Mind from the Inside

[Angrboda]

Would anyone else accept the thesis that meditators, spiritualists, etc. who are sincere in following set rules, making observations, drawing and testing hypotheses about things they might be able to get the mind to do, are actually engaged in a "subjective science" of mind?  Or is it just woo?

It's mostly woo because they do not operate from a true theory of mind, but rather a culturally derived folk psychology. They are learning concrete skills that they can do with their brain, but their insight into just what is happening when they do is complete fiction. It's based on an interpretation of how the mind works and those interpretations are invariably wrong. Being able to train your brain to do something does not automatically imbue you with knowledge about that skill. Knowing how is one type of knowing, that is largely unconscious, and knowing that (or about) is a completely different type of knowing. Meditators may have the first, but that doesn't give them the second.