Quote Originally Posted by sivason View Post
Human conciousness is composed of two parts. The identity of the preceiver is a compossition of the two. The two parts are the impulses and instincts of the human as an animal, and the other is composed of that etheral stuff we may call a spirit or soul or self-awareness.
Different words to say the same thing. Impulses and instincts are from the unconscious or animal part. And self-awareness is from the conscious mind.

I'd say every animal above the level of insect experiences some degree of conscious thought (no idea if insects do), but it's minimal until you get to the more advanced animals like cats, dogs, dolphins etc. Actually another thing I learned from that Sagan book that applies here - every one of us experiences the cycle of evolution through our lives - we begin in the womb as a single cell, develop gradually through a simple aquatic form then we emerge from the liquid medium onto dry land where we begin breathing air and crawl on all 4s before eventually rising to walk on two legs, freeing our hands to manipulate objects, and gradually learn to speak and communicate. It's the story of evolution of animal life (our line). And in the earlier stages of it we're almost completely unconscious, consciousness only slowly developing. So we've all experienced what it;s like to be almost entirely unconscious and at the whim of instincts and impulses - we had to grow out of it to become adults. And though it can be hard to remember our childhood, we experience unconsciousness every night in the form of non-lucid dreams. The lucid ones are more like being conscious, where we can make decisions and act on them.