MAGIC

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Into the Magic Shop (A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart.)

Author: James R. Doty MD

Narrated By: Dan Woren

“Into the Magic Shop” is a nearly unbelievable life story of James Doty written from his recollections of growing up in Lancaster, California. It will change opinions about a number of misconceptions one may have of American opportunity, brain surgery physicians, and the influence a mentor may have on a person’s life.

Doty is born into a poor family with a father who is characterized as an alcoholic and a mother with suicidal tendencies. Despite these humble and troubled family circumstances, Doty achieves the remarkable goal of becoming a brain surgeon who is now a professor of neurosurgery at one of America’s leading ivy league universities.

Doty explains he had an early interest in magic and chooses to visit a magic shop in which there is a woman with a grown son who manages the shop. She is visiting her son and takes a liking to this young boy who stops by the shop to buy a false finger he uses for a magic trick. They strike up a conversation and the mother of the store manager makes a deal with Doty to come by the magic shop to see her for the several weeks she plans to be there before leaving.

One infers from Doty’s story that he is tall for his age. Doty tells of a confrontation he has with these two bullies that are abusing a smaller student when Doty is on his way to the magic shop. Because of Doty’s earlier mentor’ discussions with the mother of the magic shop manager, he approaches the bullies while using a breath control exercise to calm himself in a confrontation. Instead of escalating confrontation with the bullies, Doty maintains his composure while talking to the bullies about their poor behavior. Doty is able to walk away unharmed after interrupting the abuse of the smaller boy.

Dody learns how to relax his body and tame his mind when faced with adversity. She explains how visualizing good things like success from personal effort can shape one’s future. Believing in oneself and focusing on what you want to achieve offers purpose and achievement in life. She explains how understanding one’s emotions and being compassionate allows one to let go of fear and shame which helps him realize his parents are dealing with life in the best way they can. Importantly, these weekly meetings help Doty understand how daily practice with the magic of meditation offers peace and understanding with one’s thoughts about compassion and personal accomplishment. Fully understanding compassion comes later in Dody’s life, but personal accomplishment begins from the first days of his mentor’s teaching. Most importantly, his mentor explains how he can develop a balance between physical well-being, love, and respect for others.

In following his mentor’s suggestion, he visualizes a better outcome than the embarrassment of an eviction. Serendipitously, a person who owed his father money appeared at the doorway with a repayment that allowed the family to avoid eviction. Doty surmises positive visualization and meditation have the power to change one’s future. He plans to graduate from high school and visualizes going to college to become a doctor. Though he does not have the money for tuition, he applies to a California university and is accepted as a beginning student with financial aid for his education.

Secondarily, one realizes where one comes from is not where one is destined to remain. Doty’s young academic career is festooned with family emergencies and lack of funds that challenge his road to education as a surgeon. His father dies before he can reach him, but he has a dream of his father just before his death that praises him for his accomplishments.

In earlier years of his success, he discounts his mentor’s advice about compassion. Mindfulness, visualization and power of intention result in his success in becoming a neurosurgeon. The criteria of academic performance created admission roadblocks that were overcome by this vision and persuasive ability to clearly show his skill as a human being and future physician. He often voiced disagreement with administrative bureaucracies that challenged his authority. He faces many challenges but clear vision of his role as a caring physician overcame much of his supervisors ill will toward him. He gained experience at Walter Reed Army Medical Center while serving 9 years in the U.S. Army. He became chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital in Orange Country, California that led him to complex spine surgery at Stanford.

But its primary message is that every human being can change the course of their lives by committing to one’s goal in life by clearly focusing on an objective and using innate abilities to achieve it. Those lessons came easily to Doty until he is nearly bankrupted by investments when the dot-com financial crash in the early 2000s wipes out his and many others’ wealth.

In reading those notes, Dody realizes the lesson he had forgotten was to practice compassion for others in his life. He had become a wealthy American and thought he had lost it all. What he had not lost was the magic explained to him by his mentor. He was a surgeon now and what money he lost was just a measure of wealth, not his ability to be a successful physician.

Dody rebuilds his life but now understands how important compassion is to success in life because its reward is not based on wealth but on the contribution one can make to others. He becomes acquainted with the Dali Llama and the magic he had forgotten from his mentor, namely compassion, returns as Dody’s guide to life.

Dody wrote this book to suggest every American who thinks they have achieved success in life is often mistaken. In today’s world, the President of the United States could learn something from James Dody’s story. On the other hand, is anyone in their 70s likely to change?