Is consciousness just an overlay of personality and development? Does it arise from language and idea structure?

​It is just the opposite. Personality and development are an overlay of consciousness. The same is true for language, which influences idea structure. Consciousness precedes all of these things.

It comes before all of the following:

• Personality—an amalgamation of preferences and quirks based on the culture we were taught since we were infants, past lives, our unique experiences, and body types.
• Development—different people and animals develop at different rates but they all must have consciousness to enable themselves develop. Without consciousness, living beings cannot seek food to sustain themselves and they will die.
• Language—also a product of our culture that shapes how we see the world. Some languages don’t have words for more than the number “10,” for example. They just call it, “many, many” because they don’t need to know or communicate more.
• Idea structure—Ideas do not exist in a vacuum. They are held in consciousness, which completes the idea. Consciousness holds the idea.

Consciousness must be there first. It is the underlying fabric or container upon which everything else makes its impression. It is a manifestation of the deep, underlying Intelligence of the Universe. It does not depend on the human brain, our emotions, or what the cultures we were born into say is true.