Toward a Theory of Everything

By Frederick Douglas Harper

Toward a Theory of Everything is a book of creative prose and poetry. The first section of the book is a discussion of thoughts toward a theory of everything, which posits two existences: the spiritual existence and the physical existence. Featured poem titles include “A Birthday Prayer,” “A Prayer for the Suicide Prone,” “Ode to Oprah,” “A Prayer for Pope Francis,” “Black Lives Matter Because . . .,” “Fake Friends,” “Ode to Strong Black Woman,” “Misty Copeland,” “Beware of Destructive People,” and “Shades of Motherhood.” The last section of the book, in prose, presents inspirational and insightful quotes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984567390

Frederick Douglas Harper

A full-time writer and speaker, Dr. Frederick Douglas Harper retired as professor of counseling in 2012 after 42 years of teaching at Howard University. He has authored 14 poetry books, one major novel (The Durabone Prophecies), textbooks, and articles. Harper has served as Editor-in-Chief of three different scholarly journals. Also, he has presented speeches and conference papers throughout the United States and in other countries—including Argentina, France, Greece, India, Ireland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Since 1985, Harper has published more than 1,300 poems on topics such as social justice, peace, love, spirituality, human behavior, children, nature’s beauty, climate change, and human destiny. Most of his poems and creative prose are educational and therapeutic. A devoted jogger, Harper has jogged more than 42,000 miles. He is the proud father of two sons and proud grandfather of four grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2018 by Frederick D. Harper.

Library of Congress Control Number:     2018913800

ISBN:       Hardcover       978-1-9845-6741-3

                 Softcover          978-1-9845-6740-6

                 eBook               978-1-9845-6739-0

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Rev. date: 11/26/2018

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CONTENTS

Toward A Theory Of Everything

A Birthday Prayer

Shades Of Motherhood

Ode To Oprah

A Prayer For Pope Francis

In Search Of Myself

Never Be Satisfied

A Prayer Of Grace

Black Lives Matter Because …

If You Can, Then Help

Don’t Judge My Intentions

I Pray For You

Fake Friends

Ode To Strong Black Woman

All Are Not As They Should Be

Human Disclaimer

Do Right, Move Forward

Misty Copeland

My Purpose, My Mission

Brighten Your Day And Way

My Grandchildren: My Heart, Love, And Life

Identity: Culture, Nationality, And Descent

Too Busy, Too Preoccupied

God’s Light In Darkness

Alpha Female

What Did People Do Before …?

Spirit World

Why Do Some People Lie?

God To Mary

Martha And George

Stop The Revenge

A Writer’s Order

Yvonne—Tribute To A Longtime Friend

Love And Attraction

Believer

Naked Trees Of Autumn

My Purpose With You

A Humble Petition

A Prayer For Food And Our Graduate

God’s Prayer To Humans

A Spiritual Credo

Love Is Not Just …

Blessed

I’m Looking For A Woman

I’m Not The Same Person I Once Was

Hear Me Now

The Nature Of Man

Knowledge And Knowing

The Last Prince

Sleeplessness

Ates

A Prayer For My Descendants

A Woman’s Place

What Are Your Anxieties And Fears?

A Brief Prayer For Health

When I Die

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

God’s Gift Of Burden And Challenge

I Am The Sun

Old Men Aging

A Pledge To Earth And Country

Discredited Women Of History

I Write Poetry Because

Your Comfort Zone

Aggrandizement

Love Angel

Pity Party

Positions And Prepositions: A Prayer

The Hopeless Helper

Living Outside Your Body

When I Die, Ii

Ladders And Letters

The Hopeless Helper, Ii

Since I Retired

It’s Often Lonely

Anointed And Destined

Letter To My Grandchildren

A Friend Is …

Beware Of Destructive People

God Showed Me The Way

What Can I Do Dear God?

When Things Fall Apart

True Beauty

Being By Becoming

A Funny Poem Of Truth

Ravages Of War

Prodigy, Protégé, And Progeny

Trophy Children

Revolutionary

Misrepresenting Great Prophets

Before I Die

Class Reunion

Living And Loving Others

Declaration Of Personal Independence

Message To Afrinesians

A Prayer For The Suicide Prone

Beware Of The Con Game

A Prayer For Purpose

Consciousness

A Simple Prayer Of Gratitude

THOUGHTS

Great numbers of children will be born who understand electronics and atomic power as well as other forms of energy. They will grow into scientists and engineers of a new age which has the power to destroy civilization unless we learn to live by spiritual laws.

Edgar Cayce

Really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

Paulo Coelho

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein

The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation is in the way we handle this very moment.

Thich Nhất Hanh

Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

The mind is capable of anything … because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.

Joseph Conrad

The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it.

Omar Khayyám

From the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

PREFACE

Toward a Theory of Everything contains prose and poetry. As prose, the first section of the book presents my conceptualized thoughts toward a theory of everything. Since my childhood, I have wondered about the origin and destiny of everything—how the Earth came to be, the nature and dynamics of our universe, who or what is God, and how all living and non-living creations came to be and will eventually end or be transformed. As a child and teenager, I would often daydream, staring up at the sky or into a vacuum of unfocused nothingness, lost in my thoughts and curiosities.

