Originally Posted by
Ctharlhie
I've never had an experience of 'fake' lucidity, it's my belief that fake lucidity arises from a realisation one is dreaming, but only possessing low levels of waking cognition/operative memory, etc. That being said I'm open to debate on that point. However, by your line of reasoning techniques such as the use of auto-suggestion and post-hypnotic suggestion would have a much higher than average incidence of 'fake lucidity' and I don't believe that is the case.
I have had dreams in which I have lain down to WILD, reached sleep paralysis, transitioned and had a fully lucid dream believing I had successfully WILDed, only to realise that I had not in fact WILDed. But the lucid dreams resulting from those 'dream WILDs' were no less lucid than any of my other lucid dreams, in fact my first lucid flying dream came from a 'fake' WILD.
A placebo isn't a real 'thing' it's a handy way of describing a reaction of the brain to pre-suggestion (this is a pill, I will feel better), many lucidity techniques rely on this very mechanic ('when I recognise a dream I will realise I'm dreaming and become lucid', 'I am a natural lucid dreamer', 'I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming', etc.).
The only way that the placebo effect could be applied to lucid dreaming is in an experimental context. You set up a lab experiment of 60 participants, 30 carry out the scientifically falsified techniques set out by Stephen Laberge, and the experimental group of 30 participants are given a placebo, a wonder lucid dreaming pill.
In this case you would testing whether the success of DILD techniques was actually due to the placebo effect, people having confidence in the technique and so they lucid dream, and I reckon that there is a massive placebo effect in Laberge's techniques, I bet the placebo group would be very successful. After all, how many techniques out there have you seen that say that confidence is the most important thing?