#1 Neurosurgeon: How To Use Your Brain For Manifestation | Dr. James Doty

The universe doesn't care about you because there is nothing to care about there's nothing there what we do know from Neuroscience is that we have the ability using our minds through training to maximize our ability to manifest and what I mean by that is we have a narrative of success the money power position and if you achieve success that makes you happy and nothing could be further from the truth what allows us to To have meaning and purpose in our lives is what is your relationship like with [Laughter] drinking um I assume you mean drinking

alcohol right uh well if you ask me honestly I would say that most of the negative um experiences I had uh have frequently been associated with alcohol um you know conversely uh when used in moderation uh it can actually be uh helpful socially to interact with People but uh uh my father was an alcoholic as you know I think and um um you know there's a saying that uh one is too much two is too many and three is Never Enough right so I uh have to um not necessarily consciously but I am certainly aware

that at times uh alcohol is not my friend yeah I wanted to use that as a gateway to talking about your childhood because um a lot of times children of Alcoholics they don't touch the stuff Sometimes obviously they become alcoholics themselves and I was just curious because you didn't really talk about that in the book and um and so to start can we just fill the audience in on I mean you talked about this almost in every interview with the magic shop and all that but can you just give us a sort of Montage of

of how you grew up and what the mindset was like and kind of how you ended up in that in that magic Shop sure well um and I I don't want to act like somehow my narrative is incredibly unusual or um unique because sadly there are a lot of children who grow up with parents who are addicted to various substances be it alcohol drugs Etc and there're also children who grow up with parents who have mental illness that being said uh my situation was that my father was an alcoholic he was a binge Drinker uh

my mother had had a stroke When I was a child as a result she had a seizure disorder um was partially paralyzed unfortunately chronically depressed attempted suicide we were on public assistance essentially my entire childhood and in fact we were evicted from various residences so of course you can imagine that is not the ideal uh for a childhood um and there's a whole uh area of research regarding uh children who come From similar types of backgrounds and it's called adverse childhood experiences and basically there's a checklist and the N higher the number of checks the

more I should say the less likely you are to succeed in life by typical um standards and so uh having a parent who has mental illness having a parent who has drug or alcohol issues uh being in poverty uh these circumstances markedly diminish the likelihood that you will succeed in society Uh of course in many ways it's um analogous to ongoing trauma now trauma typically is associated with War veterans but the nature of chronic chaos in predictability or unpredictability uh have a huge negative impact because what happens is you chronically activate your sympathetic nervous system

or this flight fight or freeze response response because you never know what's going to happen next as a result your muscles are chronically Tense you're always looking around waiting for the unexpected and many of these children grow up with what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder and as a result if you cannot relax if you can't be present then it's very hard to function in normal society and sadly this is the case with so many children and as a assult uh they lose hope uh they fall into despair they give up and uh then it's

a spiral Downward what was different for me and I I preface this by saying I never felt that my parents did not love me I felt ignored by my parents um but that was because they did not have the tools to deal with their own issues much less deal with their children um but what changed the trajectory of my life was one day I had gotten on my bicycle and uh I was far away from home I ended up at a strip mall and in the strip mall was a magic shop and uh when I

walked into the magic shop and I had an interest in magic for some time there was a woman there and it turned out she was the owner's mother the owner was doing an errand and she knew nothing about magic but what she did know about was people and she greeted me with and I'm sure you met people like this who have a radiant smile and presence just this kindness Emanated from her and as a result I felt safe and of course for someone to open up to share their feelings uh one has to have a

sense of psychological safety and that's what she gave me and as a result of that I felt comfortable uh uh speaking with her and telling her the truth essentially and she asked some uh penetrating questions which I answered and after about 20 or 30 minutes she said to me she said I really like you I'm here for another six weeks and if you show up every day I think I can teach you something that could really help you now to be honest with you I had zero self-awareness I didn't know exactly what this entailed uh

but the reality was that I had AB nothing else to do and she was very kind and she was giving me chocolate chip cookies so uh I did show up every day how old how old were you at This this point uh I was about 12 and a half okay um and uh so during that period of six weeks she taught me several things now you have to remember this was before mindfulness or neuroplasticity were in the common lexicon of society these were in fact unusual terms uh but what she taught me was a mindfulness

practice she taught me how to relax my body because I had no understanding that My muscles were tense all the time or that I was constantly looking around and as I'm sure you can appreciate if you're uh like a goldfish in a aquarium and the water's dirty you don't realize you're swimming dirty water all the time and uh I had no realization that my muscles were tense or that I couldn't focus and she taught me uh what is now called a body survey or a way to relax my Muscles and this was followed by um

focusing in this case uh uh on a candle although she did teach me a mantra type of exercise and um this allowed me to focus and be present and from this uh she made me understand that the negative dialogue that was constantly going in going on in my had was not truth and I'm sure many people think that the statements they're telling themselves are based in truth but in Fact we have something called negativity bias which is baggage we carry from our Evolution as a species and negative things have a tendency to stick to us

and statements that are made about us or that we interpret as negative often times get embedded in our subconscious and we repeat them I'm not good enough I'm not worthy I'm an impostor I don't deserve love and uh she taught me that these Were not truth and that in fact uh I could change those negative statements to one's of positive self-affirmation and while of course it didn't take it all away it certainly toned it down and it gave me insights one into those statements were not true and two that I do deserve to be loved

or that I am worthy that I'm not an impostor and then this changed how I looked at the world because when I was less or um self critical uh I was also Less uh hypercritical of those around me and as a result I gained insight and awareness that it wasn't an issue that my parents didn't like me or didn't care about me it was they just did not have their own tools to help themselves so my anger and hostility towards my parents or my situation changed what happens is that when you carry negativity around with

you in many ways it emanates from your body and there's a Whole amount of literature in terms of uh this uh electromagnetic energy that emanates from us and certainly if it's positive uh you get a positive response from others if it's negative people are cautious or turn away or avoid and so what I tell people is that once I changed how I looked at the world the changed how it looked at me and uh it turned out that it wasn't that people didn't like me at all it was the energy was that I was emanating

