Real magic -- A body at rest -- Thinking about thinking -- Growing pains -- Three wishes -- Apply yourself -- Unacceptable -- It's not brain surgery -- The sultan of nothing -- Giving up -- The alphabet of the heart -- Manifesting compassion -- The face of God

The author relates how a chance encounter in a magic shop with a woman who taught him exercises to ease his sufferings and manifest his greatest desires gave him a glimpse of the relationship between the brain and the heart, and drove him to explore the neuroscience of compassion and altruism