I have always thought that the smallest unit of conciousness is the feedback loop. In our nervous system we have trillions of possible feed back loops. Taken together they are our consciousness, not our conscious mind but our consciousness working in and with the universe and the bounty our planet planet provides.

The conscious mind however is the idiot son of consciousness. Perhaps best alluded to by Amos as "The problem is not that we have imaginary friends. What worries me is trhat we may be their imaginary friends.

And if they grow up, and concern themselves only with what is real (to them), we may thereby lose our ability to cross over. We'd be just sort of solid, meat-headed, dead-of-mind mechanisms shorn of life energy..." There is a solid truth in this satire. The conscious mind is a dullard fascinated by shiney objects.

An integrated consciousness has the ability to; not have one imaginary friend but to see what others see. For the blind man to see even if the sight is not composed of light. To sense time as a wave so that the near future and near past all overlap...
In short to have far more than 5 senses but at least 10.

A fully integrated consciousness may not only have an imaginary friend but may require it at the outset in the evolution of sharing the consciousness of others.

To not have one would be a deficit.

When an imaginary friend is imposed on a person such as a god figure or an ever watching authority, the manipulation of such an individual would be profound. It would be particularly controlling in people who are by nature have a linear one track mind. The outside influence would be at least as powerful as post hypnotic suggestions.

Since you see where I am going with this let me end with viva l'amis imaginarie.