Paul,
There is no afterlife, sorry. Argument for this is very simple and powerful.
Everything has its opposite. Opposites are there to define each other. There is no light without dark, there is no black color without white, there is no life without death. Afterlife assumes that you carry on after you die, you just shift shapes. But existence of life itself is defined by death, so you just can't continue living, existing forever. It has to end or it would not exist. Because there is existence there is non-existence.
On keeping your consciousness... Consciousness does not get improved over your life. There is nothing to improve. Consciousness just is. You can only align yourself with consciousness, be aware of it.
And IF, I stress if, underlining fabric of universe is consciousness, then it is single undefined entity (Tao?) that flows through everything. It does not need improvement, and you do not get to keep anything whatsoever after you die.
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