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Speaking in 'tongues'

JJ50

Well-Known Member
How many people have had experience of people speaking in so called 'tongues', or have actually indulged in it themselves?

It was a Sunday morning feature of my childhood during the 50s and 60s. Two members of the congregation of the Elim Pentecostal church we attended, would suddenly feel impelled to spout gobbledegook, often during a prayer or the sermon! It was totally crazy and many of us tried to stifle giggles, including my mother.

As you would expect I am of the opinion that this nonsense is an aberration of the human brain and nothing to do with any god, unless it enjoys watching people make total idiots of themselves. The notorious 'Toronto Blessing' where people actually barked liked dogs just goes to prove how totally crazy this activity is.:eek:
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
How many people have had experience of people speaking in so called 'tongues', or have actually indulged in it themselves?

It was a Sunday morning feature of my childhood during the 50s and 60s. Two members of the congregation of the Elim Pentecostal church we attended, would suddenly feel impelled to spout gobbledegook, often during a prayer or the sermon! It was totally crazy and many of us tried to stifle giggles, including my mother.

In West Virginia I witnessed it visiting a church in West Virginia. I was not impressed.

As you would expect I am of the opinion that this nonsense is an aberration of the human brain and nothing to do with any god, unless it enjoys watching people make total idiots of themselves. The notorious 'Toronto Blessing' where people actually barked liked dogs just goes to prove how totally crazy this activity is.:eek:

Husky or Chihuahua.
 

Kemosloby

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
That stuff is weird, true or not,I read in the scriptures they say not to do it because people will think they are crazy.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Tongues is just people speaking in gibberish thinking to themselves it's something substantial.

Makes them happy though.
 

Shiranui117

Pronounced Shee-ra-noo-ee
Premium Member
I speak tongues all the time. Been doing so for 9 years, sometimes even at church. Currently getting a master's in it and am going to be teaching it at high school.

Man I love German.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I speak tongues all the time. Been doing so for 9 years, sometimes even at church. Currently getting a master's in it and am going to be teaching it at high school.

Man I love German.

In the Pentacostal Church I attended speaking tongues sounded like clueless nonsense German
 
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BSM1

What? Me worry?
In West Virginia I witnessed it visiting a church in West Virginia. I was not impressed.



Husky or Chihuahua.

Attended my Grandmother's Pentecostal church when I was 13 (she had converted from Southern Baptist, go figure) in WV. The first time I was there they had a marathon "tongues" episode replete with shouting, shaking, and pew jumping. Scared the Hell out me. It was the last time I ever seriously attended church, which has allowed me to honestly seek for my own truth.

BTW, the Bible clearly states that if there is no interpreter then the tongue speaking should be put on the back burner.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
How many people have had experience of people speaking in so called 'tongues', or have actually indulged in it themselves?

It was a Sunday morning feature of my childhood during the 50s and 60s. Two members of the congregation of the Elim Pentecostal church we attended, would suddenly feel impelled to spout gobbledegook, often during a prayer or the sermon! It was totally crazy and many of us tried to stifle giggles, including my mother.

As you would expect I am of the opinion that this nonsense is an aberration of the human brain and nothing to do with any god, unless it enjoys watching people make total idiots of themselves. The notorious 'Toronto Blessing' where people actually barked liked dogs just goes to prove how totally crazy this activity is.:eek:

To the person themselves, they don't know the source of the semi-language-like syllables emanating from their own mouth. They can be amazed that the mind is capable of this without it being an act of conscious will.

Since we are not consciously aware of the activity of the subconscious mind, people really have no idea what it is capable of without conscious involvement.
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
Haven't witnessed it in person, but have seen it by televangelists...because it fit right into the TV time allotted, I suspected it to be a hoax on the part of the minister...but people caught up in the moment might do the same, more spontaneously...
 

Jesster

Friendly skeptic
Premium Member
I was invited to a church like this once. I've rarely been so uncomfortable. Never again.
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
How many people have had experience of people speaking in so called 'tongues', or have actually indulged in it themselves?
YO! :raisinghand:

I grew up in a church where speaking in tongues was a fairly regular event. When I got to be about 12-13 I started studying it and noticed how often the same gibberish phrases were repeated and when someone would come up with a new phrase, others would start to copy it. So after about 6 months of studying and practicing, I decided to fake it. One day at Bible camp I threw my head back, thrust my hands in the air, and started repeating the gibberish phrases I'd been practicing. The congregation gathered around me, laid their hands on me, and cried.

That's when I knew it was all fake.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
Here's a post regarding glossolalia I made in 2011

It's not a language. In linguistic studies made of various glossolalias none of them showed signs of a structure that could be called language, although they did share some common elements.
Here is one particular assessment taken from a Wikipedia article, which reflects the consensus of these studies.

Linguistics of Pentecostal glossolalia
William J. Samarin, a linguist from the University of Toronto, published a thorough assessment of Pentecostal glossolalia that became a classic work on its linguistic characteristics.[3] His assessment was based on a large sample of glossolalia recorded in public and private Christian meetings in Italy, Holland, Jamaica, Canada and the USA over the course of five years; his wide range included the Puerto Ricans of the Bronx, the Snake Handlers of the Appalachians, and Russian Molokan in Los Angeles.

