Max Littman, LCSW
April 17, 2026
I recently watched the film Limitless. It affected me more than I expected, especially for a seemingly popcorn movie.
The film follows a man who gains access to a pill that dramatically expands his cognitive and perceptual abilities. The pill is advertised as increasing access to the brain’s power from an ordinary 20% to an extraordinary 100%. He begins to sense and interact with the world with a striking clarity and command, taking in more, accessing greater coherence of sensory input, and acting on it with extraordinary ease. His life quickly reorganizes around this new way of functioning.
While watching, I found myself thinking about moments in my own life, sometimes after meaningful unburdening work, sometimes in more mysterious, innate or substance-induced non-ordinary states, when parts soften and their trust in Self, or something larger than personal identity, increases.
In those moments, my internal world reorganizes. More presence, clarity, courage, confidence, and choice become possible.
Things slow. There is less internal interference. Experience feels more continuous. I notice what is happening as it is happening, both around me and within me, without the same pressure to manage it. I am present. I am attuned. Other people become easier to read; their patterns and internal dynamics more visible when my own system is not working as hard to anticipate, defend, or resolve a problem.
Action changes too. It becomes more direct. There is less hesitation, less internal negotiation. Fear recedes. There is unimpeachable confidence and courage. Psychic energy that would have been spent bracing, correcting, or countering my own internal reactions becomes available. There is a sense of moving with what is happening rather than against it.
Nothing new is being added. It is more like subtraction. The “brain power” being accessed is less an acquisition than a reduction in the psychic energy used up by parts trying to solve problems for us.
When I am not in this state, which is most of the time, there are parts of me that track how I am being perceived. They monitor whether I am coming across well, whether I am saying the right thing, whether I might lose the connection I am in, whether that be with another person, myself, or something more abstract. They keep a slight distance from the moment, fearing what I might feel if I am not received well.
When I miss something or feel less attuned, other parts react quickly. A more critical voice comes in, pulling from a wider frame, interpersonal, social, cultural, pointing out where I have fallen short. Another part takes that in as evidence of inadequacy, which can lead toward shame and disconnection. He carries a belief that he is foolish and naive in his innocence, enthusiasm, optimism, and his tendency to take things at face value in his engagement with the world.
These dynamics create a pull toward those clearer, expansive states. Curiosity can turn into an attempt to hold onto them, to make them more consistent, more available.
In Limitless, the main character channels this expanded capacity toward accumulation: money, status, admiration, pleasure. The logic is familiar. Many parts organize around those aims.
I find myself wondering what happens when that same opening is oriented toward something else. Curiosity. Kindness. A genuine interest in connection. What shifts when the system is not organizing around securing something, but around relating, respecting, listening, and remaining in contact with a sense of wonder.
There have been moments where perception widens in a way that feels almost surprising, yet there is also a sense that what is being seen was always there. Patterns in behavior, shifts in tone, small changes in body language come into view more easily. There is a sense of taking in more and needing to do less with it.
Alongside that, there is a shift in how I experience myself.
A kind of expansive confidence shows up. It is steady. There is a sense that I can meet what is here, that I have enough access to clarity, to connection, to internal leadership to respond without bracing in the same way.
At times, it can feel like a kind of limitlessness, like anything is possible, within reach.
With a reduction of the usual constraints, there is more room to think, to feel, to perceive, to act. I, a living organism made up of many psychological and physical parts, am less occupied with managing myself and more available to engage.
What looks, from the outside, like enhanced ability begins to feel, from the inside, like fewer internal barriers and more psychic energy to invest. And when that energy is available and naturally flows into experience, into attention, into connection, it seems to return in ways that far exceed the investment, without that return ever being something I was trying to secure.
For feedback and comments, I can be reached at max@maxlittman.com.
I provide consultation and therapy for therapists.
Purchase my new book IFS Therapy for Gay and Queer Men here.
