Why do we feel and reflect on ourselves?

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I don't browse /x/ much, and this is my first time posting. But I have experienced some things in my life that has made me change my opinion about the paranormal.
A couple of isolated events and some related ones has made me go from denying any kind of paranormal stories or feelings, to actually having somewhat of an open mind towards the unknown. If anyone wants to hear to read a greentext or two, I'll be posting them in this thread later.

But anyways, my question to you x is; why do we feel? Why are we able to reflect upon ourselves? As far as I understand this is what parts us from all other living things on this planet. Most living things are able to feel in the sense of pain, hunger, and so on. If you punch a hole in your skin with a needle, the tip of the needle hits your nerves, which sends a signal to your brain, and the brain sends a signal back to the affected area that "this shit hurts, stop doing it"
Feelings like pain is caused by something that is physically done to your body. But why are we able to feel compassion, love, hatred? Why are we able to reflect upon ourselves, like our existence, or something as simple as how we act as a person. We are organic beings, and if you cut a deep enough hole we lose too much blood and the body stops working. Still it feels like there has to be something more than just blood, flesh and nerves etc. that makes us able to do more than just "exist".

I am not a very religious person, and don't have much affection for any religion. I just like playing with the thought that theres something else than what you can find inside the body of a human during an autopsy that powers us.

Thank you for reading my wall of text, if you made it all the way down here.