If there were to be a true theory of consciousness what would it look like, what sorts of things could it make possible, how could it be validated? Would it produce a complete mathematical schema of a conscious state? Would it show how such a state was brought about and how it dissolved? Or would it merely add qualia colourings to a description of mental states? Would it necessarily entail the solution to all conundrums of metaphysics without itself depending on metaphysical assumptions about time and being? Or could it only be validated internally, like a key that unlocked and unfolded all of experience into self-transparency? What of the boundaries, what of the prior states, what nature could it ascribe to them?