MAN AND THEMETHOD OFEVOLUTION 99
The silver cord snaps at the point where the sixes unite,
half remaining with the dense body and the other half with
the higher vehicles. From the time the cord snaps the dense
body is quite dead.
In the beginning of 1906 Dr. McDougall made a series
of experiments in the Massachusetts General Hospital, to
determine, if possible, whether anything not ordinarily
visible left the body at death. For this purpose he constructed
a pair of scales capable of registering differences of one-
tenth of an ounce.
The dying person and his bed were placed on one of the
platforms of the scale, which was then balanced by weights
placed on the opposite platform. In every instance it was
noted that at the precise moment when the dying person
drew the last breath, the platform containing the weights
dropped with startling suddenness, lifting the bed and the
body, thus showing that something invisible, but having
weight, had left the body. Thereupon the newspapers all
over the country announced in glaring headlines that Dr.
McDougall had “weighed the soul.”
Occultism hails with joy the discoveries of modern
science, as they invariably corroborate what occult science
has long taught. The experiments of Dr. McDougall showed
conclusively that something invisible to ordinary sight left
the body at death, as trained clairvoyants had seen, and as
had been stated in lectures and literature for many years
previous to Dr. McDougall's discovery.
But this invisible “something” is not the soul. There is a
great difference. The reporters jump at conclusions when
they state that the scientists have “weighed the soul.” The
soul belongs to higher realms and can never be weighed on
physical scales, even though they registered variations of