As you quoted, I wrote, “being brain dead is virtually equivalent to being dead…”
I did not say “equivalent’, I said, “virtually equivalent”.
– Yes. As long as the gandhabba has not left the body permanently, one has not died.
– But with the brain not functioning, one cannot see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or think. That is what is I meant by saying “virtually equivalent” to being dead. It is “as if” one is dead.