@fmf saidI've been thinking about this and I've noticed a paradox. You've been talking about consciousness as it relates to awareness and particularly self-awareness of various forms. But there's a problem, captured by the notion of higher and lower states of consciousness. Until this sentence you probably weren't aware of your breathing. However, now I've drawn your attention to it you are conscious of your breathing I wonder if you found that to be a consciousness raising experience? I think, at least to some degree, to become more conscious we need to become less aware.
Yes, my attempt that says "This capacity involves access to memories and the ability to recognize oneself as the witness and perpetrator of the events they record" may well be pushing too far on 'consciousness', per se, and moving more towards defining the source of identity or personhood or individuality.
@deepthought saidI have the knowledge that I breathe and I am aware of the fact that it is necessary for me to live.
Until this sentence you probably weren't aware of your breathing. However, now I've drawn your attention to it you are conscious of your breathing I wonder if you found that to be a consciousness raising experience?
I sometimes draw my attention to my own breathing and become acutely conscious of it as a way of sending myself to sleep and also as a way of focusing the mind for the purposes of meditation.
In either instance, I don't think it's much of a consciousness raising experience, although - with the former - the resulting sleep hurls me into the mysterious realm of consciousness created by dreams. and - with the latter - the meditation can sometimes produce interesting flow-chart type cogitations and forays into the huge and overflowing jewelry box that holds my precious ideas.
I'd have difficulty delving into the possible parameters of low and high consciousness without falling foul of my own proposal in the OP.