It starts as a stutter or a sharp, repetitive syllable. Then, the floodgates open. To someone watching from the outside, a person speaking in tongues looks like they’ve lost control of their vocal cords, or maybe they’re just making it up as they go. It’s loud. It’s rhythmic. Sometimes it’s surprisingly melodic.
But what is it, really?
Whether you call it glossolalia, a "prayer language," or just a strange psychological quirk, the act of speaking in a language you don’t actually know is one of the most polarizing things a human being can do. Some people see it as a direct line to the divine. Others think it’s a weird form of social hysteria. It turns out, the science and the history behind it are a lot more nuanced than either side usually wants to admit.
The Brain on Glossolalia
Scientists have actually put people in brain scanners while they were doing this. It’s fascinating stuff.
Back in 2006, Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a landmark study. He took a group of "charismatic" Christians who regularly spoke in tongues and performed SPECT scans on their brains. He compared the results to when those same people were singing gospel songs.
The results were weird.
When they were singing, their frontal lobes—the part of the brain that handles logic, planning, and self-control—were lit up and active. They were "in charge." But when the same person speaking in tongues began their prayer, the activity in the frontal lobes dropped off significantly.
Essentially, the "willful" part of the brain took a nap.
This suggests that for the person doing it, the experience isn't a deliberate act of construction. They aren't "thinking" about what to say next. It feels like it’s just happening to them. This matches exactly what practitioners describe: a sense of "surrender" or being a vessel for something else. It’s not a seizure, and it’s not a trance in the traditional sense, because the people remain fully aware of their surroundings. They just aren't "driving" the words.
Is it a real language?
Linguists have been tearing this apart for decades. William Samarin, a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, spent years recording and analyzing glossolalia. His conclusion was pretty blunt: it’s not a language.
He found that while it sounds like speech, it lacks "language-ness." There’s no syntax. No grammar. No consistent word-meaning relationship. It’s usually composed of fragments of sounds that the speaker already knows from their native tongue, just rearranged into new, nonsensical patterns.
If a native English speaker is the person speaking in tongues, their glossolalia will likely use English phonemes. You won’t suddenly hear them using the tonal shifts of Mandarin or the clicks of Xhosa unless they’ve been exposed to those sounds before. It’s a rhythmic, vocalized stream of "pseudo-language."
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Where Did This Even Come From?
Most people associate tongues with the modern Pentecostal movement. You’ve probably seen the videos—people falling over in pews, hands raised, shouting things that sound like "shanda-la-baba."
But it’s older than that. Way older.
You find mentions of ecstatic speech in ancient Greek rituals. The Oracle of Delphi was said to utter incoherent cries that priests would then "interpret" for the public. It pops up in some African and Haitian traditional religions too. But in the West, the big explosion happened on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906.
A preacher named William J. Seymour led a revival that lasted for years. It was messy, it was controversial, and it was interracial at a time when that was basically unheard of. This was the "Big Bang" of the Pentecostal movement. The people there believed they were experiencing a repeat of the biblical "Day of Pentecost," where the apostles reportedly spoke in foreign languages they hadn't learned to spread the Gospel.
There’s a distinction here that often gets missed.
- Xenoglossy: Speaking a real, human language you’ve never learned (like an American suddenly speaking perfect Swahili).
- Glossolalia: Speaking a non-human, "heavenly" language.
While there are plenty of anecdotes about xenoglossy, there is almost zero documented, peer-reviewed evidence of it actually happening. Glossolalia, however, is documented everywhere.
Why Do People Do It?
If it’s not a "real" language, why do millions of people—from suburban moms in Ohio to coffee shop baristas in London—still do it?
It’s about the "unutterable."
Think about the last time you were so happy, or so sad, or so overwhelmed that you literally couldn't find the words. Language is a cage. It forces us to take these massive, complex human emotions and squeeze them into little boxes called "nouns" and "verbs."
For a person speaking in tongues, the practice is a way to bypass the intellect. It’s a cathartic release. It’s "emotional venting" set to a spiritual rhythm.
The Social Component
We can't ignore the "group-think" aspect. If you belong to a church where speaking in tongues is seen as a sign of spiritual maturity or "baptism in the Holy Spirit," you’re going to feel a massive amount of pressure to join in.
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Sociologists call this "social signaling."
