Conference hydra::dejavu

	I worked in nursing homes years ago and saw the effect of the full moon
on the patients.  There would always be some poor soul walking around naked or
loud cries from the rooms for no reason.  They often would talk of very vivid
dreams and disorientation.  Rather than passing it off as crazy old people I
saw them as less inhibited about what they did and said thusly going with the
flow of the influence of the moon.
	The cycles of the moon were also used to keep time.  In cowboy movies the
indians always said, "In two moons the winter will come." or something close.

							Jorge'

I carpool 35 miles each way to work every day, and the lunacy level of drivers
on the road shows a marked increase near full moon time (� 3 days).  They seem
to drive more agressively and to take more ill-advised chances during that time.

Even when I am totally unaware of the moon phase, I notice the change and as 
a result will check and find that it is "that time" again.

				Bill

re .1:

The word "month" also comes from "moon."  Note that the current week (7 days)
is 1/4 of a lunar cycle; hence, the Amerind's "moon" for near-month period.
The old Hebraec calender was lunar; hence, the difference between certain 
of the Jewish holidays.

Re .2:

I never thought of correlating driving behavior with lunar cycles.  Good work!
Youi might also be on the lookout for a similar, though less pronounced rise
in driver "lunacy" during the new moon.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

 Have any of you read _Mooncycles_ by Mort Gale?  It is based upon the 
influences of the Moon. He analyzes not only what sign the moon was in when you
were born, but also looks at the relationship between the phase in was in and
the phase in is in on a given date.  I had never thought about that relationship
prior to reading his book.  However, given the fact that humans are almost all
water, it is interesting to note the moon's influences on our own cycles.
The body is made up of hundreds of cycles, and this book does a decent job of
coordinating how our individual cycles fit into the cycles around us.

- Mark -

It has also been noted that more babies are born during the full moon than
any other time.  I have heard from a number of Obstetrics nurses that the
night of the full moon is the busiest time of the month.

If tides are involved, both full and new moon times should show increased
activity, as indeed in some studies they seem to.

Additionally, some farmers plan their planting schedules on lunar posit-
ions.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

	    Women's menstrual cycles vary too much to be tied to the
	moon.  In a work of fiction, _Still_Life_With_Woodpecker_,
	Tom Robbins presented something called "lunaception," where
	a woman's menstrual cycle would synchronize with the moon if
	she slept with only the light of the moon.  I've never seen
	mention of the concept anywhere else, though.
			<_Jym_>

re .7:

You're right in individual cases; I was referring to the average cycle.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

P.S.: Interestingly, I have two extremes in this matter in my own family.
My sister's cycle has been irregular for many years; my wife's has been
rigidly on target.  My sister has no pesychic sensitivity; my wife has a
high degree of intuition and some sensitivity to auras.

I find this correlation interesting.

-SK

    Volume X, Number 2 of the Skeptical Inquirer contains the article
    "The Moon Was Full and Nothing Happened:  A Review of Studies
    on the Moon and Human Behaviour and Lunar Beliefs", by I. W.
    Kelly, James Rotton, and Roger Culver.  The conclusion:
    
    	This article outlines the results of a meta-analysis of 37
    	studies and several more recent studies that examined lunar
    	variables and mental behaviour.  Our review supports the
    	view that there is no causal relationship between lunar 
    	phenomena and human behaviour.  We also speculate on why
    	belief in such relationships is prevalent in our society.
    	A lack of understanding of physics, psychological biases,
    	and slanted media reporting are suggested as some possible
    	reasons.
    
    	It is important to note that there are two hurdles to overcome
    	before any findings on lunar variables and human behaviour
    	are deserving of public attention.  The first is that /reliable/
    	(i.e., replicable) findings need to be reported by independent
    	investigators.  The second hurdle is that relationship should
    	not be atrivial one.  The lunar hypothesis fails on both
    	counts.

