We can never experiance the ‘‘I’’. The self is built up of an idea of the self. Ie; take a moment to yourself for a few seconds and ‘think’…the impression and idea that you get is just an idea of ‘‘you’’. It is like you act as a messenger to the real ‘‘you’’, whilst never being able to experiance ‘‘you’’.
Your takes?
Consider “you”, an ant, and a video camera, all looking at these words on the screen. All see the same thing, ie all received the same energies and signals from the screen. In the camera, the CCDs, after the ambient energy’s passage through the optics and electronics, are energised in a certain pattern, and thats it. There is nothing more to it. As for the ant, the signals are received and processed by its tiny brain, but it may be irrelevant to what it is programmed to do, perhaps to smell for food. Only the human, the “you” do such sensations cause you to see and read words, triggering of thoughts, images and feelings, and creating meaning. The difference between the ant and the camera is life; the difference between you and the ant is “you”, and this difference is real, and therefore “you” exist, although we may not know fully what it is.