Negotiation

"Without Knowledge, people are in relationship only to gain advantage. They use others and they use life to gain advantage or to provide protection. They barter with their affections. They negotiate with their feelings. This is a form of commerce rather than a form of union. Prices are paid. Services are rendered. Can this be the real meaning of relationship?"

"Unless your role in life is to be a negotiator in conflict resolution and you are very, very educated in this, do not pretend that you know or can assume you can understand with your simple ideas how nations and groups of people can be brought to a place of cooperation with one another."

Beyond Negotiation

"God makes the way simple, but when the way is simple, it is demanding. It does not have countless exceptions. It is not fraught with preferences and negotiations."

"Knowledge within you is uncompromising. You cannot make a deal with it. It is not like your personal mind, your worldly mind that can get what it wants through negotiation, through compromise. With Knowledge, it does not work like this."

Knowledge "does not negotiate. It does not compromise. It does not talk things over. It merely goes where it has to go, and if it cannot go there, then it is latent within you."

"When you finally reach stillness of mind, you" ... "are past negotiation."

"You have found a place in life to give yourself completely, and you can give yourself without having to negotiate."

Negotiation in the Greater Community

"Do you think that great technological societies in the universe are not desperate for resources, resources that now they cannot create themselves but must trade for and negotiate for, from far, far away?"

"The power of Knowledge is the power to see beyond deception, the power to block inquiry, the power to know things that others cannot see, the power to maintain your integrity, the power to discern danger and the power to recognize a true friend and ally. It is this greater discernment that must be brought to bear in the complexity of communications, negotiations and trade within the Greater Community, where Knowledge is rare and unknown, but to a relatively small number of individuals."

"The problems in trade, travel and negotiations are more extreme and difficult in the Greater Community."

"Many resources used in advanced forms of technology are quite rare and must be gained from afar through a complex system of trade and commerce. Many materials are brought from outside a region where a nation usually functions. Negotiations and contracts can be complicated, as there are many competitors for these kinds of resources."

"In normal trade negotiations, what is written and what is said have to be interpreted very clearly. The long-range implications have to be discerned. The advantages and disadvantages have to be clarified. It is a matter of great importance. While outright lying and cheating on a large scale may be rare, subtle manipulations are ever present."

"When you have larger assemblies of nations on councils—on trading councils dealing with problems in international trade or relations, problems of crime, problems of trafficking dangerous materials or drugs or illegal trade—it becomes very complex. You are now speaking to maybe fifty different nations using common trade languages which have been established over time. They are there with their interpreters. They are there with their seers. Everyone is trying to communicate together. Some use language. Some do not use language. They all use written language or symbols. They all understand an established trade language, whatever that language may be in a larger district. How do you come to agreement and consensus? This makes negotiations very long and complex."

"Advanced nations in the Greater Community face adversity as well. In most cases, they have outstripped their world’s natural resources. They have developed technology that depends upon foreign trade and foreign manufacture. They have lost the freedom to sustain themselves, to be self-sufficient. Now they must meet the terms and agreements placed upon them to gain access to the resources they need from abroad. Now they must engage in the complex and taxing endeavor of negotiations, persuasion and power in the mental environment."

"You do not realize how important these Unseen Forces are in your own personal awareness, the advancement and the possibility for true accomplishment and the establishment of peace and cooperation for your own race. You may think that it is all about negotiations and compromise, war and conflict, struggles for power between different groups and different interests, different tribes and different nations—a constant battle, a constant conflict occurring at every different level."

Negotiation in our region of the Greater Community

"Any areas that are connected by main thoroughfares of trade are ruled by codes and councils. This is to provide safety and security and to assure that violence does not erupt and grow into all-out warfare. Disputes occur frequently and are handled either through negotiations or through legal procedures."

"There are many Collectives functioning in the region in which your world exists." ... "Being without significant weaponry of their own, they must utilize negotiations, diplomacy and influence as their primary means of accomplishment."

"At this time, there is more than one collective competing for advantage here. That places humanity in the middle of a very unusual and yet enlightening set of circumstances. That is why the messages of the visitors will often seem inconsistent. There has been conflict amongst them, yet they will negotiate with each other should mutual benefit be recognized."

The problem with negotiation between humans and extraterrestrials

"Imagine trying to negotiate with an intelligence that was like a dolphin, except that intelligence had technology and represented a significant power. You want to negotiate for trade, you want to negotiate to establish rules of trade or engagements or mutual needs for security. How would you do it? And how could you ever persuade that intelligence? Where is it weak enough to be persuaded? Where is its weakness? Where is its strength? This is why it takes such great skill to negotiate and communicate."

"If you think" ... "for a moment and imagine how difficult it is to establish agreements or negotiations with races that think differently, look different and have different concepts, different histories, different priorities, it would make your human negotiations seem simple and obvious in comparison."

Negotiation as navigation

"When two people come together in relationship, there is much negotiation over 'How much of my individuality will I give up?' and there is a great deal of effort to express and establish each person’s individuality." ... "It is all to protect the idea of self."

Knowledge "contains the Wisdom and the guidance that you will need to negotiate life successfully, both within the context of human interactions and in the context of interaction with other intelligent life as well."

"You are the captain of your ship while you are sailing these waters. You need to take responsibility, become effective and learn to become a leader of your mind and emotions rather than their victim or captive. You cannot tell where you are sailing, and you do not know what is in the cargo of your ship, but you must be the captain on deck, negotiating the changing circumstances of your life and the pleasures and tribulations that present themselves on your voyage."

"Greater Wisdom within you can teach you how to negotiate the changing circumstances of your life—not only how to negotiate them but how to contribute to them so that this great period of transition into the Greater Community and towards a one-world society may be accomplished with minimal stress, danger and destruction."

Further study

• Life in the Universe, Chapter 4: Trade and Commerce in This Region of Space

• Life in the Universe, Chapter 7: Competition, Influence and the Mental Environment