[Applause]
so I would like to begin today by asking
you all to close one of your eyes now
raise your arms out in front of you and
try to touch your two index fingers
together this is going to look something
like this now as many people notice this
is not really an easy task what you’re
experiencing at the lack of depth
perception as a result of closing one of
your eyes well this is how I live my
daily life
my name is Katerina Stefan and I have
one eye now if you know me in middle
school you may know me by my nickname
three eyes you can do the math the name
comes from the humor of my clever
classmates in which leading glasses to
see but only having one eye justified my
name three eyes I was born with a rare
congenital anomaly that left me were
truly blind at birth at eight my left
eye was surgically removed at nine I
begun wearing a prosthetic left eye at
12 I met my ballet coach lot more
a–casey he transformed my handicap into
a strength
at 18 I trained with a professional
ballet company in Austria at 19 I talked
cardiothoracic surgery and assisted in
human heart procurement for transplants
today at 20 I stand before you to tell
you a story of darkness and light a
physical eyesight and vision my life
demonstrates that living with one eye
can be very similar to your life with
two and that the information that I have
learned along the way to compensate for
my vision loss is translatable to your
life
mental visualization proprioception and
motion parallax are three nuances that
exist and demonstrate the power of our
bodies and minds first let me clarify
what vision is not our purely physical
eyesight which we rely on above all
other senses does not always provide an
accurate picture of our world
now to demonstrate this I am going to
need your help in this optical illusion
how many of you see the female dancer in
the center rotating clockwise how many
of you see her rotating counterclockwise
as you can tell we do not all agree in
the center image there is a lack of
visual depth cues which is causing our
brains to interpret the image
differently our eyes are therefore not
responsible for everything that we are
visually experiencing in dreams for
example our brains can generate a visual
experience without any sensory input
from our eyes likewise if I asked you to
visualize what a glass car looks like
you would have no problem visualizing
one although you have never actually
seen one vision involves a construction
of a mental image of our external world
our purely physical eyesight is not as
reliable as we assume but our internal
vision generated in our mind compensates
for the illusion of pure physical
eyesight the exercise of mentally
visualizing a glass car serves as a
brief introduction to the mental
visualization that has served as my
internal guide when training for my
ballet career I had to learn to
compensate for not having two eyes
in order to achieve the impeccable
balance needed on pointe shoes I learned
to close my eyes as I danced I created a
mental representation of each movement
as if I were truly performing in a
virtual body in my mind in doing so I
was able to achieve that balance in my
virtual body and translate that
information to my physical body and
space however I did not only see these
Corrections I felt them too at 16 I
contracted a near-fatal infection that
left me in a wheelchair for months
doctors told me I would never dance
again
so I danced with the virtual body in my
mind instead I visualized and mentally
felt every muscle activation required to
perform with the virtual body in my mind
in doing so I never really stopped
dancing I did what astronauts do when
training in zero gravity conditions to
prevent muscle atrophy my mind activated
my muscles one year later I returned to
ballet after a remarkably fast recovery
proved my doctors wrong and performed
with a professional ballet company in
Austria I succeeded as a ballerina
because of my heightened awareness to
mental visual visualization but also my
awareness to my proprioception
proprioception is an awareness of our
bodies in space an awareness to where
each part is relative to one another
proprioception is what allows us to move
and react to our external environment
without using our eyes
we all use proprioception
for example close your eyes
raise your index finger to your nose if
you were able to do so then you have
just located your nose in space using
proprioception this is a sense that is
so informative that it can serve as a
third eye or in my case a second eye we
all have the ability to strengthen our
own proprioception through mind-body
exercises for example performing daily
tasks with your eyes closed enhances
that brain body communication my
awareness to mental visualization and my
ability to apply this and proprioception
to complex tasks gave me the second eye
I needed to perform surgery at Stanford
I was a teaching assistant in a cardio
thoracic surgical simulation lab I
performed surgeries such as septum
defect repairs and coronary artery
bypass –is initially I was slower than
my peers however over time I began to
memorize the delicate feel of the body
tissue the weights of the surgical
instrument and the feeling of my hand
welding the instrument upon the body
tissue in doing so I was able to keep up
I used my mental visualization to
imagine where I should be within the
simulated body cavity and confirmed this
by the feeling that I was having in
doing so I executed these surgeries
without relying on my vision
I began this talk by asking you all to
close one of your eyes this was to
demonstrate a lack of depth perception
as a result of only having one eye an
individual with two eyes aligns him or
herself in space so that the third
dimension can be seen each eye is
responsible for generating an image and
