I'm writing it from a standpoint of a really lazy individual who was unable to maintain Vipassana practice longer than 1 day after the 10 days course. Yet, still.. I do believe after 1 year I continue to experience long term effects of that 10 days course.
When I was sitting there, hopelessly stuck, in an non correct even mediation position, cheating from time to time by opening my eyes or scratching an itchy place.. but determined not to ever look at the clock behind me.. I remember this dreamy like realisation that there's an entity inside me which is separate from my consciousness. It's as if there was a separate being, yet it was very familiar. I'd know it when I was angry, upset, jealous, resenting, self loathing. It was it, a plump of flesh and blood, but it was separate from my consciousness. This realisation led to one conclusion: everything may not be the way I think it is. There's a virus, a malware, that has access to the core functionality of the system, yet being completely undetectable itself. And very soon after the course I recognized that this stubborn feeling of "no, I won't comply!", this rebellious resistance I would often feel, and take pride in, is fabricated by this very virus. The very thought "I would never do this" or "I would never be like this", is a product of that thing. Perhaps this is what they call ego.
But because I have experienced it, rather than just believed in it, it became part of the reality for me. You can stop believing, but you can't unexperience what you've experienced. And because I've gained this concept of that something inside of me, I've natually started to question myself whenever I'd get this stubborn feeling. And from there the effects stem.
What are the effects? Well, for sure an immediate effect was that I did become more humble and it is easier for me to accept that I did something wrong. I am also more aware when I am getting upset and am able to sit through that feeling without doing something stupid. Often when I would feel rightfully angry I would dig into myself just to find out that it was not about what the other person did but about how it trigged a spiral of thoughs leading to a conclusion that I am unworthy of being alive. I also started to see that same virus playing in other people, and started to immediately label things they do or say under its influcence as unintentional. It does not mean I consider them not responsible for those things, but I do not let them influence my idea of whether they like me or not. I also have more understanding for how they must feel ashamed afterwards and I can now accept an apology in an authentic way.
All of this is cool, but there must be a dozen different things that would cause the same effect. The more subtle long effects are of my interest here. I'm sure I'd easily miss those if one of my hobbies wasn't neurotically observing myself and my thoughts. I do experience a very slow but steady shift in self perception. Many of those "I would never do this" things have dissolved and now I am totally able to imagine myself doing those things, without any drastic changes to my core beliefs. And it is worth to mention that one of those statements went like this "I would never judge how someone can be doing something", haha! There is a difference between saying "I would sure do bungee jumping" and actually teleporting to the platform in that very moment and let yout feet be attached to the bungee rope. That is the difference. Also, I get spontaneous insights into how my behaviour may look on the outside. I presume it did not happen before because it was blocked by "I would never be like.." statement, and now I often see how I actually exactly "am like" what I didn't want to be. I put less expectations on myself but it does not feel like giving up, it feels more like focusing.
The trickiest part about noticing those subtle changes is first that they happen gradually, and even more because the subject to them is my own self, so it is not trivial to notice a "change" there. It's like sitting on a big plane, sometimes you don't even feel it's moving. It is difficult compare how my "self" felt to me before and how it feels now, because I have only one "self" at a time. I only draw conclusions based on memories of my thougts, and also based on the fact that I do not remember having some realisations ever before that I have now.
I do feel like a different person - but I am not sure if this is Vipassana, or just the fact that some stage in my life has ended. I think I am calmer, actually my emotional swings have dissappeared (almost) completely after being present for 30 years. I feel as old as my age is, contrary to how I always felt 16 before. I really don't know to which degree Vipassana had an effect here. And I still am not sure if I would consider that changes as for better or for worse. I feel more adult. I have never wanted to be an adult.