Consciousness, the ultimate counter-intuitive phenomenon

The workings of the brain and consciousness fascinate me. I believe that neuroscientists are still largely nothing more than geographers: "Which bit lights up when we think this? - ah ok, that bit! Ok - let's move on to the next pin on the brain map." But hey guys - ok, we've discovered the "Indian Ocean", but what is the agency by which the coherent patterns of waves are created on it's surface? We still have not the smallest clue! 

Yes - we can pour oil on the water (i.e. drugs) to calm the storms - very useful - but how are we aware of the thoughts, and the pains and the emotions that light up the brain scans? - and how do we marshal the thoughts that trigger them? Simply: how the heck is matter aware of itself? Many present-day brain researchers including Susan Blackmore (psychologist and memeticist, who I actually greatly admire) would have us believe that consciousness is an illusion - but if that is the case, who or what is being deluded? Indeed who or what has just encapsulated this conundrum, then formulated it as a question and typed it on this page? Merely by my questioning of this point of view about self-will and consciousness - the possibility that we might simply be glorified zombies - surely suggests that we are not!

I am strongly inclined to the view that self-awareness is all about looping - positive feedback - like recursive equations: the mathematical loops that in the biochemistry are responsible for spatial fractal patterns in nature e.g. dendritic structures e.g. blood vessels, neural networks in the brain, tree branches, ferns etc! I suspect - although the jury isn't even out sitting on this yet - that consciousness is rooted in the temporal equivalent of spatial fractals: a temporal recursive process, which by definition must involve looping backwards in time (or forwards depending on your temporal frame of reference) - even if this is only by a few microseconds. Quantum mechanical phenomena being the counter-intuitive processes that they are, are prime candidates for providing such temporal looping. 

If quantum mechanical phenomena are so very counter-intuitive, then so too is consciousness, but 10 times over!

The fact that quantum mechanics and consciousness (self-awareness of matter) both lie squarely in the ultra counter-intuitive domain, it seems highly likely that the physical explanation for the latter must be rooted fundamentally in the former!

Extraordinarily, a quantum mechanical explanation for consciousness is decried by the majority of neuroscientists. And the reason for this is? I think it is this: It is dangerous, almost a scientific taboo right now, to cross from one’s own specialism into anothers’ scientific territory because it so often invites ridicule from one's peers. But the understanding of consciousness is surely going to require a multidisciplinary approach merging chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, complexity (emergent phenomena), neurology, psychology. This is going to take some time as researchers in these disciplines become less defensive and inward looking - and more mavericks, like Roger Penrose, are prepared to stick their heads above the parapet.