Is 21 grams the weight of the soul?

Question

I've heard that the body loses 21 grams as soon as somone dies, and that this represents the weight of the soul.

Two questions: what's the source of this, and is there any truth in it? And does your soul weigh more if you're heavier in real life?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Air has weight, and exhalation weighs a few grams. I could buy the idea of losing "the breath of life."

Aloha

Answer 2

The 21 gm is, in fact body fluid, but hey, what a better idea,!!!
I believe the soul lives on to people who love you and
people you have loved.. what better accalaid !!

Source(s):

a good feeling

Answer 3

the source - yes it was based on actual medical experiments, but the metholodgy was flawed and subject to serious experimenter bias.
I do npt belive in a soul, but everything I have read about it (in religious literature) says that the the soul is a concept of energy, not matter.
see
http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweigh… for full details

Answer 4

since the soul makes living thing alive ur probably right

Answer 5

yes i weighed mine last night

Answer 6

No. There is no such thing.

Answer 7

Your soul is weightless.

Depending on your life on earth depicts where it ends up.

Heaven, Hell, Purgatory or just plain old floating around Earth.

Films try to depict what the future is 21grams, what weight could you put on a persons soul?

Vampires exist, Werewolf's exist, and so do Witches and goblins etc

Yet NO-ONE can take your soul away from you NO-ONE

GOD maybe?

Answer 8

i dont think there is really a way to know this.
can someone's soul weigh 19 grams? or 22 grams? everything else varies.... why not that?

Answer 9

It is true that when somebody dies instantly 21 grams of weight leaves your body there isn't actually any scientific explanation for it. One explanation that has been made is that it is your soul but there isn't actually any evidence. Could be though, it's a nice idea.

Answer 10

i never heard of that ! who told u ?

Answer 11

I never heard of this. Your soul is like a thought, weightless and electrical and of unknown origins. The 21g is likely related to things like loss of body fluids. If a soul had a weight it would also have to have a mass which obviously it doesn't.

Source(s):

Lots and lots of experience

Answer 12

The weight of the soul is in direct proportion to the life experiences one has encountered. The 21 grams is just escaping gases, followed by fluids and other unmentionables. The more you have experienced, the heavier your soul. Also, newborns and the very young have large souls, not necessarily heavy, because of their innocence.

Answer 13

yes this is true, scientist have accurately measured this by systematicaly killing and weighing several hundred student volunteers.

the mass of the dead students is subtracted from the mass of the live students and the difference was divided by the number of volunteers.

Source(s):

Loxley Crovant medical extract 57.5.5.3

Answer 14

I don't think you can mix science and spirituality. I've heard what you stated before, but if there is a weight loss, I believe it's more likely that your bowels and/or bladder empty when you die. (I know, gross).

Answer 15

That's the premise for the movie, 21 Grams. A very good intense movie, but I hardly doubt it.

Answer 16

It is in my world,man.

Answer 17

Gas is expelled from the body as you die. It just leaks out. And the soul only weighs 2 grams.

Answer 18

No I think it's 22

Answer 19

The soul is not composed of matter, and therefore has no mass and no weight. Also, since it is a supernatural or spiritual entity, it lies completely outside the purview of science. Science is the study of the natural universe, not the supernatural.