these questions seem really difficult to respond to in a messageboard context--first because they entail more than one analytic direction, second because these directions are heavily sedminented--that is, they have been written over/about extensively.
i would suggest having a look at a book called "the embodied self" by franseco varela et al. it addresses the bio-cognitive questions (what is consciousness) in an interesting manner (biological autonomy) and tries to link this to the ideology of the I" or self. maybe work your way backward from there.
or in a shorthand manner, have a look at this (despite the technical nature of the text):
http://web.ccr.jussieu.fr/varela/hum.../articles.html
the second of them, on the neurophenomenology of time consciouss, is really interesting.