Some of the strangest cases of tongues have been explained as psychological aberrations. The tongues-speaker goes into motor automatism, which is clinically described as radical inward detachment from one's conscious surroundings. Motor automatism results in disassociation of nearly all voluntary muscles from conscious control.
Have you ever watched a newscast that showed young teenage girls at a rock concert? In the excitement and emotion, the fervor and the noise, they literally give up voluntary control of their vocal cords and their muscles. They fall to the floor in a paroxysm.
Most people, at one time or another, experience moments when they feel a little detached, a little woozy, and a little faint. Given the right set of conditions, particularly where there is a great deal of emotional fervor involved, a person can easily slip into a state where he or she is no longer consciously in control. In such a state, glossololia can be the result.
The condition in which most people sense the euphoria of the tongues experience seems to be closely related to the hypnotic state. Kildahl and Qualben stated from their studies that "hypnotizability constitutes the sine qua non of the glossolalia experience. If one can be hypnotized then one is able under proper conditions to speak in tongues."
After extensive study of tongues-speakers, Kildahl and Qualben concluded that people who were submissive, suggestible, and dependent on a leader were those most likely to speak in tongues. William Samarin agreed that "people of a certain type are attracted to the kind of religion that uses tongues." Obviously, not every tongues-speaker would fit into this category, but many if not most of them do. Watch almost any charismatic program on television, the people in the audiences nod and amen everything that is said from the platform, even novel and bizarre teachings. They submit easily to the power of suggestion and do whatever is being suggested. When emotions get high and the pressure mounts, anything might happen.
There is no way to analyze each speaker in tongues and come up with a clear reason for his behaviour. But as we saw, there are many possible explanations for the glossolalia among modern charismatics. Dr. E. Mansell Pattison, a member of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, said:
The product of our analysis is the demonstration of the very natural mechanisms which produce glossolalia. As a psychological phenomenon glossolalia is easy to produce and readily understandable.
I can add my own observations from clinical experiences with neurological and psychiatric patients. In certain types of brain disorders resulting from strokes, brain tumors, etc. the patient is left with disruptions in his automatic, physical speech circuit patterns. If we study these "aphasic" patients we can observe the same decomposition of speech that occurs in glossolalia. Similar decomposition of speech occurs in schizophrenic thought and speech patterns, which is structurally the same as glossolalia.
This data can be understood to demonstrate that the same stereotypes of speech will result whenever conscious, willful control of speech is interfered with, whether by injury to the brain, by psychosis, or by passive renunciation of willful control.
As we have seen, would be tongues-speakers are often explicitly instructed to enter into "passive renunciation of willful control." They are told to release themselves, give up control of their voice. They are coached to say a few syllables, just to let them flow. They are not to think about what they are saying.
Charles Smith, the late Dean of The Master's Seminary, offered an entire chapter of possible explanations for the modern tongues phenomenon. He suggested that tongues can be produced by "motor automatism," "ecstasy," "hypnosis," "psychic catharsis," "collective psyche," or "memory excitation." The point is that tongues can have many explanations. One cannot escape the conclusion that tongues exist today in many counterfeit forms, apart from the Holy Spirit, just as they did in first-century Corinth.
(from Charismatic Chaos by John E. MacArthur, Jr.)
The Grand Poo-Bah says: 'Within the charismatic movement, there is great peer pressure to belong, to perform, to have the same gifts and power that everyone else has.' This seems to define the Pentecostal movement in a nutshell. If you are searching for peace of mind, you will not find it in the Pentecostal church. Something to think about!
Scripture says "The truth shall make you free." My Christian experience has been exactly that! Free from the condemnation of sin; free from pressure to perform or display phony power or gifts. Free from the law, "O happy condition," no pressure to do this or that. "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe." My faith gives me total peace of mind. It doesn't do that for Pentecostals. They seem to be going from one experience to another experience. The next experience must be greater than the last.
If you are Pentecostal, you are likely very self-centered. Pentecostalism is all about "me" not about Him. If you're not chasing a new experience, you are going from one tongue-speaking to another tongue-speaking, all in an effort to impress a leader, peer group or serve your own personal agenda. You never seem to have any peace of mind whatsoever about your faith. You seem to be constantly striving after something when God has provided everything that you need. Pentecostals just don't get it!
We are saved to FREEDOM! Christ died to make us FREE, not to be slaves to this nonsense.
The Gospel is simple and easy to understand for a reason; so that a little child can understand it. Pentecostals seem to want to make it complicated when it is not. This is the problem the world has with Christianity. They think it's too easy and that there should be more to it.
("Pentecostal" refers to any church where there is "speaking in tongues.")
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