Well that would be the physicalism/materialism hypothesis. Truth is we don’t know. That’s why it’s called the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”

The scientific and philosophical communities are split into a few major camps:

Physicalism / Materialism: They believe consciousness is an emergent property of complex biological computation. Just like “wetness” emerges when you put hydrogen and oxygen together, consciousness emerges when you network enough neurons. (Though critics argue wetness is still just physical behavior, while consciousness is a whole new dimension).

Idealism / Non-Dual Perspectives: This flips the script entirely. Instead of consciousness being a product of the brain, the brain (and the whole physical world) is an appearance within consciousness. In this view, you don’t have a conscious brain; the brain is a conceptual map appearing in the wide-open space of prior awareness.

Panpsychism: The view that consciousness is a fundamental building block of the universe, like mass or electrical charge, and complex brains simply channel or organize it rather than creating it from scratch.

You could just work on “first shift”, or what in Buddhism is called Fetters 1 and 2. Seeing through the self delusion. No woo-woo required and it’s the first stepping stone. But a big one.Just realizing there is no “me” here, and never has been, helps a lot.

About time

thank mr skeltal