It doesn't mean people are faking it. It means that we are social creatures who learn how to express our spirituality based on the cues of the people around us. If everyone you respect is doing it, your brain eventually learns how to "let go" and mimic that behavior until it becomes an effortless, automatic response.
It’s a bit like "the zone" that athletes get into. It’s a flow state.
The Dark Side and the Misconceptions
It’s not all "peace and joy."
There are plenty of stories of people feeling traumatized because they couldn't do it. In some strict circles, if you aren't the person speaking in tongues, you’re told you don’t have the Holy Spirit. That leads to a lot of "faking it 'til you make it," which can cause a serious crisis of faith later on.
Also, let’s talk about the "interpretation" thing.
In many church services, one person will speak in tongues, and then another person will provide an "interpretation" in English. Critics point out that these interpretations are almost always generic. You rarely hear an interpretation that says, "Go to the grocery store and buy three apples." It’s usually, "The Lord says he loves you and is doing a new thing."
Because there’s no way to verify the "translation," it’s easy for this to be used as a tool for manipulation. "The Spirit told me you should give more money to the building fund." Yeah, okay.
What Most People Get Wrong
People think it’s a sign of low intelligence. It’s not.
Studies have shown that people who practice glossolalia don’t have higher rates of mental illness or lower IQs than the general population. In fact, some studies suggest they might actually be more stable because they have a built-in mechanism for processing intense emotions.
Another myth? That you have to be "out of your mind" to do it.
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Most people who speak in tongues can start and stop whenever they want. It’s not like a light switch that gets stuck. They can be in the middle of a "heavenly tongue," hear their phone ring, stop, answer it, and then go right back to it. It’s a controlled loss of control.
Real-World Examples
Take a look at someone like Justin Bieber or some of the "Hillsong" crowd. While they don't always broadcast it, many celebrities from charismatic backgrounds have spoken about this. It’s moved from the "backwoods" tents of the 1920s into the mainstream.
Even in the Catholic Church, there is a "Charismatic Renewal" wing. Since the late 1960s, millions of Catholics have adopted the practice with the full blessing of various Popes. It’s not just "those loud Protestants" anymore. It’s everywhere.
How to Approach the Topic
If you’re curious about it, or if you’ve seen a person speaking in tongues and felt deeply uncomfortable, here is how to break it down.
Recognize the Neurobiology
It’s a real state of brain activity. The person isn't necessarily "crazy" or "lying." Their brain is simply in a state where the executive function is lowered. It’s a biological capacity that humans have, much like the ability to go into a hypnotic trance.
Separate the Experience from the Theology
You can acknowledge that someone is having a powerful, subjective experience without necessarily believing that God is literally moving their tongue. Conversely, you can be a believer and still be skeptical of how certain groups use the practice to exert power.
Look at the Results
Does it make the person kinder? More grounded? Or does it make them elitist and judgmental? Like any spiritual practice—meditation, fasting, chanting—the proof is usually in the "fruit." If it helps someone process their life and feel connected to something bigger, it’s serving a psychological purpose.
Moving Forward: If You Encounter It
If you find yourself in a situation where people are speaking in tongues, don't panic. You aren't about to be sacrificed. Here’s how to handle it:
- Stay Observant: Notice the patterns. You’ll hear that people often have their own "dialect." They repeat the same sounds every time they do it.
- Respect the Space: For the person doing it, this is deeply private and sacred, even if they’re doing it in a room of 5,000 people.
- Ask Questions Later: If it’s a friend, ask them what it feels like. Most are happy to explain. They’ll usually describe a feeling of peace or "fullness."
- Check the "Vibe": If the environment feels coercive or high-pressure, that’s a red flag. Healthy glossolalia is usually an overflow of emotion, not a requirement for entry.
Ultimately, being a person speaking in tongues is a way of saying that human language isn't enough. It’s a vocalized sigh. A rhythmic scream. A way to touch the ceiling of human experience when words just fail. Whether that’s "holy" or just "human" depends entirely on who you ask, but the reality of the experience is undeniable.
To understand this phenomenon better, look into the work of Dr. Felicitas Goodman, an anthropologist who studied the "trance" states associated with these behaviors across different cultures. You'll find that while the religious labels change, the human brain's desire to "speak the unspeakable" remains pretty much the same across the board.