[zozbot234]

You need guidance for different reasons too. Vipassana meditation is serious business, and the early, 'easily'-reached stages that these first workshops tend to focus on (e.g. the 'Arising and Passing Away' stage, often mistaken by beginners as "enlightenment" itself) have a way of leaving you psychologically vulnerable to a sort of spiritual crisis, which is sometimes called the 'Dark Night of the Soul'. This problematic stage can and should be overcome by further developing in 'insight', but the whole thing is a lot easier and more comfortable if you know what to expect! AIUI, this is Ingram's main criticism (of sorts) of these workshops.