(@ Burke) Oh, you mean by telling them "It's only a placebo"?

Personally I think anything that can help people achieve lucids is alright, as long as it doesn't do any harm. There are so many different techniques, some work for some people, some work for others. What doesn't work your one person may very well work for somebody else - as long as they think it will. And the beginning is such a crucial time - it's important to strengthen their belief as much as possible that it will happen. Yeah, it's probably not a great idea to be saying "Dude- this technique doesn't really work - it's only a placebo".

I do think it's important however to get good info out there and try to limit the bad. There are certain things that work a lot better than others - this should be made clear to beginners. It would be a shame for somebody to try really hard for a long time with a technique that doesn't work very well or doesn't work at all. So I also believe that if you know a technique isn't a good one (hasn't worked for a lot of people who have tried it) then you should say so. I'd personally leave the word Placebo out of it though.