What an excellent piece, Prudence! It is very carefully articulated and written. I think it makes perhaps the best case I’ve read on Medium for embracing the spiritual dimension of reality, although I don’t 100% per se agree with it. You’ve thought through how to frame some very key points, coming to grips with distinctions other pieces appeared to me to miss. I could see my writing a piece that responds more or less point by point.

The pivotal point is the relationship between consciousness and reality. Reality only makes sense as a concept if it somehow transcends, is a superset of, or is “bigger” than consciousness. If, as you seem to say, reality is a function of consciousness, then an account of consciousness is all you need, and reality is only one component of that account, no more or less important than any other component, with science as a component of reality (and nothing more).

Bishop Berkeley argued persuasively that the ultimate reality comprises God, your soul, and the consciousness he gives you. In other words, you are watching a movie God creates. In this view, the idea of a physical world is useless and meaningless and gets cut out of the picture by Occam’s razor.

Like you, I believe consciousness is primary. What is on the other side of consciousness (God, reality, a physical world, the brain, whatever) is imho an unanswerable question, although I very much enjoyed and appreciate following and engaging with your thinking.