Whoa! Was Seth Right After All?

Those of you who have read Jane Roberts know who "Seth" is - and Seth's mantra - WE MAKE OUR OWN REALITY. Basically, by what we think. Yes, that sounds rather trite these days, doesn't it. But I first read it some 20 years ago (maybe even longer) in a book I think was called "The Nature of Personal Reality," and it's stuck with me ever since. Here is some evidence that suggests Jane Roberts and Seth are correct. From Newsweek.online MIND MATTERS Wray Herbert Just Say No to Aging? A provocative new book from a Harvard psychologist suggests that changing how we think about our age and health can have dramatic physical benefits. Apr 14, 2009 Updated: 10:28 a.m. ET Apr 14, 2009 Imagine that you could rewind the clock 20 years. It's 1989. Madonna is topping the pop charts, and TV sets are tuned to "Cheers" and "Murphy Brown." Widespread Internet use is just a pipe dream, and Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Montana are on recent covers of Sports Illustrated. But most important, you're 20 years younger. How do you feel? Well, if you're at all like the subjects in a provocative experiment by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, you actually feel as if your body clock has been turned back two decades. Langer did a study like this with a group of elderly men some years ago, retrofitting an isolated old New England hotel so that every visible sign said it was 20 years earlier. The men—in their late 70s and early 80s—were told not to reminisce about the past, but to actually act as if they had traveled back in time. The idea was to see if changing the men's mindset about their own age might lead to actual changes in health and fitness. Langer's findings were stunning: After just one week, the men in the experimental group (compared with controls of the same age) had more joint flexibility, increased dexterity and less arthritis in their hands. Their mental acuity had risen measurably, and they had improved gait and posture. Outsiders who were shown the men's photographs judged them to be significantly younger than the controls. In other words, the aging process had in some measure been reversed. Rest of article. Herbert writes the blog We're Only Human at www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman.

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Wray's "review" of Counterclockwise by Ellen Langer does not give ISBN, publisher or cost! Interesting. So, here it is: Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility Written by Ellen J. Langer Category: Psychology & Psychiatry - Applied Psychology; Health & Fitness Format: eBook, 224 pages On Sale: May 19, 2009 Price: $25.00 ISBN: 978-0-345-51480-6 (0-345-51480-7) Also available as a hardcover.