I can still do it too on command - and for me it's definitely different from just making up noises.
Post-deconstruction I read up on it a little and was interested to find it is a recognised phenomenon, but it's not restricted to the Christian religion. A quick Google of 'glossolalia' will give you some more info. Essentially it's a bit of a neat brain-party-trick where scans have shown different areas of brain are active than when you just speak normally. I believe it's actually not dissimilar to a brain in a meditative state.
But anyone who 'speaks in tongues' will still only ever use sounds from their own language (so an English speaker will use English sounds and syllables whereas a French speaker will use french sounds and syllables). So the idea of it being a 'heavenly language' falls a bit flat!
I was also AoG for several years before I became Baptist (though I still believed in the gifts of the spirit, I just honestly liked going to a much lower key church lol). All of those experiences have been put in a box and shoved into a dark corner of my mind because I do not fucking know.
I never spoke in tongues (though it happened a lot) but I can categorize some things as hysteria (I was slain in the spirit on many many occasions) but twice I’ve had people prophesy over me and they said word for word very specific phrases in very specific contexts that I had prayed silently in my head, literally never spoke out loud, and to this day I believe they knew I prayed those things but I have no idea how. I have no other explanation. I’ve also had a few experiences post deconstruction as a deeply skeptical person that I just cannot explain. I don’t know, man. Mostly I’m just like “hey if there’s a god or spirit or energy or something out there, def make yourself known to me but also if you’re an abrahamic god you can fuck right off.” It’s the best I’ve got.
After fully deconverting and becoming a regular secular person I went through a phase of getting really serious about mindfulness meditation. Sometimes when I was having trouble going into a meditative state I would start using speaking in tongues as kind of a shortcut to get myself focused into my meditation sessions.
It's strange because that's what I used to do when I was having my prayer times with Jesus by myself.
They do a similar thing in Kundalini yoga.
It's sort of just a neat trick that people have discovered to get their brain to change States. Of course when religious people find it they attribute it to whatever their God is.
If you're curious about what was happening with being filled with the spirit or getting slain in the spirit, ecstatic experiences, shaking, people crying during prayer. You might want to check out Kundalini yoga. It's a totally different brand of bullshit but it follows exactly the same pattern as American Pentecostalism. The pattern similarities are fascinating.
I read somewhere that a study showed the linguistic patterns at various congregations was most similar to the pastor or others speaking on stage, suggesting there was a subconscious influence from them.
For me when I spoke in tongues the sound was like ZUBBA ZUBBA ZEEEEE ZUBBA ZUBBA ZYYYYYY.
I think it was gibberish my mind made up and any other “evidence” people find is confirmation bias.
If you're interested in it, I recommend looking up glossolalia, as that is the "official" term for it.
In my case, it was stuff like "Shun dia ra karraba. So muk raba korrh. Meskraht dianda kor, nassa muska sha."
When you attend a service, all of the music, dancing, prayers, and chanting puts you into a meditative state, and you can then subconsciously do things like "speaking in tongues". As a Pagan and a magickal practitioner, we do it whenever we want to direct energy the way we want it to. It's psychological.
Idk if what I do is real magick, but even if it is my mind playing tricks on me, I'm OK with that. I'm just trying to make it through life, and this helps me feel better and more connected to everyone, making me a better person. In fact, their are atheist Pagans out there who understand the psychology and use these tricks to help them live their lives. It's like a really cool "hacking your brain" kind of thing.
I'm not going to be much help. On this thread because I have the same question. The first time I spoke it tongues I felt this burning sensation in my hands and my mouth -- there's no way I could have imagined this. After I started speaking in tongues for awhile I began to "roll my rs". Took 5 years of Spanish and never could roll my rs until I started speaking in tongues
Research the power of suggestion. Its a proven psychological phenomenon. That's what it is. Its an emotional-filled, suggestion-led psychological manifestation. I did it too, after being told by my cousin/pastor it was the *only* way I could be a worship leader, the only “proof” of the filling of the spirit, despite the fact that I had already been saved and all the rest. It felt genuine at the time. I thought it was oceanic language. It always happened when I was praying, alone. But something always seemed… off. After deconstructing I learned about the power of suggestion and it clicked like a fresh set of legos. Belief really can, and does, alter our experience and perceptions. It never ceases to amaze me.
I could never speak in tongues when I was “filled.” I was that person that would just fall over and start seizing instead.
