>>40949014 (OP)
I have some ideas on how a person could die and still be alive.
>independent body
The body has a life force of its own and when a person dies it means the thing that caused them to be conscious is gone but the body lives on. An independent body cannot experience anything as an observer, it can only sense and react according to instinct.
>formless observer
The body is a vessel and when a person dies their vessel breaks. This causes them to observe without limit until they choose to interact with the world again, at which point they take on a new vessel.
>segmented self
A person's sense of self is divided into segments that experience the world from different points in time and space while retaining the ability to act in order to control a single body. If their body dies then one segment becomes severed from the rest, creating a dead "other" and preserving the self.
>fluid haunting
The self is able to switch places with the other, allowing a person to assume control over the forces that caused their death. For example, if the cause of death is murder, then the murderer dies and the victim possesses the murderers body. If a person commits suicide, then their body loses all sensation and becomes a mindless machine, while their sense of self animates their corpse through sheer willpower. In both examples, the person becomes incapable of forming new memories, sensing changes in the world, or being subject to natural laws, effectively making them a ghost.
