How Much Does A Human Soul Weigh?
Dr. Duncan MacDougall was positive that not only did humans have souls, but that the souls had mass. He theorized that as the soul left the body at the exact point of death, the body's weight would decrease. He tested his hypothesis by placing terminal patients on a specialized scale and monitoring their weight as they expired. Given several inconsistencies in the experiment and the nature of his research, it's obvious that his results would not stand up to any sort of scientific scrutiny today.
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Key Facts In This Video
Dr. Duncan MacDougall placed six dying patients on a specialized scale in 1907, hoping to measure the weight of the human soul as it departed from the body. (0:18)
MacDougall repeated his soul-measuring experiment on dogs, which he assumed had no souls. (1:03)
The precise moment of a person's death is extremely hard to measure (or even agree upon) for scientists today. (2:01)