Skunk, I agree with most of what you're saying. I also agree with what most of what Johnny is saying. The one are where I disagree with you is in your conception of what consciousness is comprised of. Yes, in our ordinary state of consciousness, and even in non-ordinary (or extraordinary) states, there is always a sense of "self". We are products of our experiences, and everything plays into it: our active thoughts, our subconscious thoughts, our emotions, our memories, and the environment around us. However, you say that this is all that there is; anything else, where we are devoid of such a conceptual framwork, is either unconsciousness or death. I would argue otherwise, based upon my own personal experience and the experiences of some priveledged others. There is pure consciousness; something not totally unlike death or unconsciousness. In this state, there are no emotions, no active or subconscious thoughts, and no sense of "self". There are no concepts, and nothing arises in the "mind". But there is awareness, albeit, it is not active awareness. One does not realize that they are in this state, they simply "are" in this state. The realization, and the categorization and rationalization of such an experience comes afterward, when consciousness has again shifted.
I would describe it, using the most abstract concepts that I can, as "fullness in nothingness", or a "living void". "Complete stillness" might be a desciption that approaches it, if it could indeed be described. I only know that this state of mind exists because I have experienced it, in a completely sober state. And I did not use meditation to achieve this, nor was I even actively seeking it. I sort of 'fell into it', to be honest. I was thinking of philosophical concepts, particularly those relevant to living a supposedly more natural existence, akin to cynicism (with less materialism to it). Eventually, I felt my thought patterns start to change, until they became reduced to something that can be related to "fuzzy logic"; basically, logical reductivism. And eventually, I arrived at this point. I fully believe it's our original, sort of primordial state of being; I won't attempt to debate whether it was something external or internal, though I'm inclined to believe that such a state of consciousness is not possible after physical death. Though I wouldn't discount the possibility that this is what might survive, if consciousness can indeed transcend physical limitations.
If you've ever had an intense entheogenic experience on some sort of psychadelic, and experienced "ego death", that state of mind approximates what happened to me. This was prior to my using any psychadelics, but after ingesting a quarter of particular potent shrooms, I realized that I could use such a state of consciousness to describe what I experienced then. They're not the same, but they are very close. People who practice Buddhist mindfullness can also sort of relate to the experience. I fully believe that this "pure consciousness" is what is often described in various religious traditions, and is the goal of Hinduism (as "moksha", resulting in supposed liberation from samsara), Buddhism (as "enlightenment", resulting in nirvana [nibbana]), and union with the Monad in Gnosticism (resulting in gnosis). It could also have been the ultimate goal of many ancient Stoics, Platonists, and Neo-Platonists. For me, it's entirely too coincidental for so many religions and philosophies to describe a nearly identical state, entheogens at "heroic doses" to induce such a state, and for me to experience such a state myself, to NOT exist. I just think it's a rare state, since we are so hard-wired into our egos and our conceptual reality.
And to think, I just sort of "stumbled" upon it, while if it is indeed one and the same, many people spend their entire lives seeking it. My view of reality was completely different for quite a long time afterwards, as if I was experiencing everything, but not nearly as affected by it. I sort of sacrificed this state of mind for booze, sex with gorgeous women, and the like. In other words, I gave into my desires, rather than rising above and controlling them, partaking but not surrendering. And my ego re-established itself almost completely. I do, still, however, have a lingering innate sense of the division between percepts and concepts, and I'm grateful for that. I doubt I'll ever achieve anything like that again under my own power, but it would definately be worth it to look into the altered states that psychadelics provide much more closely.
So yes, we are products of firing neurons and "all that jazz". Maybe there are no external forces in the world, and we are just in our own heads, interracting with each other in a conceptual consensus reality of our own creation. But everything we are is rooted in our own experience, and we cannot relate our experiences without dilluting them in some way so someone else understands it according to their own experiences. Just because you haven't experienced it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The converse of that statement is also true. But with all of the amazing things the mind is capable of, there has to more to the world than simply what we get with our sensory organs and our ordinary consciousness. And if there is a God, and I'm not admitting such a thing, being the pragmatist and skeptic I am, I suspect it is pure consciousness. Because I suspect that's what we "are".
~Will
on our separate parts of the globe