Human Consciousness Is Personal

Human consciousness does not merely consist of baseline perception; it contains the recognition that there is a personal self that both experiences perception and has the ability to reflect upon and scrutinize its experiences.  This caliber of consciousness is far from simple.  Furthermore, it is this lack of simplicity that makes it inherently personal.

When I say human consciousness is not simple, I mean that it is a compound: it encompasses more than just one feature, as it entails cognition, emotion, memory, the capacity for sensory perception, and the will.  The latter, with the others oriented around it, establishes the personal identity of each individual human.  I am not just a passenger held hostage by my own experiences, but I am instead an active participant.

I recognize that there is an autonomous will behind my perception.  It could have come about that human consciousness was blank and devoid of personal depth and individuality--but it is not so.  The very nature of human consciousness is deeply personal.  This goes far beyond sociality, as it could exist in the absence of all social interactions.  Instead of sociality, the personal nature of human consciousness is rooted in immediate self-awareness.

One must possess self-awareness in order to even be capable of reflecting upon any experience at all, but it is only through prolonged introspection that one can become acquainted with just how far the personal dimension of (human) consciousness extends.  With recognition of the self comes at least a basic comprehension of the complex, compound nature of the very consciousness the self experiences.  The personal nature of the mind brings with it an individualistic depth that has no obvious ending point.