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I have some experience with Vipassana and have been to a couple of ten day retreats. Without getting into long term spiritual goals (such as ending the cycle of reincarnation described above), I would like to talk about some practical effects of the practice.
You need to separate insight meditation from mindfulness meditation. Insight meditation is absolutely an inner withdrawal from sensate experiencing. In the Vipassana context, you heighten your examination of physical sensations of the body to the point that it dissolves your typical state of awareness of your surroundings. Even your awareness of your body dissolves to the point that 'The Watcher' is all that is left. Then a bunch of other things happen of which I'm probably not experienced enough to speak about into in detail, but you effectively separate your mind from your body. You also separate your awareness from your thoughts leading to realisations like 'you are not your thoughts' which can lead to a paradigm shift in what you think 'You' are and what existence is.
Mindfulness however is a quietening of the mind that allows for full sensate experience without distraction from thoughts (at least full sensation after you complete the meditation session). Using a focus (such as your breath) and stopping your normal cognitive behaviour of engaging with your thoughts eventually slows and stops the normal stream of thought consciousness. For someone who lives in their head (like many people on this board), this can offer a radically different experience. It can allow peace and freedom from thought provoked anxiety. As a practical tool, mindfulness meditation is an amazing way to rest your mind and offer respite from stress. In this state you become 'The Watcher', but still have normal sensation and awareness of your surroundings. For someone who has any sort of cognitive based anxiety, or otherwise needs respite from intrusive thoughts, I highly recommend learning mindfulness meditation as a tool that will increase your resilience to stress.
Edits: Trying to flesh things out a bit.
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