Everything we know and can think of, is actually just a construct of our imaginations. Consciousness is the underlying nature of all existence, not an effect of it.
 
I used to be an atheist and materialist (last 15 years), as I required direct proof that God existed. However, in the last year another question of equal magnitude came up to me. Are other human beings conscious? Does consciousness even exist? I have no evidence aside from my belief itself that any other being is conscious and experiencing. Except for the fact that I myself am experiencing, I would also have no evidence that even myself is conscious.
 
I have since come to believe that consciousness is the basis of all reality, and that it is identical or analagous to whatever god is.
 
It is the same question, in actuality - is existence under the control of a personal being, or is it mechanical forces acting in amazing and coordinated evolving patterns? Is a man under the control of a personal consciousness, or is he governed by mechanical forces and patterns? If I require the standard of proof, then I can no more say that any being is conscious than I can say there is a god.  
 
Amazingly, quantum physics in the last 100 years have confirmed that existence is dependent on its own observation (by consciousness). This blew my mind, and i hope it will yours as well.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8AXmJdmzfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Y4VKhKSxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSnXfd9bWsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiKdFLpuT98
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Gb9xNeSQ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PJp5-d2ljo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap-JvozEkC4
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvM_YAwX4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG9FO7JGWq4
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s42mrdhKwRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D98KWJ-1geI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7LlTfNKVtU
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dpRPTwsKJs
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oePY_MH3mqk

It's more than that, Barbarian. Did you watch the videos? My commentary was mostly my experience and an introduction to the idea, not the evidence for the idea itself.
 
Yes, it is more or less boiled down to Descartes depending on how you look at it, but most people take Descartes meaning in a shallow way. Great truths like his can often be easily overlooked because they reflect shallow truths as well.
 
The real question is: When you think, when your mind is active, what/who is it that is noticing that you are thinking? That is the real you. Your thoughts are no more you than your hand is. They are a part of your body. The only thing which is you is your observer, your consciousness.  
 
We can look into a mind all we want, and we can't find the consciousness, the "you-ness". We can dissect each thought, each idea, break down where it came from, and what electro-chemical processes made it - but we cannot find the observer of those thoughts. We cannot find the experiencer of those thoughts.
 
It's also just like the question of heaven I asked my Grandma when I was young. I asked her if she could be happy in heaven knowing that as an Atheist I would be in hell. She said of course, for in heaven every tear is wiped away. So the being that ends up in heaven is most definitely not the thinking being that we see on earth. When the body fades away, the observer themselves goes to heaven, not the thinker. The soul is the observer, not the part of you that thinks, but the part of you who sees the thinking happen.
 
Your ego wants you to identify yourself with your thought, or even your body. But this is not who you are. The only part of you which is you is the observer.
 
I think therefore I is. He is not affirming that he exists, and if he was, just thinking wouldn't be good enough evidence for that, as computers think. He is affirming that his I-ness exists. His observer exists. He is saying he has a soul, because he can "see" himself think. Descartes didn't push this any further, because of the threat of the Catholic church. Instead he decided to leave matters of the mind and soul to the church and matters of the external world he tackled.

Gherkle, youre like a crappity smacking ghost passing from one empty idea into another. Let me cast a little light on your "endeavours"...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKkBEOOzIjk&feature=related

it gets a bit murky doesn't it?
 
omg, of course its murky. This whole discussion is. You want truth? We are just high order animals, a handful of neurons above a goat or a pig. Put THAT in your matrix and dissect it.

http://www.arcamax.com/newspics/12/1237/123740.gif

I am sleeping, you are in my dream. When I wake up, you will all disappear. However, not knowing what my waking reality is, I do not wish to wake up.  
So keep the noise down, kids!

razorclaw: (dials 9-1-1)
Operator: 911, what is your emergency?
razorclaw:  Please send an ambulance with restraints to the home of a "BoltsRaysPats" somewhere in America.
Operator: Oh no, not again....

Teaching given by the Buddha  
 
Do not go by revelation;
Do not go by tradition;  
Do not go by hearsay;  
Do not go on the authority of sacred texts;  
Do not go on the grounds of pure logic;  
Do not go by a view that seems rational;  
Do not go by reflecting on mere appearances;  
Do not go along with a considered view because you agree with it;  
Do not go along on the grounds that the person is competent;  
Do not go along because [thinking] 'this is our teacher'.
when you yourselves know: 'These things are unwholesome, these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; and when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill, abandon them...
when you know for yourselves: These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness, having undertaken them, abide in them.