TheAnachronism
26th July 2007, 01:09 PM
I just finished reading Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach -- a thoroughly enjoyable and informative book, describing all kinds of wacky experiments done over the years in order to test for the afterlife. It's certainly written for the layman, and those among us with PhDs in Physics probably won't appreciate it as much, but it's absolutely worth perusing.
Anyway, the section that most interests me is about a test proposed by Gerry Nahum of Duke University School of Medicine, in order to study whether or not a "soul" leaves our body when we die:
This system — which Nahum would very much like to build — would be a sort of box, a box completely isolated from the surrounding environment. The box sits atop a mind-blowingly sensitive scale, and all around it are arrays of electromagnetic energy detectors. These detectors measure all the different types of known radiant energy (as opposed to informational, or "soul" energy, for which there are no detectors) that might leave the box. Now let's say there's an organism in the box — a paramecium or a wombat or John Tesh, it doesn't matter. And that organism dies inside the box. If the electromagnetic detectors detect energy leaving the box, there should be a corresponding change in weight. Why? Because of the laws of physics: there is always a weight loss associated with an energy loss. I'm not talking about the listless feeling that besets the overambitious dieter. I'm talking about E=mc2. If the energy changes, then the mass (which is proportionate to weight) must change — in, you know, a teensy, tiny, infitesimal physics lab way. So if the mass lost when the organism dies is more than what would be expected based on the energy change, then something's leaving the box in a way that can't be accounted for. That something being, perhaps, the soul, or consciousness, heading out to some higher dimension — Lew Hollander's place beyond the open window.
You can read the entire chapter from the book here (http://www.lostmag.com/issue1/soulsweight.php)
The part describing Dr. Nahum and his experiment is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down the page.
I am just posting this in case any one is interested and wants to discuss and/or philosophize over this. :)
Anyway, the section that most interests me is about a test proposed by Gerry Nahum of Duke University School of Medicine, in order to study whether or not a "soul" leaves our body when we die:
This system — which Nahum would very much like to build — would be a sort of box, a box completely isolated from the surrounding environment. The box sits atop a mind-blowingly sensitive scale, and all around it are arrays of electromagnetic energy detectors. These detectors measure all the different types of known radiant energy (as opposed to informational, or "soul" energy, for which there are no detectors) that might leave the box. Now let's say there's an organism in the box — a paramecium or a wombat or John Tesh, it doesn't matter. And that organism dies inside the box. If the electromagnetic detectors detect energy leaving the box, there should be a corresponding change in weight. Why? Because of the laws of physics: there is always a weight loss associated with an energy loss. I'm not talking about the listless feeling that besets the overambitious dieter. I'm talking about E=mc2. If the energy changes, then the mass (which is proportionate to weight) must change — in, you know, a teensy, tiny, infitesimal physics lab way. So if the mass lost when the organism dies is more than what would be expected based on the energy change, then something's leaving the box in a way that can't be accounted for. That something being, perhaps, the soul, or consciousness, heading out to some higher dimension — Lew Hollander's place beyond the open window.
You can read the entire chapter from the book here (http://www.lostmag.com/issue1/soulsweight.php)
The part describing Dr. Nahum and his experiment is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down the page.
I am just posting this in case any one is interested and wants to discuss and/or philosophize over this. :)