In your average children's movie, people dream outlandish dreams.
I wish I could be part of that world, Genie.
I wish for you to make me a prince.
And then, after 90 minutes of struggle and sound effects, they achieved those streaks.
Woo bing bong.
We did it.
In the end, Charlie Bucket won a chocolate factory.
It worked.
The ship stopping.
Think of these stories as fantasies, fairy tales.
But what if science could help make our deepest hopes and desires seem less out of reach?
Today, as part of our U 2.0 series, we bring you an episode from our archive that asks, is there a methodical way to achieve your dreams?
Turns out there is.
And this scientific technique has an acronym.
Whoops.
This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
There's so much in our popular culture about the power of positive thinking.
We're often told to follow our hearts, to dream big.
You can have, do, or be anything you want.