what do you think this is?

Question

my frind works with dead people and she was tellin me that after you take your last breath you loose 45 grams in weight.. we was saying do you reckon it is your soul leavin your body? what do you think this 45 grams could be?

Answer 1

I have also read something very similar; an experiment during WW2 weighed people as they died (all TB patients but I don't think this matters) and they lost around 60g at the moment of death. It is definitely not bodily fluids - when you die you don't automatically lose continence (it is amazing, from above answers how many people believe this!).

I think it may be something to do with energy, which cannot be created or destroyed. Our bodies contain a lot of energy which needs to go somewhere at the point of death, this could be released into the atmosphere at the moment of death, accounting for weight loss.

Is a soul/spirit considered a type of energy? I hope you get some good answers!

Best wishes.

Answer 2

(I heard about 21 grams, not 45. There's a movie called 21 grams with Sean Penn, I highly recommend it)

During the late 19th and first half 20th century, researchers attempted to weigh people who were known to be dying, and record their weight accurately at the time of death. As an example, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, in the early 1900s, sought to measure the weight purportedly lost by a human body when the soul departed the body upon death. MacDougall weighed dying patients in an attempt to prove that the soul was material and measurable. These experiments are widely considered to have had little if any scientific merit, and although MacDougall's results varied considerably from 21 grams, for some people this figure has become synonymous with the measure of a soul's weight. Experiments such as MacDougall's have not been repeated with current precision equipment and research tools, and snopes.com concludes of one researcher that:

"MacDougall's results were flawed because the methodology used to harvest them was suspect, the sample size far too small, and the ability to measure changes in weight imprecise. For this reason, credence should not be given to the idea his experiments proved something, let alone that they measured the weight of the soul as 21 grams. His postulations on this topic are a curiousity, but nothing more."

Source and details: http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp

Researchers, most notably Ian Stevenson and Brian Weiss have studied reports of children talking about past-life experiences. Any evidence that these experiences were in fact real would require a change in scientific understanding of the mind or would support some notions of the soul.

Answer 3

I believe your soul, which weighs nothing, does leave a dead body. I do not think all people lose 45 grams immediately after dying though. People die different ways. Someone who is dehydrated would not lose this much.

I was with two family members as they died. Neither one lost control of urine and bowels. The first one was in a hospital and did not have anything in his bowels and had a catheter. The second one was at home and I am assuming her bowel and bladder were already empty as she did not emit any stool and urine. I believe your friend is wrong.

Answer 4

Its a BIG old myth, but why don't you check it out for yourself? You could try with various terminal individuals.I'm sure your local hospital or nursing home would cooperate and even furnish a scale. But don't some people's souls weigh more or less than 45 grams, depending on how soulful they are? Just wondering. Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, for example?

Answer 5

This 45 grams is our soul.

Answer 6

I don’t know, but I guess the body’s metabolism is breaking down and getting ready for decomposition.

This happens because the body looses moisture then starts to harden up.

It has nothing to do with the soul leaving the body.

Answer 7

Probably a combination of the soul and air in the lungs. This observation was made a long time ago, and it was assumed to be what I just stated.

Answer 8

Victims of a car wreck, and even those that have heart atttach are generally saturated in their own body fluids and generally feces. So, I would gamble to say, this is the reason that the body weight varies so much.

Answer 9

Is it as much as 45 grams, i thought it was 20something, thats the name of the film. its allegedly the wieght of your soul, but i think it might be something a bit more scientific

Answer 10

The standard story is 21 grams, but that has not been proved with any certainty