This is what a headline read of the New York Times on March 11, 1907. Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill, Massachusetts, had placed barely living subjects on a bed which constantly weighed them as they slipped into death. MacDougall felt that the soul was material and had mass, therefore it could be measured.

His first of six human subjects died and immediately lost three-fourths of an ounce, which is 21.3 grams. MacDougall’s experiments and findings were also published in the American Medicine journal as well as the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. This experiment has lead to the belief that the soul does indeed weigh 21 grams and that the body will drop weight upon death. The former statement is folklore and the latter is true, yet not from the departure of the life force....