Speaking In Tongues: Self-Suggestive Hypnotism?

Can we know what physically happens in the modern-day Pentecostal experience of talking in a tongue? There is evidence, which we will come to later, that there is often some degree of faking. But it cannot be all a hoax — they cannot be all faking? With the great majority, as in the case of Pat Boone, something really happens. A good illustration to begin with, is the testimony, back in the 1960s, of a [brother] who was brought up in a Pentecostal atmosphere before he [left]. He wrote:

“When I was 16 I was encouraged to try and get this experience. One evening a special prayer meeting was held for this purpose, and for about two hours prayers were said, hands were laid on me continuously; there was much singing and chanting. I concentrated my mind to the one single purpose and knelt with hands tightly clenched, so very, very tightly, in an all-out endeavour to receive this ‘gift’. You see, I felt I had to get this gift; if not, I would have felt I’d been rejected by God! A strange atmosphere seemed to build up. It was a tension you could almost touch. And then, as far as I was concerned, I blacked out. The only impression on my mind was a vision of two tightly clasped hands. My next really conscious moment, it only seemed like seconds, was of still kneeling with clenched hands and realising it was 10:30 pm, and being told I had spoken continuously in ‘tongues’ for 2 hours! — a “mighty blessing” I was told! My sister, who heard me, said she thought I had ‘gone bonkers’.

“It might be asked of what value was this ‘gift’ to me? Well, they told us to use tongues in prayer and thus praise God in His language. I did this sometimes, I never again spoke in tongues at church: only at home, by myself. I did not go unconscious on these occasions. It is hard to explain what happens; it is as though you throw a switch in your mind — utterances come from your tongue without making any effort to mentally control or direct what you are ‘saying’. It is all unintelligible of course, but there is no mental effort involved to deliberately speak ‘mumbo jumbo’. I suppose one is in a kind of light trance. Since coming to a full knowledge of the Truth I have tried to do this sort of thing on a couple of occasions without success. It appears God has cured me from His ‘Gift’!’’1

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Author: David Caudery

Keywords: Tongues, Foreign tongues, New tongues, Foreign languages, Pentecost, Filled with the Spirit, Speaking in tongues, Glossolalia

Bible reference(s): Isaiah 28:11, Mark 16:17, Acts 2:4, Acts 2:11, Acts 10:46, Acts 19:6, Romans 8:26, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Corinthians 12:28, 1 Corinthians 12:30, 1 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Corinthians 13:8, 1 Corinthians 14:2, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 1 Corinthians 14:5, 1 Corinthians 14:6, 1 Corinthians 14:9, 1 Corinthians 14:13, 1 Corinthians 14:14, 1 Corinthians 14:18, 1 Corinthians 14:19, 1 Corinthians 14:21, 1 Corinthians 14:22, 1 Corinthians 14:23, 1 Corinthians 14:26, 1 Corinthians 14:27, 1 Corinthians 14:39

Source: “Speaking in Tongues,” The Agora.

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