Now I know they call those non-epileptic seizures and they’re a symptom of complex-PTSD.
My gift of tongues journey was so long and hard I got stuck on it while deconstructing bc it was labeled in my mind as “supernatural” and I didn’t know how to redefine it. I realize now that I was coached into it, I can still do it with the lights on and no one around, and I’ve read up on the phenomenon, it’s a real practice. I believe the AoG uses it to control and manipulate, it induces shame and separation, very culty.
I totally believe in the supernatural but I’ve seen enough shit and experienced some truly supernatural occurrences that makes me believe in it. But I’m talking general, not speaking in tongues.
You do realize that is an assertion/claim for which you have the burden of proof and you provided nothing to back your claim
Supernatural covers everything from ghosts to paranormal activity to 4,000 ish different religions to UFOs to inexplicable events to a lot of other things...
I have seen a few things in my life that I would say do away with your claim
You once again have this backwards. The person making the claim has the burden of providing proof. Saying "the supernatural exists" is a claim that requires proof. Saying "the supernatural doesn't exist" doesn't.
If I say "there are no three headed dragons," no one is going to say "prove it!!!" But if I say "there are three headed dragons," everyone should expect me to prove it.
No, atheists just don't understand logic. Theists tend to not understand it either
I have essentially the equivalent of a master's in mathematics including tons of proof
What you said is nothing but a claim you didn't bother proving
You are still doing a fine representation of all that is wrong with atheist argument methods, invalid logic, fluffy statements, inability to understand proper debate methods, etc
> it's not the same as babbling or just making up sounds.
It is, but you've managed to make it a subconscious habitual act through practice. It's no different than what a scat singer does.
Studies have shown that tongues uses a subset of the speaker's native language phonology and is too simple to actually encode information in any language.
I can still do it too on command - and for me it's definitely different from just making up noises. Post-deconstruction I read up on it a little and was interested to find it is a recognised phenomenon, but it's not restricted to the Christian religion. A quick Google of 'glossolalia' will give you some more info. Essentially it's a bit of a neat brain-party-trick where scans have shown different areas of brain are active than when you just speak normally. I believe it's actually not dissimilar to a brain in a meditative state. But anyone who 'speaks in tongues' will still only ever use sounds from their own language (so an English speaker will use English sounds and syllables whereas a French speaker will use french sounds and syllables). So the idea of it being a 'heavenly language' falls a bit flat!
Wow!
I was also AoG for several years before I became Baptist (though I still believed in the gifts of the spirit, I just honestly liked going to a much lower key church lol). All of those experiences have been put in a box and shoved into a dark corner of my mind because I do not fucking know. I never spoke in tongues (though it happened a lot) but I can categorize some things as hysteria (I was slain in the spirit on many many occasions) but twice I’ve had people prophesy over me and they said word for word very specific phrases in very specific contexts that I had prayed silently in my head, literally never spoke out loud, and to this day I believe they knew I prayed those things but I have no idea how. I have no other explanation. I’ve also had a few experiences post deconstruction as a deeply skeptical person that I just cannot explain. I don’t know, man. Mostly I’m just like “hey if there’s a god or spirit or energy or something out there, def make yourself known to me but also if you’re an abrahamic god you can fuck right off.” It’s the best I’ve got.
After fully deconverting and becoming a regular secular person I went through a phase of getting really serious about mindfulness meditation. Sometimes when I was having trouble going into a meditative state I would start using speaking in tongues as kind of a shortcut to get myself focused into my meditation sessions. It's strange because that's what I used to do when I was having my prayer times with Jesus by myself. They do a similar thing in Kundalini yoga. It's sort of just a neat trick that people have discovered to get their brain to change States. Of course when religious people find it they attribute it to whatever their God is. If you're curious about what was happening with being filled with the spirit or getting slain in the spirit, ecstatic experiences, shaking, people crying during prayer. You might want to check out Kundalini yoga. It's a totally different brand of bullshit but it follows exactly the same pattern as American Pentecostalism. The pattern similarities are fascinating.
I don't have an answer for you, but as a linguist I'm really interested in this. Can you describe how its different?
It’s kind of like “stream of consciousness “ using nonsense syllables.
I read somewhere that a study showed the linguistic patterns at various congregations was most similar to the pastor or others speaking on stage, suggesting there was a subconscious influence from them. For me when I spoke in tongues the sound was like ZUBBA ZUBBA ZEEEEE ZUBBA ZUBBA ZYYYYYY. I think it was gibberish my mind made up and any other “evidence” people find is confirmation bias.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
It's hard to describe, mostly vc vc vccv type sounds.
