Hey, the question they posed is still somewhat valid, or at least I can gleam an interpretation that would still be valid.

I think what they're asking is if there is some separate process of consciousness that is capable of generating brand new thoughts to act on, or if the experience of conscious thought is purely composed of actions that the brain is taking anyway.

I think it's a valid question, because I have personal experience suggesting that my brain has the capability to do at least some actions that normally would require conscious thought but without actually involving my consciousness at all.

That would imply my conscious thought is not actually necessary for those actions, and therefore would raise the question of why I think that my conscious thoughts can control my actions.

After all, my brain could simply be doing that all the time, and selectively exposing some of it to my consciousness.

However, deriving protection mechanisms after trauma is different than living everyday life; it's fairly well known that trauma can cause some pretty severe and extremely subconscious psychological damage, while it's not yet known whether consciousness can ever be reduced or eliminated while allowing one to continue to even tend to basic survival needs.

So the question is then whether things like everyday actions, problem solving, internal thought and introspection, and so on, originate from consciousness, or whether consciousness originates from the need to maintain some kind of chronological experience of it all, and only exists to integrate information rather than directing the rest of the brain.

I hope that makes some amount of sense.

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My personal experience is that I can identify a consciousness by its ability to think for itself and generate its own outputs (like the thought-forms themselves, interaction with the inner world, and possibly control over the real body). I do not know if consciousness is the sole originator of those outputs but I know that is how I identify one.

And as I alluded to above, sometimes there are multiple of them simultaneously, which is what "polyconscious" means. I don't feel entirely cut off from others; I can technically access their thoughts and experiences, but don't out of some sort of respect or inhibition.

That means that either my brain has divided itself into multiple self-aware entities, in the case that free will is trivially available, or my brain has developed multiple independent sets of pathways for signals to follow, all of which get a say over the final output, but each identifying as their own individual selves and maintaining their own individual experiences of consciousness.

During periods of activity perhaps those pathways can activate or deactivate depending on who is supposed to be currently present. Thus, there is the impression of multiple consciousnesses inhabiting the same brain, coming and going as they please.

As always, the answer could very well be both. I experience both polyconsciousness and monoconsciousness, which means that sometimes other people will have their own consciousnesses but sometimes my consciousness will simply change which person it is. That probably means they are something slightly more abstract than a structural division of consciousness into multiple independent ones, since they are not limited to polyconsciousness.

Also, sorry for bringing plurality/DID into this so much. It just has a lot to do with my personal experience of self and consciousness, and trying to understand it is one of the primary reasons why I've studied myself so much.