and in fact When that changed people reached out to help me and um I find it always interesting there's a subset of people who prefer to hear the narrative I did it myself reality is none of us do anything ourselves we cannot be successful in this world unless people help us and so so I received a lot of help along the way of which I'm very appreciative of appreciative of and have gratitude for and that has allowed me to uh be with you Today hey so a lot of you all have been reaching out with

your guest suggestions and look I appreciate it I do and to help make it easier for those guests to say yes to my invitation I need you to subscribe to this channel just hit the Subscribe button below and that's literally the best way to help me get you that guest on my podcast all right thank you so much for helping out and back to the show thank you for that and I want to just go back and fill in a Couple of the gaps um you you hopped on your bike and went to that magic

shop because your parents were fighting with each other and that was sort of a pattern of yours to just get as far away from that as you can and I think when we pan back and we look at the sort of the larger trajectory of this idea of manifesting if I'm playing God and I want to manifest um a a a doctor a neuroscientist neuros Surgeon who's going to educate the world and inspire people on this concept in a very practical way I can't imagine a better scenario to have you born into in order to

inspire you to go to that that magic shop that day and to feel that sense of insecurity leading up to that point and to bring that doctor into your fourth grade class and to introduce you to this idea of medicine which then inspires you to want to become a doctor later on in life and you know and and Then the story of you having that Premed exam and them shaming you saying this is a waste of everybody's time and then you didn't really say this but you I'm assuming you told the story your life story

which then human ized you in their eyes and you told them about your dad and your mom and all of that and then you end up becoming this this this doctor and and contributing all this money I mean would you agree looking back that that your whole life Essentially has been a manifestation of what you're now putting out into the world and what do you think of this idea of Destiny when it comes to manifesting things well as you know from the first sentence in my new book uh I say the universe doesn't give a

about you um in terms of Destiny uh um that's probably above my pay grate uh uh what I would say is that the trajectory of My Life um has been an understanding that What allows us to have meaning and purpose in our lives is either uh being of service to others or having a vision of inspiring others to be their best selves I certainly went down the path of um it all being about me and that path led to a dead end because of my own insecurity my own shame I was Desperately Seeking external affirmation

that I was Okay and the problem is that uh this is certainly not uncommon but what happens is you stand on the mountain after you've accomplished something and certainly people will tell you wow you're so great wow that's amazing but for me at least it never meant anything no matter how many people told me I was okay I did not feel okay and uh Sadly there are many people who have accomplished the external narratives that our capitalist Western Society has promoted which is the acquisition of things or power or position or money and because they

have the same emptiness or do not ful feel fulfilled from all of this external affirmation they have a tendency to show it off to keep promoting how great they are and it nothing works the sad part is that there are a number of people who believe the Same narrative and who want all of these things under the false notion that if I just get them uh all my insecurities all my shame will go away and people will recognize how great I am and it just doesn't work but unfortunately this is a very common societal narrative

ultimately though uh over time it became readly event to evident to me that uh the only way I could fill the void or the emptiness that I felt was by caring for others and in fact I recognized That that is how we evolved as a species that's how we should be and the problem in modern Western capitalist Society is that uh unlike 200 years ago when most people lived in villages they were born there they died there was a small community uh they lived in multi-generational families they had people who supported them who cared about

them who were non-judgmental who were working to make Them better people and they uh did not have chronic activation of their sympathetic nervous system as we evolved as a species that mechanism uh which dates back millions of years was a mechanism to survive in a hostile environment but it was never meant to be activated 247 and what I mean by that is that uh in ancient times if you will uh you would see the grass move you knew from the experience that it probably Represented a predator your sympathetic nervous system was activated you responded um

and escaped hopefully and then you immediately went back into your parasympathetic mode which is our rest and digest system and that's the mode where we're meant to live and it's the mode when our brain works at its best it's the uh place where our physiology works at its best and when we can be in that mode most of the time uh uh It's associated with increased longevity and So that's where we're meant to live unfortunately the nature of modern society where we don't live in multi-generational families where we don't live in villages where we have

to work this is created for many people chronic stimulation of their sympathetic nervous system where they in many ways are fearful and whether this is to um pay for food have a job live in a house uh take care of their family these pressures are on them and for many People especially now because there is ever decreasing social safety net uh this creates fear and anxiety and uh uh and it's very unfortunate because as a result people are incredibly fearful of being judged 25% of people don't have anyone to talk to when they're in pain

or suffering or anxious and uh uh it's created in many ways a societal disaster uh people having ever Increasing anxiety despair stress and this has a negative impact in every aspect of society and if we can shift people over to understanding what we really need uh I think that can be extraordinarily powerful so you mentioned in the book that from the point of view of the of the sympathetic nervous system positivity has no purpose for survival and so therefore it doesn't Merit our attention in the same way that negativity or threat um Can can get

our full attention and I I think a lot of people want to be more positive right we we read all these positivity quotes on social media and and we say oh that's great you know this is my new thing and all of that why well I won't say why is it so hard to do this but how how can we sort of unlock that that that more positive tendency within each of us in a real world practical way And give us a give give me like a real world sort of expectation how long does it

take to start to become more positive well first of all uh um I think what you've said is correct and uh one of the problems of course and I don't mean to keep harping back to Western capitalist Society but the goal of unfortunately the society we live in is to have infinite growth on a finite Planet which is fundamentally impossible uh and so ever increasing Consumption uh while um uh it has continued to occur is ultimately finite and what I mean by that is that uh always chasing something always uh being under uh a threat

that if you don't achieve something something bad's going to happen of course uh is not helpful whatsoever um getting back to your query one of the challenges for a lot of people is that they carry the baggage for good or bad of their childhoods with Them throughout their lives and there are certain uh very specific developmental uh points in our lives where we learn how to connect with other people how to be nurtured how to love how to care and this is uh called uh attachment Theory or bonding Theory and if those up areas uh

are associated with negative aspects many children uh have these types of behaviors embedded into their subconscious and as a result they don't Appreciate that every action they take as an adult every relationship they engage in every interaction action uh actually is Tainted by negative baggage and as we were just talking about negativity you don't see any news programs that are all about positivity because positivity is not a threat to people negativity though makes one turned by our evolutionary uh uh constructs so um unfortunately uh this Is sort of a morphing of how were designed just