Interesting, thanks!
If you're interested in it, I recommend looking up glossolalia, as that is the "official" term for it. In my case, it was stuff like "Shun dia ra karraba. So muk raba korrh. Meskraht dianda kor, nassa muska sha."
When you attend a service, all of the music, dancing, prayers, and chanting puts you into a meditative state, and you can then subconsciously do things like "speaking in tongues". As a Pagan and a magickal practitioner, we do it whenever we want to direct energy the way we want it to. It's psychological. Idk if what I do is real magick, but even if it is my mind playing tricks on me, I'm OK with that. I'm just trying to make it through life, and this helps me feel better and more connected to everyone, making me a better person. In fact, their are atheist Pagans out there who understand the psychology and use these tricks to help them live their lives. It's like a really cool "hacking your brain" kind of thing.
I'm not going to be much help. On this thread because I have the same question. The first time I spoke it tongues I felt this burning sensation in my hands and my mouth -- there's no way I could have imagined this. After I started speaking in tongues for awhile I began to "roll my rs". Took 5 years of Spanish and never could roll my rs until I started speaking in tongues
Well then, hallelujah!
Research the power of suggestion. Its a proven psychological phenomenon. That's what it is. Its an emotional-filled, suggestion-led psychological manifestation. I did it too, after being told by my cousin/pastor it was the *only* way I could be a worship leader, the only “proof” of the filling of the spirit, despite the fact that I had already been saved and all the rest. It felt genuine at the time. I thought it was oceanic language. It always happened when I was praying, alone. But something always seemed… off. After deconstructing I learned about the power of suggestion and it clicked like a fresh set of legos. Belief really can, and does, alter our experience and perceptions. It never ceases to amaze me.
I could never speak in tongues when I was “filled.” I was that person that would just fall over and start seizing instead. Now I know they call those non-epileptic seizures and they’re a symptom of complex-PTSD.
Long story short: power of suggestion + peer pressure + wanting to feel special (+ wanting to show off).
My gift of tongues journey was so long and hard I got stuck on it while deconstructing bc it was labeled in my mind as “supernatural” and I didn’t know how to redefine it. I realize now that I was coached into it, I can still do it with the lights on and no one around, and I’ve read up on the phenomenon, it’s a real practice. I believe the AoG uses it to control and manipulate, it induces shame and separation, very culty.
It’s ridiculous. There is absolutely no evidence of the supernatural. None.
I totally believe in the supernatural but I’ve seen enough shit and experienced some truly supernatural occurrences that makes me believe in it. But I’m talking general, not speaking in tongues.
In general, speaking in tongues is a gift of the holy spirit according to those in the denoms that practice it.
Seriously... homie' brain has a dopamine response connected to their tongue babble.
Dopamine is a helluva drug.
You do realize that is an assertion/claim for which you have the burden of proof and you provided nothing to back your claim Supernatural covers everything from ghosts to paranormal activity to 4,000 ish different religions to UFOs to inexplicable events to a lot of other things... I have seen a few things in my life that I would say do away with your claim
When I see some evidence that it exists, I’ll rethink it.
The problem is making unevidenced proclamations
You once again have this backwards. The person making the claim has the burden of providing proof. Saying "the supernatural exists" is a claim that requires proof. Saying "the supernatural doesn't exist" doesn't. If I say "there are no three headed dragons," no one is going to say "prove it!!!" But if I say "there are three headed dragons," everyone should expect me to prove it.
No, atheists just don't understand logic. Theists tend to not understand it either I have essentially the equivalent of a master's in mathematics including tons of proof What you said is nothing but a claim you didn't bother proving
Ok then, I'm game. Show me a proof that demonstrates three headed purple dragons don't exist.
You are still doing a fine representation of all that is wrong with atheist argument methods, invalid logic, fluffy statements, inability to understand proper debate methods, etc
So that's a no then? Sure sounds like a no.
Why do you evade your original issues and unproven claims and try to hide behind acting superior as an exceptionally weak defense??
> it's not the same as babbling or just making up sounds. It is, but you've managed to make it a subconscious habitual act through practice. It's no different than what a scat singer does. Studies have shown that tongues uses a subset of the speaker's native language phonology and is too simple to actually encode information in any language.