You are proof of it.
Tegmark advances an irrefutable analysis that the brain must function in accordance with physical laws and therefore is subject to testing and codifying. If there was a separate external "elan vital" at work, it would be detectable as being separate and not obeying the measurable physical laws, but by that fact becoming part of the physics and subject to modeling and codifying.
One thing seems clear that consciousness is not a random or a "spooky" excellence. All living organisms possess a measurable degree of consciousness, from sunflowers (heliotropism) to bacteria (quorum sensing) to slime mold (cellular memories), to bats (sonar), to the great apes and humans (Einstein). Each organism possessing a specific cellular (molecular) pattern that allows it to successfully cope with its environment, at least long enough to procreate.