Dr. Ellen Langer

I took on something that only the younger me would have considered taking on.

You know, I was in charge of their entire lives, these several, you know, seven men, old men, every aspect of their lives for a week.

At any rate, you could, you know, you looked at them and didn't matter what number you attached to them, they were old.

Now they were going to live for a week as if they're their younger selves.

So they'll be talking about current events, things from the past, as if they're just unfolding and other things as well.

And they were making their own meals and they would correct each other.

So if you would say was, somebody would tell you is because the past was now the present for that.

Wow.

And they were listening to older music and watching older movies and everything.

Yeah.

I could spend the whole time with you just so I know that study, so you want me to give more details, just tell me, but let me tell you the results, because those were amazing.

So they lived as their younger selves for a week.

Without any medical intervention, their vision improved, their hearing improved, their memory, their strength, and they looked noticeably younger.

And I must tell you that almost from the beginning, the changes were palpable.

And most people accepted the findings.

There were a couple of people who said, you can't make people younger.

And I'm not saying that chronologically we're changing your age, but it is the case that we associate certain ways of being with certain times in our lives.

and that these men were living their lives now very dependent on their adult daughter, presuming that they can't do many of the things that they used to do, and they were wrong.

And so that set the stage for

a host of studies, most of which, well, all of them actually to date, are in the mindful body.