Anecdotal Evidence

[robvalue]

If you can't repeat something, you can only falsify it in theory (in the abstract) and not in practice.

Right, you look for corroboration. So anecdotes are only an indicator. I don't know what more you want them to be. No one is dismissing them entirely. They can be used as a starting point for further investigation. But if there is nothing more to investigate, then it's tough noogies really. You either believe it, or you don't, and that's up to each individual. And again, no one is trying to tell people not to believe stuff. We could question the consistency of your methods, but we couldn't prevent you believing things even if we wanted to.