Nice post. In my view, there are many modern thinkers - particularly scientists - who follow what I've dubbed "the cult of materialism". This is the first time I've heard of "physicalsim", but it seems quite similar to the philosophy of materialism. I call it a cult because all we humans ultimately have at the end of the day are the stories we tell ourselves - about who we are and our place in the universe, about what's real, about everything. Materialism has become the religion of science - though it seems this may be changing. I'm all for a skeptical and critical eye, but it's impossible to remove the observer from the observation (and, in my experience, the duality of the two is a mere illusion). At some point, one may come to the conclusion that Alan Watt's did: that you're not just a walking meat-sack. When that happens, the world of simple matter magically comes alive and transforms into something so much greater than any mere mechanical model can possibly account for.
RE: Is there more to consciousnesses than just physics?