What Consciousness Is - A Field Definition from Collapse Harmonics Theory

Consciousness has long resisted precise definition, often reduced to emergent cognition, subjective report, or integrated information. Collapse Harmonics Theory reframes the question structurally: consciousness is not symbolic experience or behavioral complexity, but the lawful continuity of harmonic coherence across recursively gated identity fields within a substrate. In this model, identity is a recursive coherence lattice; consciousness is a phase-stable field condition; and collapse is the structural failure of recursive integrity. Collapse does not destroy consciousness—it reveals its boundaries. This paper introduces formal definitions, measurable instruments (CFSM, SCIT), post-collapse reorganization models, and ethical containment protocols (L.E.C.T.). It positions Collapse Harmonics as a lawful, field-governed ontology of consciousness applicable to biological, synthetic, and symbolic systems. Where legacy theories struggle to define when consciousness ends, Collapse Harmonics identifies collapse as the testable inflection point of coherence. Consciousness, in this framework, is not who we are—it is what holds the self together, until it fails.