What Is Consciousness? Awareness Explained: Part 1    

OPENING
Whats the difference between awareness and consciousness?
Try this right now:
You’re hearing me speak and You’re conscious of the meaning of my words.
Pause, and become aware of the feeling of your feet on the floor. You weren’t unaware of it before — you just weren’t conscious of it.
That shift from implicit sensing to explicit noticing demonstrates the difference.
Awareness never left; your consciousness just wasn’t directed there.

I'll show you how I can direct your consciousness to whats in your awareness. You're eyes arent perfectly relaxed are they, they're scrunched up. Now relax them. You're probably shallow chest breathing too. Focus on a deep belly breath. You're lower back is most likely rounded, now straighten it a little. Your chin is going to be tucked down a little and your neck protruding forward from centre. Try correcting it by changing your position. All this information, plus heaps more, is constantly in your awareness.

Here's another. You're aware you're going to die one day. Yes or no? This fact is in you're awareness when it wasn't a moment ago.
But what does this mean to you? Think about it. Now, you're conscious. See the difference?


THE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
The questions I have and am trying to answer.
The difference between awareness and consciousness
Axiomatic?
Ontological – what consciousness is. Where is it?
Developmental/Emergent/Ontogeny – how it arises. When is it formed?
Functional – what it does. How does it work?
Teleological – why it exists (its purpose)
The layers of it
How do you know if you're C?



MY MODEL AND THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
I'm using Introspective phenomenology to examine the workings of consciousness whilst integrating perception and reason to form a coherent, objective theory on what consciousness descriptively is and how it comes to be as an emergent feature of ego and awareness.
Introspective phenomenology is the disciplined study of first-person, lived experience — what it’s like to perceive, feel, think, or be aware, from the inside.



AWARENESS VS CONSCIOUSNESS - Video 1
1. Awareness (Base Layer)
Definition:
Awareness is the fundamental receptive field of experience — the unchosen, determined and necessary capacity to register existence.
It cannot be directed; it simply receives. It is the organism’s global sensitivity to being — an unmoving backdrop that passively detects stimuli, sensations, and states.
Key traits in the system:
Non-volitional, automatic, pre-egoic.
Exists in all living things capable of sensation.
It's non intentional.
Cannot be turned off except in unconsciousness or death.
Provides raw experiential data (qualia, feeling, sense-impressions).
Is the substrate upon which consciousness later develops.

2. Consciousness (Second Layer)
Definition:
Consciousness is awareness of awareness — the active, volitional, directed use of awareness by an ego to recognize the relationship between self and world.
It is the agentic organization of awareness into focus, meaning, and action.
Key traits:
Volitional — can be directed by fw.
Emergent — develops through action, desire, feedback, and learning.
Requires an egoic self: the “I” that perceives, judges, acts.
Dependent on awareness but not reducible to it.
Has degrees and quality — from dim, reactive consciousness (child or animal) to full, reflective consciousness (adult rational thought).
Anchored in agency — to be conscious is to be able to choose and act.
Is an epistemic axiom. An unconscious mind cannot know anything or put forth any argument. It can only emulate/immitate.

Awareness is automatic physiological sensory registration. Consciousness is deliberate, volitional focusing of awareness upon particular content.
Awareness is bodily; consciousness is egoic.
Consciousness is the psychological process by which an ego — an integrated, value-oriented self-system — identifies and relates the content of its automatic physical awareness to it's point of reference of being itself.
Consciousness is conceptual recognition of perceptual stimuli.
Awareness of awareness. Awareness of other sensory awareness, sight, hearing. Aware that someone is aware of something.  

Awareness = undirected sensory perception, pre-relational recognition (“seeing without knowing”)
Consciousness = awareness of the relationship between self and content (“I know that I see, and I know it’s me seeing”).
Awareness is registration of physical facts without an awareness of an egoic I who is registering.
Consciousness is self-referential and self directing.
Examples of awareness. Hungry. Thirsty. woman, man. Dog. Hot, cold. Bright, dark. Scared, happy.
Examples of consciousness. Add an I. I'm hungry and want to eat lamb chops. I'm thirsty for kombucha. I recognise thats my mum and dad. Thats my dog chuckles.

Awareness is non-conceptual, passive receptivity to existence. It’s the capacity to register what is — automatically and without evaluation.
Consciousness is conceptual, active self-awareness — the capacity to direct, integrate, evaluate, and act upon awareness.

Awareness is stimuli and object detection within a sensory field without the subjects awareness of the objects relation to self.
Consciousness is Object detection in relation to the subject detecting objects.
Awareness is a general field created by a body of sensory apparatus's perceiving whatever it's in contact with. Awareness is the bodies recognition of information. Consciousness is the ego minds recognition of the bodies awareness.
Awareness comes without free will effort. Awareness is automatic. Consciousness must be willfully directed and maintained with effort in order to focus on particular information. When no will or effort is exerted, the direction of ones conscious mind drifts on childish whim and prehistoric sensations. It reverts back to the infant stage.
Consciousness is psychological awareness of the bodies content of awareness. When you open your eyes, you automatically see without effort, hear without effort, feel things touching your skin without effort. This bodily awareness resides in the background, in your perceptual subconscious until you decide to volitionally recognise them with your ego self, ie intellectually or psychologically perceive your bodies current awareness.


