Consciousness as Basis Selection: From Internal Mode Occupations to a Coupling-Selected PVM

This paper addresses the preferred-basis problem in quantum measurement: not why one outcome occurs, but what determines the projective alternatives to which Born’s rule is applied. The proposed mechanism is a mode-conditioned chain in which an internal setting changes mode occupations, a unique dominant mode selects a conditional branch, and the branch’s system-side coupling determines a rank-1 or block PVM. Theorem 9.A derives the mode-conditioned reduced-channel decomposition, Theorem 9.B establishes the coupling-selected PVM under commuting-support conditions, and Corollary 9.C bounds finite-time deviation from dephasing in that PVM. Selector concentration provides an additional bound on the dominant-occupation contribution. For a Fröhlich-type biological candidate, P1a first identifies and freezes a qualified branch architecture, while P1b prospectively tests whether controlled internal-state changes produce an inequivalent operational basis switch. Born’s rule is unchanged, and all physical validation tests remain prospective.