Re: .9  Skeptical Inquirer
    I get the impression that the folks at the Skeptical Inquirer decided
    that it is now time to debunk the idea of lunar influences, and
    that's what they did.  So they like to think.
    
    From what was written in .9 I think the study(s) consisted of looking
    for *HOW* the moon exerted it's influence, not whether or not it
    *DOES* influence.  It reminds me of the story of a drunk man who
    lost his watch outside one night.  A cop comes over and asks him
    what he's doing.  He explains he has lost his watch.  The cop, being
    ever helpful asks where he lost it to which the drunk points 20
    yards away by some dark bushes.  The cop asks why he is searching
    where he is to which he replies "The light is better over here".
    
    I think this is what the Inquirer was doing.  They looked for an
    answer where they thought it should be.  It wasn't there so they
    concluded the whole thing was a hoax.
    
    As was pointed out before, just about any nurse or policeman will
    tell you that things heat up on a full moon.
    
    One full moon, just before finals on Bay State Road in Boston, a
    couple of guys started howling at the moon.  In 15 minutes the entire
    street was in an uproar, streakers and everything.  The cops came,
    looked around, laughed and left.
    
    Even if there wasn't any subliminal influence of the moon,  I'm
    sure those guys wouldn't have started howling if the moon hadn't
    been full, nor would it have been greeted by such an uproar.
    
    What I'm saying is that although the exact *causal* relationship
    between the moon and human (Earth life?) behavior isn't yet known
    by modern science, the *perceived* influence has an influence on us
    simply because we think it does.  And the Skeptical Inquirer wasn't
    willing to look where they weren't prepared to.
    
    Tom

    re .9, .10:
    
    >            -<Skeptical Inquirer has motives of it's own >-
    
    AMEN!  The _Skeptical Inquirer_ is the organ of a group didicated
    to the "Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal," by which they
    mean "debunking paranormal phenomena."  I have no objection to any
    thorough and truely scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena,
    in fact, I welcome it, since the 99% crud gets in the way of the
    1%, but I'd rather trust an organ that starts out with an adversarial
    attitude.
    
    There's a marvelous story about the parent group, CSIOP, thap aperas
    of an issue of _FATE_ some years ago; "sTARBABY" is how instead
    of trying to investigate a phenomenon, they tried to bury it.  (I
    wish I could remember the issue.)  Despite the fact the man who
    wrote the article _didn't_ believe in the paranormal!
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    Re the reply which said that the writer had heard of women whose
    metstrual cycles would cycle with the moon if they slept in its
    light . . .
    
    A few years ago I read a fascinating report on an obstetrician who
    tried to help his women patients with irregular menstrual cycles.
    What he did was not to have his patients sleep outside, but to leave
    the light on in the bedroom during the 3-5 days of the full moon's
    "fullest" phase.  I don't know if anyone ever tried to do the whole
    nine scientific yards to see if this works for everyone, but he
    had great success with his patients!  Within a few months, almost
    all his patients who tried the full-moon-mightlight therapy achieved
    regular cycles.
    
    Marcia

	    Anthropologists have reported that some tribal cultures have
	a rather unenlightened attitude about menstruation; so much so
	that they banish the women away from the villages (or pagodas or
	whatever they live in) until they're through menstruating.  Many
	of these tribes have elaborate rituals and such, sending all the
	women away during the new moon.
	    Then one day, somebody deduced that, if these women were
	being sent away during the new moon, they must *all* be menstru-
	ating during the new moon!  Hmm . . .
	    Exit the anthropologists and enter the biologists.  Noting
	that low-level light cast on a sleeping woman's eyelids will
	stimulate the pineal gland (via the optic nerve), which then
	goes on to stimulate the ovaries, biologists conducted an exper-
	iment.  They had a woman sleep with the light on, three nights
	in a row.  This caused her to ovulate!

$ SET MODE/ROD_SERLING

	    Submitted for your approval:  imagine, if you will, a world
	without electric lights, pinball machines, or kerosene lanterns;
	a world where, basically, nightfall means it's dark; a world not
	far away, yet very different; a world . . .

