Summary of Ellen J. Langer's Counterclockwise

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The link between the nonmaterial mind and the material body is not well understood. We see evidence of this connection all around us. For example, we are afraid of rats, and our blood pressure increases when we think about losing a significant other. #2 I conducted a study in which people in their late seventies or early eighties would spend a week at a country retreat and talk about the past. We chose to use men because we wanted men who were not ill and who would be reasonably able to participate in the activities and discussions we had planned for them. #3 The experiment was set up so that the participants would live as though 1959 were the present. They were to write autobiographies as though it were 1959, and send photos of their younger selves. The control group went on a separate retreat a week later, treating them just like the first group, but with their bios written in the past tense. #4 To turn back the clock, we had to make sure that the participants were convinced that they were in the past. We made sure to introduce them to the present-tense nature of their experience, and stressed that they should return as completely as possible in their minds to that earlier time.