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Gee, I'm going to try answering them myself -- in short form. Note that when I attempted to do so, I came up with a few more questions. I highlighted these in blue for those who want to add them to the original list.

When did this begin for you?
Technically, before I was born but if we were to examine the bulk of that experience it began late in 2000. Ego collapse came ten months later; a full-blown altered state came four months after that, and I was able to return to work about 14 months after my experience of "psychosis" had come to a natural conclusion. All in all, we're talking about an experience that spanned roughly 30 months. However, it's also worth noting that even when I returned to work it was only for a few days a month. I was still in an active stage of recovery even then and still consider myself to be recovering on some levels.

What sort of "symptoms" were you experiencing on a physical, emotional, mental, spiritual level?
In the first phase, (the ten month period) I was becoming increasingly unhappy, confused, frightened and felt constricted. I also felt enormously drawn to specific pieces of literature or music and began to withdraw from my normal activities -- my family noticed a personality change at this time and they didn't like it. During this time I also began to feel that somehow I was living out a myth and I didn't understand what it was all about.

The point of ego collapse was experienced as the equivalent of a death and was very disorienting and painful. The next four months were spent trying to understand and come to terms with this sense that somehow I had died and yet, managed to go on living. During the six weeks I spent in that altered state I felt as if I had fallen into a completely different world that was entirely real to me. In that world, I could still experience the things of this world such as pain or touch, but I also had no need for some of the things of this world such as food or sleep. Gods, demons, angels, helpers, bad guys, good guys -- they were all a part of that world. Meaning was everywhere.

What else was going on in your life at that time?
I've summed this up previously as "multiple losses as accompanied by trauma".

Was there any link between the events in your life and the symptoms you were having/experience you were having?
Absolutely. For example, each of the "characters" in my experience represented real life people or events that had played a role in my crisis. I wasn't aware of that at the time but I was after.

What was it like to go through that experience?
Who came up with this dumb question? lol. What I mean is, it's really difficult to try and explain that experience to someone who hasn't had a similar experience. Part of the difficulty is that it's a non-linear experience; the other difficulty is that it was multi-levelled -- I commented at one point that I was "open" on fifteen different levels and stuff was happening on all of them. But when I try to bring that experience down to this level of experience where other people are ... linear experience can't contain it.

Were you scared? sad? elated?
I was Everything.

Were there any spiritual or numinous aspects to your experience?
Yes. Very much so. These aspects had tremendous healing qualities and I think they were very necessary.

What was the response of those around you to your experience?
My immediate family was frightened, confused and angry. They didn't know what to do so they left me alone and hoped for the best.

Were you hospitalized? Medicated?
No.

Did you find this helpful/unhelpful? Why?
I consider myself fortunate in this respect. I don't think being hospitalized or medicated would have helped me.

What labels were applied to your experience, either by yourself or those around you?
Two labels were given to my experience by those who witnessed it: the first was "enlightened" the second was "schizophrenic".

How did you feel about those words?
I had no idea what those words meant or how I was supposed to "be" either of them.

What happened next? Were you able to quickly return to a state of productivity, e.g., returning to school or work?
There was a "honeymoon period" in the weeks immediately following my experience. This was then followed by a very difficult passage of many months that would probably be defined as "depression". For much of the next year, I just sat there. I think, actually, this was the worst phase for everyone involved.

How did you feel about your experience at this time? Confused? Ashamed? Concerned? Elated?
All of those things and then some. For me, personally, I felt the experience had a lot of positives but I was surrounded by people who could see only the negatives. To speak positively of my experience was akin to deriving pleasure from their pain. It was percieved as selfish and my entire experience seemed to be a demonstration of my weakness as a human being. For my part, I didn't feel I could possibly say anything in my defense so I just shut up, but I also felt very alone and isolated. At times, I wanted to return to that "other world" where I had felt understood.

Was there anything of value in your experience?
Yes. There was tremendous value in my experience.

