sdi

I'm pretty slow, but I think I finally realized why consciousness is likened to light. Empedocles says,

We see Earth by Earth, Water by Water,
Aither by divine Aither, Fire by destructive Fire,
Love by Love, and Strife by baneful Strife.

This implies that Empedocles, like Plotinus, assumes that one has a body composed of each and one's experience is mediated by each body. But Fire is sharp and pierces more-or-less easily through the other roots, and so:

• When you have an air body, a water body, and an earth body, light passes through the first two and impacts on the third, which is why you experience having an earth body.

• When you only have an air body and a water body, light passes through the first and impacts on the second (having nothing further to impact upon), which is why you experience having a water body.

• When you only have an air body, light impacts on it (having nothing further to impact upon), which is why you experience having an air body.

That is, light travels as far from Fire as it can, reflecting or scattering itself on whatever is furthest away from it, and it is the reflection or scattering which finally returns to Fire itself that we finally experience.