I have been blessed with the need to know, the drive to learn, above-average intelligence, and the ability to study or work on a project for hours at a time. These attributes led to my earning a doctoral degree, reading many books on diverse subjects over my lifetime, and authoring 27 published books of my own. Surely, all of these experiences and more contributed to the development of my thoughts about a theory of everything.

As a college freshman, I started out with the study of natural sciences as my major, but I switched my major concentration of study to the social sciences, because I liked the instructors and students in that department, and I became increasingly fascinated with the subject of human behavior, social dynamics, and history. Nevertheless, I continued my interest in the natural sciences through personal readings of science books and science magazines, postdoctoral study in physiological psychology (with a special interest in the brain and behavior), postdoctoral study of alcoholism (including its physiological dynamics) as a resident scholar with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and countless hours of viewing educational TV and media presentations mainly on topics of the Earth, the universe, spirituality, Homo sapiens (humans), and animals in the wild.

Over decades of my lifetime, everything that I have learned from formal education, professional experiences, personal readings, educational media, travel, and human encounters has brought me to my present thoughts on a theory of everything. During my 42 years as professor of counseling and my past six years of retirement, I have authored scholarly, research, and creative-writing publications on numerous diverse topics that include psychophysical outcomes of jogging, alcohol abuse and alcoholism, biological bases of behavior, basic human needs, lifestyle change, total body management, happiness, death, time and timing, fear, human extinction, social justice, climate change, human destiny, love, youth, holistic health, counseling and therapy, education, and spirituality. Also, I have presented conference papers and taught university courses on some of these same topics. These diverse experiences certainly have shaped my worldview and thus my thoughts about a theory of everything.

Again, the initial section of this book presents prose on the topic of my thoughts toward a theory of everything. As a caveat, this is not a full-blown theory but rather thoughts toward such a theory. These thoughts primarily include information and discussion about two primary existences, the physical existence and the spirit existence. Immediately following the section Toward a Theory of Everything are poems on a variety of themes. Within 16 books of poetry (with prose), I have authored more than 1,000 poems, and, as in other poetry books of mine, this book includes educational, therapeutic, inspirational, spiritual, and tribute poems. The last section of this book presents inspirational and insightful quotes that came into my consciousness during the writing of the manuscript for this book.

I wish to mention explanations or qualifiers regarding word usage and punctuation within this book. I consistently capitalize the word Earth throughout the book, as recommended by conservative grammarians, because I view the word Earth as a proper noun when presented as the name of a planet of our solar system. I am aware that a number of authors and publishers choose to prefer lowercase earth and thus not to capitalize Earth. One viewpoint of grammar is that the lowercase spelling of earth should only be used when the word refers to soil or dirt of planet Earth. Moreover, I intentionally capitalize Black and White when used in reference to a racial or ethnic group. My rationale for capitalizing Black and White is tantamount to the reason for capitalizing the now-less-favored but racially parallel and capitalized terms, Negro and Caucasian.

Lastly, as author of this book, I acknowledge and express my sincere gratitude to Gene Arguelles, Jacqueline A. Harper, Sharon B. Haynes, Jasmine V. Watkins, and Yerusalem Work for their comments on either the entire manuscript or parts of the manuscript for this book.

Frederick Douglas Harper

November 14, 2018

Selected Publications of Mine Related to Discussion in the Preface

Harper, F. D. (2013). On social justice, climate change, and human destiny. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris.

Harper, F. D. (2011). The Durabone prophecies. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse. (See Chapter 5 for a discussion of a theory of Total Body Management.)

Harper, F. D. (2007). Transitions in life and to death. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse.

Harper, F. D. (2004). Poems for young people. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse.

Harper, F. D., & Guilbault, M. (2008). Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs. In N. J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Harper, F. D., Guilbault, M., Tucker, T., & Austin, T. (2007). Happiness as a goal of counseling. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 29, 123-136.

Harper, F. D., & Stone, W. O. (2003). Transcendent counseling: An existential, cognitive-behavioral theory. In F. D. Harper & J. McFadden (Eds.), Culture and counseling: New approaches (pp. 233-251). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. (This is a counseling theory related to lifestyle change.)

Selected Books and Media That Have Influenced My Thoughts About a Theory of Everything

A&E Television Networks (2011). History of the world in two hours, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2014 from http://www.history.com/history-of-the-world-in-two-hours-dvd

Boulter, M. (2002). Extinction: Evolution and the end of man. New York: Columbia University Press.

Buettner, D. (2012). The blue zones (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

Darwin, C. (1979). The origin of species. New York: Crown. (Original work published 1859)

Fitzgerald, M., & O’Brien, B. (2007). Genius genes: How Asperger talents changed the world. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing.

