21 grams experiment

 21 Grams Experiment

The weight of soul

The 21 grams experiment refers to a scientific study published in 1907 by Duncan Macdougall , a physician from Haverill massachusetts.Macdougall 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 of human.

One of the six subjects lost three fourths of an ounce.

Macdougall stated his experiment would have to be repeated many times before any conclusion could be obtained .The experiment is widely regarded as flawled and unscientific due to small sample size the methods use 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 it's rejection within the scientific community , Macdougall experiment popularized the concept that the soul definitely has weight and specifically that it weighs 21 grams.

In the april 1907 issue of american medicine featured a paper by Dr . Duncan Macdougall describing his experiment whereby the beds of dying patients were palced on sensitive balance.

Believe it or not he was trying to weigh the human soul .He had previously determined the weight loss attributed to evaporation of moisture form the skin and by comparison this was sudden and much larger.

He even controlled for weight loss due to urine and fecal eliminations and concluded that these could not account for the change of weight.

#RESULTS OF THIS EXPERIMENT

One of the patients lost weight but then put the weight back on and two of the other patients registered a loss of weight at death but a few minutes later lost even more weight , coinciding with the time of death. 

Macdougall disgareded the results of another as the patients.

Macdougall reported that none of the dogs lost any weight after death.

While Macdougall believed that the results from his Experiment showed the human soul might have weight his report which was not published untill 1907 stated the experiment would have to be reported many times before any conclusion could be obtained.