Oh Dozy I already keep a list of favourite topics, just in case!
1. Free will and the Mandelbrot set. 2. What is it like to die? (much of this personal experience with friends who have died) 3. The jewel net of Indra; archetypal field image from Indian and Chinese Buddhist philosophy 4. The poetry of Jalal'Uddin Rumi
Fascinating selection, Virginia. I had to look up the last three but, of course, I've seen the images generated by the Mandelbrot set before: I just didn't know the name.
But your Hindu poet is well worth another look, and I'll be sure to do that. When I found this line "As you live deeper in the Heart, the mirror gets clearer and cleaner!" I was reminded of a somewhat parallel quote from 1 Corinthians 13: "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." Lewis took that line and wrote a fascinating story about it called "Till We Have Faces". It was one of his better books.
You have to be on a winner with that no matter which way you interpret the word. It might mean, survival in the modern world. It might mean survival after an apocalypse. It might mean surviving death. Which did you have in mind?
It would have to be something I was passionate about. I have only (somewhat) voluntarily spoken to groups twice. Once for work, to an audience of maybe 30, and the other regarding a local ordinance before approximately 500.
Benedict Arnold 