I understand our differences now. Brian, I advise you to not discuss matters like this in the future because your understanding is unripe, immature and naive. You are not seeking Liberation or Self-Realization, you are seeking self-actualization. Thats fine. The noosphere will hold many marvels for you and you don't necessarily need "ancient methods" to help you in this quest.
Since I do know you will keep debating these matters in the future though, let me clarify a couple of things. Self-Realization isn't about destroying the ego and retreating from the world. It involves purifying the ego until it stops identifing with the mind, senses and body. This is quite the opposite of annihilation. The ego is turned within, towards consciousness, and undergoes a transcendental self-sacrifice, or infinite expansion. One no longer identifies with some limited psycho-physical expression, but rather the universal substratum of Being, Consciousness and Bliss. True realization doesn't involve comming back to the world either. The "world" is now seen as an aspect of your own self, that is, at least when you look at it. And what is this act of "looking at the world"? None other than the world's instantaneous creation within your own Self. 
