During a psychedelic experience went through a death rebirth experience. First died by drowning, then by fire. Remember counting back from 10 to 0, at which point total sensory depravation was experienced. There was no vision, sound, feeling, or any other sense. There did remain a sense of me.

Have no idea how long was spent in that experience. Finally, it occurred to me,"Well, I'm still here, what else is?" At which point beginning at the top of my visual field the world came back into view.

It may be thought of as a thought experiment. From seemingly nothing, something came into existence via thought.

As for the absence of the self, since the Big Bang, started as a single entity, everything that has evolved since is merely a minor subdivision and part of the whole. A separate self is not imaginable, a self united and a part of the whole is.