The intermediating self is not merely a formal term whose absent presence or present absence, like a pictorial vanishing point, enables the illusion of a world independent of consciousness to continue. Perhaps that is its ideal role, but functionally it consumes so much energy and has such a strong distorting effect on the global appearance, that something else must be going on as well. If it is said that the 'ego' fears being confronted with its own non-existence, this explains nothing since the having of such a fear is a back-handed way of asserting its existence in spite of all. How is such a sleight possible? If consciousness were a space it would be a knot in that space.