sample size that was too small, a lack of strict control over the experimental conditions, and the impossibility of completely ruling out physiological causes of weight loss at the moment of death.

In addition to scientific research, the 21-gram experiment has firmly entered pop culture: for example, its essence formed the basis of the plot of the 2003 thriller "21 Grams," and it is also mentioned in Dan Brown's book "The Lost Symbol."