definitions of alive:

1."alive" in the bodily sense - means that the various automatic processes of the body such as heartbeat, breathing, and brain activity are continuing in the normal fashion. If all those activities should cease for a period of time longer than, say, a minute or so...then the body is said to be "dead". This says nothing about the soul, but only the body.

2. "alive" in the mental sense - means that the brain is still functioning in such a way that normal mental processes are occurring or can occur, such as thought, emotions, logic, mental analysis and reactions to things, etc. Thus a person in a coma might be said to be "brain dead", although still physically "alive". A person who is asleep might appear to have no mental activity at all occuring, but they might be dreamin...and in any case, their mental activities will resume the moment the start to dream or wake up, so they cannot be said to be mentally "dead" while in deep sleep.

3. "alive" in the spiritual or moral sense (in some traditions) has a number of meanings. Someone who can and is willing to still improve himself/herself spiritually or morally is definitely alive in the spiritual and moral sense. Someone who cannot or WILL not do so is dead in the spiritual and moral sense, although quite they may be quite alive in the mental and physcial sense.

There are a lot of spiritually dead people walking around busily and making deals with one another all over this world. Some of them are well known, most are not.