#3: Exploring “Vision vs. Sight” with Stelios (Dr. Nik) Nikolakakis
Today, we are exploring the topic of vision and questioning if what we “see” is actual reality.
I sat down with my friend, an Optometrist, Consultant, and Motivational Speaker, Dr. Stelios Nikolokakis, who is not only academically brilliant but also deeply spiritually connected. Trained in the intricacies of the human eye, Stelios has developed a profound understanding of how our physical sight, combined with our vision, shapes our lives and relationships—spiritually, mentally, and physically.
In this conversation, you'll discover insights into the visual (neurological) process, the science behind imagination and its role in manifestation, and how, by understanding the science of the eye, Stelios helps people not only enhance their visual abilities but also tap into their “third eye”.
Topics We Explore:
- The difference between sight and vision
- A fascinating reason why we don’t fully process everything we see
- An introduction to neuro-vision therapy
- Why 80% of ADD cases are linked to vision-related issues
- How this understanding enhances our perception of others and deepens our relationships—because we don’t see everything!
Connect with Stel Nikolokakis on Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/stelios-nikolakakis-88b71114
Episode Transcript:
Erik Solbakken: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Viking Academy Podcast. Today on the show, I have a very special guest for you. It's Stell Nikolakakis. He is an ophthalmologist, but not just any ophthalmologist. He works with neural vision therapy and NLP therapy. We're gonna get into that, explanations of what those things are a little bit more. This guy is not only scientifically smart, he is spiritually connected. We talk about a lot of really cool things. We talk about the difference between sight and vision. He walks us through the explanation of the difference between the two. He also tells a very staggering fact, that we don't process most of what we see. So most of the world that we experience, our brains don't process it. It was something like 99.99% of it is either deleted, carved away, and we put in super tunnel vision, and we go quite deep into that rabbit hole, which is really cool when you start thinking about seeing other people behaving like an asshole, and you're like going, "Why are they acting that way?" This is gonna bring an aha moment to understand that really most of us do not experience reality for what it is. We also go into deep dives into unique ability. We're both members of Strategic Coach. He's a great guy. It's a great conversation. I'm really looking forward to you being able to sit in and listening to our conversation. So without further ado, let's go explore. Stel, welcome to the podcast.
Stel Nikolakakis: Thank you. Thank you. Excited to be here.
Erik Solbakken: I was just telling Stel just before we got on here, I said, "He's number three," and I was holding up, like, the rock 'n' roll three sign because he's the third podcast guest ever on the Viking Academy, the third of many, many podcasts to come. And so I'm super excited about that, and, and the one thing that I'm really excited about is exploring you and what you do because we've only scratched the surface, man. Like, very b- scratched the surface. So for the listeners there, can you just give a breakdown of who you are and what you do? And then we're gonna dive into the fun stuff.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah. So by profession, I'm a neurovisual optometrist. My name is Dr. Stelios Nikolakakis, and it's interesting 'cause a lot of the conversations we had has been around vision. And to be honest with you, the more that I learn, the less I know. 'Cause traditionally we're taught about eyeballs and how it's connected to the brain and looking for disease, like the typical medical model. And unfortunately, I have a son that has cerebral palsy, which is a, a type of traumatic brain injury, so developmentally cer- certain parts of the brain never formed. And I had a colleague that said that vision therapy can help him, and it's, it's a subspecialty within optometry that we weren't necessarily taught in Canada. So then I went to the States and trained for about a year and a half to learn how to help my son, and then in the meantime I figured out how we can help kids with learning disabilities, other traumatic brain injuries like concussions, and then ultimately learning how we can help high-level athletes and entrepreneurs in terms of how to enhance their visual system. So one of the things that we say when people ask me what do I do, we say, "I change lives through vision," however that looks for the individual.
Erik Solbakken: You help people see, and you help them see not only on the molecular side, but you and I, and which is I'm really looking forward to on the podcast here, is it go how far does that go? Like, it's from the molecular all the way to the seeing with the third eye, shall we say. Like, seeing life for as it is. Can you explain a little bit more, though, like, what, what is part of the neurovision therapy? Like, what do you do on that?
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay, so let me, like. I'll explain the list, list a little bit of the anatomy so that we kind of have an understanding of how the visual process versus the sight process works.
Erik Solbakken: Okay.
Stel Nikolakakis: Right? So, we always say that light hits the retina, right? And everything is sort of, reversed and upside down, and then the brain reverses it and un-reverses it and puts it right side up so that we can see things. So image, retina, and then the retina gives us an electrical stimulus that goes to the brain, and the brain makes sense of it. Okay, that's sight. Right? So when you do an evaluation at an optometry or an ophthalmologist office, we cover one eye and say, "Read the letters." "Wow, I have 20/20 vision." Check the other eye, right? "Oh, I have 20/20 vision as well." But that's sight, okay? So that's what we see. Vision is what happens after the image hits the retina and how the brain processes the information, okay? And we know that 70% of the brain involves the visual processing, okay? So as the information goes to the back of the brain, okay, then the processing happens from the back of the brain through the brain- For the brain to make sense of what it sees. That then triggers a type of movement. Okay? So in terms of movement, if we understand where we are in space visually, then we, the brain knows to move the body through that space. Okay? Or another form of movement is we may see something, the brain processes it, and it makes us emotional. Emotion is still a movement.
Erik Solbakken: The movement of thought and which creates- Movement of thought. of thought which creates emotion. Right.
