Oct. 11, 2021

The Third Party Law

by William Goehler (author's profile)

Transcription

SCIENTOLOGY PRISON OUTREACH

It seems that people often have trouble getting along together. Families argue, neighbors come to blows, countries lob weapons at each other. Is this the way it has to be?
Anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and others say it is. Having observed a long history of man's quarrelsome behavior, they claim that man has animal instincts, or that he is antisocial and violent by his very nature.
In truth, man is rather peaceful. But he can be driven, individually and collectively, to hatred and violence.
In researching the causes of violence, L. Ron Hubbard unearthed a fundamental and natural law of human relations which explains why conflicts between people are so often difficult to remedy. And he provided an immensely valuable tool that enables one to resolve any conflict, be it between neighbors, co-workers or even countries.
In this booklet, you will discover how to help others resolve their differences and restore peaceable relations. Peace and harmony between men can be more than just a dream. Widespread application of this law will make it a reality.

THE THIRD PARTY LAW

Violence and conflict among individuals and nations have been with us for ages and their causes have remained a complete mystery, a mystery finally solved in Scientology.
If Chaldea could vanish, if Babylon turn to dust, if Egypt could become a badlands, if Sicily could have 160 prosperous cities and be a looted ruin before the year zero and near a desert ever since - and all this in spite of all the work and wisdom and good wishes and intent of human beings, then it must follow as the dark follows sunset that something must be unknown to man concerning all his works and ways. And that this something must be so deadly and so pervasive as to destroy all his ambitions and his chances long before their time.
Such a thing would have to be some natural law unguessed at by himself.
And there is such a law, apparently, that answers these conditions of being deadly, unknown and embracing all activities.
The law would seem to be:
A THIRD PARTY MUST BE PRESENT AND UNKNOWN IN EVERY QUARREL FOR A CONFLICT TO EXIST.
or
FOR A QUARREL TO OCCUR, AN UNKNOWN THIRD PARTY MUST BE ACTIVE IN PRODUCING IT BETWEEN TWO POTENTIAL OPPONENTS.
or
WHILE IT IS COMMONLY BELIEVED TO TAKE TWO TO MAKE A FIGHT, A THIRD PARTY MUST EXIST AND MUST DEVELOP IT FOR ACTUAL CONFLICT TO OCCUR.
It is very easy to see that two in conflict are fighting. They are very visible. What is harder to see or suspect is that a third party existed and actively promoted the quarrel.
The usually unsuspected and "reasonable" third party, the bystander who denies any part of it, is the one that brought the conflict into existence in the first place.

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The hidden third party, seeming at times to be a supporter of only one side, is to be found as the investigator.
This is a useful law in many areas of life.
It is the cause of war.
One sees two fellows shouting bad names at each other, sees them come to blows.
No one else is around. So they, of course, "caused the fight." But there was a third party.
Tracing these down, one comes upon incredible data. That is the trouble. The incredible is too easily rejected. One way to hide things is to make them incredible.
Clerk A and Messenger B have been arguing. They blaze into direct conflict. Each blames the others. Neither one is correct and so the quarrel does not resolve since its true cause is not established.
One looks into such a case thoroughly. He finds the incredible. The wife of Clerk A has been sleeping with Messenger B and complaining alike to both about the other.
Farm J and Rancher K have been tearing each other to pieces for years in continual conflict. There are obvious, logical reasons for the fight. Yet it continues and does not resolve. A close search finds Banker L who, due to their losses in the fighting, is able to loan each side money, while keeping the quarrel going, and who will get their lands completely if both lose.
It goes larger. The revolutionary forces and the Russian government were in conflict in 1917. The reasons are so many the attention easily sticks on them. But only when Germany's official state papers were captured in World War II was it revealed that Germany had promoted the revolt and financial Lenin to spark it off, even sending him into Russia in a blacked-out train!
One looks over "personal" quarrels, group conflicts, national battles and one finds, if he searches, the third party, unsuspected by both combatants or, if suspected at all, brushed off as "fantastic." Yet careful documentation finally affirms it.
This datum is fabulously useful.
In marital quarrels the correct approach of anyone counseling is to get both parties to carefully search out the third party. They may come to many reasons at first. These reasons are not beings (people). One is looking for a third party, an actual being. When both find the third party and establish proof, that will be the end of the quarrel.