Samarin found that glossolalic speech does resemble human language in some respects. The speaker uses accent, rhythm, intonation and pauses to break up the speech into distinct units. Each unit is itself made up of syllables, the syllables being formed from consonants and vowels taken from a language known to the speaker.
It is verbal behavior that consists of using a certain number of consonants and vowels[...]in a limited number of syllables that in turn are organized into larger units that are taken apart and rearranged pseudogrammatically[...]with variations in pitch, volume, speed and intensity.[4]

[Glossolalia] consists of strings of syllables, made up of sounds taken from all those that the speaker knows, put together more or less haphazardly but emerging nevertheless as word-like and sentence-like units because of realistic, language-like rhythm and melody.[5]
That the sounds are taken from the set of sounds already known to the speaker is confirmed by others: Felicitas Goodman found that the speech of glossolalists reflected the patterns of speech of the speaker's native language.[6]

Samarin found that the resemblance to human language was merely on the surface, and so concluded that glossolalia is "only a facade of language".[7] He reached this conclusion because the syllable string did not form words, the stream of speech was not internally organised, and– most importantly of all– there was no systematic relationship between units of speech and concepts. Humans use language to communicate, but glossolalia does not. Therefore he concluded that glossolalia is not "a specimen of human language because it is neither internally organized nor systematically related to the world man perceives".[7]

On the basis of his linguistic analysis, Samarin defined Pentecostal glossolalia as "meaningless but phonologically structured human utterance,
What other explanations are there for it?

In 2006, the brains of a group of individuals were scanned while they were speaking in tongues. Activity in the language centers of the brain decreased, while activity in the emotional centers of the brain increased. Activity in the area of control decreased, which corresponds with the reported experience of loss of control. There were no changes in any language areas, suggesting that glossolalia is not associated with usual language function.[10][11][12] Other brain wave studies have also found that brain activity alters in glossolalia.[13]

Learned behaviour
The material explanation arrived at by a number of studies is that glossolalia is "learned behavior".[15][19] What is taught is the ability to produce language-like speech. This is only a partial explanation, but it is a part that has withstood much testing. It is possible to train novices to produce glossolalic speech. One experiment with 60 undergraduates found that 20% succeeded after merely listening to a 60-second sample, and 70% succeeded after training:"

(source: ibid)

.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
YO! :raisinghand:

I grew up in a church where speaking in tongues was a fairly regular event. When I got to be about 12-13 I started studying it and noticed how often the same gibberish phrases were repeated and when someone would come up with a new phrase, others would start to copy it. So after about 6 months of studying and practicing, I decided to fake it. One day at Bible camp I threw my head back, thrust my hands in the air, and started repeating the gibberish phrases I'd been practicing. The congregation gathered around me, laid their hands on me, and cried.

That's when I knew it was all fake.
I bet somebody gave you a translation who had the gift of interpretation.... *Grin*
 

DennisTate

Active Member
How many people have had experience of people speaking in so called 'tongues', or have actually indulged in it themselves?

It was a Sunday morning feature of my childhood during the 50s and 60s. Two members of the congregation of the Elim Pentecostal church we attended, would suddenly feel impelled to spout gobbledegook, often during a prayer or the sermon! It was totally crazy and many of us tried to stifle giggles, including my mother.

As you would expect I am of the opinion that this nonsense is an aberration of the human brain and nothing to do with any god, unless it enjoys watching people make total idiots of themselves. The notorious 'Toronto Blessing' where people actually barked liked dogs just goes to prove how totally crazy this activity is.:eek:

My wife received the gift of tongues around the year 1995 while she was still living in Quito, Ecuador.

She was told by somebody in the congregation that she had been praising God in a dialect of India, that this person from India who was there... was familiar with.
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
My wife received the gift of tongues around the year 1995 while she was still living in Quito, Ecuador.

She was told by somebody in the congregation that she had been praising God in a dialect of India, that this person from India who was there... was familiar with.
Kind of amazing, really. There are 22 languages in India, and perhaps 2000 dialects -- and yet that one time in 1995, in a church (presumably Pentacostal) in (Catholic) Ecuador (not India) there just happened to be somebody from India who knew that particular dialect.

I'd try working out the odds, but really can't be bothered.
 

DennisTate

Active Member
Kind of amazing, really. There are 22 languages in India, and perhaps 2000 dialects -- and yet that one time in 1995, in a church (presumably Pentacostal) in (Catholic) Ecuador (not India) there just happened to be somebody from India who knew that particular dialect.

I'd try working out the odds, but really can't be bothered.

I suspect that the gift of glossalia fits to at least some degree with the Dr. Ian Stevenson research:

https://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/research/ian-stevenson.html
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
Kind of amazing, really. There are 22 languages in India, and perhaps 2000 dialects -- and yet that one time in 1995, in a church (presumably Pentacostal) in (Catholic) Ecuador (not India) there just happened to be somebody from India who knew that particular dialect.

I'd try working out the odds, but really can't be bothered.

Go figure. Right?
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Oddly enough, our church didn't believe that an "interpreter" needed to be present. It would have made my little experiment more interesting though. :cool:
Way back when I was involved in the Pentecostal church, I spoke in tongues pretty much saying the same things, I got like several different interpretations from several different people and right then and there I knew it was a complete pile of horse****.
 
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