Stel Nikolakakis: You got it. So if we, if we, again, we look at it from a processing standpoint and we know that 70% of the brain is visual, now the question is what is it that we're seeing will depend on what's going on internally and what we grab in the world. The one thing that Dan Sullivan says, 'cause we're both strategic coaches, students, is the brain reaches out in the world to grab what it needs to make sense of it. So we see through our eyes with our brains, and we hear through our, with our brains through our ears. Okay? So that's a processing thing, just to help understand sort of the difference between sight and vision, 'cause I think it's a pro- an important distinction.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. The, our eyes see and our ears hear what our mind, what our brain
Stel Nikolakakis: is looking for.
Erik Solbakken: What our brain is looking for. What our brain- Exactly. is looking for. And that, that's. As you were explaining the difference between sight and vision, I just, I kept thinking about the fact that I can, you and I can see the same things, our sight can see the same things, but the vision can be totally different depending upon our past conditioning and our emotional state and our motivation, right? Yeah. Like, two people can. Well, I s- I've said this to people before, I said, "You can go to a hockey game," 'cause I've been to a couple hockey games when I fly into Toronto and I see you, we go for dinner or whatever. I've been to hockey games with a couple of the strategic coach people, and we're watching the Maple Leafs play the Chicago Blackhawks, and all of a sudden the Maple Leafs lose, and all these people are pissed off and, "Oh, that was a crappy game." And I'm sitting there going, "That was so exciting." I don't have a team, so I don't really care who wins. And then you have a Blackhawks fan who is completely ecstatic, and I'm going, we all saw the same game, but we're all having different responses to that game. And because our vision is different. Yes. The sight, this s- The sight and again, we'll probably explain this a little better, but our sight, from what I could see, our sight was the same- Yeah. but the vision's different.
Stel Nikolakakis: You got it. So the, the best way for me to explain it to. So let's make the assumption that both of us are 20/20, we see perfectly clear, right? And we call it a communication model. I'm trained in neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy, and it helps me link how the brain works in terms of how the processing happens from a neural visual model and also a neuro-linguistic programming model. Okay? So this is the communication model from an NLP standpoint. We have two million bits of information that hit us every second, okay? Two million. Our, our brain can only take in 126 bits of that 2 million per second. Okay? So the brain deletes, distorts, and generalizes the information based on the internal programming that's occurring. So in this case with the hockey game, I'm a Leaf fan. Okay? So I'm gonna sort through the 126 according to what my brain wants to see for the Leafs to win, or the players that I'm looking for, or what excites me. Okay? I may not know or see the Blackhawk fan because it's not of, of interest to me. So what am I gonna do? Delete, distort, generalize all the Blackhawks information, okay, focus on my Leafs, take in 126 bits of what that emotional connection is to my Leafs, okay, which then creates a visual processing that allows me to understand what I see as reality. Okay, now here's the thing, I'm gonna pose a question to you and the learners. What's real?
Erik Solbakken: Dude, I was already there I was already writing that down. I'm going, what percentage is that of the million bits per second and we can only take in what. Like, what is the percentage on it? 100. What is the percentage? Like, it's-
Stel Nikolakakis: It's, it's, it's super, super small.
Erik Solbakken: it's infinites- like, it's infinitesimally small.
Stel Nikolakakis: 156, 156 out of two million. it's
Erik Solbakken: like-
Stel Nikolakakis: So,
Erik Solbakken: so the question becomes exactly what you just said, which is what I was gonna ask you. I said, "Well then, what is reality?" Because our vision of reality is not the complete sight. Like, the sights that's coming in is, like, overwhelming. There's so much data coming at us that we're sorting and summarizing and shu- shuffling out. And, I have a degree in psychology from the, from University of Victoria, and it's coming flooding back now of just how much we parse away, right? Yeah. Which I think it's brilliant. Again, we've talked about Dan Sullivan. He primes us to say, "Your eyes see and your ears hear what your mind is looking for." So if you prime your brain to look for something, you will see it and hear it- Yeah. because you've told the brain that's what you're looking for. That's on the positive side, but what you're telling me also, what I'm sure you're gonna go down as the negative side, is that my preconditioning, my motivation, emotional state, and what's motivating me at the moment will skew what I'm seeing-
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: and take it to a negative place.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah. You
Erik Solbakken: know? This reminds me, and I'm gonna bastardize this quote so bad and my apologies if I do, but isn't it. There's a quote where it says, "For those who have nothing, more will be taken away. For those who have more, more will be given unto them." It's like a scripture from the Bible that is what you're talking about here is, like, if I'm seeing negative, I will see more negative. But if I'm seeing positive, I will see more positive. So that, that which is people don't have, more will be taken away because I'm in a negative state and I'm creating that negativity. The more that I have, the more that I'll get because I'm in a positive state of being. Yeah,
Stel Nikolakakis: yeah. One, one of the, one of the terms that, that we say is we focus on expanse.
Erik Solbakken: Right.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? So it's the same idea. If you're in a negative state and you're focusing on the negativity, it expands because that's what the brain is looking for, okay? If you focus on the positive or what it is that's possible, what it is that the brain's looking for, that expands as well, okay? And one of the things that we always say from an NLP standpoint is being in a resourceful state. Okay? Now, it's easier said than done, but if we have all the resources inside of us, right, the question is why is it that we don't get what we want? Okay? What is it that, 'cause you could say, "Look, I, I wanna focus on the positive." It's not that simple, okay? Because again, we can go down the rabbit hole, but you always have to look at development of the human mind and the human being, okay? So from a developmental standpoint, there's, there's- Emotional development, there's physical development, right? And then there's mental development. So when we look at the development of the child, you have to look at environment, you have to look at nutritional support, you have to look at, like what is it that we're, we're growing into and where are we getting all this information? Societal norms tell us certain things. Education tells us certain things. Parents will tell us certain things. We're exposed to environments that will then dictate certain things, right? So we're given all this information, and when we're young, we don't know what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad. We take on something at what we call an unconscious level, okay? Now, when you take the unconscious emotions, for example, like fear is a big one. We have to have fear. If we don't have fear, we'll kill ourselves. It's development. Guilt is what kills someone else. So we take on these emotions because they're there as survival mechanisms.
