• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Full Moon Madness

DanishDynamite said:
My understanding is that the effect of the moon on women's cycles is quite real.
Click to expand...
I can say from personal experience that this is not true. Not all women even have menstral cycles every 28 days. Not all cycles last the same length of time, either. Not to mention the birth control methods on the market that limit a woman's cycle to 3 times a year!

Women living together has an effect, however. Roommates often "synch up." This could be a factor in the full moon myth. A tribe of women all menstrating at the same time when it happens to be a full moon...

I've heard people report that more crazy stuff happens during the full moon. I always point out that you only notice it because it's a full moon. Any other time of the month, it's shrugged off.
 
If anyone is interested, here's the abstract of a 2006 study published in Military Medicine.

No effect of lunar cycle on psychiatric admissions or emergency evaluations.

McLay RN, Daylo AA, Hammer PS.

Psychiatry Staff, Department of Mental Health, Naval Medical Center San Diego, 34800 Bob Wilson Drive, CA 92123, USA.

It is a popularly held belief that psychiatric behavior worsens during a full moon\. Research in this area has yielded mixed results\. Records from Naval Medical Center San Diego for 1993-2001 were examined to see whether there were higher rates of psychiatric admission associated with particular phases of the moon\. Records from 8,473 admissions revealed that there were no more admission on days with a full moon, a new moon, any quarter of the moon, a waxing moon, or a waning moon\. This held true for psychiatric patients as a whole, as well as for individuals with particular diagnoses, such as those with a mood disorder or psychotic disorder\. Records from 1,909 emergency psychiatric evaluations that occurred between 2002 and 2003 were also examined to see whether a higher percentage of patients might present, but not require hospitalization, during a particular phase of the moon\. Once again, no significant effect was found\. In summary, lunar phase was not associated in any significant way with psychiatric admissions or emergency presentation.

PMID: 17256692 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
 
Full moon, new moon, doesn't matter to begin with, it is the distance that the moon is from you that counts and that isn't much either. A green pea at 30 inches has the same pull of gravity on you as the moon does.

Paul

:) :) :)
 
CFLarsen said:
Men are not humans?
Click to expand...
Is it not correct that the human female menstrual cycle is also the human menstrual cycle since there is only one? Is it not the species' cycle?

You've been too long a member of the dominant white men of our species. You are used to language which supports your imagined superiority. If you were to say mankind, would you expect me to say, hey what about womankind? ;)

Wow, I just realized that was my first job. Meaning I've been a true skeptic that long.
 
Last edited:
I did my own study once to show the other nurses I worked with it was a myth. I worked in a small hospital in Colorado. We had about 300 births a year and whenever we had a busy OB day and a full Moon there were comments about the Moon being the cause. So I mapped the births out over the year. There was no correlation to the Moon or to the weather. (The other myth was than low barometric pressure increased delivery rates so I put in the major storms.)

People were truly surprised to find out they were not really observing a phenomenon. I think it would make a great school project to do something like it and have the kids talk about selective memory when they saw the results. You could look at police or ED activity, any number of things.
 
People have a great need to see patterns even when there are none.

Paul

:) :) :)

Like the picture below, look at it for a while and a face may appear.

laun3z.gif
 
skeptigirl said:
I did my own study once to show the other nurses I worked with it was a myth. I worked in a small hospital in Colorado. We had about 300 births a year and whenever we had a busy OB day and a full Moon there were comments about the Moon being the cause. So I mapped the births out over the year. There was no correlation to the Moon or to the weather. (The other myth was than low barometric pressure increased delivery rates so I put in the major storms.)

People were truly surprised to find out they were not really observing a phenomenon. I think it would make a great school project to do something like it and have the kids talk about selective memory when they saw the results. You could look at police or ED activity, any number of things.
Click to expand...

I had a dispatcher in Memphis that did something similar as far as calls and psych calls in particular, same thing, no statistical differences. Anybody caught repeating full moon myths was sent to see him.:D


Boo
 
skeptigirl said:
I did my own study once to show the other nurses I worked with it was a myth. I worked in a small hospital in Colorado. We had about 300 births a year and whenever we had a busy OB day and a full Moon there were comments about the Moon being the cause. So I mapped the births out over the year. There was no correlation to the Moon or to the weather. (The other myth was than low barometric pressure increased delivery rates so I put in the major storms.)

