What powers the physical activity of the brain?
What leaves when the brain and subsequently the rest of the physical body ceases to function?
Even removing the religious/spiritual aspect from it there is an unseen energy powering the brain and the body. Labeling it electrical impulses or electricity doesn't make it any less amazing that an unseen energy powers the human brain/body.
Are we the body or the energy?
(1) The brain like the rest of the body is powered with the synthesis of ATP...This is the currency of human physiology...Without ATP, nothing happens (that requires energy)...
If you have a gene mutation that impairs your ability to synthesize ATP, you are going to die, and probably at a young age, because nature will not want you to have children and pass on that gene...Evolution...
Life essentially is a series of biochemical reactions and mixtures...Evolution selects the best combination of these reactions and mixtures, and life goes on..
(2) Nothing leaves the body when it ceases to function...I have been a situation where the hospital admitted a patient who suffered a massive heart attack...Her husband tried CPR for 20 minutes without effective...The EMS were eventually able to resuscitate her...
Unfortunately for this woman, the only activity left in her brain was the medulla oblongata...Brain scans revealed that there were no electrical activity in her frontal lobe...
Essentially, the only thing this woman was capable of doing were basic automatic functions...Her eyes would open, but you could tell there was no perception in them...They were not reactive to stimulus...She didn't even respond to painful stimuli...
The nurse would reposition her and she would not put up an resistance...She was alive but I guess "soulless" to put it in religious terms...
(3) We could have put a feeding tube in her stomach and kept her alive for 5 years or more...And she would be alive, but with no conscious perception of the world around her...
Basically, to use religious terms, she could classified as "soulless"...
(4) The point is conscious sensory perception is a function of the brain...If certain parts of the brain are damaged, a human can become figuratively speaking 'soulless' The body will keep performing autonomic functions until it starves itself to death...
The majority of the functions in your brain are happening without your control and conscious knowledge...
(5) The conscious' responsibility is to find sustenance, safety and sex for procreation...For animals with smaller brains, this is pretty straight forward...But we as humans being engage in more complex thoughts and behaviors...
Regardless of our complexities, our natural goals are pretty clear and simple...
(6) There is no "unseen energy" powering the brain...We know that it is ATP...Your brain takes up about 10 - 20% of all the glucose (simple sugar) you consume, because it needs it to use a lot of energy...
(7) Conclusion, like have already stated, on a macroscopic level, we are pretty clear about electron, proton and neutron activity and the forces that are involved in everyday life...
There are no "mystery particles" that are relevant when a human wakes up in the morning, takes a shower, eats breakfast and goes to work...We know how this happens...