because of the modern world in terms of uh a positive practice uh and also let me just preface this by saying yes there uh is something called toxic positivity where you know you finally sit there and say look I've had enough of this yes I appreciate all these great things but they're not helping me when I ow it at this moment in my life and I certainly get that as well but what does happen when you're Able to shift into the parasympathetic nervous system or this rest and digest system in many ways what happens that

you see the world in a different way you understand that everyone is suffering you understand that how somebody appears this moment may not have any relationship to what's actually going on you appreciate that um everybody is uh hopefully uh almost everybody is is doing the best they can at that moment in time and I think that Makes you much more thoughtful more kind and uh more connected to people and what we have a genetic imperative to do is to connect uh to care for others this of course started with our nuclear family when our Offspring

like unlike other species don't run off into the jungle or the forest they have to be careed for for a decade they a half two decades and that requires one to be present and offer time and resources and Unless there's some very deep uh Power that makes you do that uh and this is why I say a genetic imperative it's embedded in you uh you won't and your species will not survive so when our uh children or offspring are suffering and are hungry or in need when we uh act uh towards caring for them then

this results in the release of different type of neurotransmitters one I'm sure you're familiar with Oxytocin and uh this is called the love bonding affiliation caring hormone and when that is released our reward and pleasure centers are activated we shift into this parasympathetic nervous system our physiology works at its best our brain networks function at their best and at that moment we are the best people we can be and uh and we feel good that's where we need to live but in modern society with the uh needs that are Forced upon us to survive uh

this distorts this system and chronically activates for many people uh their sympathetic nervous system so what I hear you saying is that our capitalist Society is essentially wiring us against positive ity being you know finding that sort of natural optimistic positive outlook on life and in order to do that you have to become very intentional about being compassionate and through practicing Compassion repeatedly we can sort of unlock this this greater sense of connection with other people and so where does manifesting play into all of that assuming that I'm I'm I'm recount recapping it correctly uh

just to make one statement before I answer that question the problem isn't so much capitalism it's ruthless capitalism which we've seen over the last few decades where if you look in the 50s or 60s a person at having a low Wage job still was able to care for their family rent a home go on a little vacation they weren't trying to be billionaires they were simply trying to live a good life and take care of their families nowadays we've had an ever increasing stripping of Social Services we don't have a living wage we have a

minimum wage uh even two parents working at minimum wage cannot even care for themselves much less a family uh uh Financial insecurity uh Home insecurity food insecurity every one of these uh increase uh one's stress level and this is in part why we're in the way we are uh if anyone looked at the ever increased income inequality they would say it is obscene and inappropriate yet 80% of new dollars that are created go into the pockets not 90% of less than 10% of the people in the world what kind of a system is that now

that's not the purpose of our conversation today but I would suggest That people think about that in terms of manifesting all of us are manifesting a second but as you know uh an athlete doesn't become an elite an an elite athlete by waking up one morning and saying I'm an elite athlete uh that happens because of what habit formation repetition intention so uh to achieve that though you have to recognize that there isn't some magic being out in the universe who says you were worthy and you deserve X Y Or Z the universe doesn't care

about you one iota because there is nothing to care about there's nothing there and what we do know from Neuroscience though is that we have the ability using our minds through training to maximize our ability to manifest and what I mean by that is and what's outlined in the book are very specific techniques and an explanation as to why they work to give you the tools and resources uh to do that but to start at the beginning one Thing which I already mentioned is you have to understand what you've already been manifesting and when and

I'm sure you've met people say I don't understand it you know I'm going through my third divorce and it's like I married the same person all three times right well this is this is because of the baggage you carry and you have unfortunately not healthy methods of connection or bonding and so you have to understand the baggage first That you've been carrying and take some time to explore that then you have to understand the difference between what you think you want and what you need what I mean by that is we've been talking about Society

Western Society well we have a narrative of uh success the money power position and if you achieve success that makes you happy and nothing could of course be further from the truth yet we brainwashed so many people in that manner that we're only Only worsening and already uh overwhelming uh situation where people don't have purpose they don't have meaning which is the core of the happy life which is meaning that this happiness is deep and sustainable versus A Narrative of things that I want to make me look important uh which is uh transient shallow and

is a dead end in terms of seeking happiness when you me when you say that There's no um external factors uh that are in control of of manifesting I just I'm curious how does that square with the concept of of God and you also mentioned Free Will in your book as well so can you just talk a little bit about that prayer God free will or and how all that kind of relates to this concept of manifesting sure well uh let me go backwards a little bit if you look at uh the evolution of Our

species we used to live in tribes and typically these tribes were up to about 150 because after that it's very hard to keep track of an individual in the tribal setting though uh the tribe itself would put con constraints on your behavior because this they were all around around you they were judging you and uh accordingly you would act appropriate to the benefit of the society once you got over that Number and that number I think it's called dumbarton's number I could be wrong or dart's number uh uh couldn't keep track of people and so

some people would argue that there was another contributing factor to the following we're the only species uh that has a finite understand or an understanding of our finite existence meaning that we know we're going to die this creates uh for many people an Existential crisis because they're always concerned about dying two once you get over that 150 number you can't keep track of people so what would be better than to create a narrative of an omniscient being who sees every action you do and judge is that action so many people would argue that the source

of religion actually is to help Society function better by creating a moral ethical framework and if you don't fall Within that then you are punished by this omniscient being that sees everything you do and uh uh it's interesting if you look at every society uh there's a woman who won the Ted PR and she looked at the basis of every religious practice and she got together with nine priests uh gurus whatever you want to call them and the fundamental agreement was and I think science backs this is that compassion is the fundamental basis of Every

religion because that's what's allowed us to survive as a species as well as the Golden Rule so if you look at essentially every culture there is some definition of an omniscient being and that if you practice XY or Z or you're good person you're going to be rewarded by everlasting life and uh you can even pull it into the Buddhist narrative or the Hindu narrative and it's associated with quote Unquote Karma you're you're being punished or rewarded based on your past lives so these types of narratives or a mechanism to control people's behavior as well

