Research by Matt Killingsworth of Harvard University suggests that we are happiest when we are not actively seeking happiness, but are wrapt in the moment. Happiness is a mode of being, not a mode of seeking. A bit like Schrodinger’s cat (the act of observing changes the situation): the moment we say we are happy we are distancing and isolating ourselves from the experience by the very act of observing. If we are at one moment wrapt in musical ecstasy, awareness renders the experience no longer ecstatic. The bubble has burst.
Moral: don’t actively search around for happiness; just immerse yourself in the moment.
Five decades ago, a college professor told us green freshmen that “chasing happiness was as productive as a dog chasing its tail.” I think that is essentially Killingsworth’s point.
However, I think states of joy and ecstacy or just plain contentment exist WITH consciousness–or perhaps it’s truer to say that human experience doesn’t separate these states of being from some level of consciousness of them.
True, though, that “consciousness” may be THE most intractible subject in philosophy.