There is a stark but mediated distinction between consciousness and its contents and the real, but even under any metaphysical assumption if you far enough upstream in consciousness this distinction breaks down, so that what is first 'thought' becomes what is real, becomes the law of the real. If you follow this path, however, it is the term corresponding to consciousness, the usual set of meanings no longer applicable, that becomes completely unrecognisable. Imagine, say, that it is point of view that is the crystalising content which brings about appearance, then the consciousness within such appearance has nothing in common with the consciousness prior to appearance, and yet they are identical, according to a necessity itself prior to appearance. This 'speculation' makes nonsense of all speculation