I think an interesting concept is: consciousness without out an ego(a sense of self). Is this a contdiction in terms? Can we be aware of events that we see without being aware that we are seeing them? Maybe not in states of normal consciousness...but maybe in dreams, on drugs or in a psychotic state. In the later two examples we could well be percieving actual 'reality'. Maybe the only true way to experience things objectivly is to transcend the ego.