$ SET MODE/SHUT_UP_ALREADY!

	. . . the upshot is that these tribal cultures (and, presumably,
	our evolving ancestors) only get three consecutive nights of
	light during the full moon.  The women's menstrual cycles synch-
	ronize with the waxing and waning of the moon:  ovulating during
	the full moon and menstruating during the new moon.
	    Unless we live way out in the boonies, most of us civilized
	folk have to deal with all kinds of light sources at night:
	street-lights, neon signs, hackers' VT100s, etc.  Thus, those
	who can't get light from the moon and the moon only have turned
	to setting up lights in their bedrooms to get the same effect.
	    Some speculate that all the extraneous light sources women
	sleep with are the cause of many irregular menstrual cycles.
	The lights-on-during-full-moon have helped many women get normal
	cycles.  Of course, other factors like stress and sex change
	operations can also have an effect on the cycles.
	    Some have even combined lunar-synchronized cycles with the
 	fertility-awareness birth control method, yielding a new birth
	control method called "lunaception!"
			<_Jym_>
	P.S.:  In case nobody's noticed, I've found out more about luna-
	ception since Reply #7!

    Re .13:  Imagine you are an illiterate pre-human, scarcely able
    to count.  One day you realize that the brightest light in the
    night sky, the one that changes, vanishes just before the females
    have their menstrual period.  What would *you* think?
    
    The process by which people take horrifying, mind-boggling, get-down-
    in-the-dirt-and-hide-your-eyes type stuff and suppress, banish, mock
    and finally forget it is well known and has been repeatedly documented.
    Is it any accident that this fact has been "rediscovered" now that
    the fact is "harmless" to people's idea of the universe?
    
    A couple centuries earlier, y'know, the folks with torches would've
    gone over to have a talk with the biologists about witchcraft &
    forbidden knowledge.
     
    Pat
    "...wonder who will water all the children of the garden
      as they sigh about the barren lack of rain and droop so hungry
       'neath the sky --
     Aye..."
    

Re .13:
I'm interested in reading more on those discoveries on moonlight 
affecting the pineal gland.  Is there a book out you can 
recommend?

/chuck

                  "Even a man who's pure in heart
                    and says his prayers by night
                     may become a WOLF when the
                    wolfbane blooms and the moon
                    is pure with light!"
                                 LARRY TALBOT 
    
    

    Re .17:
    
    The doggerel has a point of seriousness in it: those who apparently
    became "werewolves" in a symbolic sense (i.e., lived with the wolves
    and behaved like them for a time) were possibly triggered into their
    emotional states by destablizing influences.  If aberrant behavior
    is linked to a lunar cycle, then the moonphase aspect makes sense.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    
    P.S.: The verse preceded the movie by a few centuries.
    
    -S
    

    Exactly. The restitution of the Lunar 13 month calendar that was
    a competitor to the later 12 month calendar recovers a 'lost sign'
    the Spinner/Spider/Arachne. Whether it is 'more psychic' than the
    other 12 is statistical. It is recoverable & explains some people
    to themselves & others. Again, the 'perfectly obvious' becomes a
    commonality.
    
    - Boleslaw

    Re .19:
    
    Things are a little more complicated than that.  Generally, in a
    mystic sense, males (the dominant force in many early civilizations)
    are "solar" creatures and females are "lunar."  The (to me) most
    civilized of the ancient peoples, the ancient Egyptians (Khemites)
    had a pure and unsullied solar calendar with the following scheme:
    
           1 week = 10 days
           1 month = 3 weeks
           1 year = 12 months plus 5 (or 6) extra holidays (6 on leapyears)
    
    Lunar calendars are more difficult to reconcile with years, which is
    why we've gone the route we have (the lunar "moonth" influence has
    made the calender sort of mucky).
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.                

