by
Joe Szimhart
March, 2001
Most people that know me, know me as both an artist and a cult expert, but over past years I have worked for a hospital that serves patients with mental health problems on an emergency basis. This facility has been in operation for twenty-five years. It opened about the time that a large, 6,000 bed, state mental hospital began a process of transferring patients back to their home communities. The latter process reflected a new approach for treating mental patients. Consistent with new laws and taking advantage of new medicines, the mental health industry offered a customized, per need treatment at localized “base service units,” as opposed to the old style of “warehousing” large populations. Despite this more humanized treatment, many consumers nevertheless experienced acute episodes of relapse with increased symptoms, thus needing immediate treatment. The emergency hospital emerged as an important way to treat this need.
My current job is in the crisis intake department where I am the “night manager” who takes all emergency calls and begins all processing of incoming patients after midnight till eight in the morning. I work with a wide range of staff that includes psychiatrists, nurses and “psych-technicians.” I encounter many police officers who bring clients with mental symptoms in for “involuntary” treatment, because this hospital is the only one in the county designated by law for this category of client—the facility has double layers of locked doors throughout. Among the staff and police officers, I regularly hear mention of the full moon effect on business. These people believe that a full moon produces more incidents of mental crisis than non-full moon days, as evidenced by one police officer who recently stated to me: “It is crazy out here tonight—must be a full moon.” In that case, he was about a week short on his guess.
Out of curiosity, I decided to run a brief study on the full moon effect, if any, on this hospital. I was aware that all serious, reputable studies done in the past show that there is little or no evidence to support a full moon effect on human behavior. I was also aware, as I had studied astrology extensively, that many astrologers believe that the full moon effect carries over a three-day period that includes the days before and after a full moon. What I chose to do was examine the numbers of admissions over a twenty-six month period at this hospital, because increased admission activity correlates nicely with what most believers in the full moon effect expect. Believers as well as many patients I encounter tend to think that mental health consumers are particularly sensitive to the full moon. I recorded results for both the full moon days as well as for the three-day sequence of alleged “moon power,” and I calculated the average day’s admissions over that period.
Over the study period, this hospital was considered full with sixty-three patients and averaged over fifty per day. The average length of stay was around 8 days.
The study period was from January, 1999 through February, 2001, or 26 full moons and months. Full moons were according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Eastern Standard Time.
The results are:
Total admissions on full moon days = 158 with 6.0 as the average.
Total admissions over a three-day period of full moon = 492 with 6.3 as the average.
Average admissions per day [188 average per month divided by 30.2] = 6.23.
(There were 4888 admissions during the 26-month period).
Once again, statistics show that the full moon period over time is not extraordinary at a psychiatric emergency hospital. In fact, it is quite normal.
The study also demonstrates that the full moon’s power is primarily aesthetic in human affairs, not unlike any other common symbol. Though the moon has power as a force in nature over tides and the amount of night light that Earth creatures experience, its ability to influence affairs of the heart and mind remains symbolic. This is not to say that symbols have no power to move men’s emotions or thoughts—take the swastika, for example. The “twisted cross” in the hands of the Nazis transformed from a symbol of well-being in ancient India or the Buddhist symbol of limitlessness and eternity later in China, to one of fascist and racist ideology. Nazis also attributed occult power to the swastika, not unlike astrologers attribute occult power to the moon. I think it is this attribution of occult or magical power that fascinates the average believer in full moon effects. Though the believers swear they experience an increase in activity in a mental hospital, the facts do not support their perceptions.