But isn't your first sentence there like saying if you just strip away the roof, the walls, the plumbing, and the floors, you'd see that your house doesn't actually exist? Sure, the ego is the mind, which is made of thoughts and is based in the brain. It's real enough, though, as shown by the placebo effect.

By the way, I'll be posting on Substack. I'm just going through the laborious process of setting up the homepage.