Exploring the Existence of the Soul: A Look at the Scientific Research and Life After Death Theories

I believe that many people have heard such a saying: the weight of the human soul is 21 grams.

So, where does this claim come from? Can the soul really continue to exist after death?

In 1901, a doctor named Duncan McDougall performed such an experiment. He invented a measuring device that could measure changes in a person’s weight.

With the help of this instrument, he measured the weight changes of six dying people after death . Among them, a patient with tuberculosis caught his attention.

In the more than three hours before the death of the patient, the number displayed by the measuring device has been changing. It was not until the tuberculosis patient died that the numbers displayed by the measuring device stopped moving.

That figure, Duncan found, was down 21.26 grams from the start . From this, Duncan proposed that the human soul does exist and weighs 21 grams.

However, his conclusions have not been accepted by the scientific community. First of all, Duncan did six experiments, only the data of the first experiment was 21.26 grams, and the other five experiments were not.

This is obviously not convincing. In addition, some people believe that some gas and water will be volatilized after death, and the weight loss is inevitable.

However, although Duncan’s experimental conclusions have not been widely recognized. But the beautiful legend about “the weight of the soul is 21 grams ” has been handed down.

Moreover, in the past 100 years, many scientists are still committed to the study of the theory of immortality of the soul, and Roger Penrose, the 2020 Nobel Prize winner in physics, is one of them.

The reason why Penrose was able to win the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics is because of his ” Penrose theorem “. In people’s traditional impression, physicists and mathematicians are usually very rigorous, and they are rarely interested in topics such as the soul.

But in fact, Penrose mentioned the importance of the soul (consciousness) in his book published in 1989.

He believes that artificial intelligence can never replace real humans. Because artificial intelligence will not have its own consciousness, nor will it have a soul. It’s always a machine, no match for a real human being.

On this basis, he further proposed his own understanding of the soul.

He believes that there are many electrons in a state of entanglement in the human brain. These electrons will undergo many collapses, and each time they collapse, new thoughts and ideas will be generated in the human brain, and these thoughts and thoughts constitute the human soul .

In other words, the human soul is composed of electrons that have undergone countless collapses.

After death, these electrons will not disappear because of the death of the person. They will leave the physical body on which human beings rely for survival, return to the universe, and become a part of the universe.

Therefore, from the perspective of this theory, the saying that the soul is immortal after death is actually very likely to be true.

However , Penrose’s theory still suffered a lot of criticism and attacks. After all, it’s just a theory, and it hasn’t been scientifically proven yet.

Moreover, Penrose’s theory also has a very strong taste of metaphysics, which makes many people question his theory.

So, does the soul exist or not?

In fact, judging from the current scientific level of mankind, this problem is still unsolvable. However, we cannot therefore deny the claim that the soul is immortal.

Because, in this world, there are still many phenomena that have not been confirmed by science, but they have always existed objectively.

In ancient China, the ancients basically believed in the existence of the soul. In that uncivilized age, people had their own understanding of death.

They believe that people who die will go to another world, which is actually not much different from the world we live in.

Therefore, our ancestors dealt with the funeral affairs of the deceased with an attitude of “death is like life”.

Qinshihuang Mausoleum, Mawangdui Han Tomb, Haihunhou Tomb and many other large tombs all embody this kind of thinking of the ancients. Their descendants placed a large number of objects used by the tomb owner in these tombs, and they also arranged according to the tomb owner’s previous residence. The construction of the tomb was built.

Although the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang has not been excavated until now, judging from the tombs unearthed in the same period and in the near period, the burial objects of Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum will be more abundant.

Not only that , but in the Mawangdui Han tomb, something similar to the soul-calling banner was also unearthed. The Han people not only believe that the soul does exist, but they also believe that the soul and the body will become lonely ghosts after being separated.

So in this case, the usefulness of the soul-calling flag is reflected.

The Evocation Banner in the Mawangdui Han Tomb is a T-shaped silk painting, but the limited space shows the unique view of life and death of the Han people. In the concept of the Han people, the world is divided into three parts: heaven, earth and man.

After death, they hope that the soul of the deceased can enter the heaven and achieve eternal life.

A psychologist named Raymond Moody once did such an experiment. He spent a lot of time interviewing and researching people who had experienced a near-death state, and tried to learn from the near-death experience of these people. Find the truth of whether the soul exists or not.

In the narratives of more than 150 people, people’s near-death experiences can be said to be varied.

Some people said that in the state of dying, a white light appeared in front of them. Some saw their dead relatives, while others saw a review of their entire life.

Others said that in the dying state, they observed themselves like a bystander who was about to die, and some people heard the doctor announce their death.

In addition, some people have this experience: they feel that they are constantly going in and out of their bodies during the time when they are near death.

They will be very eager to return to their bodies, however, after awakening their consciousness, they will really return to the human world.

I have to say that the experience of these people is indeed amazing. Based on these experiences alone, it is difficult for us to determine whether the soul really exists. After all, there is a good chance that the appearance of a departed loved one is only in the imagination of these people.

Moreover, these experiences are relatively personal and do not have universal significance.

However, it is not difficult to find that the scenes described by these people who have experienced the near-death state also have certain similarities.

Therefore, it is also difficult for us to deny their experience and thus determine that the soul does not exist. Therefore, on the issue of “whether the soul exists”, human beings still have a long way to go.

Many people subconsciously experience a strong sense of fear when they think of death. Perhaps the theories put forward by these scientists have not been scientifically verified, but the conclusions they put forward are undoubtedly a kind of comfort to mankind,

We should look at these issues with a dialectical attitude.