Connected to the presence of the gods, Egyptian culture constructed fascinating stories about life and death. It is said that all human beings, after passing to the other world, will embark on a journey on Ra’s boat (the sun god) to reach the hall of double truth and discover the value of their soul.
For Egyptians, traveling to the afterlife was not easy, and they even created a book that tells a series of magical rules to reach paradise. This book contained formulas written on rolls of papyrus, mummy bandages, and tomb walls, with the sole purpose of guiding the deceased to a successful rest.
If one of the steps was not followed, the person could suffer a second death. A priest was responsible for reciting the first formulas to guide the deceased, then the senses were revitalized to embark on the journey to the afterlife. In The Book of the Dead, it is read:
“I have opened the paths that are in heaven and on earth, because I am the beloved son of my father Osiris. I am noble, I am a spirit, I am well-equipped. Oh all you gods and all you spirits, prepare a way for me!”
Once in the underground journey, a boat received the deceased to guide them before Osiris, the god of the underworld. In this journey, it was possible for the deceased to face obstacles. The worst of all was Apophis, the serpent that tried to hinder the progress of the solar boat and break the cosmic order.
After facing the obstacles, the deceased arrived at a labyrinth with different doors, each of which led the person to the hall of the double truth. The judgment of the soul had arrived. Here, Osiris evaluated the life of the deceased and before all the gods made a negative or positive assessment of their actions in the earthly world.
Once the actions were narrated, it was time to weigh the heart or soul of the deceased. While Anubis held the plate of the balance, on one side was placed a feather of Maat (the symbol of justice) and on the other side the soul of the deceased. If the heart weighed less or equal to the feather, the person had access to paradise with Osiris; otherwise, they were condemned to perpetual suffering.
The beliefs of the Egyptians were marked in the perpetuity of history and culture. However, the story of the journey to the afterlife, and more specifically the judgment of the soul, made scientists think about the existence of a true weight of the soul. Recently, in a study of the Journal of the American Society for Psychic Research, an important hypothesis about the substance or essence of the soul was recalled.
Doctor Duncan MacDougall believed in the idea that the soul had weight. The objective of his research was to identify if the exit of the soul from the body implied any physical manifestation that could be scientifically recorded. Although his goal was not precisely to condemn the deceased, he did want to verify the possible existence of the human soul. For this, MacDougall built a special bed where he placed patients who were in the final stages of their lives.
The weight was measured in the last moments of each person and also just after their death. The results of the analysis indicated that (considering fluid and other component losses) the person lost about 21 grams upon dying. “At the moment life ceased, the tray of the opposite scale fell with astonishing rapidity, as if something had suddenly lifted from the body,” says MacDougall.
The problem with this scientist’s research is that he only relied on six cases to determine that the soul existed. Of course, later experts discarded his theory and continued to disregard it. However, whether we believe in Egyptian myths or MacDougall’s, it is magical to think that after death, the soul travels to other places.
Story originally written in Spanish in Ecoosfera.
