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I was thinking today of some of the absurd things I used to believe and speaking in tongues came to mind. For those of us that were involved in the sects of Christianity that believed this – does anyone have any thoughts on how we could possibly have convinced ourselves that it was real? Something that was so common in my church years now seems absolutely nuts!
I hear ya Chris… I believed in and practiced this “spiritual gift” regularly…
And YES!! It blows my mind that I bought it!! Really Self?!?!? Really?!?!
The power of religion is an amazing thing… as is the power of the mind… add the 2 together… and you get a lethal combination!
Peace & Much Love!!
David
I used to “speak in tongues” as well. I don’t let it bother me. I chalk it up, along with what you guys have said, to a form of chanting. I have a buddhist friend who chants and the effects are strikingly similar.
I really saw another negative side to it as well…
A spiritual version of Dr. Seuss’ Star Bellied Sneetches… The haves and the have nots,.. Those with stars on their bellies ( the mark of the holy spirit ) and those without… There was a a lot of guilt, shame, and control centered around this one “gift” in the Assembly of God tradition… I remember remarks like ” i am sure he isn’t getting “it” because of the sin in his life” or “she just cannot give over control of her life to god” and many horrible others… =(
I think that “speaking in tongues” is a form of release. I do think there is a genuine phenomenon in some people who have been traumatized. Dr. Peter Levine has studied how people and animals “reset” after surviving trauma. His book, “Waking the Tiger” is an interesting read. The early work at Esalen in the retreat center at Big Sur demonstrated that what psychologists often labelled as psychotic was actually the mind trying to fix itself. And if you provided a safe place for a person to express what they had been required to hold in by society or drugs, the body and the mind fixed itself and restored balance.
The reason I say this is because I have seen this type of thing happen spontaneously with people who would normally not believe in this type of thing, but have a history that has produced a post traumatic shock freeze on their expression of life. They are often as surprised as everyone else that this type of thing lay dormant within their mind and body. They basically have an involuntary freeze response to any stimulus that appears to be similar to the original traumatic event. For people to recover their life back they often have to express the emotion both physically and verbally they froze into their body at the time they were trying to survive. Most people can’t simply choose to do this, but have to have a context where they can let go of this. This requires people to be with them in a non-judgemental way and provide whatever support they need to authentically express themselves. The healing is in the expression.
When this happens spontaneously and without coercion there can be a removal of this freeze response and there is a sense of euphoria afterwards. This can let go dramatically or in layers. Not everyone has this type of thing sitting hidden in their body, so to those who don’t, this type of release can appear quite frightening. There is a common mistake by those who do this type of transformation of thinking that everybody needs to do this. I think this is how the whole speaking in tongues thing got started. The movement simply identified a natural phenomenon as the work of the Holy Spirit and assumed that everyone needed to do this to create this type of transformation.
Christianity itself can be traumatizing with its graphic representation of eternal hell and the wrath of god. This frightening theme is often a part of a regular series of sermons on hell within charismatic groups and I can understand why people’s subconscious would seek some type of relief from this type of fear. I believe that spiritual fear like this taught to young children can produce the same effects as early sexual molestation. It affects the same types of mental securities and sense of self.
This is one reason that I am so clear on who I am and what I find to be true. I don’t want to be required to go through this type of transformation again myself. While I am grateful for being free from the crippling fear that my upbringing implanted in me, I certainly don’t want to go through that process again.
I find all of your comments helpful as the church that tried to kill my soul believed in speaking in tongues and a lot of other things that I have questioned; many of which I know is heresy and some I’m still questioning.
I’m thankful that I have this group to help me sort out all the crap that I’m still processing.
AnonymousThat is an interesting explanation of the positive emotional attachment some people find in their employment of tongues. I have worshiped in different Charismatic congregations. It has been fascinating to see the ways different congregations embrace or use this ritual.
I experience a kind of “mental/spiritual massage” that is a huge pressure release at times. I can go into tongues anytime I feel the least tug, emotionally. I feel like tongues for me is the sound of my nervous system, language center of my brain and my deepest psyche, connecting in a sound or in sometimes just internal mind. I can hear it sometimes in my head.
