I also don't see that, that wich undelies everything nessecarily has to be something like universal counsciousness.
Counsciousness, on the other hand, has to be somehow a reflection of that in wich it's rooted. That wich underlies everything also underlies counsciousess.
I think counsciousness as such is in it's form not that different from the other things brought forth by nature. It's a variation on the elementary structures present throughout the universe. So from our human perspective, the world looks like it's human, because the things of wich our counsciousness is a variation, apear everywhere and we are mostly unable to think 'outside' ourselves. While we are a variation on a universal theme, it looks like the universe is a variation of us.
On the other hand it can be a question if counsciousness is more then just a shape of things and if maybe the energy itself, molded to this structure is a form of counsciousness in itself. I think this is what michael sharp means, though i am not him, so i might be wrong. If this would be the case this universal counsciousness would be a counsciousness though, with yet no meaning attached to it. It would be something like clay that's not yet shaped into a form of anything, paint not yet present in a painting.
This is a very intruiging view similar to that of philosophers such as spinoza, augustine and thomas from aquino. Given the revolutions in modern particle physics, such views gain an entirely new perspective, a new depth. But despite al of this, the phenomenon of counsciousness remains a mystery to us. The first step towards embracing this view would be establishing if single cell mechanisms or plants have something that could fit the description of the word counsciousness.