I thought this was bullshit clickbait.

I saw one of those YouTube videos claiming that researchers took a group of older men, put them in an environment from 20 years earlier, told them to live as though they were literally 20 years younger—and after only five days, their bodies actually tested younger.

I wasn’t even going to look for it.

Shocker. I found the research. These are real studies published in medical journals!

The original experiment was conducted in 1979 by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer and her colleagues. Decades later, researchers from Harvard and several Italian institutions designed a much larger randomized controlled study based on the original experiment.

The scientific protocol was published in BMJ Open, a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Read the actual BMJ Open paper here:
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/7/e030411

The question behind the experiment was:

“If we put the mind back twenty years, would the body reflect this change?”

They Literally Put Their Minds Back 20 Years

Eight older men went away on a retreat for five days and lived in an environment designed to make them feel as though it were 1959 instead of 1979.

The environment was recreated with magazines, television programs, movies, radio programs and music from 1959. They discussed the news and events of the time.

But they weren’t told to remember 1959. They were told to live as though it actually WAS 1959.

They spoke about events from 1959 in the present tense and were asked to psychologically become the men they had been 20 years earlier.

And they did this for merely five days.

Then the researchers measured them again.

Here’s What Changed in Five Days

According to the later scientific account of the original experiment, researchers reported improvements in hearing, memory and grip strength. The men in the experimental group also improved in vision, joint flexibility, manual dexterity, IQ test performance, gait and posture, with decreased symptoms of arthritis.

Even photographs taken before and after the retreat were independently evaluated, and the men were judged to look younger afterward.

That’s crazy. Crazy good!!!

Five days.

No exercise program, drugs, supplements, hormones, surgery or some revolutionary anti-aging treatment.

Five days of changing what their minds believed was happening.

Granted, the original experiment involved only eight men. It was a small pilot experiment, not the kind of large randomized clinical trial we would demand today.

But the results were interesting enough that scientists eventually decided to try the idea again.

Scientists Actually Repeated the Idea

A much larger Counterclockwise study was designed with 90 adults aged 75 and older.

The experimental group spent six days in an environment recreated to resemble 1989. Furniture, posters, music, television, newspapers and technology reflected that period.

Once again, they weren’t merely asked to reminisce. They were instructed to inhabit that period and act as the younger people they had been.

The study was randomized and included both an active comparison group and a no-treatment group.

You can read the official U.S. government clinical trial registration here:

ClinicalTrials.gov — Counterclockwise Experiment:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03552042

The study protocol is also indexed by the National Library of Medicine:

PubMed:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31289097/

But here’s something even more interesting.

In 2026 They Tried It Again—Using Virtual Reality

Researchers recently took the idea one step further.

Instead of rebuilding an entire environment from decades earlier, they used virtual reality.

Older adults were divided into groups. One group was virtually embodied in a younger version of themselves while being immersed in an important event from their younger lives.

In other words, they could actually experience themselves as their younger body.

And once again, things changed.

Compared with people who experienced their current-age bodies, the younger-self group showed improvements in several measures, including grip strength, cognitive task performance, subjective age, positive perceptions of aging and well-being.

Some of those differences diminished during follow-up, which is important to point out. This was also a small study, so nobody should interpret it as proof that thinking young literally reverses biological aging.

But once again, researchers changed people’s perception of their age—and measurable things changed.

Read the 2026 peer-reviewed study here:
https://formative.jmir.org/2026/1/e88338/

Here’s What I’m Thinking

What would happen if, in your mind, you constantly told yourself that you were literally 20 years younger?

Every day. Every hour. When you meditate.

Instead of spending half the day ruminating about politics or replaying what some relative or friend said that pissed you off, what if part of your mental chatter became:

I’m 20 years younger.

How would someone 20 years younger walk? How would they stand? How would they sit? How quickly would they get out of a chair? What would they expect their body to be capable of doing?

For starters, you’d probably be a hell of a lot happier.

