How can a person be speaking in tongues without using the language center of their brains?

Question

There's been some articles on studies done on persons Born Again and speaking in tongues. The studies show that the individuals aren't experiencing mental breakdowns or personality disorders that may result in hearing voices.

Two items of interest is that none of the test subjects spoke any known language, which was explained that they were speaking the language of the angels. But, when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit and spoke tongues, it was for a purpose, to spread God's Word to many nations, all with different languages.

The other item of interest was that the test subjects were not using the language centers of the human brain. You would assume, that regardless of what language they would be speaking, they would be using the language center of the brain, unless they were speaking gibberish.

I imagine someone has an explanation, but it seems to me that in everything, God uses what is available. Wouldn't he also use that portion of the brain meant for languages?

Answer 1

It seems that they are speaking gibberish, but that they don't know it. They essentially trick themselves into having this religious experience. This is not saying that someone CANNOT speak in tongues through the Holy Spirit, but only that if they did, only that the examples we see today do not appear to be actual supernatural experiences. Every linguist who has studied various individuals speaking in tongues has stated that what is being spoken is not an actual language (not just a known language, but that it isn't language). There are those also that believe they have the gift of interpreting these tongues. But, when a recording of someone speaking in a tongue has been brought to several interpreters, the interpretations are not the same.

People can trick themselves into believing they are speaking in tongues, or that they understand these tongues, but when put to the test, these "miracles" do not seem to be miraculous at all. These people are not bad people, just fooled.

Answer 2

Can be each methods. What well is a language or tongue that no one can realize? Some say this is a prayer language they do not even recognise what it way however what well is that? Does that say our prayers particularly do not imply some thing? You want an interpreter if you're going to talk in a language that no one is aware of that's within the accumulating or it best is going to edify the speaker and now not God. Like announcing, "hello seem at me that I can talk a language no one right here can talk." So you want any person to interpret or what well is it to talk in a language no one is aware of? What could you get out of a church carrier that was once performed in greek? Since you didn't comprehend it, you could get not anything from it however confusion. But in the event you had that greek speaker and had an interpreter, you could recognise the whole lot that was once stated so that you could be blessed. That is what the entire factor is for, instructing others approximately Christ. How are you able to have an interpretation with out an interpreter?

Answer 3

You hit upon the key and that is "gibberish" I read a study about 14 years ago that pointed out from recordings that every "speaker in tongues" was following his own languages phonetic and punctuation patterns. I observed this for myself at several meetings of the holy rollers. One thing I noticed at the time was the similarity of many in one church 's "tongues" to the Yabba Dabba Doo of Freddy Flintstone. One of the things is the speaker does not interpret the "gift" of the speech but another person in the congregation gets that "gift." As an experiment I "received" the gift of speaking in tongues. I was apparently quite eloquent and managed to give the pastor's wife and several other church ladies a real dressing down for some stuff that they had done the month before I got there. At least according to the young lady who had the gift for understanding the voices.

Ashley seems to have the spirit upon him and is speaking in "tongues", Luckily I have just been visited by the spirit as well and can interpret if you need me to.

Answer 4

I spent an evening researching "speaking in tongues" online a couple years back after having a discussion about it with someone belonging to the Pentecostal Church. Based on what I could find there have not been any documented cases of a person speaking in tongues in several hundred years. They defined "Speaking in Tongues" as a sort of universal language that can be interpreted by people of all languages, or those with no language skills at all, sort of transcending all known languages. I understood it to basically be a universal language that is pre-programmed into our genetics, but that we are not aware of and cannot access at will. It was interesting and I am not trying to offend anyone who attends services where speaking in tongues is common. That was primarily explained as the power of suggestion in most articles I could find. Anyone should be able to decipher what is being communicated by a person speaking in tongues.

Answer 5

speaking in tongues was nothing but speaking in diffirent languages, see for yourself;
Ac 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Ac 2:5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Ac 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Ac 2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Ac 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Ac 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Ac 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Ac 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

Answer 6

they aren't using the language center of their brains because they aren't speaking a language. they are just moving their mouths and spewing out gibberish.

i knew people who claimed to speak in tongues, and that the preacher understood what they were saying,...but for some wierd reason the preacher was getting alot of money from these people, so i guess they must have been telling him their bank account numbers in this bizzare language.

Answer 7

IMO, Glossolalia is gibberish. if it truly was a divine "language of the angels", it would have either an independent set of phonemes, or (assuming one earth language showed the same set); each speaker from varying linguistic backgrounds would work off of the same set.

but we don't see that, in Russian Glossolalia we see Russian gibberish, in English we see English gibberish, which to me, suggests that it IS gibberish, rather then a "separate" unknown language.

for that matter, it doesn't even seem localized to one system of belief over another, which pretty much trashes any "tongue speak makes my religion more special then others".

Answer 8

I've never seen anyone speak in tongues but if I did I would think they were possessed by a demon before thinking they were speaking the language of the angels. I think god could find a better way of spreading his word; why would he do it by having someone speak incomprehensible jibber jabber? You said so yourself, if they were not using their language centers of the brain, they were probably talking gibberish.

Answer 9

A trans-hypnotic, elevated state of conciousness transcends normative transferences of neurological data in the cerebral cortex, bypasses the central nervous system to the point of communicating on 'auto-pilot'. This system comprises of the hypothalamus ceasing secretion of the hormones which the pitutiary gland makes in order for smooth comprehension of the sequencial conditioning of language.

In this state of ecstacy, the brain coats the cortex with transmitter fluid that blocks language constryction, but heightens the creative mechanisms of our 'primal' self and regresses to the stage of pre-oral command - to the level of about an 18 month old baby.

This mechanism is a coping device to protect the brain from overheating during hyper-sensitive stimulus such as frenied religious devotion and worship.

Answer 10

I'd say they're speaking in gibberish, I do it all the time. Not crazy, do it when I can't remember words.

If you want to go "why would this happen if god exists" then use the excuse I always use when talking as if the god christians talk about exists - He did it just to baffle us. To get a good laugh and drive us up the walls trying to figure out how the darned things work.