Erik Solbakken: Right.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? But the thing is, we're not necessarily taught how to integrate Those survival mechanisms, and now we run these programs that are, again, unconscious that dictate what it is that we're looking out in the world, and we're getting it, and we wonder why. Why is it that we respond a certain way when we experience, and have a conversation with someone, and we go, "Man, I like that guy," or, "That guy bothers me," or, "They rubbed me the wrong way." Or, like all these things that you can't necessarily explain. They say, "Why is it that you don't like him?" I don't know, right? "Why is it that you're so angry?" I don't know, right? But these are the programs that now are developmental, but they're also a- an opportunity, okay? Because when you have access to reframe the past in such a way to give you then a clarity of the vision of the future, then you can be more present in the moment. And when that presence allows you to then pick and choose what it is that supports you,
Erik Solbakken: okay? And then if you want, we can
Stel Nikolakakis: break down what vision looks like in that case. And again, it's one of the questions that they, that Dan came up with called the R factor, which is it's a year from now, what has to happen that you have been excited about what happened, like with the results that you're getting. You're already predetermine setting the intention of what it is that you wanna see a year from now. Not everybody has that ability to have that type of vision. They say, "I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing yesterday." Whereas there's other people that are saying, "Oh my God, I would dream that, blah, blah, and then I wanna be this, and I wanna have that." And when there's an emotional connection to the vision of the future, it will happen. Those are the two things that link together.
Erik Solbakken: This ties into. Oh man, there's so much to unpack in there. Like, that's why I was so excited about getting the Viking Academy because you talked about the whole human, the whole development of the person, and who you are today is a culmination of all these different factors and this conditioning that's happened over your lifetime. Yes. And you look at the Viking Academy is about exploring the three dimensions of being human, the mind, the body, and the spirit. Don't just focus on one. Don't just focus on one area. It's when you e- From my experience, has been when I've explored the three, my spirituality, my physicality, and my mental state, and I've been curious, and I'm exploring, I start to uncover more of who I am and why I'm here, and it brings me purpose and passion. Now I'm fired up, right? Now I wanna get moving forward. And the thing is to see that who we are today is nothing but a accumulation of conditioning- And past coping mechanisms that our bodies had in place to protect us from dying, like you said about fear. Like, I love how the. If you didn't have any fear, you'd step out in the middle of the road and get hit by a bus, right? Like, pretty dumb. So the fear is there for a reason, but the problem is, is the programming sometimes doesn't know the difference between real fear and made-up fear, but. And most of the fear is made up. It's all in our heads, right? Sure. But it's this conditioning piece that we're just unaware of. And once you. This other thing, my first business coach I had was Chris Flett from Ghost CEO. He said, "Once, you can't unknow." I went, "Hmm." He said, "So the minute you plant the idea of something in someone's head and they, and they know it, and they're like, 'Oh,' they can no longer unknow it." So it's like lifting the kimono, shall we say. You're almost, you're opening people up to understand that their s- their sight and their vision, or their vision has been conditioned over their past, and then, but there is a way out. That's the best part. Like you're saying, "Here's, here's the process of what's happened to you and why you potentially act the way you do," but then there is a way out, and that's what you're doing with the therapy and is to help, which I'm very curious about this, how do we get into, like there's some meaty stuff Is how does the work that you do help people unwind? Because now we know what happened, but now what do we do going forward to fix the situation, right? And-
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah.
Erik Solbakken: that's the, the one for me. So for the listener out there, and you're going, "Yeah, why did I get mad at that person?" Like, just like last night, I just got. I snapped at my wife, and I'm like, after I did, I went, "Okay, I just realized what that was." And it was, when you talked to me, it reminded me of my mother telling me I wasn't a good boy, and that was that shame that I'm not good enough and blah, blah, blah. Like, this awareness after the fact. But when it took over, I was just pissed. Yeah. I was just pissed. I snapped at her, and I'm like, "Ah." And then afterwards, I'm like, "Oh, sorry. Huh. This is why this happened." So I'm having that awareness. The awareness is the first piece, but then the second piece is what do we do with it? And can we get into that a little bit?
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah. we'll do it with an example 'cause, like, one thing I always say, and, and I'm glad that the medical model is shifting a little bit in terms of having different professionals coming together in order to take care of the person as a whole, okay? And it's critical, right? Because the thing is, if you think about. I'm gonna talk about vision in a second, right? You mentioned psychology. So psychology is tapping into the, into the brain or the mind through the limbic system and the emotional system, okay? Then you have audiologists, okay? And then certain audiologists, not only do they test how they h- how the hearing is, but they also test how the processing happens neurologically within the auditory system, okay? So they tap into the brain through the auditory route. Then you have occupational therapists, you have physiotherapists that tap into the neurology through the kinesthetic of the body, okay? So when you have the individual and then you look at how does the individual get supported depending on what they need, then you'll have a better idea of what's happening with all these wellness clinics, okay? So I'm gonna tap into vision right now, and- If I need to bring in the other professions, I will. So you have a child that comes in that, that gets diagnosed with ADD, okay, attention deficit disorder. And, the parent will say, "He doesn't pay attention in class, he bumps into things, he doesn't sit still, he can't sit down," all these other things are showing up, right? And then you say, "Okay, but it's called attention deficit disorder, so how does that make sense?"
