Do human beings have a soul that leaves after they die? While all recognised religions and many philosophical theories suggest that they do, scientists have so far been unable to conclusively confirm this belief.

To date, the soul remains an elusive and abstract entity, which theoretically encompasses an individual’s personality and consciousness. When humans die, religions suggest that this abstract entity leaves their body and ascends to heaven, is sent to purgatory or hell, or is re-incarnated into another human or animal.

In 1975, psychiatrist Dr Raymond Moody tried to explore this concept in more depth by interviewing patients who claimed to have experienced death for brief moments in a medical setting, but were resuscitated. His work paved the way for further studies focusing on these experiences, which are now known as ‘near death experiences’. 

Past studies focusing on near death experiences gathered some interesting insights, yet they are primarily collections of self-reports, anecdotes, and subjective perspectives. In other words, they did not provide objective scientific evidence for the existence of souls.

Benjamin Scherlag, Ronald Scherlag, Tarun Dasari and Sunny Po at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Centre recently explored the concept of the soul using scientific and verifiable methods. To do this, they observed the behaviour of a single-celled dwarf organism derived from Stentor coeruleus.

Stentor coeruleus is typically between 0.5 and 2 millimetres in size, and is known for its ability to regenerate itself. When subjected to dehydration, this single-celled organism is disrupted. After being rehydrated, it undergoes a fascinating cell division process, whereby one cell develops into four mobile dwarf cells. These dwarf forms make an appealing model to study behaviour that might hint at the existence of a soul.

To conduct their experiments, Dr Scherlag and his colleagues used deep-well microscope slides, filling the wells with Stentor coeruleus cells. These slides were left uncovered for 24 hours, leading to the evaporation of liquids and consequent death of the cells contained in them, which do not survive when dehydrated.

Subsequently, the researchers re-hydrated the small wells in the slides, using a solution that nourishes single-celled organisms, and observed what happened to the dead cells. Within two days, moving dwarf forms of the cells appeared. They ultimately covered these dwarf cells with chlorinated tap water, which is toxic to them, causing them to die.

After the chlorinated water had been added to the samples, the dwarf cells stopped moving and became spherical for a period of 8 to 15 minutes. Some small blisters also started protruding from the cells – a phenomenon known as ‘blebbing’, which occurs when cells die.

These blisters then retracted back into the cells and a series of striking changes took place. The motionless cells progressively developed a replicate image of themselves that was released from their original structure. Within 20 to 30 minutes, this duplicated, transparent version of the cell gradually faded into the ambient environment. In other studies, a magnet was placed beside the slide, to create a magnetic field spanning across the slide. The team found that prior to fading, the replicate retracted back into the dead cell to restore its mobile ability.

Based on their observations, Dr Scherlag and his colleagues hypothesised that the replicate image of the cell is essentially electromagnetic energy that is an inherent part of its living physical body. They also suggest that the replicate that can be observed resides in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum detectable by the human eye. When the replicate fades, on the other hand, it moves into the non-visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Finally, the researchers examined their observations further in the context of known physical laws, particularly linking them to Quantum theory. Quantum theory suggests that matter can exist as particles or waves. While these states are entangled in a coherent way, under specific conditions, in this case the life/death interphase, they can be separated, through so-called ‘decoherence’.

To test their hypothesis further, the researchers recently conducted a follow-up study, where they tried to use an electromagnetic field to force the replicate back into the dead cell body. They also documented the transmission of the replicate into the surrounding environment and its return into deep-well slides.

In this additional experiment, the team initially employed the same procedure used in their previous work to cause the death of the dwarf cells, followed by the release and fading of their replicates. Subsequently, they placed two glass jars with their original sample in a tightly sealed plastic container, one containing tap water and the other a substance that promotes the growth of single-celled organisms.

In a first set of experiments, they simply left this container to rest for 24 hours, and observed what happened in the container. Within 24 hours, approximately three-quarters of the jars with the growth-inducing substance contained dwarf cells, clusters of algae and bacteria. These dwarf cells were transparent and visually resembled the replicates that were previously released by the dead cells. After several days, the transparent cells accrued particles characteristic of the original dwarfs, leading to a repeat of their previous life cycle, followed by death and clusters of cells.

In a second set of experiments, the team placed a magnet on the container during the 24-hour resting periods. When the magnet was in place, the cells did not move into the jar with the growth-inducing substance, which indicates that the replicates are in fact electromagnetic organisms, as the magnet inhibited their activity.

Based on their observations, Dr Scherlag and his colleagues ultimately hypothesise that the post-death phenomenon they observed in Stentor coeruleus cells is a ‘trait’ that applies to all other living organisms, including humans. This trait may essentially be a confirmation that living organisms are made of two different parts – a body and a soul – which are separated after death.

In this context, the soul would be composed of electromagnetic energy, which cannot be created nor destroyed. In addition, the team’s follow-up experiments suggest that this electromagnetic component of living organisms could re-enter a favourable environment that promotes the growth of cells, ultimately resulting in the birth of new life. 

In the future, the researchers’ fascinating insights could inspire new scientific studies that further test this hypothesis on other organisms.