Amazing Evidence Shows the Science Behind Speaking in Tongues & Why Everyone Needs It!
If you’ve ever been swept up in the
Holy Spirit and felt unfamiliar words leave your mouth, you know you are
not in full control of what you’re praying.
Science now backs this lack of control
over your tongue, essentially proving the Holy Spirit actively moves
your speech pattern when speaking in tongue.
In a study conducted by University of
Pennsylvania researchers, scientists tracked the blood flow through the
brain as women spoke in tongues and sang gospel songs.
By comparing the patterns created by
these two emotional, devotional activities, the researchers could
pinpoint blood-flow peaks and valleys unique to speaking in tongues, The New York Times reports.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania
took brain images of five women while they spoke in tongues and found
that their frontal lobes — the thinking, willful part of the brain
through which people control what they do — were relatively quiet, as
were the language centers. The regions involved in maintaining
self-consciousness were active. The women were not in blind trances, and
it was unclear which region was driving the behavior.
The images, appearing in the current
issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, pinpoint the
most active areas of the brain. The images are the first of their kind
taken during this spoken religious practice, which has roots in the Old
and New Testaments and in Pentecostal churches established in the early
1900s. The women in the study were healthy, active churchgoers.
“The amazing thing was how the images
supported people’s interpretation of what was happening,” said Dr.
Andrew B. Newberg, leader of the study team, which included Donna
Morgan, Nancy Wintering and Mark Waldman. “The way they describe it, and
what they believe, is that God is talking through them,” he said.
Dr. Newberg is also a co-author of “Why We Believe What We Believe.”
In the study,
the researchers used imaging techniques to track changes in blood flow
in each woman’s brain in two conditions, once as she sang a gospel song
and again while speaking in tongues. By comparing the patterns created
by these two emotional, devotional activities, the researchers could
pinpoint blood-flow peaks and valleys unique to speaking in tongues.
Ms. Morgan, a co-author of the study,
was also a research subject. She is a born-again Christian who says she
considers the ability to speak in tongues a gift. “You’re aware of your
surroundings,” she said. “You’re not really out of control. But you have
no control over what’s happening. You’re just flowing. You’re in a
realm of peace and comfort, and it’s a fantastic feeling.”
Contrary to what may be a common
perception, studies suggest that people who speak in tongues rarely
suffer from mental problems. A recent study of nearly 1,000 evangelical
Christians in England found that those who engaged in the practice were
more emotionally stable than those who did not. Researchers have
identified at least two forms of the practice, one ecstatic and
frenzied, the other subdued and nearly silent.
The new findings contrasted sharply with
images taken of other spiritually inspired mental states like
meditation, which is often a highly focused mental exercise, activating
the frontal lobes.
The scans also showed a dip in the
activity of a region called the left caudate. “The findings from the
frontal lobes are very clear, and make sense, but the caudate is usually
active when you have positive affect, pleasure, positive emotions,”
said Dr. James A. Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. “So it’s not so clear what that finding says” about speaking in tongues.
The caudate area is also involved in
motor and emotional control, Dr. Newberg said, so it may be that
practitioners, while mindful of their circumstances, nonetheless cede
some control over their bodies and emotions.
Watch what happens when the scientific experiment is carried out on a Pastor and other believers!
-sundayadelaja'sblog
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