roger: what would you call the experience that killo and i are talking about?
Ego life.
I think the experience you described is just a particular facet of the ego, its reaction to impending annihilation.
I think the issue here is mostly just semantics-- most people say they are "afraid of death", yet they really mean they're afraid of the small portion of life directly preceeding death. So in reality they're actually afraid of life.
A similar concept applies here. I think what you experienced is not "ego death" but instead the process the ego undergoes while dying. You could call it something like "severe ego diminishment"-- but again, all semantical.
The point I'm trying to make is, that once the ego actually "dies" there isn't a conceptualizing machine left in there anymore to realize anything. There aren't any thoughts, conceptualizations, realizations, revelations, or any of that-- its just completely bare, unprocessed sensory input. For a short time, you become an empty vessel.
That's what I consider ego death. Its not easy to achieve, extremely hard to recall, and the road there is absolutely terrifying. I think most people, when they say they've experienced ego death, have really only experienced some of the ego-dying process.
Again, though-- all semantics. I don't find it very useful to try to label these experienes, every person's is unique and they don't really fit into arbitrarily defined categories.