Is differentiation of mind (the conscious) from groupmind (the subconscious), from supermind (spontaneous but temporary heightened awareness), from overmind (the universal, “god” conscious) a futile, perhaps Sisyphean, endeavor?

Answering this question may require "conquering" mankind’s two foremost remaining frontiers, space and the brain. Former foremost thinker on the mind, Terrance McKenna, in separate instances answered in both the affirmative and the negative.

In “Archaic Revival” McKenna tells us that psychedelic mushrooms enable one to channel a stream of consciousness separate from that which one would consider one’s own. He called this mind the “other” mind and said that at times its message jibed with that of what some would consider to be the overmind.

Meanwhile in an interview McKenna says, “Those aren’t your thoughts. Those are those thoughts of the Gaian matrix as these (universal imperative) resonances mesh and reflect and work their way against each other.”

With that statement it could be concluded that McKenna is saying simply that your thoughts are not your own but are rivulets flowing from a fountainhead of consciousness. He refers to that fountainhead as the Gaian matrix. And perhaps it would be safe to assume that if your thoughts flow from Gaia (Mother Earth), her thoughts in turn flow from the center of the solar system, the Sun, which in turn is a facet of thought flowing from the center of the universe, a black hole or stargate, on and on, ad infinitum.

The question then of course arises as to what role you personally play in the shaping and furthering of those thoughts. Indeed your thoughts seem to “come” to you, as if arising out of nothing, out of the void. But then there is a conscious effort to shape those thoughts, to mold them, to put them to use, and to synthesize them with other, previous, thoughts. This synthesis gives rise to action which is then in turn perceived by other thinkers who then react to your actions by shaping their thoughts accordingly.

Through this process, something of a feedback loop becomes apparent. And since you actively shaped the thoughts that came to you, then can you safely differentiate your mind from the mind that is perhaps the origin of the thoughts, the Gaian matrix or, perhaps, the overmind?

Sisyphus pushes the rock up the hill.