"...at the risk of sounding a tad mystical and unlearned..."
I am happy I am not the only one that has taken that risk regarding this matter, then. AFAIK, we are indeed utterly nescient as to the make and model of consciousness, as it were. None of us can be learned much about it. To come to any understanding we must speculate, and thereby devise means of testing to ascertain whether our speculations have merit. With but thin knowledge, our speculations must necessarily be some wild, some sensible, that we will only know which is which after testing.
Regarding free will, I note we are of limited knowledge of ourselves, the world, and our future in particular. Whether or not God or gods know our fate, we do not. Therefore when we make a choice to turn left or right, to set forth or remain idle, we cannot know what the consequences may be. We must then have agency, must decide ourselves what act suits us, by such as we guess is best. I don't reckon God's knowledge of my actions, whether that is or isn't omniscient, much matters to me, whom must make the decisions, because I am neither God nor god. AFAICT, I have free will as a meatsicle, and that is all I am capable of as a meatsicle. I expect both determinism and free will are operant, but I am only capable of agency, not certainty.
It is great you not only experience such community, but know you do, as I have muddled such understanding with my attempts at reason, and my substantial lack of knowledge necessary to rational understanding. I have felt such community, but have been poorly able to understand what it was, or even to know it was, at times mistaking some fever or variety of lust or yearning for it. My new understanding takes on such significance to me because I have lately lived by my gut feeling that goodwill of good people was far more valuable than any possessions, particularly of financial assets. I feel as if I've pierced a veil, or passed through a clinal boundary of understanding of our human condition as a result, and reckon I better not fuck it up and do me and mine injury despite better understanding. Lucky guesses aren't often serial, while scientific understanding builds a scaffold of knowledge that enables wisdom.
I am fortunate to have been able to produce such a wall of text that yet is appreciable by such thoughtful men as yourself. I was loathe to post it as impenetrable bloviation would produce nothing of value. I did so because I see our present exigency, and that the proper course we must embark on must restore good society or leave innumerable dead and unimaginable suffering in our wake. That future I loathe far more than some well earned derision for excessive verbosity (which I am accustomed to anyway). Having recently experienced the good effects of goodwill, I sought to provide a foundation folks could base some confidence in the power of community to effect necessary reformation on.
Resonance is a good word for the affect of our contribution to consciousness.
Thanks!