The Energy Of Conciousness

[Deepwater6]

I know there have been study's where scientists tried to weigh a person before and after death in a quest to measure the weight of the soul. Have there ever been studies that try to measure a persons conscious energy before and after death?

 

Some form of energy must set things in motion when I give my brain a command to start firing off neurons and think, correct? Something must initiate that? If there is energy emanating from us while alive where would that energy go in death? It must remain a part of the universe correct? I realize that it may be just short of infinitesimally small, but that energy whether it stays energy or transforms to a form of minuscule mass must still be a part of the universe right? I don't beleive in reincarnation, but isn't that what this is on some level?

[CraigD]

I know there have been study's where scientists tried to weigh a person before and after death in a quest to measure the weight of the soul.

You’re referring, I think, to the famous 1907 “21 gram” experiment, in which physician Duncan MacDougall attempted to weigh 6 men before and after death, and from his measurements, concluded that their mass decreases by an average of 21 grams. He performed similar pre and post-death measurements on dogs and other non-human animals, and concluded that they did not lose mass, from which he concluded that humans have souls that mass on average 21 grams, while non-human animals have no souls.

 

Although published in a “psychical research” and a medical journal, MacDougal’s experiment is not considered valid science for reasons including that the results couldn’t be reproduced by others, he didn’t include measurements where his scale indicated an increase in weight after death, and his apparatus didn’t prevent such physical explainable losses of mass as the evaporation of body fluids.

 

There’s no valid scientific evidence that souls are physical things.

 

Have there ever been studies that try to measure a persons conscious energy before and after death?

With questions like this, it’s important, I think, to clearly understand what the physical scientific term energy, and the related term work, and power, mean.

 

Energy is the ability of a physical system to do work. Work is the exertion of physical force to displace something a non-zero distance. Power is the rate at which work is done, that is, work divided by time.

 

Biological organisms have energy and do work. The main source of energy in animals like humans is chemical, and involves the conversion of sugars from food, oxygen, and enzymes produced by the body into carbon dioxide and various waste products. The work these reactions do is observed as muscle movement, nerve activity including sensing and thinking, and heating their surroundings.

 

When an organism dies, its usual metabolic processes gradually stop. It still has energy, in the form of its tissues and any food products remaining in it, so continues to do work, but via decay processes, or as food for organisms that eat it. Decay processes are also metabolic, but controlled not by the regulatory mechanism of the organism’s cells, but by those of the other microscopic organisms that it contains and those that invade it after death. Rather than muscle movement and nerve activity, this work consists mostly of heating.

 

Some form of energy must set things in motion when I give my brain a command to start firing off neurons and think, correct?

Correct. The firing of neurons in your brain to think is a complex metabolic process.

 

Philosophically, the idea that a separate you sets this process in motion is problematical, as the processes arguable is you.

 

Something must initiate that?

While it’s true as a general physical rule that “things have causes”, there’s no scientific evidence that something other than biological processes are needed to initiate biological processes.

 

If there is energy emanating from us while alive where would that energy go in death?

The energy that emanates from us in life is primarily heat. Our bodies also do physical work, such as walking around, carrying loads of bricks up hills, etc. Our bodies also do physical work in the form of growing themselves.

 

After we die, we continue to emit heat, but don’t do much physical work, or grow. Because we no longer eat, we don’t do work for very long after death. If our bodies are burned, our remaining energy is exhausted quickly. If they decay naturally, it’s exhausted more gradually, over a period of weeks. If we’re preserved, our energy may be stored indefinitely. In other words, a mummy can be used as firewood. ;)

 

It must remain a part of the universe correct? I realize that it may be just short of infinitesimally small, but that energy whether it stays energy or transforms to a form of minuscule mass must still be a part of the universe right? I don't beleive in reincarnation, but isn't that what this is on some level?

Physical law states that mass/energy is approximately conserved, so this is correct. However, I think a “soul” is better described as information than as physical energy. Physical law doesn’t guarantee the “conservation of information” – that is, you can’t calculate from a box of hot air what heated that air.

 

For these reasons, my best guess is that whatever “immortality” people have comes from preserving information about them – the memories of people who knew them, information in the form of writing and artifacts created by them, etc.