it is the brain’s responsibility to
intercept these images into one and
subsequently create a third dimension
however in theory then in an individual
with one eye should not be able to see
the third dimension however I do so and
I do in two ways in the first method I
use time rather than space
this is called motion parallax my eye
captures one image and engraves it into
the my mind and then I move my head ever
so slightly to capture a second image
taking a split second apart and doing so
my brain can interpret these photos and
create the third dimension we all use
motion parallax in this example we are
able to tell that the pillars are closer
in proximity to us than the brick wall
this is because the pillars are moving
at a faster speed relative to the brick
wall therefore we are using time and
motion rather than space to determine
depth perception in the second method
that I use to generate the third
dimension I use my senses specifically
proprioception it is this sixth sense
that gave me the power to perform both
when I was four the doctors took the eye
patch off my single good eye lights and
color flowed into my life when doctors
told me I would never dance again
darkness flood of my life when six
months later my mother passed away I
thought I would never see the light
again moving from a wheelchair to
dancing on stage I began to see the
lights again moving to Austria to then
dance with the ballet company only to
realize that ballet is not my true
vocation darkness flooded in again
finally when I internalized the voice of
my mother and returned to America to
pursue a career in academia I attended
Columbia University now as a student and
I am continuing to chase the light today
I continue to chase this life I am an
EMT with Columbia University emergency
medical services and I Drive their
ambulance in New York City with just one
eye I have recently met doctors in
Boston who are engineering visual
prosthesis that have the capacity to
restore vision to the blind I will
personally assist them this summer by
providing user interface to their
medical devices I fully intend on
chasing light and color for every blind
person in this world mental
visualization proprioception and motion
parallax are three internal guides that
testify to the power of our bodies in
mine
these innate abilities manifest and
other species as well for example dogs
ears their acute sense of smell to
navigate the world bats use echolocation
and birds can detect the Earth’s
electromagnetic field
these internal guides are exceptionally
powerful I urge you not only to become
aware but to utilize them especially in
times of trial remember that when life
gets difficult you have two options to
focus your awareness on your external or
internal vision let this internal guide
let the light in go out into this world
pay it forward and chase color thank you [Applause]
so I would like to begin today by asking
you all to close one of your eyes now
raise your arms out in front of you and
try to touch your two index fingers
together this is going to look something
like this now as many people notice this
is not really an easy task what you’re
experiencing at the lack of depth
perception as a result of closing one of
your eyes well this is how I live my
daily life
my name is Katerina Stefan and I have
one eye now if you know me in middle
school you may know me by my nickname
three eyes you can do the math the name
comes from the humor of my clever
classmates in which leading glasses to
see but only having one eye justified my
name three eyes I was born with a rare
congenital anomaly that left me were
truly blind at birth at eight my left
eye was surgically removed at nine I
begun wearing a prosthetic left eye at
12 I met my ballet coach lot more
a–casey he transformed my handicap into
a strength
at 18 I trained with a professional
ballet company in Austria at 19 I talked
cardiothoracic surgery and assisted in
human heart procurement for transplants
today at 20 I stand before you to tell
you a story of darkness and light a
physical eyesight and vision my life
demonstrates that living with one eye
can be very similar to your life with
two and that the information that I have
learned along the way to compensate for
my vision loss is translatable to your
life
mental visualization proprioception and
motion parallax are three nuances that
exist and demonstrate the power of our
bodies and minds first let me clarify
what vision is not our purely physical
eyesight which we rely on above all
other senses does not always provide an
accurate picture of our world
now to demonstrate this I am going to
need your help in this optical illusion
how many of you see the female dancer in
the center rotating clockwise how many
of you see her rotating counterclockwise
as you can tell we do not all agree in
the center image there is a lack of
visual depth cues which is causing our
brains to interpret the image
differently our eyes are therefore not
responsible for everything that we are
visually experiencing in dreams for
example our brains can generate a visual
experience without any sensory input
from our eyes likewise if I asked you to
visualize what a glass car looks like
you would have no problem visualizing
one although you have never actually
seen one vision involves a construction
of a mental image of our external world
our purely physical eyesight is not as
reliable as we assume but our internal
vision generated in our mind compensates
for the illusion of pure physical
eyesight the exercise of mentally
visualizing a glass car serves as a
brief introduction to the mental
visualization that has served as my
internal guide when training for my
ballet career I had to learn to
compensate for not having two eyes
in order to achieve the impeccable
