Whoa, there is a lot of information here and all of it is very fascinating. I wish I had a bit more time to write a well-thought comment and had some citations here so I'm just going to throw out a couple of shoot-from-the-hip thoughts.

I'm partial to believing that consciousness is a figment of our imaginations. Simplified for us of lesser intellect, perhaps, think of the Matrix where real and fantasy are intertwined to the point of confusion. blind acceptance or adamant denial about our place in the universe.

Then I consider that the body is made up of...what...80% water and yet our brains work in electric currents - literally the speed of light. Combine this with the idea that if we are beings of light then somewhere in the smallest particles of space and time might possibly be a collective mind.

I would expand on the collective mind but I really have to get going. I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts.