To me, I think we have a soul, weather it be pure energy or what ever.
I think death as being like a catapillar going in to its cocoon and going into stasis and emerging as a totally differant creature, a beautiful creature that when ready will fly away and NOT remember its life as a worm like thing that crawled around.
When we die and are placed into our casket i think we are released from our earthly bodies and we exsist on a differant plane of reality, not remembering what it was like to live the life of a meer mortal.
So to me death is a transfiguration.