This book review is reprinted from Volume 22, Winter 2009 edition, with permission from Homeopathic Links.

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Let's Talk About Talking
Rajan Sankaran

Homeopathic Medical Publishers, Mumbai , 2009 DVD set (150 min)
ISBN 978-81-906316-7-9

Reviewed by Kaare Troelsen, Denmark

Rajan Sankaran is known as an engaging and interesting speaker, not just due to his groundbreaking research and ideas but also because of the way he presents his concepts and discoveries. In this DVD set he talks about talking, how to make a subject come alive, how to transmit an idea to the audience, sharing a journey. 

The set consists of two DVDs with live recordings. The first DVD opens up with a one hour lecture on the philosophy of how to convey a concept, how to structure a talk, followed by a 20 minutes Q& A session. The second DVD shows an hour of live recordings from Sankaran's homeopathy seminars specially edited to show practical examples of how the different elements of a successful talk can be.

 To anybody who has studied the art of giving a lecture this DVD is not revolutionary, but the new angle is that it is made by a homeopath for homeopaths. It is concise and on the other hand it is wonderfully free of all the talk about detailed method and structure. Sankaran says something like: "Techniques are not important, it's your intention for giving the talk that is important, it's not information you list. it's conveying your vision/experience, to make the group reverberate with your vision." 

He likens it to getting to the right remedy; the method is not important as long as you get there. Sankaran believes that words and examples etc. are but steps on a ladder to reach the magic moment, the pause where it all clicks and the audience experiences what you have experienced and naturally reaches the same conclusion. 

He sees it as an energetic process. It is a very "homeopathic" view on talking. 

Sankaran warns us not to get stuck with a list of points we need to present/prove but to be sure that the points you do get time to convey really are understood and experienced by the audience. 

There are some good points about structure though, he talks about the importance of the right opening, the stage of build-up, the peak, tying in loose ends and the ending. Not as a rigid grid you fit over the audience and your message but an interactive dance you suit to the state of the listeners and the development of the talk. "Stop talking when the audience is still hungry" he says, "let them go home and think about how they can use the idea to go further." 

In the Q & A session Sankaran talks about handling criticism, nervousness and about the importance of having dignity and humility towards your knowledge and the audience at the same time. 

The second DVD demonstrates the philosophy outlined in the lecture on the first DVD. This is done through video footage from Sankaran's seminars, showing an example of an opening, a seminar with good use of anecdotes, humour and power points, an example of a Q & A session. 

Power point summaries of the lecture points are inserted throughout both DVDs. It would have been very useful if those power points were also accessible as a separate menu point. 

This DVD is very interesting, but if you feel he has been overexposed already, you might find this DVD a bit self-indulgent. Or is that just the use of personal anecdotes, which he also recommends? See for yourself. There is something to learn here.