sentience

Noun

• the readiness to perceive sensations; elementary or undifferentiated consciousness
  • gave sentience to slugs and newts- Richard Eberhart
    

• the faculty through which the external world is apprehended
  • in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing
    

• state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness
  • the crash intruded on his awareness
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  sense , sensation , sentiency , sensory faculty , awareness