Not quite sure where to post this so thought this might be the better sub-forum.
I am hoping to get some insight into a few questions I had regarding tongues.
Specifically, I’m looking at situations where the speaker will ‘pray with’ or ‘pray over’ a person in tongues (this person I’ll refer to as the ‘recipient’) and the recipient will hear it as his/her native language, which the speaker does not know nor has ever been exposed to in any way shape or form. As I understand it, this typically will occur in a more private setting as opposed to a more public setting such as a church service.
As a Linguist, I have studied the phenomenon of tongues and, without getting into details (which can be found elsewhere on this forum), suffice to say that I am working on the premise that there are no known provable cases of what is known as xenoglossy/xenoglossia; the ability to speak a language one has never had any previous contact with in any way, shape or form.
So, to the questions –
Despite the premise outlined above, the Pentecostal/Charismatic community is rife with examples of ‘tongues’ being heard/understood as real language(s). It is truly unfortunate that no such cases have ever been documented and studied as it would answer a lot of debates and questions. I am not beyond believing that that the divine can speak to a third party through someone. In fact, this is common in a lot of faith traditions around the world and, is more the “correct” (if I can call it that) usage of the tool of glossolalia as it is practiced around the world.
If for a moment we can take these occurrences (situations where the speaker will ‘pray with’ or ‘pray over’ a person in tongues and the recipient will hear it as his/her native language) at face value, it begs a few questions:
1. Is the speaker actually shifting their non-cognitive non-language utterances (NC-NLU’s, a/k/a glossolalia) to a real language?
2. Is the recipient physically hearing the speaker in his/her language?
3. Is the recipient only subconsciously hearing his/her own language?
The unfortunate thing is that, from what I’ve been able to learn, these occurrences seem to always occur on a one-to-one basis; there never seems to be anyone else there to verify what’s going on with respect to the above questions.
I would argue that, unless proven otherwise, scenario one is probably unlikely. If the speaker is actually shifting from NC-NLU’s to real language, it would be something instantly and very obvious to any third party present. I have never heard of any such accounts reported.
With scenario two, if the recipient is physically hearing the speaker in his/her language, the additional question it begs is: if a third party were there, what would they hear; NC-NLU’s or real language?
If real language, then scenario one would be the answer – the speaker is shifting from NC-NLU’s to real language.
If however any third party present is still hearing NC-NLU’s while the recipient is hearing his/her language, then this would be a question of how what is being spoken by the speaker is perceived by the listener(s) (recipient and any third party); i.e. what we can for now term a “miracle of hearing”.
With scenario three, if the speaker is not shifting to a real language and the recipient is also hearing it as NC-NLU’s but subconsciously receiving a message in his/her language, then the situation is similar to scenario two; however, what the recipient is hearing is not actually anything being spoken in any way by the speaker. In this case, the NC-NLU’s are serving as a tool by which the message is subconsciously perceived by the recipient in his/her language.
Again, this is the issue with many of these reports; there is never a third party ‘witness’ to verify what is happening.
Further, what is the recipient actually hearing? Is it simply a word or phrase repeated over and over, or is it an actual short monologue?
I suspect that in most cases, the recipient is subconsciously hearing a message in his/her own language rather than a change/shift in what the speaker is physically producing.
The ‘praying with’ or ‘praying over’ the recipient by the speaker via NC-NLU’s just sets the tone/mood, so to speak, to allow the recipient to receive a positive reinforcement/outcome to his/her situation by means of a received message in his/her own language.
Whether or not the message is subconsciously self-created or actually divinely received is a matter for further study (between psychologists and theologians). Perhaps, however, it’s actually a lot more straightforward; if you believe in divine help, then the message perceived is from God; if not, then it’s self-created. Personally, I’d like to hope it’s the first.
The above I believe describe the more correct use of glossolalia; i.e. to aid a third party (the “recipient” as referenced above) on a very personal, and apparently one-to-one basis, but it begs the question of just what is going on with the speaker (NC-NLU’s or shifting to real language), and how the recipient is perceiving the phenomenon (physically hearing his/her language, subconsciously perceiving a message in his/her own language), and if there is a third party present, what are they perceiving; NC-NLU’s or a shift to real language?
Most reports I’m familiar with are, to put it bluntly, sort of hearsay; “So-and-so told me onetime that…..”; “My friend said that while she was in such-and-such a place, she heard that….”. They are not told by the actual ‘recipient’ of the message; they’re reported by someone else who usually was not there to witness the event, not an actual account by the recipient of what transpired.
Do such reports exist? I’m hoping to find something that may describe such experiences in a more unbiased manner (sort of “this is what happened as best I can describe it” type description).
The purpose is to try and determine (1) what is the speaker producing in these instances, (2) how does the recipient perceive the message in his/her language with respect to what the speaker is producing, and lastly (3) what is the recipient actually hearing; a word, a phrase, a short monologue. If only a word of phrase, is it said once or is it repeated.
Insights to the above would be appreciated.
Thanks.
