Into the magic shop : a neurosurgeon's quest to discover the mysteries of the brain and the secrets of the heart

Format:

Book

Title:

Into the magic shop : a neurosurgeon's quest to discover the mysteries of the brain and the secrets of the heart

Author:

Doty, James R. (James Robert), 1955- author

ISBN:

9781594632983

9780399183645

9780399577963

Publication:

New York : Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, [2016]

Physical Description:

276 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Contents:

Real magic -- A body at rest -- Thinking about thinking -- Growing pains -- Three wishes -- Apply yourself -- Unacceptable -- It's not brain surgery -- The sultan of nothing -- Giving up -- The alphabet of the heart -- Manifesting compassion -- The face of God.

Summary:

The author relates how a chance encounter in a magic shop with a woman who taught him exercises to ease his sufferings and manifest his greatest desires gave him a glimpse of the relationship between the brain and the heart, and drove him to explore the neuroscience of compassion and altruism.

Extraordinary things happen when we harness the power of both the brain and the heart. Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, living 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 at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead end-until at the age of twelve when he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. There 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. Ruth gave Doty his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart. Doty would go on to put Ruth's techniques to work, bringing power and wealth that he could only imagine as a twelve-year-old. 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. -- Publisher description.

With an alcoholic father and a depressed mother Doty's life was at a dead end when, at age twelve, he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. Instead he met Ruth, who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart. Part memoir, part science, part inspiration, and part practical instruction, Doty shows us how we can fundamentally change our lives by first changing our brains and our hearts.-- Source other than the Library of Congress.

Personal Subject:

Doty, James R. (James Robert), 1955-

Subject(s):

Neurosurgeons -- United States -- Biography.

Compassion.

Altruism.

Mind and body.

Nervous system -- Surgery.

Geographic Term:

United States

Genre:

autobiographies (literary works)

Autobiographies

Biographies

Autobiographies.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	617.48 Doty	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	617.48 Doty 2016	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the extraordinary things that can happen when we harness the power of both the brain and the heart

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.

Author Notes

James R. Doty, M.D., is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), where he researches the neuroscience of compassion and altruism. He is also a philanthropist funding health clinics throughout the world and has endowed scholarships and chairs at multiple universities. He serves on the board of a number of nonprofits, including the Charter for Compassion International and the Dalai Lama Foundation.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Neurosurgeon Doty combines gut-wrenching memoir with meditative how-to in this well-told, grueling tale of his personal journey from frightened pre-teen with an alcoholic father and depressed mother to a respected doctor and philanthropist. He attributes his success to the ancient mindfulness and visualization techniques that "rewired" his brain and were taught to him in the back of a magic shop in 1968, when he was 12 years old. "When our brain changes, we change," Doty writes. "That is a truth proven by science. But an even greater truth is that when our heart changes, everything changes." It's the heart lesson that proves the hardest to learn for Doty as he boldly masters medical school to become a noted neurosurgeon and investment multimillionaire. Meditation and visualization are great for "journeying inward... but without wisdom and insight (opening the heart) the techniques can result in self-absorption, narcissism, and isolation." The inward voyage, he argues, is meant to lead a person to "go outward and connect with others." Doty's advice in this rags-to-riches tale is inspirational and the mindfulness techniques he advocates are clearly documented. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A Stanford neurosurgeon and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education relates how to achieve lofty life goals by harnessing the power of both the brain and the heart. When Doty was an adolescent, he had a chance encounter at a magic shop with a benevolent older woman named Ruth, who over the next few weeks instructed him on a series of empowering mind-body exercises that would dramatically alter the direction of his life. Having grown up in impoverished circumstances in Lancaster, California, with an alcoholic father and depressed, suicidal mother, he would go on to achieve phenomenal success and wealth as a surgeon and entrepreneur. However, two episodes threatened to disrupt his future: a near-death experience from a car crash while still in medical residency and, later, a misguided business decision that led him to the brink of bankruptcy. By recalling Ruth's guided exercisesmost crucially, her instruction of first opening his heartDoty was able to regain momentum in his career and eventually realize a more richly profound destiny. In this well-meaning hybrid of inspirational self-help book and memoir, the author applies scientific investigation to the example of his life story, proving that you can overcome adversity and achieve meaningful success and enlightenment by embracing compassion along with focused willpower. "When our brains and our hearts are working in collaborationwe are happier, we are healthier, and we automatically express love, kindness, and care for one another," he writes. "I knew this intuitively, but I needed to validate it scientifically. This was the motivation to begin researching compassion and altruism. I wanted to understand the evolution of not only why we evolved such behavior but also how it affects the brain and ultimately our health." An optimistic and engagingly well-told life story that incorporates scientific investigation into its altruistic message. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

The opening pages of this memoir are not for the squeamish. Doty, a neurosurgery professor at Stanford University and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, describes in meticulous detail what happens during brain surgery, and, in particular, the sounds (like a large piece of Velcro tearing away from its source) and smells (summer sawdust) associated with it. He recalls his training to shut down all bodily responses when in the operating room. It's a form of hypervigilance, he writes, . . . almost like meditation. We train the mind, and the mind trains the body. Doty first learned to master this thinking when, at age 12, he visited a magic shop located in a nondescript strip mall in his hometown of Lancaster, California. This unusual memoir combines elements of self-help techniques magicians believe in their own magic, in the stories they are telling with anecdotes about Doty's own dysfunctional upbringing as the son of an abusive, alcoholic father. Using mindfulness and visualization helped him became a better surgeon, and he contends these techniques can assist anyone, in any walk of life.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2016 Booklist

Introduction: Beautiful Things	p. 1
Part 1 Into the Magic Shop
1 Real Magic	p. 13
2 A Body at Rest	p. 25
3 Thinking About Thinking	p. 57
4 Growing Pains	p. 81
5 Three Wishes	p. 107
Part 2 The Mysteries of the Brain
6 Apply Yourself	p. 133
7 Unacceptable	p. 153
8 It's Not Brain Surgery	p. 177
9 The Sultan of Nothing	p. 205
Part 3 The Secrets of the Heart
10 Giving Up	p. 221
11 The Alphabet of the Heart	p. 235
12 Manifesting Compassion	p. 251
13 The Face of God	p. 267
Acknowledgments	p. 275

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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