I was really hoping to see descriptions of some experiments being done to test this theory. What is a situation where a photon would act differently if it has consciousness than if it is merely an unthinking artifact of physical laws? Or a berry, or a fish, or a small plastic statue of a dragon, or a bong?

Of course there may also be the problem that experiments that confirm this theory can very quickly lead you down a path to publishing a paper whose tl,dr is "I think I just confirmed that 'magic' works" and that is very definitely not a route to tenure and/or further funding; Bengston's "The Energy Cure" is a pretty good example of what happens when you start doing that.