Friedman, T. L. (2016). Thank you for being late: An optimist’s guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Fuhrman, J. (1995). Fasting and eating for health: A medical doctor’s program for conquering disease. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Gibran, K. (1963). The prophet. New York: Alfred A Knopf. (Original work published 1923)

Goldsmith, J. S. (1998). Beyond words and thoughts. Lakewood, CO: Acropolis Books.

Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. New York: HarperCollins.

Hawking, S. (1996). A brief history of time: The universe in a nutshell. New York: Bantam Books.

Helminski, K. (Ed.). (2000). The Rumi collection. An anthology of translation of Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi. Boston: Shambhala. (Original work copyrighted by Helminski in 1998.)

Hillman, J. (1996). The soul’s code: In search of character and calling. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Kaku, M. (2015). The future of the mind. New York: Anchor Books.

LaBay, M. L. (2004). Past life regression: A guide for practitioners. Cheshire, UK: Trafford.

Lane, N. (2002). Oxygen: The molecule that made the world. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lanier, J. (2013). Who owns the future? New York: Simon & Schuster.

Tucker, J. B. (2013). Return to life: Extraordinary cases of children who remember past lives. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Ward, B., & Dubos, R. (1972). Only one Earth. New York: W. W. Norton.

Weiss, B. L. (1988). Many lives, many masters. New York: Touchstone.

DEDICATION

I proudly dedicate this book to

My Sons

Frederick Vencil Harper

Renfred Douglas Harper

And

My Grandchildren

Phoenix Mya Lynn Harper

Christopher James Douglas Harper

Gabrielle Christina Lorene Harper

Frederick Andrew Alexander Harper

TOWARD A THEORY OF EVERYTHING

An Overview

A theory of everything transcends laws and principles of man-discovered science. I believe that a theory of everything includes two primary existences: (a) the physical existence and (b) the spirit existence. The physical existence is the world that we perceive to know through our senses, scientific instruments, and mathematical analyses, including knowledge about our planet Earth and our universe. The spirit existence consists of The Universal Spirit as God and Its spirit energies, for example, spirit guides, guardian angels, ancestral spirits, spirit souls, Catholic saints, and other anointed saints. Some of these spirit energies may be one and the same.

Below are highlights of some of my general beliefs and assumptions as an overview toward a theory of everything. Afterwards, these and additional concepts and principles will be discussed with examples, with further explanations, and in greater detail. Again, this is not a complete theory but, rather, my thoughts toward a theory of everything, thoughts that have come to me over much of my lifetime via my readings, personal encounters with people, dreams, visions, spontaneous ideas, spirit messages channeled through me, and TV and media presentations about sacred creations on Earth and within our cosmic universe.

1. Scientists do not invent; rather, they discover what is already known in the spirit existence, that is, universal knowledge from the spirit existence that is known as being possible or actually prevalent in the physical existence or our physical world.

2. Human-discovered scientific knowledge is not always permanent. It is subject to change with new scientific methods and instrumentation, new scientific insights, and transformed conditions within the physical existence.

3. Scientific laws and principles of the physical existence may be the same on our Earth and in our solar system, but some earthly laws and principles may differ across other spaces of our galaxy and across other spaces within our universe and other universes.

4. It is highly likely that there is an infinite number of universes, and that our universe and some of the others revolve around a center with an exceptionally strong gravitational force or energy similar to that of a galactic black hole. It is conceivable that all matter is in motion and is subject to change or transformation.

5. The structure and components of our universe include atomic particles, atoms, chemical elements or gases (mostly hydrogen and helium), molecules, dust, light, dark matter, dark energy, space rocks, comets, meteoroids, asteroids, moons, stars, solar planets, dwarf planets (e.g., Pluto), solar systems, galaxies, black holes, and nebulae.

6. Seemingly, the dynamics, phenomena, and properties of our physical universe are characterized by force of gravity, forms of energy (e.g., electrical, thermal, nuclear, mechanical, electromagnetic, sound, and chemical energy), states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas), temperature, change or manner of transformation, duration of an entity (e.g., life of a star), relationship or connectedness of entities or phenomena, size, weight, mass, chemical composition, appearance, texture, color, odor, solubility, polarity, magnetism, location, orientation (e.g., Earth’s tilt on its axis), direction of movement, speed of movement, strength of an explosive event (e.g., a supernova and a gamma-ray burst), and possibly others.

7. Human beings can receive universal knowledge from the spirit existence by repeatedly asking for or seeking an answer or answers to the same question or by way of persistent curiosity and experimentation. Various famous scientists of world history have been given scientific answers by way of a spiritual medium or by way of dreams or visions, because they repeatedly sought understanding and answers to scientific or mathematical questions and problems. Even more, some scientists were anointed at or after birth as channels to receive such scientific knowledge from the spirit existence, or simply they were born with curiosity and a clairvoyant gift to know or to discover.

8. In the future, scientific knowledge and discoveries by humans are likely to change and increase in quantity and accuracy because of improved scientific procedures, instruments, measurement, data analysis, chemical analysis, computer simulation, theoretical understanding, and spiritual understanding. Much of