Speaking in tongues Part 2 of 3

Ok, we have looked at the Old Testament…now let’s keep on digging.  But first, a message in tongues. 

Hope you found that to be cute.   But I actually posted it there for a reason….which will become clear in a moment. 

I think before we go on in the scriptures we should take a clinical look at tongues and understand what we can from the natural side of things.

The phenomenon of tongues actually has an official name:  Glossolalia which is constructed from a Greek word which itself is a compound of two words “glossa”, meaning "tongue" or "language" and “lalein” meaning "to talk".  The word itself was first used in 1879 by a man named Frederic William Farrar  who was considered to be a theological writer.  The only problem was that the theology he wrote about most often…was called the Doctrine of Universal Salvation which is absolutely wrong doctrine.

Glossolalia itself has been studied by medical professionals and by amateurs.  As recently as 2005 neuroscientists used imaging techniques to track changes in the blood flow of the brain in five Pentecostal women.  They compared two activities:  First, each woman sang a gospel song then they spoke in tongues. By comparing the patterns created by these two activities, the researchers could pinpoint blood-flow peaks and valleys unique to speaking in tongues.  They found that their frontal lobes…the thinking, willful part of the brain through which people control what they do…were relatively quiet, as were the language centers.  When these results were compared to the tests of other people who had performed pseudo-spiritual activities like meditation the frontal lobes were very active.  If I may paraphrase their results….science has proven what we have always known…speaking in tongues is a giving of oneself over to the direction of the Holy Spirit…The Apostle Paul said it like this….

1 Corinthians 14:14 (KJV)

 ¹⁴For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.

So…we are praying with our spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit…an activity that cannot be measured by scientists.

Additional research in this area has its focus on the electrical activity of the brain while praying in tongues.  There are five identified states of brain activity ranging from “Delta” which is very little activity to “Gamma” which means there is a bunch going on.  The ability to quiet your mind is a much sought after experience.  Many of the websites promoting methods to achieve this… deal with meditation and bio-feedback.  A couple of scientists wrote a paper in 1989 outlining their findings that when a subject began praying in tongues…their brain activity dropped immediately down to the “Delta” level…this happened at will unlike other subjects whom after hours and hours of meditation were able to achieve the same thing.  Again, if I may be so bold as to paraphrase their results…Once again science has proven what Christians have always known…Jesus brings peace.

Philippians 4:7 (KJV)

⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

One other item I think we should briefly explore is the linguistics of the tongues languages themselves.  There are some very educated scholars that have done some very impressive work in the study of glossolalia.  One scientist sampled 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.  This Scientist 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.  He found that the resemblance to human language was merely on the surface, and so concluded that glossolalia is "only a facade of language".  {Kind of like the baby talking in the video above}  He reached this conclusion because the syllable string did not form words, the stream of speech was not internally organized, 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".

This seems to be some pretty harsh stuff where speaking in tongues is concerned…but…if I may…let me present this to you in a slightly different light.  Speaking in tongues is a spiritual event.  There are things about it that can be measured, quantified, recorded and catalogued but science has not been able to explain the…Why?..of it.  I personally totally agree with what the scientist decided…Tongues isn’t related to the world man perceives.  Speaking in tongues is a physical manifestation of a spiritual event and the physical world will never be able to understand it.

Sooo, let me summarize this information:

1.  Tongues does produce measurable changes in brain activity and blood flow in the brain.

2.  Certain parts of the brain experience decreased activity…those that reflect conscious (cognitive) control, structured language, learning and memory.

What this means is:

a)   That the mind is not controlling the tongues,

b)   Tongues language is unstructured and something the person is not
       familiar with,

c)   Tongues is not a learned or remembered activity,

d)   Tongues is not due to increased mental effort.  It is equated with deep
       sleep or deep relaxation.