How is this the last day of June already? My book club read Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by Dr. James Doty this month. We met last night to discuss the book. Here’s the full summary:
“Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead end until at twelve he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. Instead he met Ruth, a woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open and teach these techniques to others. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart.
Doty would go on to put Ruth’s practices to work with extraordinary results—power and wealth that he could only imagine as a twelve-year-old, riding his orange Sting-Ray bike. But he neglects Ruth’s most important lesson, to keep his heart open, with disastrous results—until he has the opportunity to make a spectacular charitable contribution that will virtually ruin him.
Part memoir, part science, part inspiration, and part practical instruction, Into the Magic Shop shows us how we can fundamentally change our lives by first changing our brains and our hearts.”
Overall, everyone liked the book. I was the only outlier who thought his story about spending a summer learning meditation at age 12 seemed a little exaggerated. But I tend to be skeptical at times. While Doty does touch on some science, I thought there’d be more of it. It’s mostly about how he learned to control his emotions, meditation, mindfulness, intention and visualization. He learned the techniques from a woman named Ruth. Her lessons helped him achieve his goals of becoming a doctor and becoming very wealthy. It wasn’t until he lost his money when the dot com bubble burst in 2008 that he finally learned Ruth’s final lesson of opening your heart. He finally learns true compassion. He then delves into the science of how the brain and heart work together to make us happier, healthier, kinder, and more loving.
The book is a mix of autobiography, science, and self help. I found is writing could be repetitive at times and some parts sounded like he was humble bragging. But it’s definitely an inspirational story of a poor and directionless boy who becomes a respected and wildly successful physician. Doty provides instructional tips for calming the mind, meditation, visualization, and opening the heart to be more compassionate. It’s a good reminder to unplug, slow down, breathe, and try to open our hearts even if it’s only for a few minutes a day.
Do you practice meditation or what do you do to for self care?
About the Author
Jim Doty is a Stanford neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, compassion researcher, inventor, entrepreneur, NY Times bestselling author and philanthropist.
