Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by James R. Doty MD
Reviewed by Jude Asphar
After dipping toes into volunteering for The Charter for Compassion’s initial outreach for
environmental partners a couple of years ago, I was curious to know more about one of the
Charter’s board members, neurosurgeon, Dr. James Doty. And surprised! Surprised by the title
of his book Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the
Brain and the Secrets of the Heart, and what it might reveal about its illustrious author.
Part memoir, part confessional, part teaching of mindfulness, his is an unpredictable journey
from startlingly humble beginnings, to success, wealth and arrogance and back again through
humility, to transcendence and ultimately to trust and generosity.
It kicks off with what these days might be framed as a serendipitously ‘disruptive’ meeting. One
that doubtless helped the author dodge the consequences of an unsafe and unpredictable
childhood. Blessed that a more likely family pattern didn’t retain its grip, Jim Doty set out on
what has been, and is by any standards, an extra-ordinary personal and professional journey.
The thirteen chapters of this highly praised little volume are divided into three parts making an
easy read. However, it does begin by describing in some detail the ‘excruciatingly difficult’
removal of a malignant tumor, a medulloblastoma, from the brain of a four year old boy. “There’s
a certain sound the scalp makes when it’s being ripped off a skull—like a large piece of Velcro
tearing away from its source”.
Tellingly, and touchingly, he adds: “when the brain is exposed you can see it move in rhythm
with every heartbeat’. Decades later, James Doty, MD, FACS, FICS, FAANS, founded CCARE
—The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford — established
to study the neural correlates of the heart.
Growing up with a violent alcoholic father and depressive suicidal mother resulted in his own
youthful violence and truancy at school. Doubtless to help escape the pain and shame of
extreme poverty and hunger, Jim describes being drawn to the lure of magic from an early age.
He recounts the fatefully life-changing moment when as a scared and lonely boy he came upon
a woman whose name was Ruth and whose magical influence is the warp and weft of his story.
Almost an avatar of a figure for him, it was Ruth’s prescience that spotted Jim’s potential as a
twelve year old that ended up indelibly shaping his world.
To be sure readers don’t gloss over the pivotal lessons learned from his faithful visits to Ruth at
the magic shop, they are highlighted at the end of each of five chapters on sets of gray pages.
Chapter Two is the first — A Body at Rest — where he lists Ruth’s Trick # 1. Relaxing the Body.
It comprises sixteen Breath and Relaxation steps and states —The Reward for taming the mind
is clarity of thought.
Chapter Three — Thinking about Thinking — is summed up by Ruth’s Trick # 2. Five points for
Taming the Mind — ‘Practice this exercise for twenty to thirty minutes per day.’
Chapter Four — Growing Pains — Ruth’s Trick # 3 has thirteen Guidelines for Opening the
Heart — What matters is that you have an open heart. An open heart connects with others and
that changes everything.
Finally for Chapter Five — Three Wishes — Ruth’s Trick # 4 Clarifying your Intent, wraps up
with eleven points by saying —It is with clarity of intent that vision becomes reality.
Although early on Jim conscientiously followed “Ruth’s Magic” it cast no spell on the family’s
poverty and remained a challenge throughout his college training years. As he moved through
the steps of adulthood he extricated himself from his history and sought to practice and
incorporate Ruth’s tools of visualization, intention and attention. Freed to see himself and the
world differently he got on track to manifest his dreams of college, becoming a doctor, and
earning a million dollars along with the accompanying Rolex, Porsche, and mansion.
Acceptance at UC Irvine in LA, thence internship at Tulane University Medical School in New
Orleans followed by a neurosurgery residency and nine years at Walter Reed (National Military
Medical Center in Bethesda, MD) wasn’t all smooth sailing. On several occasions when falling
short of the necessary qualifications his defiant refusal to take no for an answer proved to be a
strength that’s stood him in good stead to this day. He does however disclose an almost lethal
consequence of his foolhardiness when one night proved particularly significant.
After grueling hospital rounds at a time when, by his own admission, he had abandoned his
mindfulness practice for alcohol, cocaine, and half-naked women, thrown out of a strip-club with
a carload of his resident buddies they crashed head on into a tree totaling an old Ford — and
almost themselves — in the process. The doctor became a patient, close to bleeding to death
from abdominal injuries and cardiac arrest. First hand, he watched his own surgery from above
his body as he passed through the unforgettable blackness to the tell-tale, split-second, slow-
motion, illuminated biography, drawn ever deeper by the pure white light of love.
Brought back to life by a pin-prick to his foot, he had experienced the total acceptance of an
NDE — a near death experience. What did die that night, was his belief that Ruth’s magic made
him invincible. He had yet to learn the arrogant, egotistical, neurosurgeon he would become, still
had many more years of painful mistakes ahead of him..
Fast forward to age 44 and by Chapter 9, a multi-millionaire neurosurgeon at Stanford, married,
divorced, and facing failure as a father. In addition to his villa in Florence and a private island in
New Zealand, he was living alone in his seventy-five-hundred square-foot home overlooking the
Pacific ocean with not only the Porsche, but Range-Rover, Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes too.
Now hooked on the speed of Silicone Valley start-ups, one-night-stands with nameless women
were punctuated throughout the wee-small hours by checking the market and watching his
fortune fluctuate. Unheeded by having no background in business, “one of the most successful
neurosurgeons in Orange County — who had incidentally invented a brain monitoring electrode”
had won and lost millions. His rescue of Accuray — a cutting-edge radiation oncology company
— embroiled him in the dot-com crash. Eventually he regained enough wealth to fund his future
philanthropy with the realization it could only bring happiness if given away.
Pages of the magic shop are also peppered with applicable definitions of brain functions.
Inevitably, occasionally, somewhat graphic, first-hand descriptions of surgeries appear but most meaningful are his reflections on the unified intelligence of the mind and the heart, and love’s
greatest longings, prompted by his own near death experience.
Happily remarried, and with a new family, recommitted to his neurological work and research in
both New Orleans and Stanford, Jim’s priorities morphed increasingly into his own practice from
where emerged a further lesson. In this he offers readers a mnemonic, and CGEFGHIJK
proved an effective way to start the day with powerful intention incorporating: compassion;
dignity; equanimity; forgiveness; gratitude; humility; integrity; justice; kindness and once again…
love.
Today, compassion as ‘an innate instinct’ remains central to the mission of the good Dr. Doty. As
a result his influence continues to expand, most of all through a profound meeting and deep
ongoing connection with the Dalai Lama. As a result, His Holiness chose to make a substantial
personal contribution to Jim’s work at the Stanford School of Medicine and his establishment of
CCARE and its ongoing, wide-reaching, research, courses and certification programs.
Into the Magic Shop — A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the
Secrets of the Heart ends where it started with “a way of doing what Ruth asked me to do, to
teach her magic to others”. With this new found freedom his quest remains to keep uncovering
the secrets of the heart and teaching the power of compassion as the greatest gift — the
greatest magic.