As the year 2000 approaches, the world is witnessing a disturbing resurgence of apocalyptic belief. In Latin America and the Far East, millions of people are converting every year to a fundamentalist Protestantism which teaches that the Second Coming is at hand. In this text, the author examines the roots of this apocalyptic belief and its often unrecognised role in the development of modern society. He looks at the phenomenon of millennarianism - a belief in the end of the world which can lead to terrifying extremes of behaviour - and seeks to answer a number of important questions, such as: Why do calender changes have such a profound effect upon the human psyche? Why does the Catholic church, which is perfectly aware that Christ was not born in 1 AD, attach such mystical significance to the year 2000? And why do the disembodied spirits channelled by New Age mediums point to the end of the millennium as a time of astonishing earth changes?