Dr. Ellen Langer

And what people don't realize is that every thought, if I lift my arm, my whole body is different.

Different in tiny ways that we haven't been able to measure, but it's all connected.

And which, in some sense, lends more credence to this whole idea of mind-body unity.

And the first study we did was a study where we took old men to a retreat that we had retrofitted to 20 years earlier.

Right.

What was this called again?

We called it the counterclockwise study.

Yes.

So they were going to live for a week as if they were their younger selves.

And they were in their late 70s, 80s?

Yeah, even older.

80s, 90s.

Now remember, that was quite a while ago.

That was when 70 was in the new 90, or even 100 or whatever.

I mean, they were really old.

Yeah, like walkers, canes.

They get younger as I get older, as I recall.

Well, actually, you know that when I was interviewing people to do the study, so their adult daughter would typically go and bring them to the lab, and I see them tottering down the hall, and at one point I said to myself, why am I doing this?

I don't know if they're going to live through the day, no less be able to live for the week.

It was...