Awareness is immobile and acted upon. Consciousness is mobile and acts. A baby lies on its back, it's mother picks it up and walks round the room. Awareness only receives stimuli. Consciousness can produce stimuli. Awareness is the passenger, consciousness the driver. Awareness cant move by itself. It has to be moved, either by proto agency, self initiated action, or by free willed acts of consciousness.
Awareness is a determined passive receiver. It doesn't need to do anything to receive, just exist. Consciousness acts as a volitional active integrator. It adds data to its repository or ignores based on volitional value judgements. Awareness can only register, whereas consciousness can ignore. Awareness can not attribute value significance, but consciousness can.

Consciousness is the aspect of an entity which can identify and identify with. Its the identification faculty of humans. Awareness is capable of perceptual identification, but not conceptual. Awareness can associate, not conceptualise. Dogs and chickens examples.
Awareness is physiological, consciousness is psychological.


You're always aware of far more than your conscious of. Aware of the temperature, air against your skin, background ac hums, outside bangs from construction workers, the feeling of light hunger, doms in your legs, alertness or fatigue behind your eyes, your overall state  and mood. You have awareness of everything within your sensory range. In the range you can hear. The range you can feel external elements interacting with your skin. Internal bodily pains or sensations. Emotions and feelings. Thoughts popping through your mind. Thirst in your mouth. The smell of crisp air. Whats inside your visual periphery. You have no perceptual awareness outside your sensory range. You are always aware of a great deal.
But what are you presently conscious of? It depends on what you focus on. You cant focus on everything you're aware of all at once. There's just far, far too much.
Your consciousness exists in and as the point of present focus of what your perceptually aware of via your senses.

Consciousness means you have control over where your awareness is. Pure awareness is dictated by stimuli and determined prioritization. Consciousness means you have free will selectivity of your focus to isolate and ignore awareness alert symbols. Need to use the toilet. If a baby, you just go anywhere. Thats awareness with proto agency. Self initiated action. When older and with consciousness, you can ignore that toilet stimulus temporarily via self directing and self determined volitional control.

Awareness cannot be directed. It's like an unmoving field. It just receives information. You sitting in a room feel everything there is to feel, without option. Consciousness can be self directed or environmentally directed. Direct your focus to the music, to the wind on your skin, sight up to the fans above, the feeling of your arse on the chair. Or a sharp clank can rip your attention to the source.
Environmental direction: a sudden noise, flash, or sensation captures consciousness — this is bottom-up, stimulus-driven.
Self-direction: you choose to focus — this is top-down, goal-driven attention.
That dual control explains why consciousness often feels “tugged” between two poles — one passive (drawn outward by salience), and one active (guided by intention).

Awareness is the receptive field and consciousness is the active lens that can be directed within it.
1. Awareness is the passive non-volitional field. It happens automatically, as long as you are awake and your nervous system is functioning.
It’s omnidirectional and non-selective — a background registration of all sensory and interoceptive inputs.
It’s pre-conceptual and non-judgmental — you’re not yet distinguishing or prioritizing; everything “appears” at once.
You can’t choose not to be aware in this sense (short of sleep, coma, or anesthesia).
Awareness = The field of potential conscious experience — what can be noticed.
This is like the mind’s “ambient light.” It illuminates everything, but doesn’t choose where to shine more brightly.

Consciousness is your current frame of focus. Like a camera focusing on a subject which has the background blurred out.
Consciousness is the focused frame within your awareness. Awareness is the general field, consciousness the narrow beam.
Consciousness is within awareness but can also transcend it. Can move within current awareness but willfully expand awareness to its desires. Does this via recalling past memories from SC. Can imagine new things. Changes the awareness field. Turns the camera.
Awareness provides the raw experiential field.
Consciousness provides the directed organization of that field.
Awareness receives the world; consciousness works with it.
Consciousness makes sense out of sensation. Sense out of the noise of the world.

Consciousness is normative, awareness isn't. Awareness cannot identify, only present data. It just registers what is, not what it is. Awareness is metaphysical. Consciousness is ontological.
Awareness supplies existential data; consciousness supplies ontological significance.
Awareness shows what exists; consciousness decides what to do about it.
Awareness is the metaphysical field of experience — it receives reality. Consciousness is the ontological and normative faculty — it judges and classifies reality.
Awareness presents facts — hot, cold, bright, dark. Consciousness interprets those facts — move closer, step back, create, destroy. Awareness registers reality. Consciousness assigns meaning to reality.
Meaning exists in the domain of consciousness, not awareness.
Consciousness is judgemental by its nature, that's the entire point of it. It asks, what does this awareness unit mean to me? What should I think about in order to do in relational response to the data my sensory awareness has presented me?
Consciousness is your egos filter. It is the bouncer at the door to your mind. It allows or prevents entry. Accepts or rejects information as true or false. Believable or laughable. Valuable or worthless.
If your consciousness is not judging, its worthless. Its like a stack of Zimbabwe dollars.
Non judgemental consciousness isn't a conscious state, its a hypongogic trance. It's a non functioning consciousness. Awake, but not alert. Watching, but not knowing.
There can be integration, but without evaluation.
The purpose of consciousness is to judge whats good and then act to achieve it.
Without judgement, consciousness collapses into passive awareness — awake, but unknowing, existing without purpose.