The Cosmic Ocean: New Answers to Big Questions

by Paul K. Chappell

The Cosmic Ocean shares the treasures that Paul K. Chappell, a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran, who grew up in a violent household, has extracted from trauma. To explain how these treasures—which take the form of timeless truths—can help us solve our personal, national, and global problems, this book uses personal stories and extensive research to journey through time, around the world, and into every facet of the human condition.

To survive and progress as a global human family, Chappell explains that we need a paradigm shift that can transform our understanding of peace, justice, love, happiness, and what it means to be human. To help create this paradigm shift, The Cosmic Ocean explores diverse subjects such as empathy, rage, nonviolent struggle, war, beauty, religion, philosophy, science, Gandhi, the Iliad, slavery, human sacrifice, video games, sports, and our shared humanity.

448 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2015

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

When this book came out in 2015, I was contacted by the author's PR rep, who wanted to see if I might be interested in interviewing him for The Truth & Freedom Show, my (short-lived) talk show on Radio Free Brooklyn. (I still do the 50 Years Ago This Week music show there.) I said yes, and read this fascinating book. It's the fifth in what was planned to be a series of seven books called The Road to Peace; don't know if that plan is still operative; looks like this is still the latest. Chappell is a West Point grad and Iraq vet whose childhood was almost as brutal as war itself. He's the son of an African-American father and a Korean mother, and he grew up in the seventies and eighties in Alabama. In addition to the racism he was exposed to from his peers, his father beat him routinely. He kept the lid on a great deal of rage, but was able to thrive at West Point. He has read widely, and puts together a potent mix of sources into this book, from Homer to Frederick Douglass to Gandhi. I haven't read any of the other books in the series; from their descriptions it sounds like they might be hard to differentiate. He is now Peace Leadership Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which states that its vision is a just and peaceful world free of nuclear weapons. In that capacity he speaks and teaches courses and workshops all over the world. It's safe to say that outside the world of this type of peace movement he is not well known. Anyone interested in big themes, creating peace, and exposure to interweaving narratives throughout history will probably benefit from and enjoy this book. Here is a link to the two-hour interview I did with Chappell in 2015: https://audioboom.com/posts/3790550-t...