I talk so much naturally in my day to day that engaging my tongue for me is completely easy. lol. That is my hypothesis for why tongues came so quick and easy for me. lol. I have never understood how anyone could say of another that they did not have the Holy Spirit in them. I completely believe that in the Church, if you have accepted the story of Jesus as your personal story of salvation, you automatically are inhabited by the Holy Spirit and nothing will change that, not even if you choose to live in hell. I have been very blessed with the strong and seemingly permanent attachment to the belief in the benevolence and merciful love of God. I know some Brethren must put more strict and legalistic boundaries on their tongues, I love them but I am not like them. I think fear and flesh get in the way of freedom in tongues. How much your flesh gets in the way of that expression is unique to each individual, it seems in my experience.
Tongues for me is a sort of escape, maybe that’s why I do understand how someone could equate it to mediation. Meditation is a hugely calming thing, I know, I practice it whenever I can. lol. I almost feel like physically and emotionally speaking, for me, tongues is like ceasing to resist the deep yearning for complete shelter in the divine for my nervous psyche. So Richard you can see why I really appreciate your contribution. I can see how that hypothesis was formed by Levine.
I find my moments in prayer, tongues and meditation are my most nourishing moments in my life these days. It even beats a big bowl of collards and hoppin’ John. lol. Who knows what that is?
Wow I don’t know what I think about all this….
After experiencing a lot of pressure from others in a charismatic (post “toronto blessing”) environment, and having had many people pray for me to receive this gift without anything happening, I started spontaneously speaking in tongues one day. For the record, I have always seemed immune to charismatic stuff, no falling over or twitching or convulsin or weird animal sounds for me. Got lots of prayer to the effect of “release here” blah blah blah. I always thought something was wrong with me, and there was/is, I don’t trust people and I don’t fake stuff. Not saying everyone was faking or knew they were faking… back to tongues speaking. I used to ask people what the heck good was it, I never did find a use for it. The way people acted I thought it would be an earth shaking life transformational event and it wasn’t. It was mildly fun and beyond that completely useless. I guess there is something somewhat therapeutic about expressing yourself with thinking about it, kind of letting yourself go in a childish gibberish but nothing profoundly spiritual or god-connecting about it. That’s my take on it anyway. I will never understand what all the hype is about, in fact, I never talked much about it except people would keep saying to me “just wait till you receive the gift of tongues” and I would reply “how do you know I haven’t?” so obviously it didn’t change me enough for anyone to be able to tell the difference! I can still do it if I want, I check every once in a while out of curiosity haha, but I still don’t know what it really is. Would come in handy for that acting exercise though, the one where one person makes up a language and the other in an interpreter, oh wait, they play that game in lots of churches too!
Jul, Thankfully I was part of a church that thought the “Toronto blessing” was a lot of crazy hoo-haw. I guess the barking was a bit too much. I’m liking my quiet meditative way of experiencing the divine these days. I throw no stones, so to speak, at the folks who think speaking in tongues is the end all be all. Whatever. Hype is hype. I’m good over here. And I think I have lots of company! Yay!
I agree Jul…
I think the fact that even though I no longer believe in god, the holy spirit, or jesus christ being the living incarnation of god… YET I am still able to speak in tongues at the drop of the hat is very telling to me… How could a spiritual “gift” that many “godly” christians are still waiting, wishing, and praying for still be granted to a “heathen”… the math doesn’t work…
I do not mean to offend anyone… But I guess I am a bit taken back by the continued practice and any type of a positive view of this practice… In my experience… this “gift” has been synonymous with abuse, guilt, shame, and control…
I mean I do understand how someone may find that the act helps them to achieve a meditative state… as does chanting, humming, drumming, repetitive music and phrases… but for me I know that I am not speaking in a divine language, I am not communicating with a supreme power, nor am I exercising some spiritual gift… Since I know this… it just seems odd to me to continue to utter gibberish to achieve a meditative state… When there are methods that are far more effective and do not carry the massive baggage that this tool of spiritual manipulation and control carries…
I mean I no longer go around and attempt to “slay” people in the spirit, or pray that they would exhibit or receive some other spiritual “sign” or “gift”. It just seems odd to me… it would be like someone leaving the Hare Krishna’s and still wearing the orange robes and shaving their heads because they helped them spiritually…
I just cannot get around all the pain and heartache this “gift” has caused… people feeling like second class citizens or a step-children because no matter how hard or sincerely they asked the “gift” did not come… I remember people regularly weeping because they did not receive this “gift”… asking “What’s wrong with me?” “Why have I not received this gift?”
