Does Manifestation Really Work? Top Neuroscientist on the Power of Intention | Dr. James Doty

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Michael Gervais (1:17)

How does compassion contribute to living a high-performing life? Welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast, where we dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. I am your host, Dr. Michael Gervais, by trade and training a high-performance psychologist. Today we have Dr. James Doty, a leading neurosurgeon and founder of Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. James' journey from a difficult upbringing to his role as a top neurosurgeon and researcher reveals the transformative power of compassion, empathy and mindfulness. In this episode, we explore how vulnerability and kindness can enhance resilience, well-being and performance. Three things I know we're all interested in. So with that, let's jump right into this enlightening conversation with Dr. James Doty.

Dr. James, this is so great to be sitting with you. There are so many people in my community that have been on the podcast. When I ask them afterwards, like, hey, who do you think would be fun? Your name has come up a bunch.

James Doty (2:33)

Really?

Michael Gervais (2:33)

Yeah, so.

James Doty (2:34)

That's because I use profanity probably.

Michael Gervais (2:39)

Great, and I kind of doubt that's the main reason. But before we jump into it, like, how are you?

James Doty (2:45)

Good, good. Listen, I'm happy to be here, and I have to say, I don't mean to sound inauthentically humble, but, you know, I feel great gratitude and privilege for people interested in the work that I'm doing.

Michael Gervais (3:03)

Well, you're making a dent, you're making a bit of a ripple across the world. And the fact that people that I trust have pointed to you, it's really quite incredible as a compliment. And your writings and what you're doing is really rich. And one more thing, I think we're going to say a lot of the same things, but I think there's something that about this word manifestation that I need to understand because I don't know the word. I don't really like the word. It makes my skin crawl a little bit and you love it. So I want to get into the science underneath of it. And I want to have fun understanding why a big horsepower like yourself chose to focus on manifesting.

James Doty (3:50)

Well, there are a couple of reasons. As you know, I wrote a book called Into the Magic Shop, Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart.

Michael Gervais (4:00)

Yes.

James Doty (4:01)

And that book really took off and was the New York Times bestseller, bestseller in eight countries and 36 languages.

But one of the key aspects of that was not only the memoir aspect and the story of my own life, but also lessons I learned. And some of those lessons relate to actually walking into the magic shop. And I met a woman who really changed the trajectory of my life. And we can certainly go into that. But fundamentally, she taught me a mindfulness practice. Now, this was in the late 60s, so that term wasn't used. But just as importantly, and in the book, I called it a visualization practice. But in fact, it was a manifestation practice. And believe me, as you probably know, I am not into woo-woo or pseudoscience.