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

by James R. Doty

large bag is attached to the drapes and hangs below the boy’s head collecting blood and irrigation fluid. The bag is attached to a tube connected to a large suction machine and constantly measures the fluids so we know how much blood loss we have at any given moment.

It’s a form of hypervigilance, a single-pointed concentration almost like meditation. We train the mind, and the mind trains the body.

“I think the magic trick works because people see only what they think is there rather than what’s actually there. This thumb tip trick works because the mind is a funny thing. It sees what it expects to see. It expects to see a real thumb, so that’s what it sees. The brain, as busy as it can be, is actually very lazy. And yes, it also works because people are, as you said, so easily distracted. But 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, so they’re not really at the magic show to begin with, so how could they see the plastic thumb at all?”

“Because I know how to turn a flicker into a flame. Someone taught me and now I think it’s time that I teach you. I can see the special in you, and if you come here every day, without missing a single day, you’re going to see it too. I promise.

“You know in World War II there were special decks of cards that were made and sent to prisoners of war in Germany? Each card could be peeled apart and hidden inside was a section of a map that, if you pieced it all together, showed a secret escape route for the prisoners. Now that was an amazing magic trick.”

In medical school I would study the heart. I would learn that there are nerves that connect the heart to that part of the brainstem called the medulla oblongata via the vagus nerve, how the vagus nerve had two components, and how if you increased the output of the nerve by relaxing and slowing the breath, it would stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing your heart and decreasing your blood pressure. I also learned how decreasing the tone of the vagus nerve actually stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which is what happens if you are scared or frightened—your heartbeat increases.

“No. You are not the voice in your head. You, the real you, is the person who is listening to the deejay.”

Repetition. Intention. The surest way to change your brain.

“Those who hurt people are often those who hurt the most.”

you can heal your own wounds, you don’t hurt anymore and you don’t hurt others. Wow. Was being with Ruth somehow healing me?

Research shows the heart to be an organ of intelligence, with its own profound influence not only from our brain but on our brain, our emotions, our reasoning, and our choices. Rather than passively waiting for instructions from the brain, the heart not only thinks for itself but sends out signals to the rest of the body.

By learning to observe my thoughts, I was learning to separate myself from them. At least, that’s what Ruth told me. At the time I was not

A trick is never done at the expense of the audience. Magic isn’t a hustle or a con. A real magician transports the audience to a world where anything is possible, everything is real, and the unbelievable becomes believable.”

from my box of special things. I turned to a blank page and wrote “Ruth’s Magic” across the top. I turned the page and wrote down everything

The brain doesn’t distinguish between an experience that is intensely imagined and an experience that is real. I was training my mind to become a doctor long before I ever applied to college or medical school, simply by visualizing myself as a doctor. Another mystery of the brain is that it will always choose what is familiar over what is unfamiliar. By visualizing my own future success, I was making this success familiar to my brain.

that the information I studied seemed to simply flow into my consciousness when I needed it. A 2013 study by researchers at the University of California,

Many misinterpret Darwin by implying that survival of the fittest means the survival of the strongest and most ruthless, when in fact it is survival of the kindest and most cooperative that ensures the survival of a species in the long-term. We evolved to cooperate, to nurture and raise our dependent young, and to thrive together and for the benefit of all.