    	If you find this interesting, then please rescan the entries to
    this old note. I found them all interesting.
    	The following entry comes from 1974 publication, How To Grow
    More Vegetables* by a JohnJeavons of Ecology Action of Mid-Peninsula
    (California group into organic, raised bed, intensive farming). I
    picked it up at a yard sale of a man selling off his ex-wife's attic
    possesions. From his tone about her and the titles in the box that
    I was rummaging through, "The Joy of Sex" editions of Mother Earth
    News, a Xeroxed copy of "Our Bodies Ourselves" etc. I think she stuck
    around 20 years too long! I glad to have a little of her karma now in
    my library.  I'm going to try some experimenting in my raised bed
    gardens with this lunar theory. It will be interesting to see if my
    "control group" lags behind my "lunar group" of plantings...
    ...anyway, enjoy...
    Page 45, Planting By the Phases of the Moon
    	One of the most controversial aspects of the biodynamic/French
    intensive method is the planting of seeds and the transplanting of
    seedlings by phases of the moon.  Short and extralong germinating seeds
    are planted two days before the New Moon, when the first significant
    magnetic forces occur, and up to seven days after the New Moon.  Long
    germinating seeds are planted at the Full Moon and up to seven days
    afterwards.  Seedlings are transplanted at the same time.  Both
    planting periods take full advantage of the full sum of the forces of
    nature, including gravity, light and magnetism.  The greatest sum of
    increasing forces occurs at the New Moon.  The lunar gravitational pull
    which produces high tides in the oceans and water tides in the soil is
    very high.  And the moon, which is dark, gets progressively lighter. 
    The importance in the time of the month for planting seeds and
    transplanting is not so much in the exact day that you perform the
    task, but rather in generally taking advantage of the impetus provided
    by Nature.
    	By placing short germinating seeds in the ground two days before
    the lunar tide forces are greatest, the seed has time to absorb water. 
    The force exerted on the water in the seed helps create a "tide" that
    helps burst the seed coat in conjuction with the forces produced by the
    swelling of the seed......there are both increasing and decreasing
    lunar gravitational and light force influences that recur periodically
    during the lunar month.  Sometimes the forces work against each other
    and sometimes they reinforce each other.  When the lunar gravitational
    pull decreases and the amount of moonlight increases during the first
    seven days, plants undergo a period of balanced growth.  The decreasing
    lunar gravity (and the corresponding relative increase in the earth's
    gravity) stimulates root growth.  At the same time, the increasing
    amount of moonlight stimulates leaf growth.  
    	During the second seven days, the lunar gravitational force
    reverses its relative direction and increases.  This pull slows down
    the root growth as the earth's relative gravitational pull is lessened.
    The moonlight, on the other hand, continues to a peak and leaf growth
    is especially stimulated.If root growth has been sufficient during
    previous periods, then the proper amounts of nutrients and water will
    be conveyed to the above ground part of the plant and balanced,
    uninterrupted growth will occur.  In this time of increasing
    gravitational, moonlight and magnetic forces, seeds which have not yet
    germinated receive a special boost from nature.  If they did not
    germinate at the time of the New Moon, they should do so by the Full
    Moon.  It is during this period that Alan Chadwick says seeds cannot
    resist coming up and in which mushrooms suddenly appear overnight.
    
    	He goes on to explain about the 3rd and 4th lunar monthly weeks
    of growth.  If anyone's interested further in this I'll enter those
    paragraphs in the future.  I asked someone strong in physics about this
    and received the following reply: "You'd affect the growth of your
    plants more by spreading this guy's BS in your garden compared to the
    miniscule amounts of changes he's prattling on about.  One good soft
    April shower will help you a hundred times more!"
    	Well, there's no harm in trying it once.   BillM

    The maoris have always planted by the moon, in fact they were even
    smart enough to also dig their gardens at night and do their planting 
    at the same time. Just think, the moon is out in full view, who needs
    a written language? They certainly didn't.
    
    graham
      

    re .21
    
    I agree with you, that there's no harm in trying!  Let us know the
    outcome.  I'm going to follow it when I transplant my seedlings.