71 replies to this topic

[Lilly]

danielost, on 30 April 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

according to the link the answer would be yes.  it has weight.

Exactly, according to the article the hypothesis is that the human soul has weight. But, upon reading the article I don't see where this has been demonstrated as being factual. The alternate hypothesis that the human soul is non-corporeal/metaphysical (ie, not measurable) seems equally likely to me. Also, (to really be the Devil's advocate) we don't know (outside of faith) if the idea of "the soul" is even a reality.

[danielost]

Lilly, on 30 April 2011 - 02:29 PM, said:

Exactly, according to the article the hypothesis is that the human soul has weight. But, upon reading the article I don't see where this has been demonstrated as being factual. The alternate hypothesis that the human soul is non-corporeal/metaphysical (ie, not measurable) seems equally likely to me. Also, (to really be the Devil's advocate) we don't know (outside of faith) if the idea of "the soul" is even a reality.

i do, but that is on a personal lvl and goes back to my first memory.  which was, "so this is life."

[Mattshark]

Lilly, on 30 April 2011 - 02:29 PM, said:

Exactly, according to the article the hypothesis is that the human soul has weight. But, upon reading the article I don't see where this has been demonstrated as being factual. The alternate hypothesis that the human soul is non-corporeal/metaphysical (ie, not measurable) seems equally likely to me. Also, (to really be the Devil's advocate) we don't know (outside of faith) if the idea of "the soul" is even a reality.

But is not claiming the human soul, of which there is no evidence for, conjecture and hence unscientific. Simply saying it is this is a completely unjustifiable conclusion.

[Lilly]

Mattshark, on 01 May 2011 - 02:12 PM, said:

But is not claiming the human soul, of which there is no evidence for, conjecture and hence unscientific. Simply saying it is this is a completely unjustifiable conclusion.

It's obvious (to me anyway) that the entire premise is based on believing that there's such a thing as a soul to begin with. As evidenced by my remark, "Also, (to really be the Devil's advocate) we don't know (outside of faith) if the idea of "the soul" is even a reality".

Therefore, as a belief based assumption it's not scientific. I get this...I was just trying encourage some (any) critical thinking about the matter in general.

[Mistydawn]

UM-Bot, on 25 April 2011 - 09:58 AM, said:

Image credit: Wikipedia

Jay Alfred: The idea of a material soul is not new. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, who lived in the sixth century BC, thought that the soul was composed of an unusually fine or rare kind of matter, such as air or fire. However, if it was material it had to have some weight. Barbara Brennan, former NASA engineer and now world-renowned energy healer, observes that 'aura' appears to have weight. Robert Monroe also believes that the 'Second Body' has weight, although much less than the carbon-based body. (The terms 'aura', 'astral body' and the 'Second Body' refer to what is generally described as the 'subtle body' in the metaphysical literature. The subtle body has often been loosely identified as the 'soul'.)

View: Full Article

Okay, wait a minute wait a minute!  quote:"..the aura "APPEARS TO HAVE SOME WEIGHT" and Rober Monroe "BELEIVES the soul has weight..!

Thought and theory, doesn't mean much to me. I have many thoughts and theories, plenty that others would wish me to qualify., as I do this one.

[Lilly]

Agreed, the OP makes it clear that this is a belief. Personally, I have no problem discussing beliefs (I have some of my own). However, as with many things in life, we need to accept what's based on our personal beliefs/faith and what's based on empirical/factual evidence. To do otherwise we end up tossing rational thinking to the wind.

[Leonardo]

With respect the infamous '1907' experiments, the results are from an extremely small sample - giving heavy bias to those results - and also not in agreement with the later, and I would wager more thorough, experiments carried out by Noetic Science.

Even those experiments, however, do not take into account that the living human being has a very small electrical field running through their body. The action of this field might cause a small weight loss via interaction with the various EM fields produced by the Earth.

Naturally, on death this electrical field ceases to exist and the 'real' weight of the body is revealed.

[Ozner]

Trying to measure the soul with a scale seems like trying to measure radiation level with a yardstick.

[Lilly]

Ozner, on 01 May 2011 - 07:03 PM, said:

Trying to measure the soul with a scale seems like trying to measure radiation level with a yardstick.

Oh, I do like that analogy.  

[danielost]

there were two tests.  in both cases, the dead bodies lost the same weight in that test.  so the question is what could every one lose at death that weighs the same in every body.

electric, would be based on the size of the body.

air again depends on the size of a persons lungs which  in most cases is based on a persons genes.

[Soul Kitchen]

Tiggs, on 30 April 2011 - 11:45 AM, said:

Disperse into what?

Space? Whatever physical component there was to the soul would cease to be locked in the vessel that is the body and disperses into space(and I don't mean "outer space", I mean space as in three dimensions). It sounds strange, but it's concievable if a soul at some point manifests physically.

Quote

But you're perfectly fine with the concept that for every single person, the physical soul weighs the same?

Absolutely. Is it not the same soul that inhabits a person regardless of their age and size? Does a soul actually grow in physical mass as a person grows older?

Quote

As in "This reality is just a simulation that our souls are playing in"?

EXACTLY, except for the connotations of fiction and false reality that the word "simulation" contains. I often wonder if the physical universe as we know it exists only to support sentient life and the souls that inhabit them.
Emphasis on the word wonder. I don't believe in anything I haven't personally observed, it's all speculation.

[Soul Kitchen]

Leonardo, on 01 May 2011 - 06:36 PM, said:

The action of this field might cause a small weight loss via interaction with the various EM fields produced by the Earth.

Naturally, on death this electrical field ceases to exist and the 'real' weight of the body is revealed.

I fail to understand how exactly electricity translates to weight(although I suppose it should be as concievable as a soul doing so). Could you explain this a little more?

[Leonardo]

Soul Kitchen, on 02 May 2011 - 03:44 AM, said:

I fail to understand how exactly electricity translates to weight(although I suppose it should be as concievable as a soul doing so). Could you explain this a little more?

When two EM fields intersect, there are regions within that intersection where forces are diminished, strengthened or repel each other. It is possible to levitate a magnet, for example, in an electric field. It is also possible for one charged object to be repelled by another, or attracted.

The force involved may be tiny, and result in a minute weight-loss, but that is exactly what has been witnessed, a very minute weight-loss when the bodies internal electric field 'switches off'. Gravity might not be the only force pulling us to Earth.

[vitruvian12]

danielost, on 02 May 2011 - 01:32 AM, said:

there were two tests.  in both cases, the dead bodies lost the same weight in that test.  so the question is what could every one lose at death that weighs the same in every body.

electric, would be based on the size of the body.

air again depends on the size of a persons lungs which  in most cases is based on a persons genes.

As Leo stated before, the 1907 test was hardly a definitive one. Out of 6 cases he discarded 2. Out of the 4 one lost weight, two lost weight and continued to lose more over some time, and one lost weight and gained it back. It seems hard to get a consistent number from that outcome other than averging. I suppose you could conclude that souls do have weight but choose to behave radically different from one another, coming and going at their own pace. Or you could conclude that the test was nonsense.

[danielost]

vitruvian12, on 02 May 2011 - 02:28 PM, said:

As Leo stated before, the 1907 test was hardly a definitive one. Out of 6 cases he discarded 2. Out of the 4 one lost weight, two lost weight and continued to lose more over some time, and one lost weight and gained it back. It seems hard to get a consistent number from that outcome other than averging. I suppose you could conclude that souls do have weight but choose to behave radically different from one another, coming and going at their own pace. Or you could conclude that the test was nonsense.

that still leaves the other test right.