Limitless Potential and the Power of the Human Mind

I recently watched the movie Limitless again for the third time. When it first came out, I went to see it out of a sense of curiosity. The premise seemed interesting. Regular-guy writer takes miracle pill and becomes superman. It blew my mind to see the similarities between the movie and my Kundalini awakening experience. Of course, films are exaggerated for dramatic effect, otherwise we wouldn't go to the movies. Basically, the film shows us Bradley Cooper, a struggling writer, who's just been dumped by his girlfriend, meeting a friend who gives him an experimental drug that will supposedly make him smarter.


The first few scenes after he takes the pill reminded me of events as they unfolded in my apartment right after my awakening. The director uses a cool effect to convey the new person the Cooper character becomes: everything lights up and shines with an otherworldly glow. The writer sees his life as if he is observing a third-person stranger.

"Who lives like this?" he asks himself, looking around his shabby apartment. Then, after seducing his landlord's wife, he cleans his apartment and types out his first novel in a matter of a few hours. No, these things didn't happen to me. Like I said, it's a movie, exaggerated for dramatic effect.

What did happen was a feeling of living like a drone, a cubicle-robot living out a wind-up toy existence. I felt as if my life up to that point had been a waste. I had frittered away valuable time and energy on things that were not important. I was wasting energy on trying to be someone I ought to be, not using enough energy discovering who I actually was. I did go out and invest in paintings, upholstery and furniture to spruce up my apartment. Incense and aromatic candles became a part of life. I didn't type out my first novel in one day, but at the behest of the inner voice that grew steadily louder, aligned with the energy and was running my life on a day-to-day basis, I went out and spent every dime of disposable cash on the latest digital Nikon SLR, the D50 along with the lens that came with it.

The rational part of my brain kept asking why I was doing it and in the past, that side would have made me re-think the "foolish" decision to splurge on a new toy. This time, I knew it was the right thing to do. Literally, since the day I got home with the camera, I started creating outstanding images.

In my previous attempts at photography, I was okay at best. Every so often I made a good image, good by amateur standards, but nothing mind-blowing. This time, like Bradley Cooper's character in Limitless, my mind was able to connect the dots, know what to believe, what books to read, how to develop a technique, and most important, how to visualize. Little hidden things became obvious. Composition rules made sense instinctively.

By this time, the energy had begun re-engineering my neuro-biological morphology in earnest. The body would contort like it was possessed. Among the revelations I had was the ability of the mind to work miracles using the body as it's tool. The same body as before, the same human being, but with a totally different operating system, re-jiggered to work more efficiently and see more clearly. Watching Limitless made it easier for me to convey it to others. Basically, the Kundalini energy takes you and makes you a better version of you.


In the film, when a gangster takes the magic pill, he becomes a smarter gangster and thinks up better criminal schemes. The basic person remained the same. His tendencies and attitudes did not change, he just became better at doing those things. After a Kundalini awakening, however, you don't merely become a better gangster or writer, you change totally and fundamentally.

The person that existed is erased completely because, for the most part, the ego — blockages created in our psyche by past trauma — ARE the limiting factors. Suppose you were humiliated as a child, told you would never be a good singer or painter and every one of your paintings was ridiculed, it would set up a blockage in your mind. Whether on purpose or unintentionally, someone created a block in your mind that made you feel inferior and stopped you from attempting to be good at that activity ever again. This became part of your personality. Every subsequent action was limited by that event.

When the Kundalini goes to work on your psyche, it removes these blockages. So, if in the past, your potential was limited by the opinions of others and you were made to believe yourself inferior, the energy shows you these thought patterns for what they are and eliminates their effect once and for all. When that blockage is removed, you are no longer stuck in the realm of "this is why I can't do it" and jump into "oh, this is easy and here's how to do it," not because you are suddenly given that ability, but because the barriers to accessing that information or mind-set are suddenly removed. Your inability to see yourself as a great artist was an illusion. Re-enforced over several years, that ability remained dormant and your soul became miserable because the conscious mind had prevented it from expressing itself to its fullest extent.

At this point, you are thinking, Can I access the untapped potential within me? Can I use methods to harness the totality of my mind? Does it only happen to individuals with a Kundalini awakening?

Yes, you can use methods to access your inner abilities and no, an awakening is not a prerequisite, but it is extremely helpful to have had one. However, understanding that the mind is a powerful tool, knowing how to reprogram it to assist in your development, as well as knowing how to eliminate harmful blocks and programs installed in it, is the first step in the right direction. As has been re-iterated on this blog over and over, knowing is not enough, one must apply. Nothing happens miraculously. The steady application of sound principles brings results. A Kundalini awakening may have been a miraculous event, but the wisdom received from it and your ability to apply it to everyday human experience is still something that requires effort and a willingness to break out of your comfort zone.