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, I never could quite understand that one. They almost have a attention on steroids. They're attentive- Yeah. to too many things. They don't have a deficit, they have an overabundance of attention.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay. But it is a deficit.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? And the question is, what is it that they're not attending to that's not explained? Okay, now what happens? When you understand the autonomic nervous system or what we call the sympathetic versus the parasympathetic, okay? The sympathetic is fight or flight, parasympathetic is the relaxed, okay? Relaxing, the peaceful of the two. When the brain is in a fight or flight response, okay, what happens is you get almost like a tunnel vision visually. In other words, the brain deletes the peripheral awareness. Okay, neurologically it's there, but it just doesn't attend to it. Why? Because it perceives everything as a tunnel just in case it's being attacked, and I use the example of a lion chasing. Okay, when there's a lion chasing you, you don't really care what's going on in your side vision, all you want to see is, how do I hop over that fence and as quickly as possible? Boom.
Erik Solbakken: How do I run faster than my friend?
Stel Nikolakakis: How do I run faster than my friend?
Erik Solbakken: You never have to run faster than a lion, you just have to run faster than your friend.
Stel Nikolakakis: Exactly. So now you delete- All the information that's in the periphery, okay? So that you're hyper-focused on the exit sign, and you're not focusing on a book that's up here. You're focusing out there, which means you're accommodative for your focusing system. Let's go. Okay? And then you also don't wanna converge your eyes here because you wanna keep the eyes out there, okay? So when we do an evaluation and we see a patient that has an inability to turn the eyes in, we call it a convergence insufficiency, and we have an inability to focus up close, which is called an accommodative insufficiency, and we do what's called a functional field test, and we see a constriction of that peripheral space, then they're in a fight or flight response. Now, how do you walk through space when you're looking through a tunnel? You have no awareness of your body.
Erik Solbakken: Correct.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? So if you have no awareness of your body, you're gonna stumble into things, okay? If I have no awareness of my periphery, neurologically, I have to attend to loud noises and moving objects, okay? Which makes me distractible. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
Erik Solbakken: Right.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? So now we have a visual response to what's going on internally. Again, we're saying we have an attention
Erik Solbakken: deficit to the peripheral
Stel Nikolakakis: space, which gives us a hyper-focusing centrally. So what do we do? We can use lenses, and this is sort of the physical place, but we use lenses to open up that space optic, which allow the brain to capture more space, which then puts the patient into a parasympathetic response, which calms down the system, calms them down, and brings awareness to the periphery that's safe enough for the brain to capture. And now, all of a sudden, the symptoms go away
Erik Solbakken: Hold on. Okay Hold on, hold on. The, if I heard you correctly, then for ADHD, for kids with ADHD, if we give them a better way to see more as opposed to that tunnel vision, that could be a solution to ADHD as opposed to a bunch of medication.
Stel Nikolakakis: Possibly. Okay, now-
Erik Solbakken: Okay
Stel Nikolakakis: you have to see, if there's a chemical component to this thing, which is what ADHD is, then we may have to medicate in order to calm that system down. But 80% of the symptoms of ADD are identical to vision related issues. Identical.
Erik Solbakken: Okay? Say that,
Stel Nikolakakis: that, say
Erik Solbakken: that again.
Stel Nikolakakis: So 80% - Yeah. 80% of the symptoms of ADD are identical to vision related issues. Okay? So if we check out the visual system and it's consistent to the symptoms of ADD, if we support the visual system, that means the symptoms of ADD should reduce or go away.
Erik Solbakken: How many others in the medical profession, and specifically in the ADD, ADHD space, are in alignment with what you're talking about?
Stel Nikolakakis: It's one of my passions is to get the information out there. Again, the medical training that we have is not necessarily connected to understanding the neurology and the visual space like this, right? So if you speak to, ophthalmology or optometry in general, we're not necessarily understanding what this is. Neurology understands it a little bit more effectively, right? But it's one of those things that it's my passion to get the word out there for people to understand what it is that we can help, right? Because the statistics are massive. And then, how it shows up in learning with a kid that has this type of visual system, now imagine reading a book and it sounds like this because I only see one word at. Oh, I just skipped a line because I lost my place. Do you understand? Like-
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, yeah, yeah. it's shocking. 'Cause they, they're not seeing the whole picture. It's like literally not seeing the whole picture
Stel Nikolakakis: It's 100% what it is, right? So as soon as, like periphery, when we talk about peripheral awareness, right? Because when you talk to somebody, everybody knows what 20/20 vision is. Nobody talks about peripheral vision or what we see in our sight, right? Do how much you take in in your side vision? We're not-- We don't measure that per se, okay? We measure from a medical standpoint when somebody has a medical condition like glaucoma, for example, or retinitis pigmentosa or anything medical. We talk about visual fields, but neurological visual fields. What I'm talking about is a functional field. How much attention does the brain put in that peripheral space, okay? And this is what we do as neurovisual optometrists, is break down the system fully to understand what it is that we can get an idea of what's happening internal, in terms of the internal representation or what we call the visual process of the individual that's sitting in front of us, okay? Now, going to psychology for you, okay? Let's say you have a child that has anxiety, okay? But let's say the anxiety is caused by something emotional that happened to him in a traumatic event when they were like five, six. The underlying cause is the trauma. We're gonna see it visually, and we may be able to help them out. But what happens if we try to open up that peripheral space and it makes things worse? The brain is going, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, don't mess with me. I have a trauma here that we need to take care of." Okay? In that case, then you say the lenses may or may not work, but if you do a decent history and then all of a sudden you find out that there's an emotional component to this, that some child had a trauma, referral to the psychotherapist or the psychiatrist and the psychologist to then deal with it at an emotional level. Limbic system gets supported, visual space opens up. So think of it like an emotional- My brain's spinning around
