Consciousness and quantum mechanics go together. That notion tends to mess with people's heads. It's a difficult thing to wrap one's head around. It is counter-intuitive, especially to those accustomed to viewing reality through a hard-headed lens. This consciousness/real-world conundrum is truly a "prickles and goo" situation (according to the late Alan Watts).
Nevertheless, there's nothing incompatible between consciousness and physics. Here's why:
If you accept that charged particles attract and repel - that bonds exist - if you are comfortable with the laws that govern the dance of celestial bodies, and if you trust in the form and function of our proteins - their primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary natures - then you are, in effect, declaring the belief that matter knows what it's doing! 'Knows' as in consciously aware.
On the micro-level, if a charged particle experiences a certain pull or a push from another particle dependant on direction and distance, it follows that at some level it is aware. Not only is it aware of another particle, but it is also simultaneously aware of every charged particle in the universe! Every bit of matter via electrical, gravitational, and nuclear forces, has a measurable relationship with every other existent particle.
This reasoning applies to groups of particles too - molecules, proteins, cells, organelles and upwards. All that changes is the quality of consciousness. We recognize it more and more as living.
At some primitive level, therefore, consciousness exists. What I am going to postulate is that there is a sort of centre of consciousness analogous to the centre of mass, that exists for any physical system. A point of focus, as it were.
At some primitive level, therefore, consciousness exists. What I am going to postulate is that there is a sort of centre of consciousness analogous to the centre of mass, that exists for any physical system. A point of focus, as it were.
Now, our second axiom states that all is one. So, getting back to our discussion of slivers, a particular sliver may only be associated with one centre of consciousness - one that reaches across its entire universe. That's a big bite to swallow, is it not? What I'm saying is that in the same way that a physical conglomerate balances or revolves about its centre of mass, there may exist an overall focus of overall consciousness for every sliver. But I struggle with that idea. It is easier to imagine that each sliver contains numerous localized foci, but I'm certain that a more comfortable idea is necessarily more accurate.
Consciousness would therefore arise spontaneously for each sufficiently complex assemblage of component parts. It squeezes out where it can. For now, I'll finish by declaring - rightly or wrongly - that the essence of consciousness is the (possibly localized) matrix of forces encapsulated by a single sliver.