Speaking in Tongues

[Rye]

Tongues on the Mind

By Constance Holden
ScienceNOW Daily News
2 November 2006

For a practice that's been around for thousands of years, scientists understand very little about what goes on when people "speak in tongues." Currently, glossolalia--as it's called--can be found in Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian sects, where those affected believe they are uttering a message directly from God. Now scientists say they have captured glossolalia on brain scans, which link decreased frontal lobe activity to a loss of self control.

To conduct the study, psychiatrist Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his colleagues recruited five African-American women who belong to a local Pentecostal congregation. All had been in the habit of speaking in tongues "almost on a daily basis" for the past 5 years, says Newberg. As a control activity, subjects stood and sang gospel songs with musical accompaniment, moving their arms and swaying. Then they were asked to repeat the behavior, but this time the researchers encouraged them to speak in tongues rather than sing.

In each case, the scientists gave the subjects an intravenous injection of a radioactive tracer that provided, in effect, a freeze-frame of which brain areas were most active during the behavior, as indicated by increased blood flow. This was captured by then scanning the women's brains in a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) machine.

Glossolalia produced a significantly different pattern of brain activity than singing, the team reports in the November issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. Perhaps the most important difference was a decrease in frontal lobe function, Newberg says. "The part of the brain that normally makes them feel in control has been essentially shut down." Another notable change was increased activity in the parietal region--the part of the brain that "takes sensory information and tries to create a sense of self and how you relate to the rest of the world," Newberg says. The findings make sense, says Newberg, because speaking in tongues involves relinquishing control while gaining a "very intense experience of how the self relates to God." Interestingly, he notes, the glossolalia responses were the opposite of those seen in subjects in a meditative state. When people meditate on a particular sacred object, Newberg has found that their frontal lobe activity increases, while their parietal activity goes down. This conforms with the notion that in meditation one has a controlled focus while losing a sense of self.

It's an excellent study, says psychologist Michael Persinger of Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, who has done brainwave research with glossolalia. "Each of Dr. Newberg's results have specific implications," he says. For example, increased parietal activity would go with a sense of one's self being "touched by the spirit."

gurl

[Patrick Degan]

So basically, when a main control mechanism in the frontal lobe is shut down, the ego runs wild in the parietal region.

[kheegster]

As someone who grew up in a non-Christian culture and never been to church, what does 'speaking in tongues' involve exactly? I've certainly encountered the term before but am unsure about what it means.

[Drunk Monkey]

As someone who grew up in a non-Christian culture and never been to church, what does 'speaking in tongues' involve exactly? I've certainly encountered the term before but am unsure about what it means.

It means that you’re possessed by the devil, so you ramble incoherent gibberish until the local faith healer sprinkles holy water on you and bops you upside the head, allegedly causing the demon to leave.

Yes people believe in this crap.

[Surlethe]

As someone who grew up in a non-Christian culture and never been to church, what does 'speaking in tongues' involve exactly? I've certainly encountered the term before but am unsure about what it means.

Evangelicals consider the ability to speak in tongues to be one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; it basically involves murmured (or shouted, depending on the person) nonsense. Hell, I've done it myself, years ago. You might hear stuff like "Akummashaldeleialkindalia ... ", repeating in that vein. People generally use it as a form of prayer, at least in my experience.

[Big Phil]

Essentially you make random, semi-coherent sounds that sounds vaguely like a language, and then claim that you're speaking in the original language of god and the angels. Neither the nutcase speaking in tongues nor anybody else knows what's being said, and I guarantee you that a linguist would never find a coherent sentence structure or repeated words that mean anything (it's gibberish, after all), but religious people think that just "proves" that it's divinely inspired.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Has anyone ever actually studied what is being said? Like the sounds? It's pretty funky stuff.

[Surlethe]

Essentially you make random, semi-coherent sounds that sounds vaguely like a language, and then claim that you're speaking in the original language of god and the angels.

I've never heard anybody claim anything like this. How common is the identification of tongues with the "original language of god and the angels"? AFAIK, evangelicals trace the practice back to the Apostles bursting out of their safe house on the first Pentecost and speaking to the people in their native languages, despite being Galilean in birth and accent.

[Rye]

Has anyone ever actually studied what is being said? Like the sounds? It's pretty funky stuff.

Yes; it's total nonsense, no proper language structure. Randi undoubtedly has an article on it somewhere.

[SirNitram]

Best way to freak out people around those 'Speaking In Tongues' is to calmly stand there and act like you understand every word, occasionally replying coherently.

[Darth Servo]

I understand "speaking in toungues" just fine. Its the same thing a baby does when first figuring out how to make vocal sounds: meaningless babbling. At least the baby has an excuse.

[Superman]

It's not unique to fundies; there are plenty of tribal and shamanistic ceremonies of other cultures which utilize it.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Interestingly "speaking in tounges" is SUPPOSE to be ones ability to speak to anyone in the world and a little thing like language NOTE being a factor. In otherwords I could speak and be understood by five different people who speak five different languages and don't know english at once.

[Superman]

Interestingly "speaking in tounges" is SUPPOSE to be ones ability to speak to anyone in the world and a little thing like language NOTE being a factor. In otherwords I could speak and be understood by five different people who speak five different languages and don't know english at once.

Right. Fundies are so damn illiterate when it comes to their own goofball religion that they think it means go into a trance and say, "soto tototsoto" repeatedly.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Right. Fundies are so damn illiterate when it comes to their own goofball religion that they think it means go into a trance and say, "soto tototsoto" repeatedly.