Erik Solbakken: the
Stel Nikolakakis: implications of this. think of it, think of it like a- an emotional lens. You think of it as an emotional lens. Yeah. Yeah. It's still a lens. You're still changing the visual space. But how we go about it will depend on each individual, and this is what by you have to look at the individual as a whole and not as parts, eyeballs and-
Erik Solbakken: Right. Right. It's, for me, I keep coming back down to, and again this is why I started the Viking Academy, is like I, I was like there's all these gurus in all these different spaces. There's like, there's the, there's the spiritual gurus, there's the mindset gurus, there's the body gurus, and they're all there. And I was like, when we're trying to figure out who we are and why we're here, right? And so we talk about unique ability lock and strategic coach, and this, Julia Waller walked me through unique ability and I saw my unique ability, and that got me fired up and I connected it with my spirituality and my physicality. And all of a sudden I started to see, my vision expanded. Not my sight, but I was starting to process more of what I'm here and who I am. So my vision expanded. It's about for everybody to find, get their vision to expand, because it could be. And so what you talked about is there's a connection. It could be the sight, like there could be a sight issue. So with the ADD kid, there's, they're not seeing the whole picture. Like the sight is closed off, so the vision can't process the rest of it. Right? The vision, the vision can't process 'cause they're, they're looking through this tunnel and that's where they're getting all this, this action. So there could be a physicality to being able to see more, but if the physicality isn't matched up with the underlying trauma underneath, then you could be messing something up. There's never a silver bullet, I guess is what I'm getting to. Like there's no, everybody's looking for this magic pill that's just gonna solve the whole thing. We're such complex creatures and there's so many parts to us, is that they all interplay with one another. Right? And so I, I'm seeing. Hearing what you're saying is that bringing all the, the professionals together to work on all the individual parts, but to communicate with one another so that we know that what I'm doing over here isn't messing up what you're doing over there, what, what the next person over there is doing in their specialty, it's mirrors the accountant success formula. So my other business was the coaching program with the accountant success formula. I'm showing accountants like, "You have to talk to the banker, the lawyer, the financial advisor so that you can advise properly on the pa- the. And the patient in this case happens to be the business owner. The business owner. If you're just working in a silo and thinking that yours is the main thing, you're gonna make a mess of this person. You're gonna make a mess of the organism because you're not treating the whole creature. You're not treating the whole business owner and their, and their life here. So it's, it. I see the similarities there between the two, and it's collaborative, right? Again, coming back to, I think the well that springs all goodness is Dan Sullivan and his thinking and how he brings it out. It's like the free zone is the collaboration zone is where you realize it's when you're in a full collaboration with everyone, that's when things start to happen. That's when the beautiful things start to flourish. So I love the way that you explain that, but also it just blows my mind wide open to like what the hell are we. What the hell is reality? Like what is it? Because-. if you start realizing that we're only seeing such a small, small percentage or v- our vision-. is a very tiny fraction of the what sight is, then what is reality? You will have way more empathy for somebody else because you realize they don't see everything, just like you don't see everything. So they're e- acting like a jackass or they're doing something sideways. You can look at someone and go, "I can understand that because they don't see the whole picture." They're just reacting to their internal conditioning and reacting accordingly to protect themselves as an organism. It's n- maybe not appropriate for the situation, but that's because they don't see everything, just like I don't see everything.
Stel Nikolakakis: There's a couple things that you said. Number one is with unique ability, that coach with Julia, you said you discovered who you are, like a depth of who you are that shifted your vision and, right, how you see everything. Yes. So and the other thing is you become more empathetic or aware of other people, right? But the key thing is you're discovering more of yourself.
Erik Solbakken: Yes.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? So in terms of vision, so Dr. Skeffington is the one that created what are called Skeffington circles over 100 years ago to explain vision in a very simplified format. And the circles are based on, number one, who am I? Okay? He called it the anti-gravity circle. I don't wanna get into the science behind it. I'll just simplify it. So who am I is number one. Number two, if I understand who I am, then I have a flexibility in understanding the opportunity of who you are.
Erik Solbakken: Yes.
Stel Nikolakakis: Right?
Erik Solbakken: Yes.
Stel Nikolakakis: So b- back to strategic coach. So, the, the two most important days of our lives is the day we were born and the day we discovered why, okay? So you have a unique- Three program system called unique ability, called, Kolbe, all these, all these behavioral tests that you're born with, like you're hardwired with, okay? So this is your core, your core essence. Then life puts all these filters on you, which changes the way that you see or you perceive yourself and others. And then for those of us that are into personal development or deeper discovery and meditation, all these other things, what you're doing is lit- literally unfolding these layers to get to, to the true essence of who am I?
Erik Solbakken: Yes.
Stel Nikolakakis: All right. So now who am I? Okay, so the more I unfold, the easier it is for me to see through the layers to understand who are you.
Erik Solbakken: Exactly.
