This ^ has nothing to do with Ismene's scepticism. Ismene accepts that people report experiencing ego death the way i have defined it (ie thinking "i am dead" during a trip), but he claims that most (if not all) of these reports are lies that do not accurately describe what was actually experienced.
then you havent done your research, with just a few minutes of searching you can find hundreds of first-hand trip reports that describe the ego death phenomenon clearly, here are a few examples of typical ego death trip reports:
From a Salvia Divinorum trip report - "I realized that I was me, or that I had been and wasn't anymore and the first crystallized human thought came to me... I DIED. " (from here -
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=60646)
From a mushroom trip report - "What gave the convincing final touches to my 'departure' into the realms of death, was my boston terrier. He was behaving very strangely. He was whining and staring right at me the entire first half of the experience. Which confirmed the eerie feeling that my dog 'knew' I was 'dying'. This in turn formed a strong bond between me and my dog. He cuddled against me (whining)while I 'died'." (From here -
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=6409)
From an LSD trip report - " I was being welcomed into the circle. Insanity was a network. I didn’t want to be a part of but it was too late. Then I “realized” I wasn’t insane but “dead”" (from here -
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=43800)
And there are hundreds and hundreds of other examples of exactly the same thing, thinking that you have died during a psychedelic trip. So for you to claim that you've "never really heard of ego-death being described" like this, then it just shows your total lack of knowledge in this area. Have a look at those 3 very typical trip reports that i just cited, all of which clearly contain examples of people thinking they are dead, and all of which refer to the experience as 'ego death'
There is nothing to debate here, no ambiguity in definitions, ego death is very simple and straightforward to define and understand, it is the experience of mentally dying in the altered state of consciousness.
Panic attack and fear are crucial element of bad trip/ego death dynamics, ego doesnt want to die, so there is a tendency to recoil and try to fight or escape the situation.