Consciousness is sometimes pictured as an inner observer that receives information from the world. Direct inquiry makes that picture difficult to find. We encounter a field of experience in which a sound is already heard and a colour is already seen.
A single field of experience tells us how things appear to us. It cannot establish the metaphysical source of the world.
Emergence without separation
I understand consciousness as emergent within reality. Living organisation gives rise to a felt perspective through ongoing relation with an environment. Consciousness is embodied and dependent upon those conditions.
Dependence does not make it unreal. A flame depends on fuel and surrounding conditions, yet the flame is a real event. Consciousness can be understood in the same way: a genuine form of reality that occurs when the relevant conditions are present.
No detached witness
An emergent view also challenges the idea of a witness standing apart from experience. Seeing belongs to the activity of a living being in a world. The seer is formed within that activity rather than added as a separate substance.
Look for the observer and more experience appears. The subject and its world arise together within a wider reality; awareness need not exist as a separate substance.
Reality remains fundamental
Reality or existence is the condition for every conscious event. It includes what is experienced and whatever exceeds present experience. Consciousness discloses part of reality from a located perspective.
A sound may fill attention, but the tree outside the window does not rely on being heard. The world exceeds experience.