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by manifoldgeo 954 days ago
From the linked article: " After the weighing, they received an official certificate proclaiming them not a witch... Certificates would state that 'the body weight is in proportion to its build'. The reasoning behind this is the old belief that a witch has no soul and therefore weighs significantly less than an ordinary person".

I love this piece of history so much, thank you for sharing it! Adding this one to my bookmarks :-)
2 comments
wongarsu 954 days ago
Which is obviously misguided. You can't determine from somebody's BMI if they have a soul. A soul only weighs three quarters of an ounce [1], or about 1/10th a cup of coffee. Well within even the daily variation of a person's body weight. (/s)

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_grams_experiment

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progne 954 days ago
Does my soul look fat? Is it good or bad to have an obese or skinny soul? Do they float? Are they charged, can you trap one in a Faraday cage? Is that what the Ghostbusters were collecting?
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codetrotter 954 days ago
Also:

“The Waag is still open as a tourist attraction, and official certificates are available.”

Maybe with modern science we can make someone much lighter than they ought to be. (Put helium in their stomach?) Then they would be forced to issue a certificate that said that they could not guarantee that the person is not a witch :D

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