What is the difference between a dead body and a living one?
The question feels obvious: one is alive, the other is not. But what does that mean? Sure, in some cases there will be a massive difference, like if someone got shot in the head, now they have a hole leaking blood and such, but what about when someone dies peacefully in their sleep? What is the physical difference between them the second before they die and the second after?
To me, the difference is still rooted in physics, but it is invisible to the naked eye. That person’s entire body remains: the brain, the skin, the organs, the blood, but evidently something is missing.
I pose this question as a way to explore what we, as humans or as life, truly are. If our entire body remains after we die, clearly we are not the body. We are not “the brain”, as it still lies dormant once we perish. Instead, I would like to propose that we, all living things, are simply energy, temporarily controlling the vessels in which we inhabit.
To stay alive, life-vessels have many different requirements depending on their traits. Some need this much water, some need this temperature, some need a $7 Starbucks run, but literally every single form of life, NEEDS energy. They must intake more energy than they expend or the lights will shut off. Think about it, food (or sustenance) is really just energy at its most basic form. If you eat a plant, you’re eating their store of energy they got from the sun. If you eat an animal, they ate a plant or they ate an animal that ate a plant, etc… Of course, the sun isn’t the only source of energy, but what they are eating is simply that. It is what truly connects every type of life on our planet.
Isaac Newton, one of the GOATS of physics declared long ago, that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. Instead, there is one constant amount of energy in our universe that simply changes by how it is distributed at a given time. I could explain why, but just ask a physicist. For now, trust that energy simply changes forms—it doesn’t disappear. The important thing to note is that energy comes in two forms: kinetic and potential. Kinetic energy is energy in motion, while potential is energy at rest.
When you die, everything remains: your organs, your brain, your mass. But the motion is gone. The energy is still there—it just isn’t moving anymore. That’s the difference between alive and not, or a rock and a human. A rock has energy, but none of it is potential. To harness and use energy, you must turn it into kinetic energy. Our bodies are fantastic at this process, but the point is that while you’re alive, there is kinetic energy coursing through you.
So my question is, if the second I die, everything about me remains except for the kinetic energy, then am I really the body I use, or am I actually just the kinetic energy that’s powering it?
Well, the logical answer is that I am just energy (Kinetic, but really it’s still just energy). I may feel like I am Tristan and couldn’t possibly be anything else, but the reality is that I am just the energy, temporarily stored within this body until the day it cannot function properly and keep me inside of it.
So what does this mean? Well, to me it means that I am quite literally everything. I am you, I am the grass, I am the trees, I am the animals, I am every single thing that’s alive. The same goes for you, my reader. You are you, you are me, you are everything, all at once, just one at a time, simultaneously.
So what? Well for starters, we aren’t just going to live this one life we’re living and then be done with it. There is no black-screen at the end. Instead, we’re going to be living for as long as the universe does, over and over, until the energy is gone/all potential. When you die, you’ll just “start” the next. But the truth is, you’ve already started the next, and the next after that. Every time something is born, we restart. There is a difference between ‘you’ and ‘we’. You are still unique, as no current body can be your body, but in reality our energy is experiencing both of us right now.
Also, every time you fuck someone over, you’re really just fucking yourself. When I cheat someone, I am basically saying ah, I’ll deal with the consequences later when I have to experience that body. For this reason, I believe that the only true way to help yourself is to help others. In that sense, it’s like making an investment into an experience you know you’ll have once you experience that body. Of course, there are no rules and you can choose to either make this life easier to deal with and instead suffer down the road, or to nobly take some of that suffering now so that your next life can be easier. There really isn’t a right answer, as we’ll have to suffer it all eventually. But for me, I like to think that one day, my efforts to help others will be worth it once I am those others. In that sense, it is not selfish, but selfless. Nothing feels better than someone doing something for you unexpectedly.
We’re just an infinite pool of energy being transferred around. You’re free to fuck up in this life, as there is always going to be the next. But why suffer later? Just suck it up, take your punches now and make shit easier for yourself in the long run. Don’t stab someone in the back, as you’re just stabbing yourself.
7/2/2025