Stel Nikolakakis: Then I have a relative understanding of where are you with respect to me, okay? And I can use inanimate objects of what is it and where is it with respect to me, right? So now I have a spatial understanding of what's going on in my visual reality. Once those three get set in, now the fourth circle is called communication, okay? Now, I'm gonna communicate differently if I don't know who I am. I'm gonna communicate differently if I don't know who you are. But if I have a deeper understanding of who I am and I have a deeper understanding of who you are with respect to where I am in space or in this world, now communication becomes authentic expression. And then once those four connect, now vision is in the center of all those circles, which we call the emergent of vision, okay? What's an emergent? It's, it's flow state, okay? It- that's the point where if you're an expert at something, you've done so much that you're just in the zone, that unconscious space, okay? Where you go deep enough, there is no time and space in that moment. It just is.
Erik Solbakken: That, nailed it. There is no time and space, it just is. It is. The essence of, the essence of being that peace, that path is all understanding. You just become completely present and you're just, you just are. Yeah. Yeah. So Stell, this is where I see science and spirituality finally coming together. what? Where it's the- Yeah. science and the spirituality comes together where they meet each other, that they're both trying to figure out the same thing. It, it's the convergence where it's- Yeah. they're gonna come together and it shows the same thing, and then bang. Then you really have true vision, right? When you bring the two together.
Stel Nikolakakis: You, if, if you ask somebody what do they know about quantum physics.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah.
Stel Nikolakakis: So if you say you believe in quantum physics, most people are gonna go, "Yeah, 100%. What is it?" Right? But quantum physics is a science. Certain parts of quan- quantum physics are hard to talk about, okay, but it's real. And, if you look at it in terms of, what's the science and. I don't remember where I read this, and I hope this comes out right 'cause I might be seeing it wrong, but they, they were talking about the space between neurotransmitters. So you get electric conduction that goes through the neurotransmitters, and it goes from one neurotransmitter to the next, to the next to the, next to the next. And Newtonian physics works on the law of gravity, okay? But there's a certain size of particle where it's so small that it's not impacted by gravity, so the Newtonian physics concept doesn't apply. The quantum physics applies, okay? And that space- That, that's
Erik Solbakken: where the, that's where the brain explodes. That's where your brain explodes, yeah. So that space- Most people's brains explodes.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah. But that space between the neurotransmitters is the exact size and space for there to be the movement from Newtonian physics to quantum physics. In other words, thoughts now become things because they don't necessarily conduct through the brain, they go out somewhere. I don't wanna go too, too deep on this one. No,
Erik Solbakken: no, do that. No, no, no, no, no, that's. When we first started talking, this is where, this is where I wanna go. This is where the listeners wanna go. So keep going with that. That's, that's. There was the, there, you think it, you say it, you become it. Like, this is where m- your thoughts becomes your w- your speech, and then your speech becomes your actions. But we're talking about thoughts becoming things at the quantum level. Yeah. Your thoughts become things.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah. It, it's. Okay, let me see if I can simplify for the callers to, for the listeners to understand a little bit better. I mentioned before what you think and the emotion that you attach to it becomes reality, okay? And- Yes, yes. and the easy way to explain it is thoughts, okay, with feelings, with actions, bridge over to results.
Erik Solbakken: Agreed. Yep. Right? Yep.
Stel Nikolakakis: So how we think and how we feel will then determine how we act in order for the results to occur, right? So w- what you focus on expands, is, is another way of saying it.
Erik Solbakken: , people try- Which is why, which is why, sorry to just interrupt there, but this is why- Yeah thoughts without the applicable, without the, the multiplying factor of emotion don't have that catalyst. It's a catalyst. The emotion is the catalyst to the creation of what you want. So if you, you have these thoughts of all you want, but if you're thinking one way but feeling another way, you're fighting. It's fighting each, it's fighting each other.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah, yeah. Right? There has to be congruence in there, right? Right. So say you say to somebody, "What is it that you want?" Right? The R Factor question. It's a year from now, what are you happy and excited about? I don't know, right? Then there's like how are you gonna act on that? And the example for me that I give is I've always wanted to be an optometrist, always. And in Canada there's only one English-speaking school, and back then there was only 64 stu- students that get in, so super competitive. And any time that I'd walk past the optometry building, I'm like, "I'm getting accepted. I'm gonna be an optometrist." Viscerally, it was like, "It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen." And I was emotionally connected to the result. Okay? So I'm thinking I'm gonna get in, my emotions are connected to the fact that I'm excited that it will happen. My actions were I studied my butt off and did what I needed to do, and the results were I got accepted. Right, okay? Now, how it looks, you can't possibly create, 'cause you can't be attached to the outcome in terms of how you see it happening. Okay? So I have grades of, mid-80s but, I'm competing against people that have 90s. Now, in my mind, I was also a varsity athlete, I was involved in intramurals, I was volunteering at hospital. I was doing all these things so the resume looked good. And at a certain point, everything is about the interview. Okay? So the interview comes rolling around, I'm nervous as anything 'cause now this is the make or break it. Okay? It's mass- Like, raining like crazy outside, okay? So I get into the head office, I sit down. "Hi, how are you?" Right? Great energy, "Good morning." And the receptionist says, ", unfortunately, your two interviewers can't make it in today." We have two replacements. Who are the replacements? The head of sports vision of the optometry school and a British, optometry professor that played rugby his whole life. What do we end up talking about? They look at my resume that they have and they go, "Oh, you played varsity at Waterloo? What position?" It was a one-hour conversation about rugby, and then at the end they said, "Oh, we need to ask you why you wanna be an optometrist."
Erik Solbakken: Yeah.
