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 many people.

We've believed this for a long time. We refer to unstable people as lunatics, a word

that finds its roots in the Latin word of the same name. 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 young child, and they'll probably tell you tales of wild behavior and out of the

ordinary disobedience at certain times of the month. If science tells us that the moon's

pull on the ocean creates tides that rise and fall in severity, then perhaps our planets

for satellite also tugs on the water inside our bodies, changing our behavior. At least

that's the idea.

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.

Where wolves?

I'm Aaron Manke, and this is lore.

Science has tried to explain our obsession with the werewolf many times over the years.

One theory is a disease known as hyper-tricosis, sometimes known as wolfitis. It is a condition

of excessive, unusual body hair growth, oftentimes covering the person's entire face. Think

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