Ask anyone in the mental health profession about full moons, and you'll get a surprising answer.

They'll respond with something that sounds incredibly like folklore and myth.

The full moon has the power to bring out the crazy in people.

We believe this for a long time.

We refer to unstable people as lunatics, a word that is Latin.

It's built from the root word Luna, which means moon.

And for centuries, has operated under the conviction that changes in the lunar cycle

can cause people to lose touch with reality.

Just ask the parents of a young child, and they'll tell you tales of wild behavior and

out of the ordinary disobedience at certain times of the month.

Science tells us that just as the moon's pole on the ocean creates tides that rise and fall

in severity, so too does our planets first satellite tug on the water inside our bodies,

changing our behavior.

As modern people, when we talk about the full moon, we tend to joke about this insane, extraordinary

behavior.

But maybe we joke to avoid the deeper truth, an idea that we are both frightened and embarrassed

that we even entertain.

For most of us, you see, the full moon conjures up an image that is altogether unnatural

and unbelievable.

That large, glowing, perfect circle in the night sky makes us think of just one thing,

werewolves.

I'm Aaron Mankey, and this is lore.

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