as to benefit uh overlords or priest class because once Society evolved you also got the creation of these individuals because it went from an agrarian society or small groups of people to much larger groups of people uh and this is where the greed of man has uh ever evolved uh so if you Look at God or religion well how do you pick and even among as an example Christians you have 35,000 sex of Christianity at least so I would suggest if you look at all the various religions you have well over a million different narratives

about who's right well if you have a million definitions about who's right that means no one's right and so in terms of any type of organized religion or belief that there is somehow somebody magical out there Who cares about me at least in my examination of the information I have I don't believe it whatsoever but what I do know and uh is that I'm a human being I have a mind and there's certain techniques that I can use that not only benefit me but by very the nature of walking that walk benefit other people which

actually hopefully improves our society and makes the world a better place now if you want to call God a Sense or a purpose uh of goodness uh I can certainly agree with that do I have any evidence of that absolutely zero but it doesn't matter I don't need any evidence of a God I don't need any evidence of an omnicient being all I need to know is that when I care for other people when I connect for with other people I feel good about myself period and the reality is when I feel that it's also

true uh my reward and pleasure measure centers are Being stimulated my physiology is working its best all my cognitive brain networks are functioning that their best and so that's really all I need to know and that's fact-based it's not magical thinking and how does free will fit into all of this one could argue if and you could say if you were God and you had all the information in the world that then you could use that information to make predictions about everything and the so there would be no Mysteries Because it's like I mix X

chemical together with Y chemical and this reaction occurs so I think that's one argument uh it could be a specious argument because yes that on some level may be true but none of us have access to that information so what does it matter you know there's a book by Robert spolski recently called that I think it's called different I could be wrong but anyway uh uh he does not believe that there is free will again it all Comes down to sort of a specific definition like I said earlier if I had all that information and

could process it I can predict every action of everything because when you know we're chemical beings electrochemical beings and there's uh physics or other laws that uh say what happens when you mix A and B uh that being said you know there is a narrative that you cannot predict uh how three bodies are going to interact in terms of their gravity Reputational pool and I throw that out because there's now a TV show about that uh but it's in involves humans but the point is that we don't have free will on the one hand but

we never know we don't have free will and uh so what does it matter right I would even say just from my own exposure to this stuff over the years is that we have the potential for free will but because our neurons are wiring together based on our old patterns and old trauma as you mentioned Then we're more automated than we than we are aware of and and that self- agency that we don't really get to tap into that as much if we're not interrupting that pattern on a regular basis which is of course why

you're such a big advocate for practices like mindfulness and meditation and you know when I'm hearing you talk I'm keep coming back to this concept of magic and and I think when it comes to like an idea of a God Or some sort of higher intelligence related to science and the placebo effect for instance which I think they say is something like 40% effective but we can't explain why and so when I hear magic I think of the inexplicable uh outcomes that maybe could be scientifically proven if we knew the right questions to ask but

a lot of them aren't yet and we're still in process well we definitely are in Process I mean I think we've learned a lot uh you mentioned the placebo effect you could even use hypnosis and in some ways this uh shows what you were alluding to where we miss a lot of stuff and therefore are unaware of it uh um and what's interesting even if a group of people know you're using a placebo still a significant percentage will have the same effect uh as the drug would or whatever it is you're giving them so it's

a a very uh interesting Phenomenon uh but what it does show also is that there are mechanisms of the in the brain that can allow us to do incredible things as an example manipulate our physiology in response to a placebo uh and in fact there are people such as whm Hof or Tibetan Monks who are able to control their body temperature or other uh bodily functions that are typically uh self-regulated which we Have no conscious power over but they can train themselves to uh do that so we do have access but again it emphasizes the

point you did earlier that it requires practice and intention and we know that uh when people engage in repetitive behaviors that that lays down uh new neurop Pathways and there's a the same that what fires together wires together and this is true if you were to look at an individual who started playing the Violin as an example early on their brain would look just like uh a similar age child but if you look at 20 30 years later after they've been practicing the violin and you measure their homunculus their sensory homunculus which outlines the size

of different areas that are represented in the seat sensory cortex you will say that they've gone from let's say normal siiz hand representation as in a child who as a child who's starting and now there's Massive representation of their hands and their fingers because that information is critical to uh play their instrument and that's why they' significantly developed in size and this same gift is available to all of us I mentioned earlier about manifestation one you have to uh understand what you're already manifesting two you have to have Clarity of what it is you want

or your intention and I use the example that some people Will chase after the typical metrics of success and be unhappy or they may hopefully chase after things that offer meaning and purpose and oftentimes if you focus on meaning and purpose you realize either these things aren't that important to you or you put them in the right perspective which means you enjoy them while you have them but they have no impact on your level of Happiness if they're gone tomorrow you're perfectly Happy uh uh so that's the other aspect and then I think the next

aspect is once you've done that is one understanding that uh habits have to be formed and so uh you have to wake up with a practice and in the book I outline a six-step practice that I think can be helpful for a lot of people which is based on our knowledge of Mind training if you will from Neuroscience but it relates certainly to meditation practice and other practices And when these are done repetitively it does increase the likelihood of manifesting but I think the other thing is you also have to let go of attachment because

people have a tendency to want and to Crave and of course if it is excessive then this is a great source of suffering and it doesn't lead to manifesting what you want so you have to be uh able to let go of that attachment you also have to be able to be okay with that where it Just doesn't impact you you've done your best you've outlined a goal but at some point you let attachment to having that goal uh leave you and when you when you talked about the story of the young women whose parents

migr immigrated from Sri Lanka and she wanted to go to a medical school and become a doctor and she sort of shifted away from craving that outcome to visualizing the people that she could Help I thought that was a really cool sort of perspective shift when it comes to this idea of manifesting and in the section on on the miserliness of the brain this this statement really really um stopped me in my tracks when I was reading the book he said if the brain is not sufficiently familiar with your goal it will reject it by

