I'm fairly certain that everybody here knows what a placebo is so I won't bother going into detail about them specifically. However, they have recently been making me think and I figured I would share some of my thoughts with everybody here. Placebos, by nature, can only have any effect if the user does not know it is a placebo. i.e. if you give somebody with some pain a sugar pill telling them their pain will go away, it will likely diminish. However, if you give somebody a sugar pill and tell them it's just a placebo, there will likely be no effect.

This is what has been bothering me. When pertaining to LDs, there are many techniques which could be placebos, though there lies the dilemma. If I tell you, then they won't be placebos anymore and will have little to no effect. However, if somebody hears that something is a placebo from another person whom did not first tell the person, or somebody they do not trust, then it will likely still have effect. What I mean is that if you hear something about stabalization from a member on the forums who is well known/respected, then you will likely believe them and, when you try it, your dreams will most likely stabalize using this technique.

Let's say Onerionaut or Zebrah says that if you jump into water in your dreams they will stabalize. If you trust them then during a LD, if you jump into some water, your dream will likely stabalize. If you don't trust/believe them though, this will not work. However, lets say a new member or even myself tells you this will not work. Since you likely don't trust that person entirely, or maybe you just don't believe them, this technique will still work. Therefore, the placebo will still be effective and your brain will continue to be tricked. However, let's say another well respected member, or even the original person who told you about the technique, tells you that it's all just a placebo, it has no concrete effect. This technique will likely not stabalize your dreams anymore and you will not believe in it.

My problem with this is should you let people continue living not knowing that whatever they are doing/taking is a placebo, or should you tell them and cause them to not be able to use the technique. Should you choose ignorance over success? Also, keep in mind that this can't work for yourself since you do not know if a certain effect is a placebo or not. This means that you can only tell people other than yourself. Should you ruin their success with a certain technique, even though you open their eyes to something which is actually a falsity?

Basically, when does success outweigh knowledge? And who are you to ruin somebody else's success simply by uttering a phrase?