John Baines was a master of hermetic science. This is related to the kybalion, a philosophy based on the power of vibration that understands reality as a vibratory experience. Here is an excerpt from the book, The Secret Science by John Baines.

"Only upon understanding that everything that exists in the material sense is only mental energy whose vibratory wavelength has decreased until it becomes solid, can we then understand the importance of studying and educating the mind.

"The brain is similar to a radio transmitter which constantly sends out and receives radio waves. Of course, thought waves are much more subtle and powerful. All thought is electro-magnetic energy of a high vibration. The brain is a powerful generator of energy, whose vibratory wavelength depends upon the degree of culture and intellectual development of the individual.

"The mind is the doorway to what is known as the fourth dimension or plane of energy. Everything that can be imagined by man is a reality on the plane of energy and therefore can be accomplished in the material realm. Upon thinking, an emission of electro-magnetic energy is produced which gives rise to a being possessing a certain degree of consciousness in relation to the individual's mental and psychic state at the moment it is generated and it will become a true offspring or child. All our habitual thoughts are mental offspring, and as children do, they must nourish themselves from their parents. Accordingly, we can understand the truth of the aphorism which says, 'as a man thinketh, so shall he be.' These mental children are the ones who will decide the future destiny of an individual, bringing him 'good or bad luck' in accordance with his vibratory quality."

The mind is a powerful tool. If we choose to believe we are limited, and that lesson is drummed into us by our detractors, we will fulfill that destiny by believing what we are told. The instructions we give the subconscious mind immediately set out to create that reality for us, manifesting itself in many different ways. If you visualize yourself becoming a great painter and consume yourself with the study of painting, things start to move in that direction immediately. You meet the right people, you encounter the right circumstances and go in the direction of that destiny.

As Baines states further in his book:

"If an individual could at any given moment concentrate all his mental energy on one single aim, he could achieve miracles. In reality, we see that our minds jump dizzily from one thought to another during the day, and there is no rest even during sleep at night. This continuous wandering gives rise to a fantastic waste of energy, yielding in the individual a state of scattered energy. To achieve a better life, we must gain dominion over the imagination so as not to create a hard and negative fate, because all thought is materialized. One who thinks he is persecuted by bad luck for example, places himself in a state of negativity which breeds misfortune and misery. One who possesses little self-esteem, transfers these thoughts to others who in turn will think little of him."

As I stated in a previous post, the analogy of a cassette tape is appropriate when talking about the mind. Erase the old you through a practice of meditation and create a new you by visualization techniques, affirmations and by surrounding yourself with individuals and groups that vibrate on the same plane as you do — places, events and people that foster a higher vibratory state — full of joy, energy and passion.

The right way to use affirmations is to state them in the present tense. Not "I will become a great painter" but "I am a great painter" or "I am on the path of becoming a great painter." These affirmations repeated with conviction and a sense of gratitude send the right message to the subconscious mind. It is very important not to perceive the intended outcome with a sense of longing or yearning. It will latch on to that emotion and bring more yearning into your life. A sense of gratitude for already having received your gift and the feeling of enjoying it will manifest itself in that reality.

There are  books on "the law of attraction" and guess what, they all operate on this very principle and they work. Why? Because our minds are very powerful devices once we know how to harness them to our purposes.

Most often, we spend our lives allowing our minds to be programmed with random thought patterns that happen along. We let commercials tell us what to buy. Well, guess what? They work because of repetition. You have had the same junk food restaurant jingle stuck in your head for years, blocking a part of your brain that could be used to store information about mixing the perfect ochre for a scintillating sunset you are about to paint. We allow our mind to be fragmented with various distractions, the internet, television, tabloid news. None of these help us achieve our goals, but they do keep us stuck in the mindless consumer avatar far longer than necessary.

We are not careful about allowing harmful people into our lives. Some people tote a negative energy field wherever they go. They make it a point to drag others down with their comments and take pains to make sure others never have a positive, cheerful attitude. It is important to not only avoid such people, but to counter their suggestions with a firm attitude so they know their suggestions are unwelcome and have no effect on your state of mind. This action cancels the energy transfer between the two souls at the energetic level and allows you to remain at your higher vibratory state. Most of us never think beyond "oh, so-and-so is just a miserable person," but it is important to actively avoid such people or create a mental wall so their attitudes do not permeate your energy space.

If we treat the mind with respect and are careful about what we let in, there is no limit to what we can achieve with it. It is an infinite resource for achieving our highest potential. Make the best of it.