The question of what our Self, "I" or consciousness consists of can be addressed like this: What are thoughts? Do they consist of something, or are they just nothing? As we can now measure thought activity by placing electrodes on the head, it is becoming clear that thoughts are of an electrical nature. When thought activity is measurable it means that thoughts actually consist of something. That something is fine electrical waves or energy.

As thoughts are thus the same as fine electrical waves, which pass through the organism, any type of thinking will be identical to a form of "electrification" of the organism, which again is the same as an "over physical" feeding of force. (Martinus: "Funeral Rites", Chapter 43).

When thoughts are of an electrical nature they then obviously contain some type of force, as all types of electricity contain force. This means that when we think we electrify the organism. With our thought activity we feed the organism with force. That force is our life force.
The totality of our thoughts, on both conscious and unconscious levels, constitutes our consciousness. Our consciousness is the seat of our "I" or Self, the essence of who we are. Our consciousness cum Self is not restricted to the brain or to any other specific part of the physical body. Our consciousness and thoughts consist of a variation of energies and these energies form a field around the body.

"It is this, beyond the physical organism prominent electrical structure of the living being, that constitutes its consciousness, which in reality is only a common denomination for the thoughts and thought function, intelligence and talents, knowledge and will, moral and conduct, sympathies and antipathies of the being. And it is this whole combination of electrical and radiophonic forces that are the basis for how the physical organism is formed."
(Martinus: "God's Creation of Man", book no. 26).

The electrical structure of the consciousness is the seat of our intelligence, talents, knowledge, will, moral, sympathies and antipathies- indeed our whole personality. When all this information about the "I" can be stored in the electrical structure it is based on the fact that electromagnetic waves have an almost unlimited ability to store information. The "storage room" of our Self or "I" is the electromagnetic waves of our thoughts or consciousness, not the brain.
The energies of our thoughts / consciousness form an energy field around the physical body. We normally cannot see this energy field, but it is often referred to as the aura. The energy field can be visualized with a photographic technique developed on the basis of the Russian scientist Kirlian's discoveries.

The energies of the consciousness consist of electromagnetic radiation (by Martinus referred to as ray-formed matter) on a variety of subtle wavelengths. It is the storage ability of electromagnetic waves (an ability used in all radio, television and mobile transmission) that explains how our Self or consciousness can exist in something that is not physical. It is the energy field with its almost unlimited ability to store information that holds our "I", Self or consciousness, not the physical body.
It is on the basis of the information stored in the human energy field that the physical body is formed. The physical body is an instrument for the consciousness forces of the "I". Most manifestations in the physical body, be they illnesses, birthmarks, tumors or specific traits, have their origin in the thought structure of the being. The consciousness forces, consisting of ray-formed matter, are the software and the physical body is the hardware of the living being.
When we die the energy field is released from the physical body, but it does not cease to exist, because energy is indestructible. At death the physical body is cut off from its source of energy (hence the flat line on the electrocardiograph), but the energy does not cease to exist in exactly the same way as the radio waves still exists when we turn the radio off. The energy field still exists after the separation from the physical body and it holds not only all the information about our individual "I", but it also holds the force that gives life to the body. We are exactly as alive without our physical body as we are with it.

"Then what is the living being? The living being represents a different type of matter than the purely physical. It exists in a ray-formed organism, in vibrations and wavelengths, which cannot be observed with physical senses. It is for this reason that the ordinary, earthly human does not yet know his own higher, spiritual nature. He believes that his physical body is identical to his self. He therefore thinks that his life depends on his physical body. He still does not know that his real bodies, his cosmic structure, are of an electrical nature and are only connected with the physical body via the brain and nervous system, and that they, as a result of this, always survive the death of the physical body."
(Martinus: "What does death mean?", Kosmos 2/1990).

The living being is not the physical body, but the energy body "behind" the physical body. The energy body can also be referred to as the spirit. The energy body / spirit holds both consciousness and life force.
The Self, the real "I", always survives the death of the physical body. It is when the forces of the consciousness / spirit leave the body that this body becomes dead. But the forces still exist. Our "I" is immortal. Martinus explains that there is nothing final about death - we are immortal beings on a never-ending journey through physical and spiritual realms of existence. The universe is teeming with life, and death is only an imagined and not a real contrast to life.

If we say that the energy field of our consciousness is identical to what has traditionally been referred to as the soul we can explain this religious concept in a both logical and tangible way.

"And through our consciousness, which in reality is the same as our "soul", we experience life".
(Martinus: "Low intellectuality and high intellectuality", book no. 19).