<font color=blue>Do you think anything could have prevented your experience from happening?</font>
Possibly. My experience was marked by loss and trauma. I had lost my mother and my two best friends -- these people had been confidantes in my life. I also couldn't cry over the depth of my losses. So I couldn't talk to anyone and I couldn't cry, which also meant there was no emotional release for the feelings that were churning through me at the time. Instead, all that feeling that had nowhere to go just kept building and building and building inside of me. Then you add the trauma, while also pulling away the structure of established social roles.

What happened next was an implosion -- complete collapse of the personality structure. But yes, it's possible that if I hadn't lost those confidante relationships, and if I had been able to cry, and if all those people hadn't died, and if I hadn't felt that distorted sense of responsibility for their deaths, and if I hadn't lost that role I identified myself with, and if I hadn't been terrified, and if my family members hadn't been confused, frightened, overwhelmed and angry... perhaps then, I wouldn't have cracked up.

When did you begin to "recover"?
I always say that I began to recover when I allowed myself to enter that altered state of consciousness. That was the first thing I had to do in order to become well.

What factors were helpful to you at that time?
Kindness. Time. Space to work things out for myself. Non-coercion. As little stress as possible. In those days, even taking a shower was stressful so I stopped taking them. Doing a load of laundry was stressful, so I stopped doing it. Trying to organize myself to clean the kitchen was stressful so I stopped cleaning the kitchen.

<font color=blue>What role did hope play in your recovery?</font>
In the aftermath of that experience, the first statistics I came across in terms of recovery told me that only 10% ever recover. That was a very discouraging thought. As I continued to research what had happened to me and why, I came across other statistics -- 30%... 35%... 50%... 65%... 70%... 75%. I stopped looking at 85%.

Hope is essential to one's personal recovery. Before you can ever do anything, you have to be able to believe that it can be done. Far too many people don't get that. They are told that there is no cure which is the equivalent of telling them that they will never recover. We really need to watch our language in this area, all the more so because we might be speaking to a person who is already very open, very wounded -- they have no ego boundaries. As a result, our words are going to sink deep.


Can you identify any breakthrough points in your recovery?
On a more subtle level, the restabilization of sleep patterns. On a more obvious level, returning to work.

Where did your best forms of support come from -- family members? friends? peers? professionals?
Initially, from friends and professionals but I have to emphasize that any professional support did not come from face to face relationships, but rather, by reading the work of professionals such as John Weir Perry and Carl Jung. Later, support came from peers. In terms of my family, I think they have really tried to understand but they don't. However, they were immensely relieved to see me moving into and through various stages of recovery. My experience was a very difficult one for them.

What did you most need at that time? Did you get it?
What I most needed was for my family to forgive me for having fallen apart but they had to work through their own responses before they could begin to understand, accept and support my experience. In the aftermath, I also had to do a lot of work to restore my relationships with them. These days, it feels pretty good between us. I think we've all moved into recovery. They still don't like to talk about it though. It still brings up some painful and difficult feelings for them.

What role did medication or therapy play in your recovery?
Medication didn't; informal therapy did. As noted, that therapy came in the form of therapeutic relationships with friends and books.

What would you recommend to other people who are reaching for recovery?
To find other people who have recovered and learn everything you can about recovery from them. Also, to educate yourself. Don't rely on other people to provide you with your answers. What works for you may not work for someone else; what works for someone else may not work for you. Nonetheless, people who have recovered are in the place you want to be. You can learn much from them but that doesn't mean you have to adopt everything they do or say. Adapt their insights to who you are and what you need.

How do you feel about your experience now? Has it changed you?
I'm grateful for that experience. I think I've been to places that remarkably few human beings have ever gone. However, there are also times when I've wished that it had never happened. I had been happy before that experience; I had trust before that experience. Reclaiming these basic human elements that bring meaning to life has been a difficult process. Having seen other forms of reality I'm not so sure that I'll ever again be able to entirely trust this one.

What have you learned as a result of your experience?
Oh, I've learned a lot. A lot about people, a lot about myself, a lot about the world, the universe, and various levels of reality. More to the point, I'm not finished learning.

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There. Those are my (short) answers at this time. Your mileage may vary.