But would you base your understanding of the origins of life on Earth on their sayings? Or go to them to talk to a dead person? Or use them to curse an enemy? Or go to them for medical treatment consisting of nothing more than incantations or fetishes.
I would take into consideration what they had to say about our origins - look at other myths & legends, see if there are any links between tales and come to a decision as to whether I believe there is something worth taking on board, based around my current understanding of reality and what I choose to believe. Of course it may be necessary to put on a pair of metaphorical-filtering lenses.
Dead people - hmm, nope.
Curse an enemy - depends if it works - erm, nope. Probably not.
Notice I exclude medicinal preparations.
Good. There is evidence to suggest that certain tribes have special knowledge in this area, they know which plants to go to. I am not qualified enough to say whether this is "hit or miss" and based around centuries of experimentation or intuitive insight - but having studied ancient Egypt (admittedly the occult side of their knowledge.... and no, I'm not an expert... yet) those ancients appeared to have had great insight into our human form without the medical sciences we take for granted today. My jury has been out for a while concerning how they obtained this knowledge, but I am willing to delve into the occult world for answers.
That suggests there is a right way to 'do it' and a wrong way to 'do it'. Why so dogmatic ;-) ?
There may well be a right way, or at least a series of determining factors.
And your cachcism doesn't explain why others (who believe just as strongly as you) have experiences contradictory to your own.
I'm not sure what a cachism is? I'm also not sure if you know what my experiences are, as I haven't really gone in to them in detail, nor do I wish to. As to the variety of people I have connected with who have had odd encounters, they range from ghostly encounters to UFO (in the sky) encounters. Some of these events being witnessed by several people at the same time. Some of these events having distinct effects on the environment (objects moving and temperature shifts etc).
Do a little research on cold reading and the psychomotor effect. People can believe anything if they want to.
Yes, I've looked at this and taken it into consideration in the past. There is truth there, but outside of this, there are still many, many unexplained phenomena and some of these experiences show a degree of intelligence and often to observers, manipulation or mischief.