consciousness

n. awareness of one's surroundings; cognition, ability to perceive

Consciousness is a characteristic of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science.
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(n.)
The state of being conscious; knowledge of one's own existence, condition, sensations, mental operations, acts, etc.
  

(n.)
Immediate knowledge or perception of the presence of any object, state, or sensation. See the Note under Attention.
  

(n.)
Feeling, persuasion, or expectation; esp., inward sense of guilt or innocence.
  

Consciousness [from Latin conscio knowing with, knowing together] The active state of spirit or the supreme fundamental in manifested existence. Like light, consciousness can become manifest only by means of a vehicle, and it can have various degrees of manifestation according to the planes. Individual consciousness originates in the Logos of any hierarchy. Every manifested entity is conscious to some degree, and is an expression of divine consciousness or spirit. Buddhi is said to be latent spiritual consciousness which becomes manifest intellectually in manas, so far as the human constitution goes (SD 2:275). Human consciousness is also closely linked to the senses.
The term consciousness is often used as alternative to spirit, as where it is said that consciousness and matter are the two aspects of parabrahman or that consciousness is the purest form of cosmic force; yet, strictly speaking, consciousness is an attribute of active spirit. It is sometimes called the universal life, the kosmic force-substance. The relative use of the word enables us to speak of states or degrees of consciousness, according to the state in which the essence is manifested on one plane or another; or to call one state unconscious by contrast with another, as when we compare waking consciousness with the consciousness of sleep or trance. See also Self-Consciousness

Self-awareness. Subjective experience. The way things seem to us. Immediate phenomenological properties.
<Discussion> <References> Chris Eliasmith