Get those spongy plug deals, like 3 bucks at WalMart, a little tray with a dozen little spongy plugs with a little hole in the middle of the top of each one. Make sure the plug is damp and drop a seed down the hole. Tear off a little piece of spongy stuff and tuck it in over the hole that now contains the seed. Keep the spongy thing wet for 2-3 days and it should sprout up. The only seeds that HASN'T worked for, for me anyway, are those old unviable freebie seeds that seedboutique sends out when you buy real seeds.

Incidentally, sometimes it is okay to poke at them. I planted five Blue Mystics, and they had real probs throwing off their seed shells, so I got out a couple of needles and gave them some careful surgery, detaching the seed shells for them, and all five are doing fine now. But no, poking around with seeds isn't generally a good idea. Sometimes though, ya do what ya gotta do.