People were truly surprised to find out they were not really observing a phenomenon. I think it would make a great school project to do something like it and have the kids talk about selective memory when they saw the results. You could look at police or ED activity, any number of things.
Click to expand...

One of our crisis intervention managers kept records on his wall of crisis line calls and crisis visits to the hospital and psych admission to the hospital. He plotted it for the 52 week year. No monthly spikes at all, Just the steady build up to the winter holidays and the fall off after Valentine's day.

(We are a big county in central Illinois with a population of about 250,000)
 
Another problem with people is that their memories are very subjective more often then not, and the more magical their thinking the more subjective they seem to get.

Paul

:) :) :)
 
skeptigirl said:
Is it not correct that the human female menstrual cycle is also the human menstrual cycle since there is only one? Is it not the species' cycle?
Click to expand...
The female menstrual cycle would be the one without a crossbar.









... I'll get my coat.
 
The direct effect of the moon on tides is actually what- one inch? The rest of the obvious tides are due to the amplification by undersea geography. Otherwise, would everybody go insane near the Bay of Fundy? Or in the upper Sea of Cortez, with it's 18 foot tides?

Hey, did the Tsunami a couple years ago drive everybody insane? Making them all drown themselves?
 
Yup, women sychronise. When I first heard that, I understood the screaming matchs between my mother and my two teenage sister. PMS to the third power?

Hmmm, I just had a thought- Is PMS evolution's way of saying to adolescent daughters "It's time to leave the nest. Get out. Go start your own family. Go find your own mate from a different family, don't be around here when your cycle peaks. Do not mate with your blood relatives" ?

So the synchronisity of PMS would tend to break up sisterhoods? Any studies done on PMS frequency re: groups of women vs singles?
 
casebro said:
The direct effect of the moon on tides is actually what- one inch? The rest of the obvious tides are due to the amplification by undersea geography. Otherwise, would everybody go insane near the Bay of Fundy? Or in the upper Sea of Cortez, with it's 18 foot tides?

Hey, did the Tsunami a couple years ago drive everybody insane? Making them all drown themselves?
Click to expand...
Tsunami: caused by earthquake. Nothing to do with tides.

ETA: In another piece of astrological idiocy, it has been suggested that the Indian Ocean tsunami was something to do with the decision of some astronomers to name the planetoid 2003 VB12 after an Inuit sea goddess. :oldroll:
 
Last edited:
Somos memórias de lobos que rasgam a pele
Lobos que foram homens e o tornarão a ser

They awake for flesh
Choose pain as a path
Refuse a light
To blind you and me

Full moon madness,
We are as one and congregate
Full moon madness
We rise again to procreate

Somos memórias de lobos que rasgam a pele
Lobos que foram homens e o tornarão a ser
Ou talvez memórias de homens.
Que insistem em não rasgar a pele
Homens que procuram ser lobos
Mas que jamais o tornarão a ser...

They awake for flesh
Choose pain as a path
Refuse a light
To blind you and me

Full moon madness,
We are as one and congregate
Full moon madness
We rise again to procreate to seal our fate

Irreverence was cast out from the sky
And eternity lost its sex forever
And under the same heaven they voted to emptiness
They still celebrate under a full moon madness...

They awake for flesh
Choose pain as a path
Refuse a light
To blind you and me

Irreverence was cast out from the sky
And eternity lost its sex forever
And under the same heaven they voted to emptiness
We still celebrate under a full moon madness...
 
I just want to note that the full moon rising Monday night was absolutely fabulous. Not quite as good as we saw this summer in Hawaii, watching the moon rise over Kilauea (facing east - face west and the sun was setting on the ocean at the same time - sigh...), but still very impressive.
 
Mojo said:
Tsunami: caused by earthquake. Nothing to do with tides. :oldroll:
Click to expand...

I'll explain: The direct action of the heavenly bodies only makes the open ocean rise and fall an inch. Most people will think that their local tides are 6-7 feet. Those local tides are the one inch direct tides, amplified by the undersea geography. So, if most people think the moon-made waves are causing insanity, then wouldn't they be blaming big waves in general? So, if the believers in lunacy have any consistancy, wouldn't the blame Tsunamis for insanity too?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom