Harvard researcher takes old men into the woods and tells them it’s 1959. They buy into the game—and their bodies start to change

The human brain is a funny thing—and its relationship with the human body is even funnier. We still don't know everything there is to know about our own untapped potential, and researchers and psychologists are discovering more and more all the time.

Enter iconic Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, who's responsible for one of the most curious studies about aging—and how our minds can affect our bodies' relationship to aging—in medical history. Her work is reentering the cultural zeitgeist thanks to a wellness influencer's viral TikTok. 

‘Your body may be listening to the story your mind tells…'

In a video first posted recently that has more than half a million views, qigong practitioner Joe Moody (@joe.drummer.boy on TikTok) shared the details of Langer's experiment to his audience of 1.1 million followers.

“Back in the '70s, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer ran one of the strangest experiments ever in psychology,” Moody said at the start of his video. “And it still messes with people's understanding of aging today.”

She invited eight men in their 70s and 80s to spend a week at a retreat. It wasn't a normal spa trip, though. Langer's team had fashioned the entire environment to look straight out of the 1950s. The participants reentered a world they hadn't seen in 20 years.

“The magazines were from 1959, the radio played music from the '50s, the TV showed old black and white programs,” Moody said. “Every detail of the environment had been turned 20 years into the past. And here's the twist: The men weren't told to remember 1959. They were told to live as if it were 1959.”

What jobs had they been working in 1959? What major news was making headlines? How strong were their bodies? The men were instructed to speak and behave as if that 20-year-old past was unfolding in the present.

The Harvard aging study results

The wildest thing happened as the retreat continued.

“Their bodies started to change,” Moody said. “Tests before and after the retreat showed improvements in vision, hearing, grip strength, memory, flexibility and posture. Even arthritis symptoms improved. Independent observers looked at the photos of the men before and after the experiment … The men looked two years younger after just one week of time traveling back.”

The men hadn't taken any medication; nor had they undergone surgery, physical therapy, or any other form of treatment. They'd just experienced “a shift in environment and mindset.” It is well documented that mindset has a significant impact on physical health; the placebo effect alone encapsulates this idea. But Langer's experiment laid the foundation for a lifetime of mindfulness research.

Moody finished his video by encouraging his viewers to learn from Langer's work, and reconsider how they conceptualize themselves and their potential.

“Your body may be listening to the story your mind tells about what is possible,” Moody said. “… Imagine, even for a moment, what would happen if you stopped rehearsing the story of decline. What if you gave your body the same message those men received for a week? You're still capable … Because sometimes the biggest limits in life aren't in your muscles or your age. They're in the quiet assumptions you stopped questioning.”

Can your mindset slow or reverse the aging process?

Langer's ‘Counterclockwise' experiment is not only real—in fact, she still teaches about it publicly—but it's been echoed, with similar results, by both an Italian study by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and investigative research by the BBC.

The former highlighted the strength of the “stereotype embodiment theory,” which posits that the way people age is linked to their culture's stereotypes about the elderly (“For example, individuals from cultures with predominantly strong negative beliefs about older people were more likely to experience memory problems.”)

In the latter, the BBC reported that “results were not uniform, but in some cases [participants] shed up to 20 years in their apparent biological age.” Clearly, aging is not as inflexible as many believe.

In the words of Langer herself, “Wherever you put the mind, the body will follow.”

Buzz News has reached out to Moody via contact form and Langer via email. The story will be updated if they reply.

@joe.drummer.boy A psychology experiment reversed the age of eight men by shifting their mindset to embody their younger selves. For reverse-aging exercises and sleep meditations to reprogram your subconscious to manifest your best life, join me at ClubQigong.com. Link in bio, which you can reach by tapping my name. 
#seniors #aging #aginggracefully #psychology #naturalhealth ♬ original sound – Joe Drummer Boy

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