I think the interpretation is up for debate. Classic science doesn't like the word "consciousness" because it's not something tangible but it is an undeniable part of our experience and sooner or later we'll have to agree on how it fits in our perceived physical reality. Here's how a couple physicists interpreted it. Nobel Prize Winner physicist Eugene Wigner said: The very study of the external world led to the conclusion that the content of the consciousness is an ultimate reality." Another physicist's word, Werner Heisenberg:"When the province of physical theory was extended to encompass microscopic phenomena, through the creation of quantum mechanics, the concept of consciousness came to the fore again: it was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.
"Natural science does not simply describe and explain nature; it is a part of the interplay between nature and ourselves; it describes nature as exposed to our method of questioning. This was a possibility of which Descartes could not have thought, but it makes the sharp separation between the world and the I impossible."