Childhood's End

Karellen addresses the world at large. He reveals the purpose of the Overlords and explains as best he can what has happened to the children of Earth and what will happen in the near future.

The Overlords were sent by what they refer to as the Overmind to usher in a new evolution for humanity: a wholly new race created by an evolution of mind rather than a physical evolution. Karellen explains that just as the Overlords are above humans, so too is the Overmind above the Overlords, and this entity has sent them to numerous worlds to usher in similar transformations in species.

The core of this transformation is contained in stories of paranormal phenomena—telepathy, telekinesis, and the like. The Overlords came to preserve humanity from themselves, both from the physical dangers of atomic weaponry and from the potential danger of science discovering too much about paranormal events. Too much knowledge would possibly result in disaster for the universe, but Karellen doesn’t explain how or why that would occur—it seems he simply doesn’t know and trusts what has been communicated to him.

In fact, the transformation itself remains a mystery to the Overlords, even though they have witnessed it multiple times.