I met a guy who was very moved by this film; he had previously spent a few years completely frying and scrambling his brain using lots of drugs and easy-way solutions. He adored, "Limitless" using it as an excuse to justify his continued self-destruction and wishful thinking. He'd do internet research and go into drug stores to request all kinds of exotic prescription drugs from wary pharmacists (who denied him). To outside observers, he was a complete mess who hurt the people around him, lost his job due to being totally brain-fried and disassociative. He struck me as being just another one of those, "Higher consciousness through LSD and Mushrooms" zealots.
I was both fascinated and disturbed by this movie. It was fun to watch the protagonist be Super, but the implications of the message in terms of media and population impact were spooky.
It struck me as the embodiment of the American Dream and Wishful Thinking writ large: "Success and getting to play Hero without having to do any work". -The protagonist used technology developed by scientists (who had studied and worked hard off screen), which was subsequently stolen from them, and then used to Win at life." It seemed like another spin on the old slavery game to me, in particular, the American version, where the end user is only vaguely aware that he is living on the sweat of others. Like somebody eating a chocolate bar, blissfully ignorant of the people used to make it.
The folks I've met who really do "Win at Life" had to work really hard over the course of many years, make difficult choices and sculpt themselves into effective tools. They paid heavily through applied suffering. They didn't get a free lunch in the form of a pill.
In the "Matrix", the blue pill represented a choice; was taken only once and it didn't make any of the changes for Neo. -Neo may have had fighting skills downloaded into his brain for "free", but at the cost of being ripped out of his dream life and into a world of painful truth. (And this is an apt metaphor for people who start to download Truth into their minds; it's like being given awareness kung-fu; you are literally given the tools needed to move effectively through situations which regular people are dominated and destroyed by). And also metaphorically like real life, even with these new skills, Neo still got his butt kicked -a lot- until he'd worked on himself appropriately. It took three films and a great deal of suffering and hard choices to finally "Win". In "Limitless" by contrast, the drug was everything, and the main struggle was over who got to control the chemical supply line in order to keep on "Winning".
I think this movie was largely a pipe-dream deception with a spoonful of truth to help the pharmaceuticals go down.
And that being said...
It *does* also remind me of the Castaneda books, where Don Juan regularly blasted Carlos out of his mind with Peyote and other powerful narcotics. When he later described the dangers of the damage this may have caused, Carlos asked in horror, "Why did you do that to me?" -The response was (paraphrasing) essentially that Carlos was too stupid to have broken through the awareness wall without explosives.
I suppose, as happens with most messages, the filter of the observer will take from it what fits with their vibration. People seeking to better themselves through Work will see and benefit from the relevant messages, and the drug store cowboys will Yipee-Kye-Yay all the way to hell.
