Looking at life phenomenologically and epistemically completely neutrally, at least two things stand out: 1. life moves independently and 2. it moves 'sensibly', in such a way that its survival is secured. It differs fundamentally from everything inanimate, which does not move independently, although life consists only of inanimate building blocks. The secret lies in the way these inanimate building blocks interact, and therefore in their structure. So you have to look for both the 'drive' and a 'control module'. The 'drive' is based on the fact that a reaction cycle has formed from molecules, which has maintained itself through the supply of energy and has at some point 'encapsulated' itself from its environment. This was the first cell in the world and with it a completely new organizing principle of matter. The control principle can be described in such a way that a set of variables approaches a certain value over time (non-linearly and asymptotically) and then remains close to this value, i.e. this attractor, over the course of time. An attractor appears as a clearly recognizable structure. Conversely, this means that the movement of the overall structure is oriented towards this attractor in the sense that physical and chemical processes are influenced by this attractor. The attractor thus determines the way in which the (biological) system moves. What was the chemical attractor in the chemical development phase of life becomes the biological attractor in the biological phase of evolution. And this has the same property as the overall structure: self-governing. So there is a control system in the system. Biological systems thus develop asymmetrically and non-linearly. Spatiotemporally, the biological attractor is getting 'bigger' and more stable. He agglomerates more and more energy, transforms it and thus increases his concentration, better: his structural density. One can also say that the overall system moves in the direction in which there are values (valences) that are compatible with the properties (valences) of the attractor. So the whole system becomes sensitive according to the valences of the attractor. One can now look for this particular structure density on all stages of development of life and name it as a separate system within the system. How does the structure density arise viewed from the inside? A constant agglomeration of energy would mean purely quantitative growth. But we see a steady increase in sophistication. This means quantity must be transformed into differentiation. How does this happen? By reducing quantity. This can best be imagined as a Fourier transformation, in which overlapping structures are reduced and differentiated. Density means differentiation. Graph-theoretically speaking, nodes and edges are constantly increasing through energy supply, superimposition and reduction and thus allow an ever finer (behavioral) adaptation to the environment. At the same time, the valences are becoming more and more delicate. The human brain can be assumed to be the most differentiated system (in the universe). It is therefore nothing other than the provisional result of this process of differentiation between system and attractor. This system level also behaves according to the rules mentioned. That is, the control system called the brain agglomerates based on valence, reduces and further differentiates. On this basis, internal relationships can be described in a constitutive and regulative manner, as can the relationship between organism and environment. In the internal relationships, a structural gradient arises due to different structural densities within a level, but also between the levels, which exerts precisely this causal effect, which was already mentioned above as an attractor. The regulatory effect on lower structural densities causes a change there, which in turn has a constitutive effect on the higher densities (feedback loops). Internal as well as external relationships are ideal representations, which in reality are usually more or less disturbed. Disturbances (increase in entropy) are beneficial as long as they move within the system limits of the organism, otherwise they may drive the system into a new (pathological) limit cycle. Perturbations within the system boundaries further drive the system by 'forcing' it to reduce entropy by increasing structure density. So consciousness is a function of the brain and is fed by both the body and the environment. It arises in those places in the brain where that structural density is evident. I call this structure density metastructure. In it, structural features are summarized in a coarse-grained manner. There, the ability of the organism to orient itself culminates in ever more abstract forms. What we call introspection orw. denoting self-reflection is ultimately an attractor within the attractor. There, at the same time, orientation performance is synchronized with social meanings, coupled and evaluated based on valence.