@Dr Dredd and @crisw yes, I have read your links.
I was holding off on saying this, but now I’m going to. I’ve used Bach Flower reliably on my animals for several years, with good results. I cannot say the same for the thousands of dollars I’ve spent for a number of other medications and procedures performed by medical doctors that I have paid for hoping they would work, but did not.
Another example: I have used Oscillococcinum (for flu) for close to 17 years. I have seen it work on a fairly large number of people consistently through the years, time in and time out. None of our family members receives the flu shot any more because we don’t need it (and we are not unusually healthy). I have a son in law (medically and scientifically trained) who was very skeptical about Oscillo. Out of desperation he used it one day. He says “I know there’s no ‘scientific’ reason for it to work, but it sure does!” and now he’s a convert and tells others about it as well.
So these remedies “don’t work”. OK, I’ve got that. If it is the placebo effect that makes it works (or whatever other mechanism it is that’s causing it to work for me and my friends) as you say, that’s pretty durned good results in my book. I’m willing to buy any product that works by “placebo effect” with that kind of track record!
What puzzles me is that you attack remedies like this (and on other threads other alternative methods) with an almost religious zeal, and the energy you apply to your arguments is astounding. Could there be an agenda behind this? Possibly, but maybe it’s just my imagination.