What is the mind.

If we are not attached to anything other than through our consciousness and our consciences is a thought process of the mind which in its self does not physically exist other than we think it exists, are we not in a double blind since the existence we see and measure ourselves and others by has no substance other than what our conscience, which its self has no substance holds as fact.
What do we make of such a conundrum as we battle to differentiate the mind from the mechanism of the brain. As we discover the brains system of electrically stimulated chemical triggers which effect certain areas in the brain to produce preprogrammed reactions to these stimuli. Its a mechanism, it works in a way we can understand but what of the mind.
What is the mind, is it a part of us, does it lie outside of us, are we in charge of it or is it on another plane, a sort of a metaphysical extension to our earthly comprehension of who we believe we are ?
Answers on a postcard please.