It is a memoir that tells the backstory of James Doty's passions, beginning with a transformative experience in a magic shop during his difficult adolescence that led him to investigate compassion through science.
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In the summer of 1968, in the throes of a hardscrabble, perilous childhood, he wandered into a magic shop and met a woman named Ruth who taught him what she called another kind of magic that freed him...
— Episode: James Doty — The Magic Shop of the Brain
Episode: James Doty — The Magic Shop of the Brain
It is a memoir that tells the backstory of James Doty's passions, beginning with a transformative experience in a magic shop during his difficult adolescence that led him to investigate compassion through science.
"
In the summer of 1968, in the throes of a hardscrabble, perilous childhood, he wandered into a magic shop and met a woman named Ruth who taught him what she called another kind of magic that freed him from being a victim of the circumstances of his life and that he now investigates through science.
the brain as busy as it can be is actually very lazy
magic works because people are so easily distracted. But she said, they're not distracted by hand gestures. Most people who are watching a magic show aren't really there watching the magic show. They are regretting something they did yesterday or worrying about something that might happen tomorrow.
Episode: [Unedited] James Doty with Krista Tippett
It tells the story of the author's life, detailing his difficult childhood and how a chance encounter with a magic shop owner's mother introduced him to mindfulness and meditation, which influenced his path to becoming a neurosurgeon and founding a center for compassion research.
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It's not that the cap is funny, it's because you don't understand compassion is in the heart.
The brain as busy as it can be is actually very lazy. That this is why magic tricks work.
the brain doesn't distinguish between an experience that is intensely imagined and an experience that is real
energy can either be created nor destroyed, but it can be transmuted or changed or redirected
we are at the beginning of an age of compassion
Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.