It always did get me that they get so much about there own faith wrong...

[Superman]

Right. Fundies are so damn illiterate when it comes to their own goofball religion that they think it means go into a trance and say, "soto tototsoto" repeatedly.

It always did get me that they get so much about there own faith wrong...

It's part of their whole, "it feels good so it must be right" mentality. Even when Catholicism was basically the church for 1600 years, despite the corruption, murder, wars, etc., there was still a tradition of intellectualism that was retained. Theologians actually pondered things like dulia, latria, predestination, etc., and how they fit into the Bible and tradition.

The fundies came along, lowered the bar down to retard, threw their arms up and made church into a hoedown. They don't need no stinkin' theology cause they got Jeeeezuz. They took what was already silly BS and turned it into a full blown circus act (some even juggle snakes).

Book learnin is bad cause it'll make you into a librel. When your IQ is the same as a goldfish, you have a hard time pondering metaphors so everything in the Bible is literal truth.

[weemadando]

Just read Snowcrash.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

It's part of their whole, "it feels good so it must be right" mentality. Even when Catholicism was basically the church for 1600 years, despite the corruption, murder, wars, etc., there was still a tradition of intellectualism that was retained. Theologians actually pondered things like dulia, latria, predestination, etc., and how they fit into the Bible and tradition.

The fundies came along, lowered the bar down to retard, threw their arms up and made church into a hoedown. They don't need no stinkin' theology cause they got Jeeeezuz. They took what was already silly BS and turned it into a full blown circus act (some even juggle snakes).

Book learnin is bad cause it'll make you into a librel. When your IQ is the same as a goldfish, you have a hard time pondering metaphors so everything in the Bible is literal truth.

I couldn't put it better myself.

Some of these "fundies" as people call them seem to hark back to the medieval ages. It's disgusting to see them carry stupid placards around town claiming God will rain down hell on Earth because so and so blah blah blah. They have forgotten the essence of the New Testament and totally subscribed to the Old which is downright preposterous if not ridiculous, blasphemous ironically.

[mr friendly guy]

Its called neologisms and idiosyncratic language. Its a symptom of autistic children. Whats the fundies excuse?

[Stark]

Just read Snowcrash.

And then laugh openly at how stupid and forced it is!

You know, when I was an infant and I couldn't talk properly, my sisters still knew what I meant. NOBODY knows what these tards are saying, but we know it's from God and stuff right?

[Broomstick]

Has anyone ever actually studied what is being said? Like the sounds? It's pretty funky stuff.

Yes; it's total nonsense, no proper language structure. Randi undoubtedly has an article on it somewhere.

Those "speaking in tongues" tend to restrict themselves to a sub-set of the phonemes of their native language, and they tend to use similar rhythym and pacing to their own languages.

[Darth Wong]

When you're a Christian, there is considerable pressure to appear more faithful than you really are. I've been inside that world, even if I was never really a part of it. You gain stature, especially in places like Pentecostal congregations, when you do things like claiming to witness miracles, or claiming to have visions, or speaking in tongues. And as a result, there is significant pressure to fake it. Now I know that some people will say there are changes in brain activity so it can't be fake, but meditation is a conscious act too, and that creates changes in brain activity too. Hey, here's a surprise: any kind of mental activity can create changes in brain activity. And people can "train" their brains to do certain interesting things, like the meditators who can eventually feel like they're floating apart from their bodies by making the centre for spatial awareness shut down in the brain.

[Big Phil]

Essentially you make random, semi-coherent sounds that sounds vaguely like a language, and then claim that you're speaking in the original language of god and the angels.

I've never heard anybody claim anything like this. How common is the identification of tongues with the "original language of god and the angels"? AFAIK, evangelicals trace the practice back to the Apostles bursting out of their safe house on the first Pentecost and speaking to the people in their native languages, despite being Galilean in birth and accent.

I remember being told that once by a girl I worked with who went to a non-denominational bible study. It seemed to make sense, but I've never given the practice much thought - it just seems like such obvious bullshit to me.

The following link discusses the definitions of and scientific studies of speaking in tongues:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/tongues.htm

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Interestingly "speaking in tounges" is SUPPOSE to be ones ability to speak to anyone in the world and a little thing like language NOTE being a factor. In otherwords I could speak and be understood by five different people who speak five different languages and don't know english at once.

This is completely incorrect. To the rational, non-religious person, the person "speaking in tongues" is clearly making inchoerent random mouth-noises that have, at best, the basic phonetic structure of whatever language they've learned as a child. To the religious person, or an excessively credulous investigator expecting to see miraculous activity going on, they've primed the pattern-seeking portions of their brain to look for patterns that aren't really there. As a result, they pounce upon some random string of syllables that sounds vaguely like . . . say Aramaic . . . and say "Aha! He's speaking a language he never even learned!"

The phenomena is called pareidolia which is a vague or obscure stimulus being percieved as something distinct. It's the same phenomena that causes overly credulous people to believe they've seen Jesus in tortillas.

[General Trelane (Retired)]

I think Invictus was refering to the story of pentecost in the Book of Acts. The apostles received the Holy Spirit and were then able to 'speak in tongues', which meant, in that story, that foreigners were each able to hear and understand the speech in their own language.

In other words, the story of pentecost portrays speaking in tongues as radically different from how moderm Pentecostals interpret it. Especially considering that NOBODY can understand them.