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.

Paul K. Chappell is the founder and Executive Director of the Peace Literacy Institute. He graduated from West Point, was deployed to Iraq, and left active duty as a Captain. Realizing that humanity is facing new challenges that require us to become as well-trained in waging peace as soldiers are in waging war, Chappell created Peace Literacy to help students and adults from all backgrounds work toward their full potential and a more peaceful world.

Chappell is the author of the seven-book Road to Peace series. The first six published books in this series are Will War Ever End?, The End of War, Peaceful Revolution, The Art of Waging Peace, The Cosmic Ocean, and Soldiers of Peace.

Chappell grew up in a violent household. Born in 1980, he was raised in Alabama, the son of a Korean mother and a Black father who was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. These experiences were part of what compelled him to forge a new understanding of war, peace, rage, trauma, and our shared humanity.