Thanks for writing. Some links in here I’ll save for later. On this question you ask; “what is consciousness?” there is no fundamental answer, for to know all there is to know, is to know what that which we refer to as consciousness, is. The instant you know it you collapse back into not knowing it. It’s like the pulsation of sound or the flow of electrons in an electric circuit. This is the ever expanding fractal nature of existence. Ironically, the more we talk about it the further away from what it is we go. All I understand is that we and everything else in this physical experience are aspects of that. All pursuit of the answer is naive. I say that with regard to myself also, so no disrespect intended.