So I went looking for evidence of a soul...

[Violet]

So a balloon is weightless? The air was contained in the body at the time of death... very similar to a ballon. It really depends on how sensitive a scale we are talking about here... and how much air one can hold in their lungs.

Wouldn't one also release a number of gasses out of their anus upon death? If I am remembering this correctly... then the anus is a muscle that is contracted for most of the day. Upon death, it would be logical for these gases to escape as well (note, not rapidly)... so the body would lose the weight of at least two holdings of air when it dies.

At least, this is if I am remembering correctly. Both of these should make up some weight... but again: this depends on scale sensitivity, and the time in which a person was confirmed dead and weighed.

[theblindferrengi]

The air in a persons lungs is nothing like a ballon, the lungs are like a ballon, and when you die, your lungs do not fly out of you and go up to heaven; for a gas to add weight to your body, [unless you are weighed in a vacuum] the gas has to be under pressure, and for a person that is apparently close to death, those pressurized gasses that can leave, have already left, because a dying person I doubt would be able to hold in their farts and burps.

[Godless]

The reduction in weight claimed was 3/4 ounce.
The density of air at sea level is 1.2kg/cubic metre.
1.2kg is old 2.64 lbs = approx 42 ounces.
So 3/4 oz is just over 1/50 of one cubic metre.
Could the lungs hold this amount? Seems highly unlikely.
Maybe the reduction in weight was a small amount of urine escaping they didn't spot. If you suffer a big shock the body does release urine and death is quite a big shock. hock:
Albert.

[theVOID]

Rhizo, what reason to you have to believe that a soul exists?

And why would you, an atheist, set aside the same standard of evidence you use to decide that there is inadequate reason to believe in God yet you believe there is such a thing as a soul? That's a double standard if ever i saw one.

The soul is just another silly metaphysical claim based on ideas completely unsupported by evidence, or more correctly, based on ideas envisioned by people who didn't even consider evidence important when making their claim.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Wouldn't one also release a number of gasses out of their anus upon death?

Not to mention the contents of the bowels as the sphincter relaxes.

[theblindferrengi]

I think the scientist(s) would have noticed the cadaver urinating or deficating, perhaps the hospital gown was on the barely alive subject, and removed on the dead subject, although that too would have to be a very great unatention paid to detail on the scientist's part.

[chatpilot]

I don't believe in a literal soul but I think that if there is something left behind when we die it's energy. Here is a good link on what physically happens to the body when you die.

http://hidden-beside-me.xanga.com/664697...ter-death/

On the astral projection I think that is a psychological experience. I have to admit that I have had that experience as well but I did it intentionally unlike yourself. I must admit it is interesting that you have never heard of it before you had the experience.

[Rhizomorph13]

Chatpilot,

Yeah, so I am of two minds about the event, either it was a hallucination, a dream, or an actual event where I cast myself out of my own body into some extruded astral substance. The reason I lean towards actual experience is because of the qualitative "realness" of the experience.

It amuses me that people are going on about things that are directly addressed in the articles I posted, such as gasses escaping the lungs, urine and feces leaving the body. These are all talked about in the Snopes article. Unfortunately none of them are hard evidence and I have already admited as much. The name of this thread and the OP should lead anyone to understand that I went looking for evidence and found none except a goat path pioneered by Dr. Macdougall that may be a dead end.

Void,

In my OP I address why I believe and it is based on personal experience that is hard for me to ignore. I certainly do not expect anyone else to believe in a soul, nor do I claim that I have objective evidence although I admit this thread would be much more fun if I WAS asserting that souls are objectively provable.

Rhizo

[binny]

On one of the links in the OP, I forgot which one now, it said that the claims could easily be debunked. And one of the suggestions was, that it is simply moisture leaving the body.

Evie

I was going to say maybe they peed themselves.

[Rhizomorph13]

Binny,

They were weighed along with the beds they were on, SO, any waste they excrete after dying would be caught by the bed. It is all covered in the Snopes article.

Rhizo