James Doty grew up in poverty and faced a number of challenges, and seemed by no means guaranteed to succeed in life. But as you can hear, he has accomplished quite a lot, and we talk about how we might better understand and facilitate the human capacity to overcome obstacles and bring more compassion into our lives, and to generally make the world a better place. In this episode, I speak with Dr. James Doty, who is a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. He is also a philanthropist who has funded health clinics throughout the world and has endowed scholarships and chairs at multiple universities, and he also serves on the board of a number non-profit organizations. As you ll hear, Dr. Doty has a very unusual background, and as you ll find out in this episode: he grew up with a father who was an alcoholic, a mother who was clinically depressed, and a father with a stroke who was partially paralyzed. And then, at the age of 12, he was introduced to magic by an encounter he had in a strip mall. And that s how he became the Jim Doty we know today. by walking into a magic shop or, as he put it, Into the Magic Shop . in the words of his memoir, Into The Magic Shop. What is a Magic Shop? a place where you can do magic? . in which you can make sense of your life and the magic shop is a place you can help you become a better version of yourself as a better you of who you are you can be a better human being is a better person because you can become better than you . . and you can have a more compassionate, kinder ? to help you be kinder, more compassionate so you can more of a better world better of yourself? and so on and so much more thanks for listening to the Making Sense Podcast. by Sam Harris . Thank you for listening for making sense - Sam Harris, thank you, no questions asked, no question asked made by the making sense of it Thank you, No questions asked? - by & as always, - the making Sense Podcast Sarah, by Sarah Goodman
00:11:22.060And in fact, when you're troubled or have difficulties, that's when it shows itself.
00:11:27.340And this is where you can relate it to addiction.
00:11:30.420When you're particularly stressed, that addiction comes out.
00:11:34.440And so she taught me to accept that as a part of me and don't deny it and just be aware of it.
00:11:41.060And the other thing is that because I was so critical of myself, it made me hypercritical of everything and everyone around me.
00:11:52.400And what I found is that because of that, when I interacted with others or tried to accomplish something, I would take a negative view of it.
00:12:04.600And what I didn't appreciate is that human beings have this unique ability to intuit emotional states from facial expressions, voice intonation, body habitus, even smells.
00:12:17.940And when you carry yourself in that fashion, people don't want to be around you or they shy away or they're not open and they're not generous.
00:12:26.100And as a result, what I tell people is that when I changed how I looked at myself, it changed how the world interacted with me.
00:12:41.180The other side effect of that was that I carried a lot of anger and hostility towards my personal situation, my parents.
00:12:52.980And of course, that was not fruitful in any way.
00:12:57.500And what happened was that I was able to see them in a much different way.
00:13:03.980I saw them as human beings who had their own pain and suffering and the tools that they had to deal with them were not effective at all.
00:13:16.980You know, hiding your pain behind alcohol or, you know, taking pills to get rid of the pain and hoping that it would keep it away isn't helpful.
00:13:27.720And I, in some ways, forgave them and accepted the situation, not trying to hope the situation would be different.
00:13:39.180And that change in perspective, which I think is important in a lot of these practices, is really very, very important.
00:13:46.820Well, she taught you something else in the magic shop, which on the surface can sound pretty spooky.
00:13:56.180I mean, it's in line with what you just described generically in terms of changing your concept of yourself.
00:14:03.720I mean, she asked you to list what you want in life and to visualize yourself having it.
00:14:09.740I mean, to really inhabit the person who already has these things, whether it's great wealth or great success,
00:14:15.500or you had a list of things which was fairly adorable for a 12-year-old, including, you know, having a Porsche and a Rolex.
00:14:23.740But she wanted you to not see it from the outside, but really see it from the inside and to practice this visualization that really this is a fait accompli.
00:14:32.920You're guaranteed to arrive at the desired station in life.
00:14:36.580And what you need to do now is inhabit the psychology of that and make it real for yourself.
00:14:43.040And, you know, as you walk a line in your description of this that is, to my eye, on the right side of rational here,
00:14:53.480because there's a rational way to understand how this can benefit a person, but it could also just tip into sounding like the secret.
00:15:01.480I don't know if you remember that book and that movie, the movie by the name that is the appropriate target of opprobrium
00:15:07.040at the center of New Age irrationality, but the idea that if you just visualize things or think it's true or assert that it's true,
00:15:14.340it will become true, whether it's, you know, attaining wealth or losing weight or anything else.
00:15:18.660But, you know, describe to me how you think about the power of visualizing certain outcomes
00:15:26.260and how that enforces change in one's basic neurology or one's associated behavior
00:15:34.840and the kinds of, you know, opportunities that present themselves in life.
00:16:10.840And, you know, negative self-dialogue limits that power.
00:16:15.960What she taught me and what I realize is that when you utilize your senses,
00:16:22.180and I think we see this now in sports psychology, you know, people think about the athletic event they're going to do over and over and over again.
00:16:30.660And the reality is, as an example, you know, it's been shown in a variety of studies that when you think about, as an example, lifting weights,
00:16:38.800you actually increase to a small degree your muscle mass just by thinking about it.
00:16:43.540And when you repeat something in your head over and over and over again, it starts setting down neuropathways.
00:16:51.840And when you utilize all your senses to do that, you write it down, you read it, you verbalize it, you think about it, etc., etc.,
00:17:02.460then I would say that if there is a possibility of it happening, that is the best technique to help that manifest.
00:17:13.000And I'll give you an interesting example.
00:17:16.880As a neurosurgeon, of course, I see a lot of patients who have a variety of conditions,
00:17:21.540but most of the patients who see me will say something like,
00:17:25.180wow, doctor, I've never heard of that.
00:17:27.400And then I see them a few months later and they go, you know, it's the most amazing thing.
00:17:31.160Since we talked about it, I found out I have that.
00:17:33.760I've run into five people who, in fact, do have that.
00:17:37.040And the reason is, is because you have put a subconscious primer out there and they're now attuned to that.
00:17:46.840And in many ways, this is like the technique that Ruth taught me.
00:17:51.480I put into my subconscious this idea, this possibility, this potential opportunity,
00:17:59.480and then I am attuned to events that will allow that to occur.
00:18:06.000I don't know if you've seen the book by a guy named Bob Neese.