21 GRAMS, SOUL, AFTER DEATH, SOUL LEAVES BODY, SPIRIT LEAVES BODY, SOULD ABSENT IN THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD

21 GRAMS

Hello everyone! How are all you fine people today? My apologies for not getting a blog written last week. I was overwhelmed with work, sickness and family, lol! But its all good. I hope the last topic I wrote about helped you to understand more science from a biblical (the unaltered truth) point of view. 

Complete change of subject here, but have you ever thought of what you can take with you when you die? Certainly not money, or gold, or even a loved one. But what about  knowledge, or wisdom or your soul? Well believe it or not, an experiment has been conducted to find out. 

“On 10 April 1901, an unusual experiment was conducted in Dorchester, Massachusetts.  Dr. Duncan MacDougall was going to prove that the human soul had mass, and was therefore, measurable.

“Dr. MacDougall conducted this experiment on six dying

patients who were placed on specially made Fairbanks weight scales just prior to their deaths.  Dr. MacDougall’s intention was to weigh each body before and after death to determine any differences measured by the delicate scales.  The patients were selected based upon their imminent death.  Two patients were suffering from tuberculosis, 5 were men and one was a woman.

“In the company of four other doctors, Dr. MacDougall carefully measured the weight of his first patient prior to his death.  Once the patient died, an interesting event occurred.

Suddenly, coincident with death, the beam end dropped with an audible stroke hitting against the lower limiting bar and remaining there with no rebound. The loss was ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce.

“The experiment continued on the next patient with the same results.  Dr. MacDougall felt he was on to something extraordinary.  A quote from the 11 March 1907 New York Times article captures the historic moment:

‘The instant life ceased the opposite scale pan fell with a suddenness that was astonishing – as if something had been suddenly lifted from the body. Immediately all the usual deductions were made for physical loss of weight, and it was discovered that there was still a full ounce of weight unaccounted for’.

“All five doctors took their own measurements and compared

their results.  Not all the patients lost the same weight, but they did lose something that could not be accounted for.  

“An interesting variation occurred on the third patient, who maintained his same weight immediately upon death.  But after one minute, he lost about an ounce of weight.  Dr. MacDougall explained this discrepancy as follows:

‘I believe that in this case, that of a phlegmatic man slow of thought and action, that the soul remained suspended in the body after death, during the minute that elapsed before its freedom. There is no other way of accounting for it, and it is what might be expected to happen in a man of the subject’s temperament’.

“Following the experiment and consulting with the other attending physicians, it was determined that the average weight loss of each person was ¾ of an ounce.  Dr. MacDougall concluded that a human soul weighed 21

grams”.¹

But some scientists have trouble with the experiment. First the sample size was small, only six patients. Second, an article from abc.net.au (link is in reference section) claims that just one of the six patients had a weight loss. However historymysteries.com (link is in reference section), shows actual footage of the experiment. There is definitely more than one occurrence of this strange phenomenon.Third, it is unknown which death Dr MacDougal was referring to; cellular, brain, physical, heart? However, this last unknown may not be that much of a problem for does it really matter which death occurred? At some point in time after one of these deaths occurred, there was a loss of weight. By 21 grams.

Could this be the heavenly soul departing the earthly body?

Dr. MacDougal also tried to X-ray the body at the time of death in hopes of catching an image of the soul leaving the body. But it was to no avail. As far as I know, no recent studies of this unique occurrence has been made. It would be interesting to utilize modern equipment to see what the effect would be. 

If and when that ever happens we might get better information. Until then, it is a matter of belief for there is no way to prove or disprove the missing 21 grams is the living soul actually leaving the deceased body. Is it possible? I think it is reasonable to believe so. After all, the scriptures tell us in 2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” God, without a doubt tells us that our soul can leave our bodies. But is our soul made of matter? 21 grams of matter to

be specific. Again, I think it comes down to a matter of belief. You can either believe that the missing 21 grams is our soul, or you can believe it is an inexplicable mystery. Here’s food for thought; the number 21 divided by 3 (the number of the Holy Trinity) equals 7 (the number of completion). Could this be a fingerprint of God? Because God describes in the Bible that there is a difference between our world and the heavenly world, I choose to believe that the missing 21 grams is our soul.

Until next time, God bless and take care!

Willow Dressel

References:

¹http://www.historicmysteries.com/the-21-gram-soul-theory/ (all photos came from this site)

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/05/13/1105956.htm