How does the Moon affect our lives?

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 10

How does the Moon affect our lives?

Halley’s Comet may not affect much more than our curiosity as it streaks across the sky, but what about the Moon, which is always with us?

By

JEAN ROBERTS

The scientific name for the Moon is "Luna.” Because people have assumed, through the ages, that the moon can strangely affect the human mind, the Latin name has given us the word “lunatic.” In fact this is one of man’s oldest beliefs. It is also one which scientists in the past have frequently derided. They knew that the Moon’s pull on the earth caused the ocean tides — but, they insisted, that was all. It appears, though, that the scientists are having second thoughts. For example, since way back in the distant past, farmers have insisted that certain crops should be planted at the time of the full moon. The theory was that rain would follow within a few days. Experts and meteorologists dismissed the idea as pure superstition, until some agricultural students at New York University fed a computer with data from 50 years of weather records. The results were quite startling. The computer supported the farmers. Rain does in face tend to fail a few days after both a full and new moon. All of a sudden, weather experts were agreeing with the findings. After all, you can deride a farmer, but not a computer! All over the world, reports came flooding in, confirming the statement in other parts of the world. Having laid one ghost, so to speak, the agricultural students turned their attention to another piece of farmers’ lore: that to ignore the phases of the moon brought a multitude of troubles — fence posts driven into the ground during the wrong phase would come out of their own accord; shingles that were not laid at the right time would curl.

They couldn’t get posts to leap out of the ground, but they did find that the electrical potentials which can cause change and movement in the trees of which wood shingles are made can alter in accordance with phases of the moon. Another researcher found that certain species of worm will spiral to the left or right, depending on the periods of the moon.

Marine biologists have noticed similar patterns. The habits of marine ani-

mals will not change significantly, even if transported to an environment as alien as an aquarium. They will still follow a pattern of life that is regulated by the phases of the moon. Mental hospitals have for long been aware that many patients are very restless and/or disturbed at the time of the full moon — fully in

accordance with ancient folklore. Now, certain doctors and psychiatrists have noticed that patients prone to periods of depression have these attacks more frequently around the time of a full moon. Police departments

around the world are compiling statistics that seem to prove that crimes increase during the period of a full moon. People who are driven by some mental disturbance to anti-social behaviour, for example arsonists, rapists etc, seem to be triggered into action as the

moon grows full. Of course, here we are back to the ancient idea that the moon has an influence on all organic life. Even in the 16th century, Paracelsus claimed that the insane grew more violent at the “dark of the moon” — when the moon’s attraction was supposed to work most strongly on the brain.

Early in the 18th century, such beliefs received official blessing. A distinction was made between “insane” — which meant the chronic and hopeless cases, and “lunatic” — which meant affected by the moon. But there is no record of how they achieved the distinction.