As for consciousness, I see no real difference between people and higher mammals, except that people (some, at least) are not trapped in the immediate present.
I'm going to make a metaphysical/mystic statement to you now. Please do not take offense.
Looking at many of your posts on this and other threads, it seems to me that you have 'ears to hear.' That is very much a spiritual gift; not every one has it.
If you really want to explore it, you must remove your thinking from the physical realm, i.e. get rid of the noise. Rest, do nothing, and let understanding come to you.
Just a suggestion...
One of the formative moments of my life came 40 years ago when a high-school teacher asserted that science would encounter a brick wall within 20 years, having discovered everything about the physical world that could be discovered.
I don't know if he meant that literally, but his point was that the really important stuff was spiritual. He may be right about that, but deeply wrong about materialism. There is never going to be an ultimate understanding of the material world, because even if we discover some ultimate algorithm from which all physical laws can be derived, we still know nothing about what is possible. Even if we learn the ultimate equation, it will only explain what is, not what can be.