This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Thomas Hood was a 19th century English poet known for his elegant, often melancholy verse.

His 1826 poem, I Remember, I Remember, captures a feeling that is familiar to many adults,

especially its wistful last lines.

I remember, I remember, the fir trees dark and high.

I used to think their slender tops were close against the sky.

It was a childish ignorance, but now it is little joy to know I'm farther off from heaven than when I was a boy.

Thomas Hood's poem gestures to the reality that as grown-ups,

many of us lack the effortless sense of connection and awe that we felt as kids.

Was that intimate bond with the universe merely an illusion of childhood,

or a real measurable human capacity

that we can access as grown-ups. Researchers are investigating the ways that we can preserve

or revive the sense of being close to the sky that Thomas Hood so tenderly evoked.

This week on Hidden Brain, we explore what it means to feel closer to heaven and the value of looking optimize every aspect of our lives, our bodies, our relationships, our productivity.

But what about the parts of us that yearn for meaning, for understanding, for wisdom?

Those aspects of ourselves are often ignored in our tireless pursuit of worldly rewards.

At Columbia University, psychologist Lisa Miller studies the science of

transcendence. Lisa Miller, welcome to Hidden Brain. I'm so grateful to be here. I appreciate so much

your show, the way you go deeper, the way you open up the double door in our life. So, Shankar,

thank you for having me.

Lisa, early on in your career as a psychologist, you treated a young woman named Ileana.

Can you describe her for me and tell me what brought her into your clinic?

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