Stel Nikolakakis: Now, here's my question to you and the viewers. How many times have you had coincidences show up where it wasn't expected, and it happened for the right reasons at the right time to support what it is that you were thinking, and you got the results you were looking for? And then the opposite is when were you in a bad state thinking about what you didn't want, that also happened where you got the results and you were doing things and not consciously knowing that you were doing them?
Erik Solbakken: And here's the amazing part about what you're explaining. You're explaining the law of attraction. We're talking all The Secret and the books and that. When I hear it coming from you as a medical professional, and you are explaining the science around it and all the rest of it, and then you explained your experience, but I understand the science behind it, it all of a sudden become really terra firma. Like, it was like, "Oh yeah, of course, it worked." But there's a mystery in there, but it's in the quantum realm. We can't see it, which is, again, when you think about it, it's the faith in the creator, the faith in, in the universe, the faith in, in God or Allah, Buddha, Brahma, baby Jesus. I often say it doesn't matter what you call it. It works, right? Yes. But the one you said, it just. It landed more for me. There was, like, that terra firma because it's like it makes sense now why things- Yeah. have happened in my past, and when they were negative, because I was thinking negatively, when I'm in the fut- When. And everything that happened positively for me was because I was thinking positively. But again, no control over of, how it got there, but I was like- For, again, for the Viking Academy, I have this vision for the Viking. I'm fired up about the. You've seen me, I'm, like, bouncing off the walls when we're at Strategic Coach. I'm like, "I'm doing a Viking Academy. I'm, I'm doing it." And people ask me a whole bunch of questions about how it's gonna happen. I'm like, "No idea, but we're gonna do it anyways." And I'm living that piece. That's, again, being the third podcast interview that I've done here, timing is beautiful, and I appreciate you for that because you've just given me that extra catalyst and spark to keep that positive outlook, bring that energy, the positive energy to that thought that I have about building the Viking Academy, the community, giving people a way to explore themselves in those three dimensions, to open up their vision. And for me, there's this, again, there's this beautiful convergence that's happening, and there's a reason why we're, we're having this interview right now is 'cause you just gave me more fuel in the fire to push forward and make this a reality. So for that, I'm eternally grateful for you, brother. Like, that was beautiful. That was
Stel Nikolakakis: beautiful. Let, let, let me a- let me add one more thing, because we've had many conversations about the Viking Academy and how to mean. We, exchange ideas in our Strategic Coach and some of the breakout sessions that we've had. And let's go back to vision, right? Like, do you have a vision that of what this Viking Academy's gonna look like and-
Erik Solbakken: Oh, yes
Stel Nikolakakis: how many people are you g- Oh, yes It's clear, right? Yeah. It's pretty clear to me. Very crystal, crystal clear. Yeah. It sound- it, it sounds like it's clear every time I talk to you, but here's the thing The mind can't tell the difference be- between, reality and imagining. Okay? So, 'cause if I tell you close your eyes and visualize something that you've experienced in the past, you can do it. Okay? So that, that. it's still vision. If you create a vision of the future that you can see, right? there's an intuitive part that the Viking Academy's gonna be real, and you always put that emotion like, "Holy cow, I know this can happen. I can feel it." The mind has to look out for it because you've just turned on those neurons. Okay? Like, it has to look for it, and then things start showing up. So, again, we're going and looking at vision from a different perspective because when you say to visualize, very few people think about what you see. In reality, you're visualizing. Your brain is thinking up of what it needs in order for it to, to become real. Okay? What else was I gonna say that you mentioned? Oh, it'll come to me. I can't remember. Does that help, right? So- Yes. in, in, in terms of the visual process is a neurological process, and when that process gets stimulated, whether it's an action that you're, you're seeing or visualizing right now or you're imagining, it creates movement within the neurology. Okay? And like we said before, movement, it could be emotional where you're connected to it, that now it's looking for it in that outside world. Okay? Oh, I now remember my other thought. So one of the things that you said is like, again, what you put out there is what's gonna, what's gonna show up, right? And one of my mentors asked me a question one time, I'm gonna pose it to you and the listeners, and he said, "Who are you?" And I said, "I'm Stylianos Nikolakakis." He goes, "No, that's your name. You don't say, 'I am hand.'"
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? So that's your name. It's not who you are. So who are you? And I wasn't sure where he was going with the question. And he said, "You're a scientist, right?" I said, "Yeah." And he goes, "So the fact that you can move, what does that mean from a scientific standpoint because the formula, right? Work equals force times this, this. There's an energy that's attached there." I said, "Yeah." And he goes, "So if you're moving, do you agree that you're a, a form of energy?" And I said, "Sure." And he goes, "Okay. So there's a law called the law of thermodynamics that we know that energy can't be destroyed or created. It can only be transmitted." Okay. He goes, "So where'd you come from?"
Erik Solbakken: My mom's belly.
Stel Nikolakakis: A source of some point. Like some source. Yes.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. Where is the
Stel Nikolakakis: source? Source, source of energy. He goes, "Who am I?" Just that energy? He goes, "Yep." He goes, "Where'd I come from?" I go, "Source." "Okay, but a source is one, so if there's only one source, I'm energy, you're energy, do you agree that you're me and I'm you?" Yep. And he said, "Okay. I'll go- go, okay." And he said, "So if I am gonna show you or give you a form of my energy called love, okay? Because it can't be destroyed or created, it has to be transmuted, which means if you push it out there, it has to come back to you in some form. If I throw out the energy of sadness or hate or anger or rage, it also has to come back to you."
Erik Solbakken: Yes.
Stel Nikolakakis: We call that karma.
Erik Solbakken: Right.
