Funny that you mention this consciousness thing.

A few years ago I've been out, seeing blackberry bushes in full bloom, ripe with berries,

many already dropped to the ground. One could even smell them from dozens of meters away.

That was on a former industrial/commercial zone in the harbour, everything torn down,

leveled up a few meters with massive earthworks, compacted, graded.

Since a few years, no activity. Barren and bare execpt for a few weeds and bushes,

some colorful wild flowers, thistles(also very colorful!) some small birches. "pioneer plants" AFAIK.

Anyways, hords/squadrons of all sorts of insects swarmed around those bushes,

really darkening the air and making a loud buzz/hum/drone.

But strangely no birds.

Whatever, I wanted some of those blackberries, too!

So I thought about what I intended to do in terms of movements, actions, and so on, all visually,

and thought about projecting that outwards in crystal clear HYPER-IMAX-3D-whatever, for every single step,

slowly stepping into the swarm, thinking the same way about every hand movement, exactly from where I'd pluck the next one,

thinking don't sting or bite me, stay away from my face, there is enough for all of us...

And none have stung or bitten me, also they left me alone, with the exception of a few landing on my bare arms,

and resting there for a few moments, before taking off again.

But it seemed mostly unnecessary, because most of them seemed to be in a holding pattern,

waiting for space on the ground, to gorge themselves there on the juices of the fallen berries.

So I only needed to watch my steps.

The berries were exceptionally good :-)

I took about 1,5 to 2kg back home in foldable plasic bags, which I always have in my backpack for shopping.

But before doing that, I took my time, squatting down,
and watching the bees, wasps, bumblebees, flies, whatever, flying erratically,

like they were drunken from the juices of the fallen to the ground berries, away, maybe a hand width above the ground.

That was their pattern, coming in high, going out low, like drunken. Still no stings or bites! :-)

One of the weirdest experiences I've had.

I'm still doing that with my cats, which I got later. Not speaking,

but thinking visually about things I'd like them to stop, and why,

what can be dangerous when I'm working in the kitchen, or soldering electronics,

how I like the ways they move, and so on.

We mostly communicate in silence.

Typical "catness" stubbornly ignoring everything aside, it feels like it's working in about 80 to 90%.

No stress with "herding cats" here. (3 of them)

Maybe we lost this stuff, the ability to perceive things like that, or it has been selectively bred out of us,

by the environments we created, which in turn shape us.

Back to topic (somehow):

Long before I got my cats, I had a 'stray' calico coming to me for about a month, from who knows where.

One night, while she was resting on a four times folded sleeping bag I'd layed out for her on my bed, I heard her loudly meowing.

No clue about what was going on because out of sight. I went there, and she stood on her hind legs, looking afraid,

slowly walking backwards into the farthest corner on her hind legs, meowing miserably.

At first I didn't get what was going on, then I saw a small spider, brown white, whith pale green backbody,

not larger than a pea, whole spider maybe an inch at maximum with fully extended legs.

The cat was terrified of that spider! Even when I've put the spider into a glass and thrown it out onto the balcony.

When I came back she still warily sniffed the spot from where I put the spider into the glass, meowing annoyed.

Took some time to soothe her.

I've never seen, or heard of cats being afraid of spiders before, nor I can imagine how that should work,

since outdoor cats should have plenty experience meeting them in the wild?!