And guess what? A lot of the things researchers actually measured—posture, gait, strength, flexibility and cognitive performance—are things that can be influenced by what we do every day.

I always do this.

I walk like I’m 30. I always was a fast walker, and I still am. I constantly check my posture—sitting, standing and walking.

I think about what I eat. I think about how I look. Some people say I look 50. Flattery maybe. But I want my 30-year-old energy back.

I’m getting back in shape, and my target isn’t simply to be in good shape for my age. My target is to be in better shape than I was in my 30s.

With today’s technology and whatever medical advances come next, who knows how long we’re going to be around? Maybe another 50 or 60 years.

I’m not planning on getting old and frail.

I have plenty of close friends who are killing it in the gym in their mid-70s. Sylvester Stallone is 80. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 79. Take a look at those guys. Disclaimer Rocy and “Ahnold” arent my personal close friehnds.

We have a ton of role models.

What’s Insane Is That Most People Are Doing the Experiment in Reverse

I hear people saying stupid things every day like, “Oh well, I’m 60 now.” “I’m 70 now.” “What do you expect at my age?” “I’m getting old.”

Then they expect bad things to happen. They expect aches and pains. They expect to walk slower. They expect to become weaker. They expect to have less energy.

They stop doing things because they’ve decided that people their age aren’t supposed to do those things anymore.

Think about what they’re doing.

They’re doing the Counterclockwise experiment in reverse.

They’re constantly telling their brains and bodies that they’re old. They’re looking for evidence of decline. Every ache, pain or forgotten name becomes confirmation:

“See? I’m getting old.”

That’s crazy.

Obviously aging is real. There are biological changes that take place. Positive thinking isn’t going to make you immortal, and telling yourself you’re 30 doesn’t magically make every cell in your body 30 years old.

But that’s not the interesting question.

The interesting question is:

How much of what we experience as “getting old” is unavoidable biology—and how much is expectation, behavior, posture, movement, attitude and limitations we’ve unconsciously accepted because of the number on our driver’s license?

We don’t know the complete answer.

But we have enough evidence to know that mindset is relevant.

So why voluntarily run the negative experiment on yourself every day?

Try It for Yourself

Pick an age 20 years younger and start paying attention to how often your chronological age enters your thinking.

And here’s what makes this even more interesting today.

We have exercise, nutrition, supplements and, when medically appropriate, hormones, peptides and other therapies that didn’t exist—or weren’t available the way they are today—when Langer conducted her original experiment in 1979.

What happens when you combine the mindset with everything else you’re personally doing to stay healthy, strong and young?

I don’t know.

But that’s an experiment I’m willing to run.

Think younger. Look younger. Act younger.

You just might knock off a few years.

I challenge you to see how far you can take it.

P.S.

Don’t forget, my day job is helping you see a younger version of yourself when you look in the mirror. Not someone drastically altered. Still you—just maybe 5 or 10 years younger.

If seeing a younger version of yourself staring back at you every morning reinforces the way you think, feel, stand, walk and act, who knows?

It just might add to your success in running your own Counterclockwise experiment.

The Actual Research

BMJ Open — Pagnini F, Cavalera C, Volpato E, et al. “Ageing as a mindset: a study protocol to rejuvenate older adults with a counterclockwise psychological intervention.” 2019.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/7/e030411

PubMed — U.S. National Library of Medicine
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31289097/

ClinicalTrials.gov — Ageing as a Mindset: A Counterclockwise Experiment to Rejuvenate Older Adults. NCT03552042
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03552042

2026 Virtual-Reality Counterclockwise Study — “Counterclockwise Virtual Reality–Based Embodiment of a Younger Self and Revisit of a Past Iconic Event in Older Adults.”
https://formative.jmir.org/2026/1/e88338/

The original researchers asked:

“If we put the mind back twenty years, would the body reflect this change?”

I have another question:

What happens if you put your mind back 20 years—and leave it there?