Damian Thompson examines the roots of millennial beliefs and its often unrecognized role in the development of modern society. He seeks to answer a number of surprising question, such as: Why to calendar changes have such a profound effect upon the human psyche? Why does the Catholic church attach such mystical significance to the year 2000? And why do the disembodied spirits channeled by New Age mediums point to the end of this millennium as a time of astonishing "earth changes"?