Beyond Limits
In the new movie “Limitless”, a somewhat talented yet lazy writer Eddie Mora played by (Bradley Cooper) discovers a performance enhancing drug called NZT, that allows him to activate and access 100% of his brain – 80% more brain than the majority of us ‘regular’ human beings use. With the ingestion of the small ‘clear pill’ Eddie is catapulted into a world of unfathomable wealth, success, and sex as he conquers Wall Street, learns new languages and becomes an instant genius.
The price to pay for this level of ‘Enlightenment’ … and it seems there always is one … is that his new brilliance is highlighted by a twitchy dark arrogance and an adrenaline fixation; and even more worrisome … the side effects include paranoia, psychosis, brain damage and … well, um … death.
Call me crazy, but death sounds pretty limiting.
I am always intrigued by movies like this (which is by the way, the first release by Sir Richard Branson’s – Virgin Produced) – that open the door ever so slightly to allow us a sneak peek at what might be possible for human potential, only to slam it shut by painting that potential with the grimy ooze of ‘the dark side’ … as if to say … ‘Yes, this level of intelligence is possible … but once you achieve it … all hell will break loose and you will long for your old days of mundane ordinariness.’ Sort of like the ‘red pill/ blue pill’ conundrum of The Matrix. Or the ‘brain tumor’ explanation for John Travolta’s brilliance in the movie Phenomenon. It tells us … if you are going to be this gifted, this advanced, this Enlightened … well, you gotta die at the end.
I don’t buy it.
It is my belief that elevating and evolving human potential to an advanced level IS possible and to some degree is happening already. And like it or not – it is going to take an elevation of human potential to lift us all out of the rather rampant mess that we have gotten ourselves into. It is going to take a grand leap of the ‘development of Human Intelligence’ to change the status quo and turn our global, local and personal situations around.
Regardless of the intentions of Government, Education and Health Care (these intentions may be good or bad, depending on what side of the aisle you sit on) relying on these OLD systems is not going to help us, so we need to STOP looking there for the answers. Why? Because every one of these systems is committed to the ‘OLD’ intelligence, the OLD patterns and the OLD outdated ideas that clearly do not work. The Intelligence, Innovation and Imaginings that are required to turn things around will come from the individual, from the entrepreneur, from the visionary who is not tied to old ideas … it will come from you and me. But we will need to be willing to drop all of our fears about embracing our brilliance and be willing to adopt a new, grander idea of ourselves first.
If a new and limitless idea of human potential is to come to fruition, then maybe Hollywood is right … something WILL need to pass away … but it isn’t us as human beings or individuals. It is the old ‘imaginings or ideas’ that need to be sacrificed. As in all Evolutionary practices, in order for the new dream to be born, the old dream has to go.
So perhaps the deeper message of ‘Limitless’ is that the possibilities of advanced human potential DO exist, but we cannot expect them to come in an easily digestible tablet. In order for humanity as a species to be capable of that type of advanced intelligence, a whole lot of ground work would need to be done first.
It may be that operating on that level of heightened potential is like driving a Ferrari when you have only just gotten your learners permit … perhaps it is a bit too much muscle for a beginner, but with the right amount of practice – mastery of that type of power IS possible. But we need to be brave enough to be willing to truly let go of all of the things that so obviously don’t work in our lives any more, or more bravely question if they ever worked for us in the first place.
I like the idea of being Limitless and I believe that we all have our ideas of how that would look to each one of us. I also have a certainty that it is possible, we don’t need to take a pill to achieve it though … and we don’t need to self destruct in the process. We need only to get out of our own way and allow the Intelligence that is waiting to be revealed … to have its way with us.