Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, hypothesized that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass change of six patients at the moment of death. One of the six subjects lost three-fourths of an ounce (21.3 grams).
MacDougall stated his experiment would have to be repeated many times before any conclusion could be obtained. The experiment is widely regarded as flawed and unscientific due to the small sample size, the methods used, as well as the fact only one of the six subjects met the hypothesis. The case has been cited as an example of selective reporting. Despite its rejection within the scientific community, MacDougall's experiment popularized the concept that the soul has weight, and specifically that it weighs 21 grams.
Although MacDougall's hypothesis was rejected, we can still assume the weight of the human soul to be 21grams
Some say that we all lost 21 grams when we died. This is a short sentence that attracts attention, but there is no scientific truth.
For hundreds of years, perhaps thousands of years, people believed that the "soul" had a certain physical existence. In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill, Massachusetts, trying to weigh the soul. For his research, he collected six dying patients. In his office, it has a special bed that is "composed of a lightweight frame with a very sensitive scale". He confirmed that the scale was accurate to two-tenths of an ounce (around 5.7 kg). Knowing that people who are dying do uncontrolled and confused movements with such a difficult set of scales. he decided to "select patients who are dying, that is, choose patients who suffer from diseases that result in extreme fatigue, so that death occurs with little or no muscle movement, because in such cases, the board will be more balanced and any losses that occur will be easily recorded ".
in April 1907 in the issue of the journal American Medicine. He confirmed that he had measured weight loss when people died, what he said related to the soul that left the body. He wrote, from the bedside of one of his patients, that "after 3 hours and 40 minutes, he died and suddenly along with his death, the needle of the scale moved down with a sound, and remained there without bouncing back. Weight loss is confirmed to be three quarters of an ounce.
Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, hypothesized that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass change of six patients at the moment of death. One of the six subjects lost three-fourths of an ounce (21.3 grams).
MacDougall stated his experiment would have to be repeated many times before any conclusion could be obtained. The experiment is widely regarded as flawed and unscientific due to the small sample size, the methods used, as well as the fact only one of the six subjects met the hypothesis. The case has been cited as an example of selective reporting. Despite its rejection within the scientific community, MacDougall's experiment popularized the concept that the soul has weight, and specifically that it weighs 21 grams.
Although MacDougall's hypothesis was rejected, we can still assume the weight of the human soul to be 21grams
Some say that we all lost 21 grams when we died. This is a short sentence that attracts attention, but there is no scientific truth.
For hundreds of years, perhaps thousands of years, people believed that the "soul" had a certain physical existence. In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill, Massachusetts, trying to weigh the soul. For his research, he collected six dying patients. In his office, it has a special bed that is "composed of a lightweight frame with a very sensitive scale". He confirmed that the scale was accurate to two-tenths of an ounce (around 5.7 kg). Knowing that people who are dying do uncontrolled and confused movements with such a difficult set of scales. he decided to "select patients who are dying, that is, choose patients who suffer from diseases that result in extreme fatigue, so that death occurs with little or no muscle movement, because in such cases, the board will be more balanced and any losses that occur will be easily recorded ".
in April 1907 in the issue of the journal American Medicine. He confirmed that he had measured weight loss when people died, what he said related to the soul that left the body. He wrote, from the bedside of one of his patients, that "after 3 hours and 40 minutes, he died and suddenly along with his death, the needle of the scale moved down with a sound, and remained there without bouncing back. Weight loss is confirmed to be three quarters of an ounce.