"And these Gadianton robbers, who were among the Lamanites, did infest the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the earth; and they became slippery, because the Lord had cursed the land, that they could not hold them, nor retain them again.
And it came to pass that there were sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics; and the power of the evil one was wrought upon all the face of the land, even unto the fulfilling of all the words of Abinadi, and also Samuel the Lamanite."
In the generations after Jesus had come, people learned that certain plants were not to be cultivated or their powers concentrated, but the first wicked generation strayed in part because the rediscovered the effects of those plants.
And the Gadiantion robbers taught that if a man took an elixir from one plant, he would feel great power, and if he took an elixir of another, he could see visions, and if he took yet another, he could forget the guilt of every wrong he'd done.
But those who craved this false atonement and false Spirit grew deep pits in their bowels that made them a desperate sort of thirsty so that they always needed more and more of the elixirs and were willing to do more and more to get them.
And so it was that every man's treasure became slippery, as those who became living ghosts because of the elixir watched with one-sighted eyes for anything they could use to obtain more from those who knew the plants and the strongest ways to distill their essence into a liquid sort of gold.