default and then you talked about the power of visualization so maybe we can we can Combine that story with the power of visualization and talk about how to properly visualize it's not about visualizing the million dollars and the Porsche the this and that but it's really about taking it further to to what you want to do with that how you can help people how you can serve what's the sort of Greater purpose and then how do you how do you visualize this in a real world practical way sure so getting back to an story uh

this young lady from Sri Lanka her challenge was that uh her parents were immigrants they were very poor they'd given up a middle class life because of trauma in their country and they were here in the United States and she felt she had to perform for her family which meant her becoming a doctor because in her culture being a doctor was a respected highly paying position and the problem was that it wasn't so much about the being the doctor and caring for people it was she Wanted this to make her parents happy but that could

be simply substituted I want a Porsche she wanted something that felt very important just to her it wasn't about the it it was about her and when she shifted her perspective she saw the world in a completely different way she actually did really want to be a doctor she really did want to help people but she was so distracted because of this imperative that she felt she had and that created a lot of anxiety Because she knew she had to perform to make her parents happy when she shifted perspective to focusing on I want to

do this to care for people the very nature of doing that result in her physiology working its best her blood pressure decreased and it was like a meditative practice her heart rate decreased she was present she wasn't distracted by all the rumination of her not achieving and that allowed for her ultimately to get into medical School and I will report to her you that she gradu situated and she's now in a residency and is very uh happy and and in fact she's studied Psychiatry interestingly enough uh but um this idea of visualization is very important

as I said uh uh what fires together wires together and this is the nature of habit formation and uh one has to have repetition combined with intention to lay down the neurop Pathway for one to maximally manifest uh the best they can or have the potential to do so uh what this means is you have to engage all of your senses we identify ourselves and know who we are by all the sensory information that comes into us now the interesting thing about that there's probably 10 million bits of information that come in every second which

is associated with homeostasis of bodily function but only About 50 to 100 bits do we have conscious perception of and this relates back to what you said earlier about missing stuff because reality is there's stuff going around all the time that you don't even see because your attention is focused elsewhere so uh one is uh in terms of visualization you uh use most if not all of your sensory organs as an example you uh uh write it down so you're using your hand to write it down you read the writing silently You read the writing

aloud you close your eyes and you dream or see yourself in that position and each time you do that and engage multiple senses to do it and each time you do the practice itself those strengthen these neurop Pathways and make them more Salient and embed them into your subconscious so you can consciously embed information into your subconscious but it has to be done in the manner that I just described and Once that is embedded this has an impact on what we call your default mode Network which is self-referential is associated with the image you're creating

of yourself and once that image gets clarified it uh or that intention then this activates what we call your salience network you have now made it Salient to your brain and meaning that it smells it it's attracted to it and once that happens Then uh your attention network is focused on that goal and as I I use in the book a metaphor of once the uh intention has been placed in the file cabinet The Blood Hound uh smells it and then starts looking everywhere for any hint related to that intention uh but again it activates

the attention Network to do so and then once that happens uh you're always attuned to any possibility of uh what you're trying to Manifest uh occurring okay and there's a professor uh Scott Galloway who's doing the circuit the podcast circuit right now he talks a lot about how following your passion is is and what he's basically saying is that um in order to have an optimized life you want to just pick something and just be masterful at that by just doing it over and over and over which is fine neither here nor there you say

pursue your goal Passionately and you open that chapter with the deepo trooper quote which I love always go with your passions never ask yourself if it's real istic or not find the place inside of yourself where nothing is impossible so can you flesh this concept out of pursue your goal passionately well I think uh when uh Dr Galloway is talking you know like everything it has to be in context and you have to understand the point uh obviously uh we have to eat we Have to have shelter we have to have security well if you

decide that you're going to uh handcarved small figurines out of wood for 20 hours a day uh unless you have a remarkable Salesforce you're probably going to starve and so you know while this person may be pursuing their goal passionately uh unless they find a benefactor or change what they're doing uh they're not going to have a happy life now you could argue their H life is perfectly happy they're doing their Thing and if they die well they die well that's a narrative but in general I think that what he's trying to emphasize is that

you should be thoughtful and if it's not a uh a passion or love of yours that will uh sustain you uh Beyond just your pleasure uh you have to find some other things to connect it with period and that's true of everybody that being said I think in an ideal world you should pursue the thing that makes you happy And joyful uh because then it really contributes and so if everyone had the opportunity to do that I think that would be uh uh wonderful it's just not uh reality right um when you published your first

book into the magic shop that that became a runaway bestseller and and I'm curious how did that happen I mean I'm not saying that obviously it Resonated with the readers but there are a lot of authors who publish books who you know are really wonderful but did you experience some happy synchronicity coincidence that got it reviewed by a certain source that shot it to the stratosphere or how did that what what how do you see that in hindsight well again if you look at my own history fundamentally it's one of chronic manifestation in many cases

Against All Odds uh but you see in some ways it's Like compassionate intention if you walk the world carrying that it's present with you all the time you're no longer this is like Mastery of a topic when you master something whether it's running whether it's riding a bike whatever it is when you master it and become Elite you live and breathe it it's no longer a thought because youve laid down those narrow Pathways and they're so strong that they're constantly there it's not it's like Muscle memory in many ways so when you walk in the

world with Compassion or this idea of manifesting it is always with you and it becomes automatic in terms of how you think how you see the world how you respond to the world so you asked me about my own manifestation and uh how I got here is that correct well I was asking really about your first book as a manifestation Advocate like let's talk let's connect the dots to this real world experience were you Visualizing yourself so into the magic shop uh is interesting uh frankly because uh one I had no interest in writing a

book I had been approached by two or three different uh literary agents wanting me to write a book or in fact even telling me I didn't really have to write write it they would get somebody to write it for me uh um and I I just didn't have the time and wasn't interested in focusing on that and these are people who had either watch some Videos or come to some of my lectures what happened interestingly enough to show you the nature of manifesting as you know uh the Dil Lama is the founding benefactor for Cent

