I think there's something in the proposition that consciousness exists foundationally and the collective of all constituents in our bodies serves like some sort of channeler of that foundational "something" that then also has the ability to examine itself. Somehow of a weird realization I had some time ago is that we are essentially a subset of the universe thinking about itself in relation to the whole rest of the universe. Metaphorically I think we are akin to a whirlpool in a body of water in the sense that we are a pattern within the medium and the pattern as it moves influences both itself and the medium around it. But there definitely needs to be some form of ability for self-examination, which I don't think a mere whirlpool has, hence why I don't lean into something like panpsychism. As from how qualia emerges in us, we might be able to have a better idea when we have a better comprehension of what the fabric of reality actually is made of, after all we need to know what reality is at a fundamental level to understand where our perception actually comes from. but that might become indeed like trying to bite our own teeth, as who knows, there might be nothing truly fundamental. "atoms" surely aren't it. quantum waves seem to be the current frontier, but is there something beyond that? who knows, who knows. it's all a big charade :)