All that's missing is a beating heart and a working brain. The brain dies and that's it. The rest is superstition or fear. We are meat like the cows we eat when their heart stops. Of course the person "isn't there", because the brain is dead. We are the same as all our fellow creatures, except we can reason and so we invent "souls". As the original poster points out, there is a stillness and and an absence in a dead cow just like in a dead human.Yes, the cow's heart and brain are dead. There is no mystery. However, if it helps you cope with death to believe there is then I don't see that it does any harm unless it's tied in with organised religion and the damage that does to us all.