I'm a realist about qualia. Calling consciousness "illusory" does nothing because the concept of an illusion presupposes consciousness. It's precisely consciousness that can be confused about the identity of things. An illusion is real at some level too; it's just an act of mistaken identity.

All I'm arguing here is that the development of the self is sort of a tortured, convoluted path. The brain is like the leader who leads from behind, giving his generals or soldiers all the glory. The tools deem themselves the master, but the true tool-user is hidden from itself. And this hiddenness generates the illusions that crop up in religion. It's not that consciousness or the mind is illusory to the point of being nonexistent. It's just that the theistic image of the self as an immaterial spirit is a mistaken by-product of the convoluted production of the self that I'm talking about.