Any learned religious or sorcerer knows his practice is ritual. Not supertition, there is a difference.
In ritual, one knows there is no inherent power in the practice itself, but the symbolism. If a regular joe performs the ritual, it's nothing but 'eating crackers and drinking juice'.
But if one who has devotion and is learned performs the same, it invokes a strong symbolic event in the 'subconscious' of the ritualist, thereby having an impression on his mind and therefore his actions in the future.
Corporations exploit a basic form of this every single day.
OP is a great question.