There are so many areas of Lucid Dreaming that there is so little about. The placebo effect and how it effect the dream state is among these and is surely one of the most important. I wrote this up to introduce the concept and to provide a quick reference for anyone that wants to link here when trying to explain something. Its a slightly long read but should be worth it.
Placebo, originally a purely medical term has roots in dreams too. Very deep roots. Placebo can be explained as such. An action that achieves a result without any basis other then the mind thinking that the result should be achieved. Placebo is simply the act of tricking yourself into an erroneous result.
The infamous example of this in medicine is the fabled sugar pill. A friend has a very bad headache and so you give them a sugar pill telling them that it’s very strong headache medicine. They are under the assumption that they shouldn’t feel the headache anymore and therefore don’t. Under normal circumstances however, the sugar pill should have done nothing against the headache.
The example of placebo in lucid dreaming is this small, insignificant part: ……. Control. All of control. Everything that you do in a dream that gets you a result is placebo through and through. Think about it. Stemming from what we know of placebo, what would happen if we took an unmarked pill in a dream? The classic sugar pill. Its effects would be exactly what we believe would happen. If we think its headache medication then we will be rid of a headache for a while. If the thought crosses our mind that its tinged with poison then we might find ourselves on the ground soon writhing in pain. Now, how about a more common example?
Lets say, lifting an object. If the object should be light enough for you to life it, you make the connection between you pulling up on it and the object traveling upwards and you lift it. If you think the object should be too heavy, you would make the connection between you pulling on it yet nothing happening.
Simple right? Perhaps it even seems a little irrelevant. How would you, however, go about lifting the heavy object? Quite simply, you have to believe that it will lift. But, often this wouldn’t work for a person that hasn’t mastered control so we incite placebo. All you need is an action and a mental link between that action and the object rising. For example, you could think “Once I snap my fingers, the object will shoot up into the sky!” Then, you snap your fingers and it will hopefully shoot up.
This control technique won’t always work however. All control techniques lack a 100% success ratio. This is simply due to the fact that control techniques rely on a pre-built mental link between the action and event that takes place. If you do not have confidence that the action will trigger the event, it’s liable fail. This is why tailoring your own control techniques is a good idea. Take the event that you hope to cause and find the action that you can do that will most likely cause it. Back it with a bit of willpower and confidence and it will be likely to succeed.
What you can do to induce events is only limited to your imagination. I've used an easy button (from the staples commercials) to help me achieve the sought after result. It can be as logical or illogical as you can make it. I've killed a samurai by opening up a pink umbrella. It burst a major vein in his head. XD
Eventually, once you get good enough at manipulating your environment, you can skip having to do the action and skip straight to the event. You tell yourself that its gonna happen and that’s that.
Understanding and manipulating your mind is the key to control. I hope this helps you to get better dreams or at least understand more about the dream world.
