Four options are available: 1. You have no experiences. 2. You have experiences without awareness of what they represent. 3. You are aware of things without

Four options are available: 1. You have no experiences. 2. You have experiences without awareness of what they represent. 3. You are aware of things without being aware of self-as-thing. 4. You are aware of self-as-thing in the midst of other things. We have no reason to assume cells aren't aware, a sense bolstered by observational studies of how they respond to chemical gradients, etc., but it is quite a leap to get from "recognizing food" to "recognizing the control I have over my environment and effecting changes beneficial to some internally generated goal".