The Cosmic Ocean By Chappell: Chapter Analysis

In the sixth chapter of The Cosmic Ocean, Chappell continued to add on to his spiritual journey. Chappell talked about the common demons that live in all humans such as fear, selfishness, and rage. These demons can not be defeated by someone else, but must be defeated by the one that carries them. To defeat these demons, people must feed their spiritual organs by traveling deep into dark labyrinths. In these labyrinths, they must fight their demons and use the light to find the treasure in all the darkness. Chappell also discusses self-worth and all of the factors that can lower it such as stereotypes and abuse. As Chappell said, people must have self-worth as well as belonging and meaning to protect their fragile future. …show more content…
If someone wants to conquer their inner demons, they must take them on by themselves. Chappell compared this confrontation to someone that wishes to become a doctor. To become a doctor, things such as illnesses and diseases must be confronted, just as trauma and war have to be confronted if someone wants to learn about and fight for peace. While going straight into a hospital room can seem daunting, there are steps that one takes before reaching the final boss fight towards their end goal, like a video game. In peace, these steps start with learning all the sides and effects of war before they can teach and advocate for a peaceful world. It takes years to learn about everything that can be the causes, results, and reasons why someone is willing to fight in a war. This is similar to Chappell’s example of a doctor because before someone can earn a doctorate in medicine and be certified to work in a hospital, they must go through many years of …show more content…
If a child does not put effort into a certain task, complimenting them on their effort is not the way to praise them because as Chappell said, children expect that adults are telling them the truth. However, even if a child does something great, Chappell explained that it is important to tell them how great the action or work they did is, not how great the child is. If a child is told that their work is great and they are told why it is great, it guides them to do things with the same effort. However, if they are just told that they great, they will not have any idea of what they did correctly and then their work ethic may decline because they do not know what they did to impress others. This counterproductive praise will not only leave a child wondering what they did correctly, but it will also lead to a lower self-worth because they will get less positive results as time goes on and they will feel like they are failing. As for abuse, Chappell has mentioned this throughout his whole book. If a child is abused, they will always feel like it was their fault or that they deserved it. If this is the case, their self-worth will be severely damaged because they will form their own explanations as to why they are being treated that way. Abuse is never good for a developing mind, so if a child is able to avoid it, their self-worth will be greatly helped. When self-worth is high, one of the spiritual organs