consciousness

Etymology

conscious + -ness

noun

1. The state of being conscious or aware; awareness.
   Consciousness is universal and precedes even the formation of our solar system. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 39
   The pantheistic mainstream asari religion is siari, which translates roughly as "All is one." The faithful agree on certain core truths: the universe is a consciousness, every life within it is an aspect of the greater whole, and death is a merging of one's spiritual energy back into the greater universal consciousness. Siarists don't specifically believe in reincarnation; they believe that spiritual energy returned to the universal consciousness upon death will eventually be used to fill new mortal vessels. 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Asari: Religion Codex entry
   Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness. 2013-08-03, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847