I run at Stanford which so's compassion but I ultimately became the chairman of the dalil Lama Foundation as a result of that uh I ended up meeting spiritual and religious leaders all over the world and one of those individuals was Desmond Tutu and I Was invited uh to meet him and attend uh attended his 80th birthday party in Cape Town and uh a part of that was actually interesting a he was the ameritus chap a chaplain or pastor at the at St George's Church but they were having an event for him related to his birthday

and Bono was there which was interesting there were only a couple hundred people but the second day of his birthday was a book launching event for a book his daughter impa had done with the journalist which Like a a coffee table book of photographs of his life but at that event an individual came up to me and introduced himself now of course all of us go to events where we don't know anybody people introduce themselves you never see or hear from them again which I thought was the case here except one of the people was

a very tall handsome guy he's probably about 6' s so he's taller than me and uh the event ended I went Back to California was given a lecture at Stanford for the center I run and I look out the audience and this guy is in the audience and I'm going wow that is weird and I went to speak with him but the woman stopped me and asked me a question he was gone happened the second time since the exact same the other thing that then happened was that a friend of mine had a book Lun

of a book he had and asked me if he could use my house uh Because I had just built it and uh he was living in an apartment so I said sure so uh I ended up saying uh I agreed to this and I did not make the guest list uh one of the members uh on that list uh turned out to be a literary agent and uh he came up to me and it turned out that was the exact same guy I met in Cape and he was telling me the story about how his

father was his hero and that he had shared some videos that I had done With his father and as a result of that uh he wanted me to do a book with him uh so he could give it as a gift to his father because his father was ill and this was sort of a something he really wanted to share with him and so I didn't even think about it I just said okay I'll do it and uh it turned out that he was a literary agent to Des to to to uh Mandel or Mandela

and to Richard Branson so uh I did not know this I didn't Google him or anything I said I Would do it and of course that led to a wonderful collaboration and he was very involved in the book proposal and we worked together on an outline and he helped edit it or at least his assistant uh by the name of Laura love ended up helping edit it and contribute a lot to it and that's where it came from uh so did I manifest it probably on some level I had been thinking about writing a book

because People had asked me to do it and I had a very clear image about it but I just let it sit there and the thing is some of these things when you put embed them into your subconscious they don't have a timeline on them I don't dictate when things happen nor exactly how they happen but as you see in that instance uh it did happen uh but not in any way as I would have imagined it but I also have things I've been working on with great intention for 101 15 years and They have

a manifested but I have what I would call dispositional optimism where I always have a positive belief that what I wish to have happen will happen and so for me it's not that they are not going to happen it's just not necessarily on my timeline hey really quickly if you like this content or if you don't like it let me know down in the comments because your likes and comments are going to help me learn what you want more of and Then that way I can keep bringing you the good stuff all right thanks so

much for your feedback and back to the show yeah one of the things that I got from reading your book is you have you you you it appears I don't know you personally okay so but you have a generosity of spirit you talked about getting hundreds of emails every month related to into the magic shop and then that woman Anu she apparently Googled Medical School magic or something like That and that that initiated a conversation with you which you know I I've written books I had people reach out to me and I've told myself I

don't have time to respond to all these people but like making the time to respond and just showing up in these little ways I think that's what you're talking about when it comes to compassion and I would say and I'm not a scientist but I would say there is an absolute connection between doing those little Things and having some of the bigger things that you're personally wanting to do to help make the world a better place manifest a lot easier and also understanding that it's process it's not about doing it one time taking one Leap

of Faith having one conversation this needs to become a lifestyle I think yeah you've summarized it completely I I mean look does it take time to answer an email yes in fact frankly 80% of the ones I answer from a Real life perspective are Wast of my time you never know when that one is g to end up in your next B when that Nigerian prince sends me a note asking for me to help them extract millions of dollars that's the one I always respond getting back to your question um yeah I mean think about

that statement how would you feel if you go to get your uh you know Premed uh letter of recommendation and a person looks at you and tells you uh giving you an Appointment is a complete waste of everyone's time I mean how horrible how dismissive how demeaning and sometimes the smallest act has incredible impact and and it's something that people will remember for the rest of their lives I I mean people you know don't necessarily remember the time when they they have everything and they were just party the details they remember is when they're really

suffering and they Absolute needs need something uh I've had people uh say to me in some ways what you were saying I don't have time to do it you know they're gazillion of them blah blah blah blah blah and they just ignore them and uh uh have you ever heard that uh story about the the starfish yeah like the little boy throwing them back to the ocean Yeah well yeah uh in many ways we're talking the same thing here you can't predict to How one action of yours might change the world or change someone's life

and yes it can be overwhelming and when somebody simply says oh Dr D I just want to thank you uh you know uh you wrote a great book uh I don't need to do anything with that I appreciate or if they say hey I know you're busy but if you have time I'd just like to chat with you I I don't have time but if a woman sit there sits there and says Uh I'm riding you because my son is dead he was a drug addict his girlfriend injected him with fed Bill he overdosed and

died uh his girlfriend was just released uh jail after uh seven years uh we want to set up a foundation uh would you mind talking to us your five what do you do with that uh or as an example after uh the shooting of these children I can't Remember uh uh Weir there have been so many but this was where uh what's his name the Imp for Wars Alex Jones has you know uh made a horrible State Sandy Hook yeah well you know after this two parents reached out to me I mean how could you

not respond now you could say uh well yeah there are a lot of those you'll be spending your life doing that that's not such a bad Thing uh so I do take the time I scam through them or have others scam through them and the ones that are particularly poignant or it felt that I might contribute something that did I try to answer them and do I answer every one of them no not always but I try the best I can so um you know ignoring these types of things um sure you can do that

