If I were seriously interested in a greater understanding of consciousness and the study of it, I would see what has been done in the field and what is currently understood by reviewing the available literature to find out.
Introspection may help form questions, but I have doubts about the soundness of individual findings to wider application. Observation of others might also lead down the same path and subject to the same sort of bias. I see that too as a tool for raising questions to ask or seek answers for.
To me, some bloke (and I'm not referring to you, by the way) on this forum making claims about consciousness without any clear indication of expertise isn't providing or looking for answers, but they too could stimulate an interest to find what is known.
We have at our fingertips, access to information that has not been previously available to such a wide and diverse audience. Use that access. Learn the basics. Expand into more complex information and research as you learn. Perhaps start with review articles that seek to distill down what is known.
I don't see that happening much with the lay public that seems to go more with what they believe and much less with what is demonstrated knowledge.
I already, did what you suggested, when I first began to take an interest in consciousness, decades ago. I learned about brain anatomy and consciousness experimentation. However, I noticed there was a limit to what you can learn from the outside, in the third person; philosophy of science. I am now more of an expert of the inside data, which is why I am more of a writer than reader, now. I am an old guy with the creativity of a young man. This is an acquired skill learned from inside.
As a simple example of the difference of internal versus external data, is pain and medication for pain. Doctors and nurses still have to ask the patient, to tell them their pain level. Outside observation is not good enough, even for this simple consciousness task. The doctors do not wish to guess by trial and error, and will use the internal data from the patient, some of which can be a con job to get pain medicine. There is other stuff going on insider, that you cannot seen from the outside. A complete picture would need both. There were plenty of people working the outside angles,, but few using the inside approaches, and I saw a pioneer niche for myself.
My approach was to treat my consciousness as the subject of a study, while staying as objective, as possible, like a scientist. I was a trained applied scientist by profession; R&D Chemical Engineer. I tend to believe in human nature being common to all humans, so what I would learn, should be applicable for all, as long as I stay objective.
This research was done initially, by simply recording my dreams and trying to translate. Dreams are a natural output to consciousness and cannot be viewed from the outside. Each morning, as soon as I awoken, I would write down my dreams, in as much detail, as I could remember, while it was fresh. Throughout the day, when I had time, I would work the dream, analyzing symbols, observing how it makes me feel, and noting any active imagination triggered; parallel consciousness tracks. This was added to my consciousness analysis.
I was also looking for symbolism of the archetypes, which are the personality firmware common to all humans. The more I would record my dreams; over two years, and analyze them, the better became the dream experience. It was like I was doing justice to dreaming and was rewarded by my unconscious mind with dreams that become more collective human. I could at times even become fully conscious in my dreams and control the dream scape, which were dreams I did not wish to awaken from. I would see collective human symbolism that I never saw before but could find in research books of symbolism. I became an expert in collective human symbolism.
After about two years, I had isolated a wide range symbolism connected to all the key pieces of my brain's firmware, but this led to my mind becoming dissociated, from wading in the left brain weeds/detail for so long. I had been the scientist and the experiment, with the experiment starting to dissociate me to much, due to it always being on; day and night. This created an urge to re-integrate my consciousness, but how?
This procedure was explained to me, by my unconscious mind; inner self, in a dream/nightmare. In this dream, I saw a rotating ring of light and fire levitating in the air. Then I saw a man; prince, and woman; princess, jump into the ring of light and fire and merge. That was cool. But then I sensed a shadowy presence, who said to me in a booming voice, when you have entered the ring it shall be completed.
That request triggered shear panic in me, so I tried to wake myself from the dream, only to awaken and see the walls of my bedroom breathing and the shadowy presence about to enter my room. Part of me was trying to stay objective, to this unusual data, but another part of me was in shear panic. It was at that time, I remembered the power of prayer and said a few Our Fathers and few Hail Marys and my fear departed me and the shadowy presence, left. At that point in realize I had a shield; prayer, and sword; objectivity and was no longer afraid to proceed.
This ring symbolism amounted to the unconscious mind generating healing scenarios, that affected my mind and heart; man and woman merging with the ring. I would allow this to happen, and then I would consciously merge into the scenario. It was a puzzle to be solved, and if I did, I got a dose of endorphins for a reward, which gave me this timeless feeling. I could come down and another scenario would appear. Eventually the reward stopped and it was all work and no play.
An interesting synchronicity that occurred, the morning of the dream, was large colorful beetle landed over the front door of my apartment and stayed there for three days, until I recovered from the shattering effect on my mind and personality, caused by the dream. On the third day, I was feeling better and when I went outside, the beetle flapped his wings and flew away. In dream symbol he would a symbol of protection. The weird thing was the dream state was outside me, impacting reality. Once I understood the symbolism and synchronicity, I was no longer afraid. The shadowy presence was the fear of going insane. But I got past it and never saw its again.
In Alchemy symbolism, there is what was called the 1000-fold distillation. They appeared to have triggered the same unconscious effects, but not all made it out. The scenarios got harder and harder, was Amy as seven archetypes on at the same time. Eventually scenarios even occurred in my dreams. I had to endure and stay objective. After a few months I was back to normal; integrated, but exhausted; eternal vigilance was the price of liberty.
After resting a few weeks, I noticed that the reintegration process had created an interactive wiring to the inner self, which caused my creativity to become enhanced. I had gain more access to the main frame parts of the brain due to the ring of light and fire rewiring. This research is not easy to talk about, since, it is not common experience. I was able to go much farther than I had ever expected.
Th ring or light and fire would be only the beginning. Even more complex experiences were in my future; mystical psychosis that led to amnesia and an ego reboot, so my ego could be reformed from scratch. I am still a work in progress, but I like to report what I have learned, as well as my creative output from the inner self within science.