Humans are humans… Peter and Paul were just as human as I… We did not recently invent the practice of spiritual abuse… I suspect that this “gift” has been used as a tool for spiritual abuse from day one…
Just my 2 cents…
Peace & Much Love
David
So interesting… I know a lady who died in her 80’s being afraid that she wasn’t ‘really saved’ because she was never given the gift of speaking in tongues. I had never connected that with being spiritual abuse until what you just said, David. Now I’m thinking that somewhere, someone must have said something to her that made her think that. She was a sweet lady and it was sad that she was so upset and consumed with that one aspect of her life.
People speaking in tongues never bothered me. But there were some people who were literally disruptive to what was going on. THAT bothered me. Maybe that was my personal problem but I don’t have to worry about it now, huh?
If someone is to gain a benefit from a release of trauma it cannot be coerced through any type of shame. And not everybody needs to do this thankfully. In a authentic release it is caused by a traumatic event. It has nothing to do with the so called spirit of god. The basis of this understanding is from studying animals and how they recover from trauma in their natural environment. We can observe animals who survive a life or death situation freeze when they think they are going to die. If they happen to escape, you can observe a rather prolonged shaking of their body as they come out of this freeze response.
The theory is that the freeze response required them to put their brakes on at the same time they had the gas pedal at full, from the life threatening danger. During the recovery period, as the brakes start to come off, the energy of the restrained gas pedal bursts out. This has been observed to go on for up to 45 minutes. After this completes you can observe the animal go away calm and in balance.
I had been skeptical of this process in humans until I treated horses. The difference between humans and animals is that animals generally aren’t worried about looking silly. They naturally follow the lead of their bodies. I have treated a number of traumatized horses and observed the energy release as they went into a state of being that would look very much like speaking in tongues, except they obviously aren’t speaking, but will shake and make breath noises and sometimes vocalize as horses do.
Horse owners have reported to me that their horse was quite different after what we believe was a release of a past trauma. Each horse that I have treated has released in a different way and with different intensities. And they don’t generally have to do it more than few times.
In the case of some cases of speaking in tongues I believe that shame and fear are the driving force and essentially the re-traumatizing event. The insidious aspect of this is it is a trauma of the imagination with no physical blow or threat. And in many cases there is additional underlying past trauma in addition to the religious shame and fear. And to people who don’t understand this layer of human experience, these people can appear to be quite crazy.
So, I’m not endorsing charismatic religious experience at all. I’m just noting the possible motivations for its formation.
Hey Ang…
That is precisely what I am speaking of… I can honestly say that in EVERY pentecostal / charismatic church that I have been associated with… Whether it was an Assembly of God ( the denomination I was trained in), a Vineyard ( it was not as severe here ), or an independent fellowship… this “gift” has brought shame and pain… and has been used to control people… It has been used to split marriages by convincing a woman that she had not received the “gift” because of her being wed to a non-believer… It has been used to attempt to get people to stop this sin or that by telling them that the “sin” is keeping it from happening… It has been used with the “gift” of interpretation to justify the stance of the church leadership ( the abusers ) in a congregation that was struggling with conflict due to spiritual abuse… I have seen people turned down from being involved with this ministry or that because they did not have the “gift”… So many wounded people… Looking back I cannot think of one instance where the “gift” brought anything actually positive to the people or body… other then a false sense of some spiritual maturity…
Again I do not wish to offend anyone… This is a very sensitive subject for me…. as this tool of abuse was used on me, programmed into me, and also used BY ME… before I understood what I was doing…
I am truly sorry for the pain I inflicted and the scars I have left… and I want to stop anyone else from falling victim to these abuses…
Peace
David
In regards to what Richard has shared…
I am only discussing speaking in tongues… I am not addressing any other “spiritual manifestations”…
I completely agree that trauma can cause many things that we may label as a “spiritual manifistation”… falling over, shaking, a person becoming catatonic… and in many of the instances I have observed I believe the person was truly experiencing these phenomena… I have also experienced these things first hand… both in christian and secular settings… These are subconscious reactions to outside events…
Speaking in Tongues is all together different in my opinion… I was never involved in any situation where this “gift” of speaking in tongues was given through a traumatic experience… I have seen people speak in tongues after one of these traumatic “spiritual manifestations”… once they have gained conscious control again…
And I have always found it interesting having traveled to many churches all over the globe… That when people speak in tongues… they sound like others in their congregation when they too speak in tongues… Just as I sounded just like the others in my church…
Peace
David
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