An Excerpt from: ‘MAN, HIS ORIGIN HISTORY AND DESTINY’ AS TOLD BY THE GREAT WHITE BROTHERHOOD COMPILED BY WERNER SCHROEDER
It was during the incoming of the fourth root race that a Cosmic Council convened, whose decision drastically changed the course for all evolutions of Earth’s mankind, guardian spirits, angels, and elementals.
This council, attended by the Spiritual Hierarchy of the Earth, was called to decide what to do with billions of lifestreams who lived in another galaxy. These lifestreams were of insufficient spiritual development to earn continued habitation upon their own planet for evolution. As part of the divine plan, their planet was to undergo one step of the Inbreath, bringing it one step closer to the sun.
According to Cosmic Law, closer proximity to the sun requires an acceleration of the vibration of a planet and its inhabitants. The individuals refused to go along with the divine plan. They were complacent in their thoughts and feelings and lagged behind in their natural process of evolution. Hence, they were not qualified to move forward with their planet. Those individuals were referred to by the Masters as “laggards.”
One plan was to have them pass through what we call “second death,” which forces the lifestream to start all over again, back to the event, called “Journey to the Seven Spheres.” It was then that the Hierarchy of Earth, as an act of mercy, offered the Earth as a planetary home to help the laggards complete their evolution. Conditions on this planet were still perfect and harmonious, yet compared to other planets, its vibratory rate was slightly slower. It was hoped that the laggards would be guided by the purity and perfection of the thoughts and feelings of the people of Earth, and by holding to this example, they would gradually transmute their karma. The high priests and guardian spirits were informed of the coming of the laggards; the remainder of mankind was unaware of the event. For one hundred years the high priests attempted, by decreeing, to establish a shield around the Earth’s lifestreams to prevent their contamination by the laggards.
What did the laggards look like after they came to Earth? Tied now to the same laws which applied to the remainder of mankind on Earth, they were provided with similar bodies, and therefore were not distinguishable from the rest.
The chief faults of the laggards were arrogance, rebellion, resistance to progress, stubbornness and resentment toward change. Naturally, they brought these qualities with them. The impure thoughtforms of the laggards spread into Earth’s atmosphere like smog. It was the beginning of the “mist” the Bible talks about (“and a mist arose and covered the whole ground,” Gen. 2:6).
In time, the people of Earth succumbed to the subtle temptation of curiosity. They tuned in to the impure thoughtforms of the laggards and started to play with them. This experimentation with the misuse of free will caused what is known as the “Fall of Man.” Mankind started to listen to the “wrong crowd.” Independent of God-direction, mankind deliberately chose to experiment with impurity. This way man’s attention no longer rested exclusively on his inner Presence, the director of his life-activity. Man became sense‑conscious, instead of God-conscious, and so, according to Cosmic Law, manifested that upon which his attention was directed and which he thought about most. He deliberately and consciously turned his back upon the perfection and dominion with which the Father endowed him from the beginning.
When the mist first appeared, it was like a local wisp of smoke. Later, as the ages passed, it became an increasing fog, that gradually shut away the visible presence of the Ascended Host.
Thus, the glory of perfection of the first two Golden Ages came to an end. Later on, when the Atlantean culture flourished, there were other Golden Ages, during which the veil between the Ascended Host and mankind was partially rent; however, the perfection of the first two Golden Ages was unique and was never quite matched. The Masters assured the students that it is possible for us to rent the veil again, and that man once more may be able to walk and talk with the Ascended Host and the angels.
The laggards did not come to Earth all at once. Since the Earth was created for 3 1/2 billion lifestreams and since today there are 10 billion lifestreams using the Earth as a schoolroom (including those not presently in embodiment) we may assume that the number of laggards from other systems is 6 1/2 billion.