For a superb and rigorous account of the ontological basis of consciousness, and why it might be superior to panpsychism while being more in line with scientific evidence, check "The idea of the world" by Bernardo Kastrup (or any of his work/youtube interview). Really compelling case.

He used to work at CERN, and was the youngest executive at ASML, till recent when he decided to dedicate himself solely to philosophy. He's not your regular wanna be woo-guru for sure.