There soul really exist?

Some scientists find ways to weigh, measure, record the image of the soul in the belief that it exists.

Soul weighs 21g?

Duncan MacDougall, a surgeon in Massachusetts (USA), persuaded a number of patients near the land to allow him to weigh them in the midst of his death. with a special improved scale. The first case is a person with tuberculosis. From the start of dying, the patient was put on weight. According to MacDougall's record: "As soon as life stopped, the scale plate on the side without the sickness suddenly fell down, like something had just been removed from the body." Looking on the scale, the doctor saw that the deceased was lighter than 21g.

Duncan MacDougall, who tried to use scales to determine the existence of the soul

More than a year later, MacDougall continued to conduct experiments with five other patients. Three of these people also experienced sudden weight loss from 11 - 43g when they breathed their last breath. A case must be stopped at the last minute and a case of no change in weight. MacDougall said that this case is due to the patient being put on weight too late. In other cases, weight decreases because the soul exits the body.

MacDougall repeated the same experiment with 15 dogs, but did not record any case of weight loss when dying. This result reinforced his belief, that this is a phenomenon that only happens to people, because we have souls, and other animals do not.

MacDougall's discovery was published in the New York Times and a number of prestigious industry journals. It became the subject of some literary works and a film. Until now, many people still believe that our souls weigh 21g. However, most researchers have found that this finding is meaningless. The scale of the study is too small, only for 6 patients, so the results are not convincing. Moreover, at the medical level at the time, it was difficult to determine the exact time the patient actually died. The quality of scales may also be unreliable. The scale that MacDougall used to weigh patients has a range of accuracy of about 5g. While the scale he used in the experiment with dogs later came to 1.75g. Probably because of that, the results of two different experiments.

Between the two worlds

Observing when a person dies to find signs of the soul is also an idea that many other scientists care about. In a study published in 2009, Dr. Lakhmir S. Chawla, George Washington University (USA) monitored 7 cases of end-stage patients when doctors stopped assisting devices (drugs, breathing machines) for them. Gone gently. Chawla observed the BIS (bipolar index, which is worth between 0 and 100, corresponding to each level from deep coma to full alertness). When the life-support device is not stopped, BIS is approximately 40 or higher. When the device is stopped, BIS drops below 20 for a few minutes and the heart stops beating. But the surprise was that, after that, the BIS index in all 7 patients died of heart rate soared from 60 to 80. This time lasted from 1 to 20 minutes and then suddenly dropped to near zero.

Does the soul really exist? (Artwork: IE)

Another study by David Auyoung (Virginia Mason Medical Center, USA) describes 3 patients with brain damage. Before stopping the life-support device, the three BISs were at approximately 40, of which one BIS was close to zero. After withdrawing the device, BIS soared to nearly 80 and stayed at this level for 30 - 90 seconds. , then fell straight to nearly 0. The patient was declared dead.

The results of this study make scientists very anxious. The mystery is why electroencephalogram activity can explode after the withdrawal of a life support device, when brain tissue dies in metabolic terms, no longer receiving blood and oxygen. Some point out that the cause is due to excessive extracellular potassium leading to this phenomenon. Another point of doubt is the cause of calcium neuron death. However, every explanation so far has not satisfied researchers.

In the spiritual world, there has long been a hypothesis that the near-death experience or the state of illusory body (feeling hovering over one's own body, meeting a dead relative or seeing light light at the end of the tunnel) occurs when the soul leaves the body . The phenomenon of explosion of brain electrical activity before death made some people believe in this hypothesis as well as the existence of the soul. The problem is that if the soul really exists in every human being, then in what form does it exist and after we die, where does the soul go?

Capture a picture of the soul?

The results of MacDougall's experiments attracted a number of researchers to participate in the search for souls. In 1910, Walter Kilner, a technician at St Thomas's Hospital (England), announced that he had built a special set of filters that could allow observations of the human energy field. Patrick O'Donnell, a radiologist in Chicago (USA) used this device to observe a dying person.

When the doctor declared the patient died, O'Donnell saw the energy field radiating around the body like a light and disappeared immediately afterwards. Continuing to observe the body does not detect energy anymore.