Into the Magic Shop by 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.

There's nothing particularly revelatory in this book in terms of how to live a good life. Having said that James Doty's autobiography is engaging & he sure seems like a good human being.

One of my favourite reads this year. Inspiring and highly engaging memoir sharing very handy meditative and visualization techniques. Strongly recommend for anyone feeling lost and seeking inner peace.

I read this as part of my BTS book club and I certainly see its influence in their music and message. Although my cynical side definitely had to suspend belief a few times when things just ‘worked out', I also see insightful advice and a positive message too - one that even the author admits takes a lifetime of practice to truly understand and focus on. This isn't a magic ‘how to be successful' book, but rather insight into the power we have over our thoughts and how that can manifest into creating a mindset that allows us to achieve our goals in life. It's also about using that same technique to help and understand others with compassion and love. I think there are a lot of concepts here that we innately know, but don't take time to actually practice on enough to truly make changes in our lives and what this book does well is make you stop and think about your own thoughts. It's a guidebook of sorts on meditation as a starting point to become more aware of our own internal story about ourselves and if we make the time and effort, we can actually change that mindset to something more positive, which in turn allows us to make changes in real life that help us reach our goals. Although it's referred to as ‘magic' through most of the book, it really has some scientific research to back it up. How we can ‘train' our thoughts to literally re-wire our brains is actually proven in scientific research. Don't look here if you want a magic potion to solve all of your life's problems, but certainly check it out if want a perspective on reaching your goals and overcoming obstacles in a way we often don't take time for in our busy lives and may prove beneficial in actually getting us where we want and need to be. Although I may not take every aspect of this books teaching as my own, it certainly made me think deeply about my own internal dialogue about myself and my life and how it may be possible to change it in a positive way.