I believe consciousness is an emergent property of the functioning brain. There is no one center in the brain that is responsible for consciousness. It seems like consciousness is the summation of the functioning of multiple - or all - centers of the brain.
Some people with certain kinds of brain malfunctions actually have a reduced level of consciousness. They're not unconscious but the acuity of their consciousness becomes detectably reduced.
There is a school of thought that suggests everything is conscious - but not with the same degree of cognition. Maybe consciousness is just a fundamental property of existence itself. Maybe a rock experiences its own existence in some very primitive, non-cognitive way. Maybe brains only enhance the acuity of consciousness instead of actually producing the phenomenon.
I think it is theoretically possible to duplicate a mind and copy your consciousness to another body. But that raises the question of what happens when the original body dies. Do you actually die or do you keep living. I think the answer to that question is that both happens! You simultaneously die and you keep living. You experience both because you are now two. Your consciousness has been duplicated. The you that it attached to the original body experiences death. The you that is in the new body experiences continued life. So the original you will experience death so duplicating your consciousness is no way to escape death. But then again, the copied consciousness will also feel as if it is you yourself and will think that it is cheating death. But the original you wouldn't experience that glee. I suppose the original you will have to die with the consolation of knowing that a version of himself still exists and experiences the joy of cheating death. I think the key to untangling the conundrum is to not see it as either or but as both. Both happens because you become two separate but identical consciousnesses both of which experience life as if they are the original you, while being unable to experience what the other is currently experiencing (after the duplication).
