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

Ruth is a 50-something woman whom Doty meets as a boy (17); she lives in Ohio but is visiting her son Neil in Lancaster, where he owns Cactus Rabbit Magic Shop. She is warm and perceptive and—no doubt sensing Doty’s unhappiness—offers to teach him her own brand of “magic”: relaxation, mindfulness, compassion, and visualization. Just as importantly, she also provides Doty with a patient and non-judgmental space in which to open up about himself and his family. As Doty puts it, Ruth is “a human being who had the profound gift of empathy and intuition, of being able to care about another human being without expecting anything in return” (60).

That care and concern has a profound impact on Doty’s sense of self-worth, and thus on his ability to create a better life for himself. Although Doty ultimately realizes that Ruth “probably would have seen potential in anyone who had strolled into the magic shop on that summer day in 1968” (38), this doesn’t detract from the importance of what she does for Doty; on the contrary, an ability to see every person as worthwhile and deserving is among Ruth’s most important legacies. Although Doty never saw Ruth again after the summer of 1968 (he later learned she had died of breast cancer in 1979), her presence and teachings are central to the book and its goals. In fact, Into the Magic Shop is a fulfillment of a promise Doty made to Ruth as a child: to share her teachings with others.

Doty provides relatively few biographical details about his parents; in fact, he never even mentions their names. Nevertheless, his mother and father play a prominent role in the book, especially when it comes to shaping Doty’s temperament and values as a young adult. In particular, his father’s alcoholism spurs much of Doty’s later success by serving as a cautionary tale; although “funny and smart and kind” when sober (159), Doty’s father’s stints in jail and his difficulties holding down a job leave a deep and traumatic impression on his son. His mother’s episodes of clinical depression have a similar effect, contributing to the family’s emotional and financial instability and forcing Doty to take on responsibilities beyond what’s typically expected of a child or young adult: “I was the one who had to track my dad down in the bars and demand whatever money he hadn’t spent. I was the one who had to ride in the ambulance when the paramedics came because my mother had attempted suicide again” (109).

However, as troubled as Doty’s relationship to his childhood is, his portrayal of his parents themselves is ultimately sympathetic. Thanks in part to Ruth’s teachings, he recognizes that his parents, for all their failings, “loved [him] as best they could” (75). Doty’s relationship with his father in particular evolves over the course of the book, as the resentment he feels regarding his father’s irresponsibility gives way to an appreciation of just how much his father does care about him. This culminates in Doty’s account of the possible after-death communication from his father, during which the latter apologizes for his shortcomings as a father and assures his son that he loves and is proud of him.

Neil is Ruth’s son and the owner of Cactus Rabbit Magic Shop. Like his mother, he takes an interest in Doty and makes him feel at home; he teaches him tricks, shares stories from his service in Korea, and gives Doty a free bag of magician’s supplies. Although Doty spends less time with Neil than he does with Ruth, he comes to feel a family-like bond with him and credits him with helping to boost his confidence in himself and his future: “[F]or two hours a day I had [Ruth and Neil’s] undivided attention. We talked and joked and there was an ease about it, unlike at home where […] underlying anger or resentment could surface at any time” (58).

Doty’s older brother and sister play minor roles in Into the Magic Shop. If Doty’s story illustrates that it’s possible to overcome early disadvantages in life, his half-sister’s life proves how difficult doing so can be. By the time the book opens, his sister has already dropped out of high school and left home; she marries young and struggles with poverty and ill health for the rest of her life, dying in 2011. Doty’s older brother, meanwhile, is the constant target of local bullies and leaves Lancaster as soon as possible: “[He] was very bright, [but] had struggled with being gay in a time and place that did not accept that people could love someone of the same sex” (144). His eventual death from AIDS is part of what motivates Doty to put his Accuray stock in a charitable trust, thus funding (among other things) programs devoted to researching and treating HIV/AIDS.

The Dalai Lama is the title given to the spiritual leader of a prominent school of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is widely known and respected even in non-Buddhist circles because of his many philanthropic and humanitarian activities. It is these activities that lead him to cross paths with Doty and, ultimately, to help fund CCARE; the Dalai Lama’s interest in opening up a dialogue between scientific research and Buddhist teachings resonates with Doty, who has long been practicing mindfulness exercises similar to those associated with Buddhist meditation. Doty describes the Dalai Lama’s uniquely calming and compassionate presence as follows: “There is this absolute and unconditional love he exudes that feels like taking a deep breath after holding your breath for a long time. You don’t have to be anyone other than who you are” (263-264).

Doty’s supervisor during his time as a Deputy Explorer plays a brief but important role in Doty’s life. Noticing Doty’s reaction when his father is brought into the station, the supervisor ensures that Doty’s father won’t face charges and reassures Doty that he understands how he feels: his own father was also an alcoholic. The implicit reassurance that Doty doesn’t need to let his family circumstances dictate his life leaves a profound impression on him: “I was poor. My father was an alcoholic. But I wasn’t broken” (141).

The premed committee at UC Irvine is at first quite hostile to Doty’s request for a recommendation; in fact, the program’s secretary initially refuses to even schedule Doty’s interview, saying that his low GPA would make such a meeting a waste of everyone’s time. Over the course of the interview, however, Doty persuades the committee to change their minds, and the secretary even points him to a premed program at UC Irvine he might find useful. In addition to highlighting Doty’s persistence in pursuing his dreams, the episode also underscores his growing refusal to let others define him; Doty briefly worries that the committee may be right about him, but doesn’t allow this to undermine his knowledge that he is “so much more than whatever was in that file” (164).

Emily is a young pharmaceutical rep with whom Doty has a one-night stand while at the height of his wealth. Her role in the narrative is primarily to underscore the emotional hollowness at the heart of Doty’s financial success; their interactions are shallow and artificial—both know Doty is lying when he promises to call her—and Doty doesn’t even remember her name until she reminds him.

The bullies Doty confronts on his way to Ruth’s lesson are “a gang of two [who] pretty much rule] Lancaster in the afternoon between the hours of three and five during the school year” (82). The leader is a boy two grades ahead of Doty who often picks on Doty’s older brother. It’s this boy that Doty openly defies in a stand-off that underscores not only Doty’s growing confidence, but also his growing empathy; while looking the bully in the eye, Doty suddenly realizes that he is acting out of “pain and fear” rather than innate cruelty or evil (85). In this way, the episode also reflects the book’s broader claims about shared humanity, suggesting that even those who hurt others are worthy of pity and compassion.