"What is the relationship between story, the material world, and consciousness?"

From the perspective of SFL Theory, language construes experience as two domains of first-order meaning:

1. an outer material-relational domain,
2. an inner mental-verbal domain ('consciousness').

Processes of the mental-verbal domain 

1. project second-order meaning (metaphenomena, including stories),
2. range over — or are impinged on by — first-order meaning (phenomena) and second-order meaning (metaphenomena, including stories).

Extensions Of 'Sensing' In Folk And Scientific Models

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 601):

(Cognitive) Scientific Reconstrual Of The Mental Domain

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 597):

Ideational Construal Metaphorically Realising Interpersonal Enactment

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 584):

Blogger Comments:

Cf the 'uncertainty' argued by Hume and demonstrated by Quantum Physics.

The Grammar's Construal Of Consciousness As Meaning

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 580):

Blogger Comments:

 Omitted from this diagram, for simplicity, is Phenomenon as Agent or Range.