Magic Forums

One of the most common suggestions on this site I see for beginners is that I have to believe in magic in order to use it. That if I don't believe I'll never get real proof if I didn't believe to begin with. The problem I have with that is I understand the power of belief. Believing in something isn't the same thing as having an open mind, what a person believes actually matters. An example is the placebo effect, if a person thinks something will make them better then it will to a degree, the same thing if they think doing something makes them worse. My point is that I have to be careful about what I believe, because even if the magic behind it is completely false the belief itself can still affect me. So I want to know if other people had this problem, and how they got over it? Or is that all magic is, manipulating yours and other's belief systems?