Consciousness is an illusion, in that it does not actually exist? Well interestingly enough, science cannot prove that consciousness exists either, at least objectively speaking.

Science can only point to a series of biological processes such as breathing, cognitive awareness, etc., when declaring a person to be conscious or not (as often happens in a hospital emergency). And the line blurs even further when comparing animals and humans, and further, animals and plants.

Personally, I would ask what benefit is there in claiming something so essential to human reality an illusion? Are we going down the path of solipsism? In other words, if consciousness is an illusion then what is actually real? We know everything by way of our consciousness...

Maybe I am going a bit too far here, let's take a step back for a sec. Let us assume that consciousness really is actually an illusion.

Our experience of our bodies, our sentience and its presence in our environment is a complex biological, electrical and chemical process. These processes are necessarily filtered and prioritised in order for us to efficiently react, intellectualise and behave in a way that makes sense in our environment.

I believe that nowadays, with the benefit of modern science and an understanding that the source ancient ‘thinking’ that led to dualism was relatively uninformed, we can dispense with the illusion of consciousness, or the mind, and shift our perspective away from these imagined ethereal forms.

Okay, so we get rid of the "name" of calling it consciousness, but the processes which describe consciousness still remain? The entire point of dualism is not just an "ancient" contention. There is a very current, modern and real problem (called the problem of consciousness) in that there is absolutely no way to prove an objective, physical consciousness exists (we simply cannot find it anywhere in the brain).

We cannot point to any one biological process and say, "there, that's consciousness". Instead, it's a combination of different biological processes from different areas all combining together to create what we call consciousness. It's an approximation of measure because there is no way of truly quantifying "consciousness".

So, dualism really points to something that is a current enigma, a mystery in our current sciences, not just the long-ago ancient times. There is simply no way to explain how consciousness arises from physical processes. It cannot be located, we do not know what it looks like, smells like, its shape or form. For all intents and purposes it is an illusion, but it's a very real illusion that permeates our very understanding of objective reality.

There are various processes that when combined together create what we refer to as "consciousness", if you get rid of the name it just makes it more difficult to talk about it.

But I sense in my poorly-worded musings, that you are referring to something deeper than merely getting rid of its title (as I had alluded to in the beginning). You are saying consciousness does not actually exist -in the abstract. You are saying that the biological processes do not culminate in a greater, non-physical and mysterious instantiation of reality.

If this is the case, then join the other scientists out there in finding where this material, physical consciousness exists and get your nobel prize!

The dualism referring to the "mind-body" problem is one of the greatest scientific mysteries to date. If you want to be a materialist then science is your best bet, but as I stated, a quantifiable consciousness will need to be discovered, somewhere, wherever it is (probably in the brain).

And if such a thing as a physical consciousness is discovered then it will create all kinds of marvelous new science for us to sink our teeth into.

All you have written about awareness is pretty interesting. I never seen consciousness as merely scientific thing. I think is one of the best proofs which shows the human's existence: I think, therefore I exist.
Descartes was clever figuring out this theory. Probably what is all around me is fake, but what I do not have any doubt is about my own existence thanks to consciousness. Sometimes it feels like the world around us is made about our interpretation but it is difficult to point what is real or fake.
It would be so interesting if one day science can discover the quantification of consciousness. But, first of all, we should ask the next question then:
Is consciousness quantifiable?