Does the Solar System Make Us Crazy, Too?
Ah, what strange things happen when the Moon is Full! Teachers notice that their pupils get extra fidgety. Emergency Room calls spike. We fall in love. Wolves howl. Maybe it’s just the extra moonlight. Maybe not. According to Hannah Holmes’s anecdotal essay on “Lunacy” there’s no scientific agreement on why it occurs, or even if it does. But let’s suppose that if the tidal forces exerted by the Sun and Moon can, once or twice a month, cause unusually high and low tides worldwide, those same tidal forces can also affect our brains. Maybe the grey matter swells inside our skulls. Maybe the nucleus of each brain cell rises imperceptibly skywards. Maybe our neurotransmitters bend towards the moon. Who knows? We do know that oceanic tides result from the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon. Those G-forces peak when the sun the earth and the moon are lined up at Full Moon and, to a lesser extent, at New Moon. G-forces can also result from a sudden acceleration or deceleration, as any ri
