What you call 'being more susceptible' is probably the component of autosuggestion that makes things like placebo, hypnosis, binaural beats and other methods of suggestive manipulation more successful in some than others. There is a part of suggestion by external stimulation and you do the rest yourself. Denying the power of placebo mostly empowers it. It's not bad, just not necessarily realistic either. I think we'd be surprised how much is needed to convince us otherwise but I have heard some examples of freakishly strong placebo effect (one such example is described in PIHKAL by Shulgin as a major reason to get into the field he did) that strongly advised me not to underestimate it. And that most certainly still will not exempt me.
I think things binaural beats and those 25000$ LED flashing things that create hypnogogic fractals claim to do are exaggerated, that what they do mostly is deliver you to a meditative state, which is something natural you do not need any aid for per se - some things just catalyze the tricky process by clearing the way. Normal meditative techniques seem more likely to confuse people because people have to provide a steady stream of meaningless stimulation themselves. Things like paying attention to breathing or mantra's, all things serving as positive brainwashing to replace previous meaningful mental content and processes. Things like binaural beats are probably much more easy to accept as replacement stimulation because it is provided for.
Then from there on out, the state can be molded, and end results may be gotten almost by confabulation. I think suggested healing powers (such as anxiolysis, help with jet lag, insomnia, psychological concerns) or trippy effects are very likely to be close to what can be achieved by meditative states that would normally be too advanced for the subject to achieve.