Sometimes two parties, quarreling, suddenly decide to elect a being to blame. This stops the quarrel. Sometimes it is not the right being and more quarrels thereafter occur.
Two nations at each other's throats should each seek conference with the other to sift out and locate the actual third party. They will always find one if they look, and they can find the right one. As it will be found to exist in fact.
They are probably many technical approaches one could develop and outline in this matter.
There are many odd phenomena connected with it. An accurately spotted third party is usually not fought at all by either party but only shunned.
Marital conflicts are common. Marriages can be saved by both parties really sorting out who caused the conflicts. There may have been, in the whole history of the marriage, several but only one at a time.
Quarrels between an individual and an organization are nearly always caused by an individual third party or a third group. The organization and the individual should get together and isolate the third party by displaying to each other all the data they each have been fed.
Rioters and governments alike could be brought back to agreement could one get representatives of both to give each other what they have been told by whom.
Such conferences have tended to deal only in recriminations or conditions or abuses. They must deal in beings only in order to succeed.
This theory might be thought to assert also that there are no bad conditions that cause conflict. There are. But these are usually remedial by conference unless a third party is promoting conflict.
In history we have a very foul opinion of the past because it is related by recriminations of two opponents and has not spotted the third party.
"Underlying causes" of war should read "hidden promoters."
There are no conflicts which cannot be resolved unless the true promoters of them remain hidden.
This is the natural law the ancients and moderns alike did not know.
And not knowing it, being led off into "reasons," whole civilizations have died.
It is worth knowing.
It is worth working with in any situation where one is trying to bring peace.

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A third party can create conflict by complaining to her daughter about her son-in-law's income...
...and then upsetting the son-in-law by misinterpreting something his wife said.
When the conflict erupts, the third party is often unnoticed and unsuspected.
But if the couple knows the Third Party Law, they can recognize such disputes for what they are and locate the true cause of the fight.
With the mother-in-law's influence handled, any differences can be easily resolved, and harmony restored.

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Further Discovery
Another very important factor in third party technology is fake reports. False reports are writers or spoken statements which turn out to be groundless or deceitful or which knowingly contain lies.
We know that a third party is necessary to any quarrel.
In reviewing several organizational upsets, it was found that the third party can go completely overlooked even in intensive investigation.
By giving false reports on others, a third party causes harm and wreaks havoc amongst individuals and groups.
In several cases an organization has lost several guiltless staff members. They were dismissed or disciplined in an effort to solve upsets. Yet the turbulence continued and the area became even more upset by reason of the dismissals.
Running this back further, one finds that the real third party, eventually unearthed, got people shot by false reports.
One source of this is as follows:
Staff member X goofs. He is very furious and defensive at being accused. He blames his goof on somebody else. That somebody else gets disciplined. Staff member X diverts attention from himself by various means including falsely accusing others.
This is a third party action which results in a lot of people being blamed and disciplined. And the real third party remaining undetected.
The missing point of justice here is that the disciplined persons were not faced with their accusers and were not given the real accusation and so could not confront it.
Another case would be a third party simply spreading tales and making accusations out of malice or some even more vicious motive. This would be a usual third party action. It is ordinarily based on false reports.
Another situation comes about when a person in charge of some area who can't get the area straight starts to investigate, gets third party false reports about it, disciplines people accordingly and totally misses the real third party. This upsets the area even more.
The basis of all really troublesome third party activities is then false reports.

There can also be false perception. One sees things that don't exist and reports them as "fact."
Therefore we see that we can readily run back an investigation by following a chain of false reports.
In at least one case the third party (discovered only after it was very plain that only he could have wrecked two areas of the organization, one after the other) also had these characteristics:
1. Goofed in his own actions
2. Furiously contested any reports filed on him
3. Obsessively changed everything when taking over an area
4. Falsely reported actions, accusing others
5. Had a high casualty rate of staff in his area
These are not necessarily common to all third parties but give you an idea of what can go on.
From experience in dealing with ethics and justice matters in groups it is apparent that the real source of upset in an area would be false reports accepted and acted upon without confronting the accused with all charges and his or her accusers.
A person with any degree of authority in a group should not accept my accusations and act upon it. To do so undermines the security of one and all. One could, as a start, refuse to act on any information unless it were proven by personal investigation not to be the action of some third party.
On being presented with an accusation of "evidence" a person in charge of some activity should conduct an investigation of false reports and false perceptions. In this way one can then verify such reports and arrive at the true source of the trouble and avoid disciplining individuals who may be innocent.
Justice, then, would consist of a refusal to accept any report not substantiated by actual, independent data, seeing that all such reports are investigated and that all investigations include confronting the accused with the accusations and where feasible the accuser, before any disciplinary action is undertaken or any penalty assigned.
While this may slow the processes of justice, the personal security of the individual is totally dependent upon establishing the full truth of any accusations before any action is taken.

