@north,
Although the question itself is rather vague, the promise of enquiry, speculation and interrogation you have raised is fascinating, and one in which will often hang on perspectives and the drifting of one's own inquirying pursuits.
With that said, you could focus your question by going through this entry:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existence/, and if that hasn't sparked an interest, that is, if your question pertains more to notions we have of I, mind, identity, ego, self etc why not have a look at Hume's bundle theory, the Buddhist's conception of skandhas, Nagarjuna's critique of svabhāva, Heidegger's Das Man (sections 25-32 of B&T, not just some wiki entry), Freud's reality principle and ego, Searles & Dreyfus' essays on intentionality, and that kind of thing.