Stel Nikolakakis: Okay? How it comes back, you can't attach to it, and if you refuse the way it comes back, the source will make sure that you'll receive it.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah, if you don't let it flow back to you, you'll be blocking, and then putting the blockers up can make it come. And then it's gonna force its way through, and it hurts even more when it comes back. Yeah.
Stel Nikolakakis: So this is now talking about the energetic connectedness of what it is that, and who we are as individuals with each other, and it goes back to the point that we talked about, who am I? The more that I understand myself, the more that I understand someone else, the easier it is for me to communicate, and we know that more than 60% of communication is non-verbal, okay? And that's how there's energetic transference. I don't know if this is going too deep too quickly, but
Erik Solbakken: it's like- No, no, not at all. No, they. For those that aren't seeing the video right now, my head, I'm like a bobblehead doll. I'm like yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Like, there's- All of the, there's the. I'm a recovering alcoholic, so in AA it's all about you can't keep what you don't give. So we're always looking to share the message with the next recovering alcoholic, 'cause that keeps me sober. There's the energy coming back around the source. And because of my deep dive into my spiritual nature and, and who I am, my concept of that I am you and you are me- Mm. it's very clear to me, because it's all one source of energy. It's all an energy source. But again, the way you explained it, you have a great way of explaining these things that are very grounded, and pe- you go, "Oh, that makes sense." Like, and then people can get it. Well, then, that's the concept of we are all one, because it's energy. And again- Yeah. ashes to ashes, dust to dust. When I die, I go back into the. The physical goes back into earth, but where did the energy go? The energy can't be destroyed, then it goes. It's still here, right? Yeah. And again, for me, the ultimate vision with the Viking Academy is, is, is creating a, a movement of spiritual warriors that realize that the true battle is always with the self. It's with the layers of conditioning and filters and masks and personas that we've accumulated over our life, and it's peeling those away so that we can have the vision, the true vision of who we are. Like, the true vision of who we are. And when you have a true vision of who we are, like you said, then I'm no longer going to be an asshole to someone. I will always show love and empathy and care and understanding amongst everyone. And so it's beautiful. Again, and you've given me even more vision again, and positive energy for the Viking Academy moving forward. Yes. Like this, for me, is. I've never been more certain of what I am going to build for the Viking Academy, what it is. What it already is, it's just not here right now. It, but it already is, if that makes sense. You would understand what by that.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah, no, 100%. And it's interesting, I didn't know your history around alcohol, and thanks for sharing.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah.
Stel Nikolakakis: And then the reason is, with a lot of the work that I do on the coaching side, I've had, lots of clients that have been addicted to drugs, and the one that I had the hardest time with was alcohol. Because a lot of the other drugs, it, it's suppressing an emotional issue that once you deal with the emotional component of it, they don't need the drug anymore Whereas with alcohol, I always said, that, and again, it's a generalization, but I'd say that alcoholics are really good liars and they lie to themselves.
Erik Solbakken: Disease that tells you you don't have it.
Stel Nikolakakis: Yeah. And one of the things is you need to have accountability, otherwise a lot of the processes that I do don't work. However, recently I realized with one of my clients that he said to me, "What's interesting is I don't focus on how many days I'm sober anymore." And I went, "Oh." I said, "Did you always before?" He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "It was always like a goal of how many days I'm sober." I said, "What changed?" And he says, "I have such clarity in what my purpose is now, and I can visualize what I'm here to do." So he discovered his why at such a deep level now that it's not about looking back to see how many days I'm sober, he's looking forward. And again, the reason I'm bringing it up is it's the same excitement that you see with the Viking Academy about what's gonna be created with what this movement is that you're creating. So anyways, congrats. But that just came to me and why it's all linking in from the day that I met you in terms of the positive and excitement that you have towards this thing.
Erik Solbakken: Bingo. People ask me, they'll say, "Well, how, how many, how many days have you been sober?" I'm like, ", I don't know." Yeah. "I'd have to figure it, I'd have to go back." It's not about. I don't regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. I'll bring it up when I can help someone else, but it's not about the past for me. It's about the future, and it's about the being here in the present and being excited about the future. So yeah, that's. Yeah, 'cause well, well, coming up in December it'll be 17 years, so. And if p- people say congratulations, I'm like, "Would you congratulate someone for stopping hitting their head with a hammer?"
Stel Nikolakakis: No, I wo- I, I wanna, I wanna
Erik Solbakken: congratu- And hitting other people with a hammer?
Stel Nikolakakis: I wanna congratulate you for having the vision of the academy. That's what I wanna- Yeah, that-. congratulate you on.
Erik Solbakken: I appreciate it, brother. That's awesome. Oh, man. what? We could go on for another hour, an hour, an hour, an hour and, and just. I could see this being a very, very long podcast, but we should probably wrap her up now and just let's stick a pin and agree to have another podcast in the future. Agreed?
Stel Nikolakakis: It'd be my pleasure.
Erik Solbakken: Yeah. That'd be awesome, brother. I really appreciate you. And so then again, for the listeners out there, I think the big takeaway for me on this is, oh, man, there have been so many takeaways. Realize how little we're seeing of reality, like of what is really out there. This has been awesome, Stell. I really appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming.
Stel Nikolakakis: Oh, thank you. No, thanks for having me. Whatever you need, let's make the Viking Academy a success.
Erik Solbakken: Oh, yeah, baby. Let's go explore. Thanks, brother.
Stel Nikolakakis: You're welcome.
Erik Solbakken: Thanks for listening to the Viking Academy podcast. Make sure to leave us your honest feedback by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.
