Speaking in Tongues and Your Brain

“Speaking in tongues”

Dr. Kluane Spake

New brain imaging studies at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine (image shown) tell us that SPECT scans were taken while believers worshiped and spoke in tongues. This preliminary study, done only at this location, examined five subjects in a laboratory setting. This is the first time that scientific re­search­ers have recorded the brain scans of peo­ple speak­ing in tongues.

In the study that ap­peared in the No­vem­ber is­sue of the jour­nal Psy­chi­a­try Re­search: Neu­ro­im­ag­ing, sci­en­t­ists, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia School of Med­i­cine, found several discoveries about speaking in tongues. First, there was a de­creased ac­tiv­i­ty in the brain area called the fron­t­al lobes, which is just be­hind the fore­head.

There was also seen to be a decrease in activity in the left basal ganglia, which involves focusing concentration and emotional responses. Finally, the thalamus activity increased during speaking in tongues which supports it is an active state of the brain.

Believers who have received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit actually show several changes in their body and brains. Lots more about the advantages of speaking in tongues is talked about in my book called "Connecting!" Which is available on my website www.kluane.org under books.

The re­search­ers employed what is known as Sin­gle Pho­ton Emis­sion Com­put­ed To­mog­ra­phy, which is a type of scan where some rra­di­o­ac­t­ive drug is in­jected in­to a vein. The scan­ner then is able to make de­tailed im­ages of where the drug is taken up by various tis­sues. This pro­cess gives in­for­ma­tion about metabolism and blood flow.

Andrew Newberb, on of the researchers, said that it is “fas­ci­nat­ing be­cause these sub­jects tru­ly be­lieve that the spir­it of God is mov­ing through them and con­trol­ling them to speak.” He goes on to say that the “re­search shows us that these sub­jects are not in con­t­rol of the usu­al lan­guage cen­ters dur­ing this ac­ti­v­i­ty.”

Brains of those who are speak­ing in tongues as well as the brains of people sing­ing gos­pel mu­sic show a “num­ber of changes,” New­berg said, in­clud­ing in re­gions tied to emo­tions and the release of the sense of self.

He went on to say, “These find­ings could be in­ter­preted as the sub­ject’s sense of self be­ing tak­en over by some­thing else. We, sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly, as­sume it’s be­ing tak­en over by an­oth­er part of the brain. But we could­n’t see, in this im­ag­ing stu­dy, where this took place.”

New­berg then con­clud­ed that speak­ing in tongues causes the brain to re­flect a com­plex pat­tern of different brain ac­tiv­i­ty. He added that “fu­ture stud­ies will be needed to con­firm the find­ings and de­mys­ti­fy the phe­nom­e­non.”

This pioneering study, involving functional imaging of the brain while subjects were speaking in tongues, is in the November issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, the official publication of the International Society for Neuroimaging in Psychiatry.

Newberg concludes that the changes in the brain during speaking in tongues reflect a complex pattern of brain activity. Speak­ing in tongues, as referred to in the Bible, is tech­ni­cal­ly called glos­so­la­lia.

The article is titled "The Measurement of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During Glossolalia: a Preliminary SPECT Study." Co-authors include: Nancy Wintering, Donna Morgan, and Mark Waldman. The study, set for publication in the November issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, can now be accessed on-line at www.sciencedirect.com.

sources:

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061101_tongues.htm

http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=20570