I know guys who have all their social media stuff done by somebody else uh every Email is answered by somebody else what the is that I I mean that's not you just don't answer anything then but don't try to pretend that you're something you're not can you share the story of the wealthy Holocaust Survivor that you met in Aspen just to kind of give a just position to this when people do when they hear this and they go okay well I don't want to be that way anymore but then you really put it to the

test and yeah and yeah just share the story Because I think that's a really cool way to to kind of confront people on what they really have going on inside yeah I uh I was an asp been giving a talk and I will also preface a statement because then some people make get mad at me but you know you have these extraordinarily wealthy people ask you to speak but it's as if you're the newest animal in the zoo they don't necessarily any interest in what you're doing they just want to say I had the Party

or cocktail party or whatever for this person but as soon as the idea of them actually making a donation or doing something more than that uh they get terrified they pull away and they don't talk to anymore because and and on some level I can see why understand why because they're always approach for money but that being said if if you ask somebody to do something for you and it's not necessarily that everything is Qu proquo but just reasonableness would say you know I like the guy I like what he's doing I'm inviting him here

you know I'd love to donate to his cause because I think what he's doing is a good thing uh but I've even had people I say you know look you're super wealthy why don't you you don't have to do anything for me find something that you care about and invest your time and money into it because that's what will make you happy but often times they Don't uh but getting back to our friend in Aspen so there's a fellow I was asked to speak and there was an Afterparty at this uh extraordinarily wealthy guy's home

and you know it's hard to imagine a home that cost 30 or $50 million but this was one of those massive house in which he lives by himself uh it must be 20,000 square feet and so at this party he and I start chatting and one of the first things he does is I look at my wife I think for Time or something and then he pulls out his watch he says see this and I said yeah God it's really a nice watch he says something like well that cost a million dollars and I'm like

okay and uh anyway this conversation went on and then he said let me show you something because somehow we start about cars or something so he takes me out to his car garage and there's a Ferrari and a a g wagon and a Mercedes Etc and uh and I think he said you know There's three3 and a half million dollars in the garage there and so anyway he starts going on about how unhappy he is and he's never felt he's found true love and he would love to find and this guy's in his 80s he's

a holocaust Survivor and uh a widow and he I think he even said he was never in love with his wife etc etc so he's going on and on about this and I said to him I said' listen um if you spend 10 sessions with me one hour at a Time I will guarantee that you will find happiness and he looks at me goes really you think you can do that K is that possible I said yes I said I absolutely guarantee it so um uh uh he says well how much will that cost and

I said it'll cost a million dollars he goes what and he goes I don't have that kind of money and then his uh his daughter had or a granddaughter had been overhearing this and uh she you know she gets on the conversation and we Tell her what she talk about she goes Papa Pap I guess that's what she called papa papa you should do that go if this guy can guarantee you happiness etc etc and she's pleading with him and he he he uh uh sort of pushes her away and says silly girl she knows

nothing about money you know I need to save my money for her and you know she's already been given millions of dollars so uh then he looks at me says Well will you do it for $500,000 and so now he's negotiating when he has essentially unlimited wealth negotiating uh for something that he says is the most important thing that he wants to experience before he dies and this is unfortunately the nature of delusion uh and people create narratives uh uh and it's it's you can't even imagine I mean uh and it's sad because wealthier people

Unfortunately because they don't need anyone to survive in this world meaning that uh you don't have to be courteous to everyone you don't have to be nice uh because there's always a person you can pay to replace them and this is why uh when Studies have been done uh unfortunately extraordinarily wealthy people who you would think would be the most generous people in the world because uh they should have gratitude for what they've been able to achieve But they become uh less empathetic or less empathic and uh actually are the lowest Lev uh are at

the lowest level of giving uh per amount of wealth that they have yeah and when you told that when I first heard that story what I wondered was is that something you've pitched before to anyone or did you just sort of Intuit it that this is what is going to get this person's attention is charging him a million dollars for these 10 sessions yeah I wanted to see if he was Serious and again first of all a million dollars would certainly benefit the work I'm doing uh uh but it also uh shows you how attached

he is to money and that's what he's focused on it's not about doing good in the world it's simply about uh I have the biggest whatever is the biggest house the other fascinating thing was as you entered his house there was the guy's probably about five eight or nine uh and I say that because as you enter the house there's a massive Painting of him holding a set of skis in a ski sweater it's probably six he's six feet tall or more in this painting and you just looked at and you go who does this

I mean but again it's a very narcissistic self- absorb and it's a guy who out of his own fears his own insecurities is trying to get external affirmation uh to make himself feel better about himself would you mind revealing sort of The gist of what you would have if he had accepted your your offer the gist of what you would have kind of put him through you don't have to go into detail but just would it be mindfulness training or would it be compassion training or uh well one one uh would be to get him

out of his fear state right which is engagement of a sympathetic nervous system and because that's what's driving him to show me his watch and his wealth and so it's to make Him understand that he's living in a constant fear State and as a result you're not more generous you're not more kind uh and you're very self-oriented so one is to use mind training techniques and mindfulness would be a part of it uh to get them out of that state and then to have him experience uh what love really is which uh generally equates with

happiness and what I mean by that is having him sit with an image of that person has life Who's made him feel most comfortable most self- assured and that's typically your mother being with your mother and just experiencing the goodness and the innocence and the kindness associated with that and then uh giving examples of people who've done simple things to change people's lives uh and how both in the context of one's emotions but also in regard to their physiology uh makes them understand uh the value proposition of those behaviors And once that switch clicks uh

actually people go on a rampage of uh of being kind and thoughtful and and they become happier by that act those actions themselves okay beautiful so you you list a lot of practices in the book and um so there's lots of resources for people to engage in some of these these tools that you're mentioning um by by purchasing your book And you're now part of the Wellness Community once you start talking about manifestation and magic and all that you are a part of the Wellness Community I don't care if you're a neurosurgeon and I'm sure

you have heard claims from really popular people in the in the Wellness Community that you think to yourself that's such right what are some of these false claims that get repeated and echoed so much in in this community that as a neurosurgeon And scientist and researcher you think to you think to yourself This is that you guys aren't not as informed as you think you are well uh before I answer that question let me just say you you shouldn't have to buy my book it will probably hopefully be in a library near you or you

can check it out uh they also have Audible books as well as the written books and if you are going to buy the book buy it from bookshop.org Which is an affiliation between all the independent bookstores so that they benefit instead of uh companies like Amazon um so that's what I would suggest or borrow it from somebody uh but here's the challenge is and in some ways this was what we're were talking about earlier about religion there's certain fundamental truths about how our physiology works and these have been recognized but because of lack of knowledge

