On the other side are observable phenomena—the backbone of empirical experimentation—that so far have given only the vaguest hints of a consciousness that persists outside of the physical body. History is filled with attempts to prove that the soul is real. In 1921 physician Duncan MacDougall devised the famous “21 grams” experiment to detect the exit of the soul from the body by measuring how a person’s weight changes immediately after death. He monitored six deaths and reported that the people lost anywhere between 11 and 43 grams at death (not always 21 grams as is popularly reported), which he took as the material weight of the soul. Follow-up experiments failed to replicate MacDougall’s findings, and some researchers attributed the weight loss to straightforward processes like the evaporation of water from the body. [link to discovermagazine.com]









One doctor watched the man's chest; another, the movements of his face. Macdougall himself kept his eyes on the scale's indicator. "Suddenly, coincident with death," wrote Macdougall, "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." Which is, yes, twenty-one grams. Hollywood metricized their reference to the event for the simply reason that 21 Grams sounds better. Who's going to go see a movie called Point Seven Five Ounces? [link to www.lostmag.com]