Is Consciousness a Fundamental Quality of the Universe?

Scientists have long been trying to understand human consciousness — the subjective ‘stuff’ of thoughts and sensations inside our minds. There used to be an assumption that consciousness is produced by our brains, and that in order to understand it, we just need to figure out how the brain works. But this assumption raises questions. Apart from the fact that decades of research and theorizing have not shed any significant light on the issue, there are some strange mismatches between consciousness and brain activity.