balance needed on pointe shoes I learned
to close my eyes as I danced I created a
mental representation of each movement
as if I were truly performing in a
virtual body in my mind in doing so I
was able to achieve that balance in my
virtual body and translate that
information to my physical body and
space however I did not only see these
Corrections I felt them too at 16 I
contracted a near-fatal infection that
left me in a wheelchair for months
doctors told me I would never dance
again
so I danced with the virtual body in my
mind instead I visualized and mentally
felt every muscle activation required to
perform with the virtual body in my mind
in doing so I never really stopped
dancing I did what astronauts do when
training in zero gravity conditions to
prevent muscle atrophy my mind activated
my muscles one year later I returned to
ballet after a remarkably fast recovery
proved my doctors wrong and performed
with a professional ballet company in
Austria I succeeded as a ballerina
because of my heightened awareness to
mental visual visualization but also my
awareness to my proprioception
proprioception is an awareness of our
bodies in space an awareness to where
each part is relative to one another
proprioception is what allows us to move
and react to our external environment
without using our eyes
we all use proprioception
for example close your eyes
raise your index finger to your nose if
you were able to do so then you have
just located your nose in space using
proprioception this is a sense that is
so informative that it can serve as a
third eye or in my case a second eye we
all have the ability to strengthen our
own proprioception through mind-body
exercises for example performing daily
tasks with your eyes closed enhances
that brain body communication my
awareness to mental visualization and my
ability to apply this and proprioception
to complex tasks gave me the second eye
I needed to perform surgery at Stanford
I was a teaching assistant in a cardio
thoracic surgical simulation lab I
performed surgeries such as septum
defect repairs and coronary artery
bypass –is initially I was slower than
my peers however over time I began to
memorize the delicate feel of the body
tissue the weights of the surgical
instrument and the feeling of my hand
welding the instrument upon the body
tissue in doing so I was able to keep up
I used my mental visualization to
imagine where I should be within the
simulated body cavity and confirmed this
by the feeling that I was having in
doing so I executed these surgeries
without relying on my vision
I began this talk by asking you all to
close one of your eyes this was to
demonstrate a lack of depth perception
as a result of only having one eye an
individual with two eyes aligns him or
herself in space so that the third
dimension can be seen each eye is
responsible for generating an image and
it is the brain’s responsibility to
intercept these images into one and
subsequently create a third dimension
however in theory then in an individual
with one eye should not be able to see
the third dimension however I do so and
I do in two ways in the first method I
use time rather than space
this is called motion parallax my eye
captures one image and engraves it into
the my mind and then I move my head ever
so slightly to capture a second image
taking a split second apart and doing so
my brain can interpret these photos and
create the third dimension we all use
motion parallax in this example we are
able to tell that the pillars are closer
in proximity to us than the brick wall
this is because the pillars are moving
at a faster speed relative to the brick
wall therefore we are using time and
motion rather than space to determine
depth perception in the second method
that I use to generate the third
dimension I use my senses specifically
proprioception it is this sixth sense
that gave me the power to perform both
when I was four the doctors took the eye
patch off my single good eye lights and
color flowed into my life when doctors
told me I would never dance again
darkness flood of my life when six
months later my mother passed away I
thought I would never see the light
again moving from a wheelchair to
dancing on stage I began to see the
lights again moving to Austria to then
dance with the ballet company only to
realize that ballet is not my true
vocation darkness flooded in again
finally when I internalized the voice of
my mother and returned to America to
pursue a career in academia I attended
Columbia University now as a student and
I am continuing to chase the light today
I continue to chase this life I am an
EMT with Columbia University emergency
medical services and I Drive their
ambulance in New York City with just one
eye I have recently met doctors in
Boston who are engineering visual
prosthesis that have the capacity to
restore vision to the blind I will
personally assist them this summer by
providing user interface to their
medical devices I fully intend on
chasing light and color for every blind
person in this world mental
visualization proprioception and motion
parallax are three internal guides that
testify to the power of our bodies in
mine
these innate abilities manifest and
other species as well for example dogs
ears their acute sense of smell to
navigate the world bats use echolocation
and birds can detect the Earth’s
electromagnetic field
these internal guides are exceptionally
powerful I urge you not only to become
aware but to utilize them especially in
times of trial remember that when life
gets difficult you have two options to
focus your awareness on your external or
internal vision let this internal guide
let the light in go out into this world
pay it forward and chase color thank you [Applause]
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