The statistically significant homeopathy experience was administering it to my cat who had five bouts of cystitis, each one only being ‘cured’ whilst she was on antibiotics. As soon as the course of treatment ended, she promptly got ill again. The vet then suggested vitamin C to acidify her urine. At the health food shop where I mentioned it when buying the vitamin C, the knowledgeable owner said I should try homeopathic treatment, which I did with instant success and no recurring cystitis for a number of years. On any subsequent occasion when she got it, the homeopathic treatment always worked with no immediate recurring bouts as happened with the antibiotics. No placebo effect there. Even double blind studies are only statistics, but wrapped in white coats with letters behind names. Oh, and egos. I am not knocking science, but what I am trying to say is that its not that clear cut, which is what I meant by “the only certainty is that there is no certainty”. My personal explanation (though I am by no means fixed on it) for homeopathy is that it works in a similar way to vaccination, taking a tiny amount of an offending material/inactivated pathogen to kick start the immune system.

What is woo woo today may one day find a scientific explanation or – I keep an open mind – something that would have us rewrite the physics books (I’m sure they have already been more than once).

I make no assertions that the crop circles are made to bring about martial law, but that it is a possible explanation. It could equally be a high level prank, but no doubt by those who have some very sophisticated equipment at their disposal. To me this makes a lot more sense (for the very complex configurations) than Doug and Dave or aliens. But ultimately, until we have evidence, we are guessing. A guess may be only a little above not knowing, but it opens a line of enquiery which may ultimately lead to an answer.

In response to Judy’s email, I was with her until about half way through (I have seen homeopathy work on my young children exceptionally well), but then she lost me. Sorry. Crop circles as the harbinger for the New World Order takeover? Sorry, that’s just ridiculous, for so many reasons that I would spend the next four hours with my crap typing trying to get them all down. Her point that just because we haven’t created the tools to measure something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist is very valid.

How does one create a machine to prove/disprove the provenance of a crop formation when we still don’t understand the process that creates it? it’s a tricky one.

We seem to be getting somewhere in the bigger discussion. So now some circles may be real. Aha. I am intrigued by your sentence “as you must understand by now, the whole point is that the same rigorous method of exploration- looking for explanations- should be used for all phenomena”.

Absolutely, and I am with you that we need to apply these tools and insights where possible. Yet it would appear, to apply your own argument, in the original WooWoo piece, that so far, in this discussion in relation to crop circles, that I am the only one who has presented “rigorous scientific testing and verifiable, refutable methods”.

I am so far the only person in this dialogue who has cited any peer reviewed papers, any genuine quantitative research, any actual scientific insights on the matter. In terms of the original parameters you set out, it would rather appear to be crop circles 1, Graham 0.