Indeed, I'm quite certain that when linguistic thought breaks down, such as in mystical experience, so does self-awareness.

Not necessarily... at least, assuming I'm interpreting "linguistic" in the same way as you are. A sexual fantasy, for example, can frequently involve pure imagination without verbalised thoughts at all, but the distinction into "myself" and "the other person" is utterly fundamental to it. (I'm assuming that 'linguistic' means 'using language' - if it has some other more technical meaning in philosophy, I'm afraid I don't know about it.)