Dear Friend,
I appreciated the (mental) modesty of your approach when facing a subject that, for the common reasons, is as steep as a “mirror”.
Therefore I'd say to carry on with the distinction between the many mental elements, that you have already guessed, by facing the differences (of form and substance) between the methods of the personal mind (inferior ego or impermanent self: the physical reason linked to the sensorial side of the animal body), that is the only oscillating element, and those of the superior Ego, that works as an “inner bridge” with the other side of the “conscious fabric” called soul (super-conscious), completely alien to the attributes (and minimum speculative methods) of the physical nature.
Actually, pure Reason and Gnosis (see Illumination) are real and reachable states of consciousness and it is true that most people have reached them. Although, as it happens with Christ's Nativity, the aspect that strikes us the most is the form of the esoterical metaphor. This is highlighted by the lesser mysterial traditions that can't attain the peaks. 
