James R. Doty

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.

A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

Into the Magic Shop

James R. Doty, MD

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.

ella

alhamdulillah finally i finished reading this book. it's my first book finished at the start of 2022. in my opinion, the author's ideas about compassion and kindness, the magic of mind and heart collaboration, his CDEFGHIJKL, and visualizing meditation method are amazing and inspiring. his writing is eloquent and touching. i love those scientific facts about the benefits of calming the mind and opening the hearts and being kind and compassionate on one's health and life. i can understand all his stances and stories, except when he told about those medical terms and surgery procedures. it still appears abstract to me since i only know the basic science that primary and middle school taught me. the stories and narrative were able to make the readers cry in some parts and wrinkle their foreheads in some others.

nevertheless the ideas of his that i oppose since the author claimed himself as an atheist are that there's no God or the Supreme Being who creates everything in this universe, and that we can create everything, achieve anything we want in life with only the power of our mind and heart. those ideas aren't aligned with my belief as muslim with an islamic worldview. there was just something itching me when i read them. it just doesn't make sense for me because it's contradictive with his idea about humility.

but overall, this book taught me about the importance to believe in myself, to not belittle my capability to achieve my dreams, to be compassionate and kind to myself and others, and even to ponder and understand more about the teachings of my deen that related to the topics in this book.

James Robert Doty

jiveen liew

why did my dad ask me to read this... this is like the more annoying version of "the secret". tiktok witches' version of manifesting is way more appealing than what this man is describing. 
it was cool when he explained why manifesting works and how it's related to neural plasticity i guess. but boi is dis man insufferable. a lot of his successful manifestations kinda seems like the advantages of being a white guy, not "magical visualizing".

started 2023 with this brilliant read, which i initially picked out as it was said to be the motif of BTS’ Love Yourself: Tear, specifically Magic Shop.

I leafed through the first pages and instantly got hooked—a compelling narrative indeed! it took me on a journey that literally rewired my brain and pushed me to mindfully open my heart. 

agi ☻

started 2023 with this brilliant read, which i initially picked out as it was said to be the motif of BTS’ Love Yourself: Tear, specifically Magic Shop.

I leafed through the first pages and instantly got hooked—a compelling narrative indeed! it took me on a journey that literally rewired my brain and pushed me to mindfully open my heart. 

wolfen gray

I find it very fascinating that professor James R. Doty used his rags-to-riches tale to talk about the benefits of mindfulness meditation practices and how these practices re-wired his brain. I had a great pleasure reading about it from his perspective as a neurosurgeon. I'm glad Dr. Doty pointed out that material wealth only lasts as long as the items. however, once you achieve spiritual wealth that it can't be taken away at any time. i personally think that that is a very important message to spread in a society that values material wealth as the most desirable. Also as a person who always viewed loving kindness and compassion as very essential practice, im heartened that he put emphasis on the importance of opening one's heart and connecting with others and of compassion. 

"If we want to be happy, we make others happy. If we want love, we have to give love. If we want joy, we need to make others joyful. If we want forgiveness, we have to forgive. If we want peace, we have to create it in the world around us.”

this immediately reminded me of seokjin's words "I make myself happy by making others happy" which inspired namjoon that he used it in his famous ment "please use me please use BTS to love yourself…" 
 
their message have profoundly impacted millions of people's lives around the world.. I truly appreciate that BTS and Prof. Doty are spreading important messages like this in this current society. I thank Dr. Doty for being able to inspire BTS and giving so many people a Magic Shop to go to.
I would totally recommend this book to everyone~~!

Amina Madadi (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ)

It is the story of James, a little boy who grew up to be more than an ordinary neurosurgeon..
James grew up in an unstable house, with a depressed mom and a drunken dad, he was really poor but he has always had that "caring thing".. One day, he went to a magic shop to buy a plastic thumb and that's where he met Ruth, the lady who's gonna change his life, Ruth taught him through six weeks another kind of magic, the magic of the heart and the brain and how these two entities are so attached to each other, today, this magic is called, neuroplasticity.. 
Through his life, James applied everything Ruth taught him and ended up having what he wanted, a great career, cars, houses and millions of dollars, the only thing he failed at was the step of "opening his heart and discovering its secrets"
It was after so many mistakes, heartaches and disappointments that James got the whole idea of Ruth's teaching, and there started the journey to a meaningful life..
When I read the title, I thought it had everything to do with an academic explanation of the mysteries of the brain and the heart which is not the case, but I found so much more than that, it was all about the humanity our brain/heart can manifest and how we can use both of them to give more kindness and compassion and bring a lot of value to a world thriving for some..

Robert Hinchcliffe

I was completely missold this book as 'a neurosurgeon's thoughtful take on mindfulness', but it's actually a badly written The Secret-esque new agey collection of dangerous nonsense peddled by a narcissistic (and I suspect lying) egotist, who resembles Noel Edmonds with a scalpel. I hated it.

Luca Stromann

Neha kelsie samson

Mina

Ren 

yaya

Sheena Mitsuishi

James Doty

The award-winning New York Times bestseller that inspired BTS's K-pop song 'Magic Shop'. The day that 12-year-old James Doty walked in to his local magic shop is the day that changed his life. Once the neglected son of an alcoholic father and a mother with chronic depression, he has gone on to become a leading neurosurgeon, based at Stanford University. He credits Ruth for this incredible turnaround: the remarkable woman he met at the Cactus Rabbit Magic Shop, who devoted the summer to transforming his mind and opening his heart. In this uplifting memoir, Jim explains the visualisation techniques Ruth taught him that gave him the self-esteem to imagine a new future for himself. He examines the science behind mindfulness and why the skills he learned - of focus and attention - now help him to think fast and keep calm in the operating theatre. And he shows us what is possible when you start to change your brain and your heart. Into the Magic Shopimparts some powerful life lessons about how to live better, and inspires us to believe that we all have inside us the capacity to change our own destiny. 'I'm sure many readers will be moved by this inspiring story to open their hearts and see what they too can do for others' - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Into the Magic Shop A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

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