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Glossolalia “I lay here, unsure, still and silent. I’m waiting but I am not sure for what. My palms are sweaty and my whole body is encompassed by nervousness. Then I open my mouth…at first there is no more but a slight utterance of a few vowels. Repetition, repetition, repetition. I question my sanity and then my worthiness but yet I don’t stop and the repetition continues. Then slowly the vowels begin to join and unknown words start to form. My heart beats faster and my tongue begins to move without thought. I start to speak but yet I don’t understand what I’m saying nor do I have control over what splurges from my mouth. My body remains still, my mouth racing and my mind unattached. I begin to feel calm as the nervousness diminishes and slowly my mouth stops, my tongue seizes and I am left astonished and amazed.” (Myers & Biocca, 1984). Glossolalia is a term many are unfamiliar with however tongues, or the gift of tongues, is a far more well known expression. Both of these terms nonetheless are synonymous with each other and have come to describe “ecstatic or apparently ecstatic utterance of speech like sounds” (Cialdini et al.,1997). There is no doubt today however about the nature of glossolalia. When a person speaks in tongues they are producing utterances of short or long duration that sound like a form of language. Even though they may only convey a modest idea of what the grammar or vocabulary might be, it seems enough that the production of the speech is religiously significant. There are estimates of several million glossolalics in the world today. What these people have in common is not simply the underlying factor that they all possess such a gift. In fact, most would say that this skill, or gift as they would put it, is less important than the experience that produces it. The name that this experience is most widely known by is “the baptism in” or “the filling with the Holy Spirit” (Myers & Biocca, 1984). To many it is only a step forward on a journey already started but to others it is an entirely new kind of experience. For all, it means a new and previously undiscovered sense of the immediacy and intimacy of God. The ways in which the experience is conceived and described vary greatly, depending in large part on the individual’s knowledge of the Bible, as well as his or hers own religious tradition, personality and so forth. No outsider’s description of glossolalia, however, is really objective and well favored unless it attempts to describe the tradition of glossolalia in religion, the different forms and their linguistic authenticity as well as the psychopathology of those who receive such a gift. Many have sought to prove or disprove glossolalia using these descriptions, however, to simply better understand such a phenomenon one needs to look objectively at all three of the aspects of this unique gift. Initially, an understanding of the tradition of glossolalia in religion is necessary. Although it has been characteristic of certain forms of Judaism and Islam, it has been most noteworthy in the Christian tradition. Speaking in tongues has been a significant aspect of religious practice since the first century A.D. In the New Testament there are two general or primary references to glossolalia. According to Acts 2:2.5, the gift of tongues occurred on the day of the Pentecost. On this occasion, the early Christians were praying in Jerusalem when “suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance”(Cialdini et al.,1997). Subsequently, all those present who spoke different languages heard the Christians speak to each of them in their own native tongue.
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