Eh, I'll bite. I'm not sure there are any good answers to be had here, and even less sure that I have them, so take it for what it's worth.
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Originally Posted by zen_tom
Behind the eyes, a thing lurks, looking through the eyes, listening through the ears, sensing the world around it, experiencing it, and able to shape it through control of its limbs and actions. A thing that thinks, plans and considers.
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This isn't quite right. There is no "I" hiding inside our bodies. We ARE our bodies. So the eyes are just parts of the lurking thing. (Thought: I lurk, therefore I am?)
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Something with an identity, a self-aware thing. Me. What is it? What is this thing that thinks, "I" or "Me"? Trapped inside this shell, with no recollection of ever having been outside of it, and every evening it voluntarily submits itself to non-existence for 6-8 hours.
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This 'thing' is me. Or you, depending on which 'thing' we're talking about. I'm not sure it's possible to speak of the "I" in some sort of abstract sense; perhaps there is no "I", there's just me.
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I may be able to comfort myself with "I think therefore I am", but I can't even begin to wonder what it is 'I' is supposed to mean, or even whether it is real or not,
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Of course you are real; it's either that or you're a figment of my imagination, and in that case, there are an awful lot of people who are sharing this hallucination. "I", when uttered by you, just means you. I think it's probably very easy to make this a lot more complicated than it really is.