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Regarding the consciousness there are many theories, most of them being based upon either the materialist and the idealist point of view.
Materialist theories in this regard say that consciousness is a product of matter, being matter fundamental. It is "electricity" or some other thing "generated" by the brain and once the brain stops working consciousness stops forever.
Idealism says that consciousness is fundamental and that the material world is either a fabrication (ie: "maya" in hinduism) or that there is no such thing as non-conscious "matter", that everything we see in this material world actually has varying degrees of consciousness. In Buddhist cosmology the higher state of consciousness you achieve the lighter, less dense body you are born in your next birth and the longer is your lifespan. So the chair you're sitting on, the walls of your room, that tree out of your window, that dog someone is walking out there and the person walking it are all in some way conscious and or consciousness themselves, at varying degrees.
In idealism the relationship between consciousness and the body and nervous system is like a TV set. The screen plays all the images and sound from the programs but if it doesn't create them. If the screen is broken the signal it plays from is still in the air and other TV sets can still pick it up, just not the broken one. The body is a "receiver" of consciousness, not its generator.
