As to your points ElectricFetus (all quotes), in reverse order -
There is no such thing as a non-conscious observer. By any definition (and I've looked at a few) it requires a person.
Don't be a semantic nit-picker, any non-conscious interaction can change a quantum mechanical state, superpositions collapse by interaction with the rest of the universe, not simply because someone observed them, and slit experiment and photon interaction occur the same way regardless if anyone is directly observing them or not, we know this because those quantum mechanical effects leave and impression on the universal long after non-conscious interactions destroyed them. For example photon jumping in chlorophyll happens, has to happen for photosynthesis, no one observing it directly. Likewise what makes a photon or an electron choose a slit or break an interference pattern is not a conscious observe but interaction with the slit or a detection mechanism its self: if information is retained of which slit the photon or electron passed through. No conscious observer is need retain or know of this information, the detector it self does not need give that information to a conscious observer, just the unconscious detector is all that is needed.
You are confusing spiritual experience with the dogma of organised religion. But I concede that spiritual experience could be a function of the brain, but we'll have to wait for the evidence before jumping to conclusions.
Occurs razor, we need proof it is not a function of the physical world (the brain) not the other way around, we can assume spirituality once we can rule out the simpler physical answers.
As to your first comments, and in answer to you as well Read-Only, I have to admit I went too far. Obviously brain activity does not stop. It was provocative of me. However it cannot be denied that brain activity continues when we are asleep. As to whether it is possible to suppress activity when conscious, then there is only limited empirical evidence. It is a difficult experimental problem.
I would say that being able to alter brain activity will asleep or conscious is evidence for consciousness in the brain, not against. Alter states of consciousness are matched with alterations of brain activity, alternatively the consciousness of dreaming has been well documented with brain activity of sleep. What your suggesting is the consciousness changes brain activity and not that brain activity changes consciousness, all that you present can't prove one comes before the other. Consider meditation, attention focusing, hypnoses, all of these alter consciousness as well as change activity in the brain and rightly so if consciousness is activity in the brain! What you need is proof consciousness can exist independent of the brain, say for example an experiment in which people in near death experiences who have no EEG reading later are able to recount a series of numbers screamed at them while they were brain-dead.
On the other hand we know through the very extensive history of brain damage and brain disorders that consciousness can be altered and manipulated in predicable manner via neuroscience and in ever greater detail as neuroscience gets more advance. If consciousness exist independent of the brain how come we can alter consciousness by altering the brain?
What is clear is that consciousness can control the activity of different area of the brain. This is problematic when trying to identify where consciousness resides. More research is needed. Present theories identify the thalamus as being involved in promoting consciousness by cyclical stimulation of the cortex, but it is not suggested that it is the seat of consciousness.
This is rather philosophical but I believe the who Chinese room ins conscious, not merely any one part, consciousness is not simply there or not there, but has gradients, levels of awareness. Remove a person occipital lobs and they are not simply blind but can't even imagine sight anymore, they are no long conscious of vision beyond an academic knowledge of it. Likewise damage to a front lobe can utterly change a person personality, if there is some kind of soul does it too change with the brain damange, then what use is it?
And from way back'No evidence' is the sort of thing we hear from politicians. If a reconstruction of a brain does not exhibit consciousness it doesn't prove anything. It certainly doesn't show anything supernatural is going on. Supernatural just means it hasn't been explained yet. Magic is only magic until you know how it works. But your comments demonstrate that you are willing to go ahead with a certain line of enquiry despite the absence of evidence or proof. Great! That is true scientific enquiry. Nothing should be rejected until proven to be wrong.
A green tiger can pop on top of your from another reality at any moment... prove me wrong. Technically anything is possible, science though is about predicting what is probable and improbable. A soul beyond the physical workings of the brain is improbable by present scientific evidence, sure maybe it exist simply by the fact that it is impossible to prove something does not exist, but what value would the soul have if we could explain all that it supposedly imparts via the organization of analog spiking neural networks? Sure we are not there yet, but there is no reason to believe we won't be, unless you can prove this soul really exist and is necessary for consciousness.
I'll let Billy T answers stand for those last questions.