Since we don’t ‘know’ could it be that ‘me’ is looking for a way to fool itself that it is not real?

I’m not sure what you mean by not knowing. There clearly is only one thing with no second and in the appearance of that one thing with no second, there is clearly no self that is in control of anything. What seems to be happening is totally impersonal and whole. It’s the peace that surpasses all understanding. Something that thinks it’s separate (the self) cannot comprehend wholeness.

I guess the self could try to fool itself that it’s not real, but it seems that the function of the self is to continually reify itself. When it lets go, all that’s left is everything. It wasn’t really there and it wasn’t necessary. But it will do anything to cling on and convince itself that it’s real. It’s a very precarious task since there is zero evidence for it, when one honestly takes a look.

It appears to me, observing the world around me, that self is separate from the body. I am confined to a body, a body that takes me where I want to go (and sometimes where I don’t want to go). I spend lots of time taking care of my body.

This is a description of the me. It thinks it’s centered in the body, but somehow not the body. It’s this imaginary extra thing that claims everything that’s happening as being about and for it. It is the felt-sense of separation. When it is seen for what it is then it is revealed that there is absolutely no separation whatsoever. What is left is whole and perfect and complete. All that is left is God.