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How to Find a Third Party
The way not to find a third party is to compile a questionnaire that asks one and all in various ways, "Have you been a victim?" Do not ask questions such as, "Who has been mean to you?" or other questions which would tend to elicit answers that the person has been victimized. This kind of question will not locate the individual stirring up conflicts between people but may only name executives and others in the group who are trying to get people to do their jobs and be productive!
Anyone who uses this approach (1) does not find any third party and (2) causes people to mentally or physically collapse to the extent that they cannot function causatively.
By definition, a third party is one who by false reports creates trouble between two people, a person and a group or a group and another group.
The object of the investigation, then, is to find out who has been spreading false reports in order to stir up conflicts between people or groups. To find a third party one has to ask those involved in the dispute questions along the following lines:
1a. Have you been told you were in bad?
b. What was said?
c, Who said it?
2a. Have you been told someone was bad?
b. What was said?
c. Who said it?
3a. Have you been told someone was doing wrong?
b. What was said?
c. Who said it?
4a. Have you been told a group was bad?
b. What was said?
c. Who said it?
A questionnaire like this should have a limiter such as "On your job ____?" or "In your marriage ____?" or "In this family ____?"

To find a third party, ask who has been telling people that others were bad, doing wrong, etc.
An entire group can be asked such questions, and when the results are viewed...
... any person's name will appear far more often than others. This is the person to investigate for creating disharmony and conflicts.

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It may also have a lot of answers so leave ample space for each question.
By then combining names given, you have one name appearing far more often than the rest. This is done by counting names. You then investigate this person.
By following this procedure, you will find out exactly who has been stirring up conflicts and thus open the door to their resolution.
With this tool in your hands you will be able to change conditions between family members, associates and groups you come into contact with and restore harmony.
Such a remedy for previously unresolvable conflicts never existed before Scientology. It is the solution to a host of ills that have worried men for ages.

PRACTICAL EXERCISES
Here are exercises you can do to increase your ability to resolve conflicts, whether handling one you may be involved in or helping others resolve conflicts they have.
1. To gain experience in recognizing false reports or false perceptions, find an example of a false report in your environment, such as something a neighbor said, something said at your job, etc.
2. Repeat the above practical assignment several more times until you can confidently recognize false reports.
3. Find two people who are involved in some kind of unresolving quarrel or conflict and resolve it using the Third Party Law.
4. Now find two other people or groups who are involved in a quarrel or conflict and resolve it using the data in this booklet. Repeat this until you are able to resolve conflicts using the Third Party Law.

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VOLUNTEER MINISTER
TESTIMONIALS & SUCCESSES
CONFLICTS
While paying a brief visit to a couple in Sydney, Australia, a man noticed the wife was somewhat quarrelsome with her husband. He showed her Mr. Hubbard's Third Party Law and told her to apply it to the situation. She was halfhearted about this as it didn't seem to be much of a troublesome situation to her. However, she did what their visitor suggested and later wrote to him saying:
"That night I sat down with my husband and brought the matter up. To our complete amazement, we found that each of us had been separately told, by the same person, that the other was bad. And each of us considered that person our special friend - in fact, we had separately often gone to her for advice! The more we discussed this, the more realizations we had and our affinity for each other soared and soared. Prior to this, neither of us had thought it was particularly low, but now it seems it has no bounds. Thank you for telling me to do this. I gained complete certainty on the workability of this technology.

Some intentional business partners had been locked in a long-term conflict that showed no signs of resolving. They were advised to get a third party investigation done into the matter. This was done and the results were fantastic. One of the businessmen concerned reported:

"After two days of third party investigation, a conflict which had lasted ten months finally came to an end and we are now friends with our business partners again. This was the most incredible phenomenon we have seen! After the investigation was complete, we were able to reach an agreement on issues where none had been possible before. This technology worked like magic. Scientology is the game where everyone wins!"

SOMETHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT

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Sept. 30, '21
The next blog is the text for How To Resolve Conflicts, by L. Ron Hubbard. This is a particularly valuable lesson when done with the Volunteer Minister Course checksheet assignment - especially for prisoners. I've introduced this course/text to several prisoners who were overwhelmed by unknown causes of strained relationships, and it helped every one of them to identify the source of trouble - and restore their strained relationships.
Feel free to print out the text and the course checksheet - both of which are made PUBLIC DOMAIN through the free courses on-line (http://course.volunteerministers.org), and mail them in to prisoners you know.
Please reach back in to me here betweenthebars and let me know how this course/text made a difference.
For the Love of Truth
William Goehler
SPO-VM
UniversalLifeChurch

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