they carry baggage with them Typically of that culture and so uh you can go back to the first and second century the hermetics and on up to the sort of the period of new thought and most recently to Ronda burn in terms of all these narratives that one Define something called The Law of Attraction and it's basically what energy you put out you get back there's a universe out there and the universe cares about you and it's waiting for these positive thoughts to emanate from You and they and the universe will absorb of it and

reward you and uh as I stated earlier I mean that's complete uh the other uh aspect is that in some ways it can result in a guilt narrative like well the reason it didn't happen is because you really didn't want it that bad or you didn't deserve it so now it's victim shaming and all of this is completely untrue uh again if somebody wants to apply woooo and Make statements like uh have you ever heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster okay there's certain uh tenants that are essentially uh present in almost every religion and uh

so this group of scientists decided to use that information to create their own religion so it's called the Flying Spaghetti Monster and there's a whole origin story and how Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world and uh it's typical are Typically depicted as a colander you know like for holding spaghetti and the spaghetti overfed so and in fact uh because of freedom of religion there was an individual who got his driver's license picture wearing a spaghetti collander on his head because that's his religious practice my point being uh that uh uh you know you can say

anything you want and if you understand it's all made up but it's like placebo Effect even though you know it's not true and you get something out of it I'm fall all for it but don't act like that is Truth uh when it's not whatsoever so you know uh I would say that uh uh this idea about chasing after what you want that's the problem with that is that it's not helpful and it's a dead end and that's what I don't like about uh the secret because it plays into in many ways the Western capitalist

Narrative of chasing Uh uh success meaning that somehow will make you happy in getting those things all the things I want Comfort yeah yeah it's not it is it's not going to make you feel whole and the problem is if you look at unfortunately how our society has been structured it is all about me in fact there was even an educational initiative that said okay if there's a race every kid who entered should be given an award well that's ridiculous life doesn't work that way whether I Like it you like it they're winners they're losers

and that's just it and to be a winner or to achieve achieve requires practice habit formation showing up every day then you develop the neurop pathways and then that allows you to win the race it's not like laying in bed in the morning go well all those other guys are practicing but I'm just going to lay here because I'm gonna get I'm just waiting to get my metal then it that's Not going to happen and uh so we created unfortunately a generation of children who feel very entitled for doing nothing uh but um uh as

a result somehow people think that well I'm just going to sit here and everything's going to manifest uh but you know you have to uh practice and uh you have to show up so um this self-focused narrative because it only activates the sympathetic nervous system and plays into people's Fears and anxieties and insecurities uh that's not going to help them they need to be focused on understanding what they really want is uh and that's to be of service because that will activate all the positive mechanisms in their brain and in their bodies to be their

best selves and by doing so you can get all the other stuff if you really want it at that point and listen I tell people I'm not anti-materialistic uh I drive a Porsche I live in a very nice house uh um my point is though all of that is gone tomorrow it's okay I have thoroughly enjoyed it I have appreciated I have much gratitude for it but if it's not there that's perfectly fine my mental state will not change whatsoever and finally um if there was one thing that we could practice speechwise whether it's words

of affirmation or something just something Every because you know we have we tend to be a bit negative in our communication you ask someone how they're doing I can't complain right is there something from your your body of work or your research that we can Implement today speechwise that can make a little bit of a tiny difference if we keep practicing it over and over and over when it comes to this idea of of manifesting well one thing or not or not saying maybe not Saying uh well one thing I do not say is I

cannot because as soon as you say that that does become reality the other thing is everything is possible and then I do a practice that emphasizes U many of the things that I've talked about and that uh arose as a result of u a lecture I gave to the incoming medical students at my medical school which is called the alphabet of the heart I don't know if I you recall that from the end of the book so what I Do every day is uh and there's also a lot of evidence uh related to Neuroscience evidence

about the power of joy and a and so what I do is I sit by the side of my bed I do a breathing exercise to more shift me if you will into the parasympathetic mode although usually most of the time I'm there and uh and then I think of the joy and awe being in this world and I sit with those thoughts and feel very good about the beauty of the world being Present in the world and then I go through 10 letters of the alphabet which uh is called the alphabet of the heart

which you can find in my first book into the magic shop and I start with c c compassion for self and others D recognizing the Dignity of every person e practicing equinity or evenness of temperament even in times of of pain and suffering or even times of elation always trying to maintain this evenness of temperament and not get lost in the Extremes practicing forgiveness because you know when we carry anger and hostility associated with a person or an event that only punishes us we have to uh uh forgive but that doesn't mean to forget and

then um next is having gratitude uh simply for being present in this world and what uh we have received half of the world's population lives less than $2.50 a day I have immense gratitude and feel very blessed to be in the position that I am In uh um uh H humility uh no one is more important than anyone else we're all equal uh I recognize as an example as a physician uh whether it's the nurses uh the orderly the people who uh mop the floors them doing their job as just as important as me succeeding

at my job and they allow me to succeed at my job and I'm have immense appreciation of individuals who work together to accomplish something to help people um I Is integrity or values that bound your behavior how you see the world how you see yourself interacting with the world how should others interact in the world uh Jay is Justice our responsibility for caring for the vulnerable because of our uh elev positions in many ways and then uh k for kindness which has nothing to do with suffering per se but she's being a nice human being

all of this is contained uh by love so that's my morning practice That starts my day and hopefully that uh centers me for the day beautiful that's a great place to wrap it up the book is mind magic the Neuroscience of manifestation and how it changes everything I thought it was the Perfect Blend of memoir and research and practices so job well done on that I also just on a personal note I love the the conclusion I got a bit emotional reading about that and the two the one of the two photos that you Still

have from your childhood and what that represents to you so that was a great way to end it and uh and thank you so much for for making the time to come on and share more of your story well thank you and uh just to say to your listeners every day each of us regardless of our circumstance have the ability to improve the life of at least one person even if it's just saying hello take care my Friend I wish you the best and thank you for having me absolutely if you like that video you're

going to love the next one click this thumbnail right here and I'll see you over there