Hi,
I just logged on to this site and joined. Read your post. Consciousness is not found in your body or your mind. It is neither of those things, and since it is the thing which objectifies reality, it cannot be objectified. You can't objectify the objectifier.
While I still have lots of questions and problems and reservations, I believe that the Vedic tradition comes closest to an accurate description of consciousness, ....where it is defined as Atman, the witness/soul/watcher which can be experienced as a result of meditative absorption. In the Chandgoya Upanisad the apprentice asks the teacher "am I this, am I that, am I something, am I nothing, what am I?" and the teacher responds "you are not this, you are not that, you are not something, you are not nothing." Neti Neti......
In more modern terms, Castenada in his long discourse concerning the shamanistic Nagual and Tonal makes the same point. You must stop the world and totally quell the internal dialogue (e.g. enter meditative absorption). Once you do this you can experience pure intent which is the ground of being and consciousness, with the absolute absence of time, past, present or future. (much easier said than done).
So, consciousness is where we witness and explore our lives and intent is how we remake the world every hour and minute we are alive. And the answer does not depend on chemestry, or biology, or any form of measurement.