WEIGHT OF THE SOUL
In 1901, thirty-four-year-old Dr. Duncan Macdougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, proposed a series of experiments to prove the human soul occupied space within the living body, just as the heart and lungs and other body parts do.
“It is unthinkable that…personal identity should exist and yet not occupy space,” he wrote in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Volume 1 in 1907. Dr. Macdougall wanted to prove that “identity”—or the soul—had physical weight by weighing people at the exact moment they died. But how do you find dying people who are willing to be weighed alive, then die, then be weighed again, all as scientists take careful notes and measurements? Dr. Macdougall turned to Dr. Charles Cullis and his Consumptives’ Home in Dorchester for help.
In the early 1900s, the Great White Plague struck worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of people were infected with a highly contagious lung disease: tuberculosis, also known as consumption. Antibiotics and effective treatments were decades away, so most patients did not survive.
Breathing, kissing, sneezing, or coughing spread the disease; infected people went to medical dorms to be quarantined, helping to curb the spread of the disease. Dr. Cullis’s Consumptives’ Home was one of those places. Most homes refused Dr. Macdougall’s requests to study the dying, but Dr. Cullis thought proving the soul was real could have both spiritual and medical importance. So he agreed.
Six dying people volunteered to participate in Dr. Macdougall’s experiments. As their last moments approached, each patient was placed onto a cot suspended from a huge Fairbanks scale. Because the patients were so deathly ill, they did not move, allowing the measurements to be accurate. Dr. Macdougall and two other physicians carefully observed the patient and the scale. They planned to record the exact time of death and any change in weight at that precise moment.
On April 10, 1901, Patient #1 was wheeled to the room with the giant scale and gently moved onto the cot. He continued to breathe for three hours and forty minutes. Then the research team carefully observed Patient #1 as he took his last breath.
In that instant, Dr. Macdougall’s hypothesis seemed to be confirmed.
“The [weight] loss was ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce,” Dr. Macdougall wrote in his notes. In metric terms, it was approximately 21 grams. (1)
Five other patients lived and died under Dr. Macdougall’s observation. He disqualified the findings of Patient #4, because the scale didn’t work correctly. He also threw out the results of Patient #6, because he died just as his body was being placed on the cot. However, three more patients—#2, #3 and #5—like Patient #1, lost a tiny measure of weight the moment they died.
Six years later, Dr. Macdougall published a scientific paper on his study. Most of his fellow doctors dismissed it. They said his calculations weren’t careful enough. Such tiny measures of weight could have been air exhaled during the patient’s last breath or bodily fluids released as they passed.
Dr. Macdougall disagreed. He weighed himself, before and after blowing all the air he could from his lungs. The giant scale recorded no change. He reminded his critics that lost bodily fluids would have been included in the final weight by being absorbed into the fabric of the cot.
Critics also said his sample group of six patients was too small to prove the experiment and its results were scientifically sound. Experiments must be repeated many times with the same results to be considered proper science. Dr. Macdougall agreed. He asked other scientists to repeat his experiment to collect more data, to either prove or disprove his theory. But none accepted his challenge.
In 1901, thirty-four-year-old Dr. Duncan Macdougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, proposed a series of experiments to prove the human soul occupied space within the living body, just as the heart and lungs and other body parts do.
“It is unthinkable that…personal identity should exist and yet not occupy space,” he wrote in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Volume 1 in 1907. Dr. Macdougall wanted to prove that “identity”—or the soul—had physical weight by weighing people at the exact moment they died. But how do you find dying people who are willing to be weighed alive, then die, then be weighed again, all as scientists take careful notes and measurements? Dr. Macdougall turned to Dr. Charles Cullis and his Consumptives’ Home in Dorchester for help.
In the early 1900s, the Great White Plague struck worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of people were infected with a highly contagious lung disease: tuberculosis, also known as consumption. Antibiotics and effective treatments were decades away, so most patients did not survive.
Breathing, kissing, sneezing, or coughing spread the disease; infected people went to medical dorms to be quarantined, helping to curb the spread of the disease. Dr. Cullis’s Consumptives’ Home was one of those places. Most homes refused Dr. Macdougall’s requests to study the dying, but Dr. Cullis thought proving the soul was real could have both spiritual and medical importance. So he agreed.
Six dying people volunteered to participate in Dr. Macdougall’s experiments. As their last moments approached, each patient was placed onto a cot suspended from a huge Fairbanks scale. Because the patients were so deathly ill, they did not move, allowing the measurements to be accurate. Dr. Macdougall and two other physicians carefully observed the patient and the scale. They planned to record the exact time of death and any change in weight at that precise moment.
On April 10, 1901, Patient #1 was wheeled to the room with the giant scale and gently moved onto the cot. He continued to breathe for three hours and forty minutes. Then the research team carefully observed Patient #1 as he took his last breath.
In that instant, Dr. Macdougall’s hypothesis seemed to be confirmed.
“The [weight] loss was ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce,” Dr. Macdougall wrote in his notes. In metric terms, it was approximately 21 grams. (1)
Five other patients lived and died under Dr. Macdougall’s observation. He disqualified the findings of Patient #4, because the scale didn’t work correctly. He also threw out the results of Patient #6, because he died just as his body was being placed on the cot. However, three more patients—#2, #3 and #5—like Patient #1, lost a tiny measure of weight the moment they died.
Six years later, Dr. Macdougall published a scientific paper on his study. Most of his fellow doctors dismissed it. They said his calculations weren’t careful enough. Such tiny measures of weight could have been air exhaled during the patient’s last breath or bodily fluids released as they passed.
Dr. Macdougall disagreed. He weighed himself, before and after blowing all the air he could from his lungs. The giant scale recorded no change. He reminded his critics that lost bodily fluids would have been included in the final weight by being absorbed into the fabric of the cot.
Critics also said his sample group of six patients was too small to prove the experiment and its results were scientifically sound. Experiments must be repeated many times with the same results to be considered proper science. Dr. Macdougall agreed. He asked other scientists to repeat his experiment to collect more data, to either prove or disprove his theory. But none accepted his challenge.