With an experiment in 1907, the American physician Duncan MacDougall from Massachusetts wanted to prove that the human soul has a material substance that leaves the body at the moment of death towards heaven, hell or purgatory.
The experiment
For his experiment, he placed a bed on four scales, picked six patients suffering from a serious terminal illness, and then measured the subjects’ weight before and after they passed away. In one of the dying, he actually detected a weight loss of three-quarters of an ounce at the moment of death – better known as the infamous 21 grams that are said to constitute the weight of the soul thereafter. MacDougall’s experiment and his views are today regarded as richly macabre spinning – the material weight of the soul plays no more a role today than the exact localization of its location. Whether belly, heart or chest cavity: all cultures have ideas about the soul and can describe its effect. Joy, fear, thoughtfulness, sadness and many other emotions cannot be grasped, measured or grasped with scientific methods. But visible and describable are soul movements in the form of feelings, body language and interpersonal communication in any case.
21 grams and often much more
Even if the exact weight of the soul cannot be determined, the picture fits well. For almost all people – regardless of age, gender, skin color, nationality and social status – know that their souls often become very heavy. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), depression affects around 340 million people, of whom around 1 million commit suicide each year. This disease thus claims more lives than tuberculosis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), each person’s chance of developing depression is between 10 and 20 percent. It is no wonder that depression is considered by the WHO to be a global epidemic of major significance, to name just one indicator of the psychological burden. Depression is a disease of the modern age, triggered by stress. According to America’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, there are at least 39 variants of this disease alone. One of them, unipolar depression, will cause humanity the most years of illness on average after cardiovascular disease in 2020, estimates Christopher Murray, WHO’s chief epidemiologist in Geneva.
What does the soul need to stay healthy ?
Depression is just one of the many mental illnesses – and not everyone who has a bad day needs to be treated for depression right away. Anger, stress, irritation, bad mood – these are all quite normal sensations that every person experiences in the course of his life. Mental well-being is determined by the way a person deals with his or her feelings for him- or herself and for the environment. Stress as an expression of physical and mental overload due to the strain of work and leisure, for example, is one of the factors that lead to depression and other illnesses in most people today. What is important here is how the person deals with his stress – whether he can minimize the stress factors, for example, or ensure that they burden him less.
New findings support treatment
Modern medicine has ensured that chemical processes, such as certain metabolic processes in the exchange of information between cells in the brain, could now be identified as the cause of disturbances in many mental illnesses. This applies, among other things, to people who are manic-depressive or schizophrenic. In many cases, these patients can be helped with medication (psychotropic drugs) accompanied by psychotherapy. In many cases, the predisposition is hereditary, and the disease only manifests itself in combination with other factors or, under certain circumstances, not at all. It is known from other studies that not everyone who was tormented and abused in childhood and adolescence becomes an abuser themselves – people can develop their own protective mechanisms to protect themselves from psychological damage.
The inner balance as a pole of calm
Mental health springs from the harmony of many factors. Disturbances in the balance can lead to serious mental and physical illnesses.That is why the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes “No health without mental health!” It is a prerequisite for the healthy development of children and a fulfilling life in adulthood. In our fast-paced and demanding times, a balanced relationship between tension and relaxation, between demands and freedom, between work and leisure time is an important prerequisite for mental well-being and health:
- Our physical health and physical existence (“food and drink keeps body and soul together”).
- Partnership and family for love and security
- Profession and work
- Our personal network of friends, leisure and social contacts
From these areas we draw strength and energy. They are mutually dependent and in balance. The loss of this balance is an almost everyday experience – the balance between family and work, the coexistence of leisure and work is subject to constant balancing. Arguments, quarrels, illness or heavy losses belong to the different phases of life of every human being. But if the balance doesn’t want to happen at all, our soul life gets into trouble. This also has consequences for our physical health. There are many examples of this: Mental imbalance affects the immune system, eating disorders such as bulimia or binge eating can have life-threatening consequences. There are now treatment options for almost all mental illnesses – but the illnesses must be recognized and treated. These include:
- Manic-depressive illnesses,
- Schizophrenia,
- Anxiety disorders,
- Panic attacks,
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder,
- Depression,
- Psychosomatic disorders and
- Personality disorders such as borderline cases or marked self-uncertainty.
For all mood and relationship disorders, related symptoms are bundled and named. Thus, the “International Classification of Diseases” ICD was created, which is now in its 10th version (ICD-10) and in many countries the basis for the indication and thus also the basis of the assumption of costs by health insurance companies. The ICD-10 is mainly based on symptoms as explained by the theories of depth psychology and behavior therapy.
Sick soul – Great economic damage
The individual and personal suffering and impairment suffered by each sufferer has another, overall societal side. Depression, writes the WHO in its 2001 annual report, affects life just as much as blindness or paraplegia. Depressed people also have a much higher risk of developing osteoporosis or cancer. The economic burden of mental illness and its adverse impact on global productivity have long been underestimated. Data from the comprehensive study of the global burden of disease by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and Harvard University show that mental illness, including suicide, ranks second in the burden of disease. The cost of depressive illnesses per year in Germany alone is estimated at around 17 billion euros. Paradoxically, however, it is only the focus on costs in recent years that has led to mental illnesses being taken seriously as diseases and patients being perceived as needing treatment.
